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“Our Armageddon is past. Africa has been reborn as a free continent and Africans have been reborn as free men.”

Source: Opening address at the founding summit of the Organisation of African Unity, Addis Ababa, 25 May 1963

Context Welcoming African heads of state to the founding OAU summit, the emperor contrasted the colonial era with the independence won by most of the continent.

Portrait of Haile Selassie
Haile SelassieEthiopia · 1892–1975
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