Twenty-five years after his death, the "Lion of Judah" will finally be laid to rest this week. Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia for 44 years until he was deposed in 1974, is expected to be reburied on Sunday.
For years the whereabouts of his remains were a mystery until they were discovered in 1992 - located under the office floor of Mengistu Haile Mariam, the dictator who was ousted in 1991.
Since then the body has been kept in a mausoleum in Addis Ababa, while his family petitioned the government for a ceremonial burial. Exiled family members are expected to return to Ethiopia for the funeral.
Details of the burial are scant and the government has so far made no comment. The type of ceremony is a sensitive issue. The government wants a low-key affair, the emperor's supporters favour the full pomp of a state ceremony. And the Rastafarian community - for whom he is a deity - is against any burial, because they believe he is not dead.
It was legend for years that the 82-year-old emperor was suffocated with a pillow in August 1975 by an assassin of the military junta, or dergue, which was eventually to be led by Mengistu. It subsequently emerged that the dergue had indeed ordered he be strangled - because he was head of a feudal system.
Born on July 23rd, 1892, as Tafari Makonnen, he was later known as Ras Tafari. He became regent in 1916 and emperor on November 2nd, 1930, taking the name of Haile Selassie, which means "Power of the Holy Trinity", and the titles "Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah", "Elect of God" and "King of Kings". In keeping with tradition, he was considered a direct descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Many of Ethiopia's 60 million population are too young to remember the leader who was internationally famous as a spokesman for the cause of independent Africa.
Many of those who do remember him see his secret burial under Mengistu's floor as deeply disrespectful. They have come to look on the former emperor almost benignly as a man who was so busy forging an international reputation that he ignored the problems of famine, poverty and a restive nation at home. But Ethiopia has moved on and Haile Selassie is becoming an increasingly distant memory for a nation grappling with more immediate problems.
Until the outbreak of the border war with Eritrea in 1998, Ethiopia had been viewed as one of the most stable countries in Africa. The government of the Prime Minister, Mr Meles Zenawi, has been reforming, and agriculture, on which 85 per cent of the population depends, has been a key element of the country's development policy. GNP per capita is just $110 a year and life expectancy 49 years.
Agencies such as the Irish development organisation, Self Help International, have worked successfully with local communities and regional governments on agricultural projects including irrigation, seed distribution, drought-resistant crop diversification, and the provision of boreholes for water.
Self Help's seven projects, run entirely by Ethiopians, have assisted more than one million people to achieve food-security in a country perennially at risk to drought. The spectre of famine is never far away and about 10.5 million people remain in danger, after drought earlier this year.
An international response pledged 1.3 million tonnes of food aid, of which up to 700,000 tonnes has been delivered since the beginning of the year. According to Ireland's Charge d'Affaires in Addis Ababa, Ms Pauline Conway, the situation has improved but rains for the next harvest in the affected regions are crucial.
The war with Eritrea has also exacted its own costs, including the lives of tens of thousands, mostly soldiers, and the displacement of 1.2 million people. In the late 1980s defence spending accounted for 15 per cent of GNP. It began dropping in 1991, but has risen again since the war.
A ceasefire was agreed in June this year and in the past week indirect talks for a permanent settlement took place in Algiers but broke off on Monday without any breakthrough.
The war has resulted in a marked drop in aid to Ethiopia and a number of countries imposed sanctions and "conditionality" clauses. Ethiopia is Ireland's number one bilateral aid recipient, and the Government has been criticised for not imposing conditions.
Ms Conway stresses, however, that it is not for Ireland to do this. She points out that countries such as France and Italy also continued and expanded their development programmes in Ethiopia.
