Author: Maciej Skórczewski. Date of publication: 2000-02-01

Ethiopia, mid-1970s. Night, silence, tension and fear palpable in the air. Somewhere in the remotest corner of Addis Ababa, in the quietest house, in deep conspiracy, an interview begins — or rather a long monologue of witnesses. People who, on account of what they did in the past, are condemned to constant hiding. Outside, a revolution is progressing. The country is gripped by civil war; a struggle for power is being waged. A decisive advantage is being gained by the mutinous army, the army that until recently served its ruler faithfully — the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I. It is the year 1975; the storm calms down, a second war begins — a war in which victors hunt the vanquished, a war in which death is delivered not by technology but by an “ordinary” denunciation by a neighbour. In such conspiratorial conditions we meet people who until recently served the highest authority in Ethiopia — Emperor Haile Selassie I. And so begins another and one of the finest books by Ryszard Kapuściński, entitled “The Emperor”. A book that has been universally recognised as a pamphlet on totalitarianism.

The first statements are outright absurd and funny. We meet people who for a dozen or so years of their lives held an “honourable” position in the retinue of His Most Serene Highness. There is therefore a man whose sole — yet how important — occupation was placing cushions under the emperor’s feet. Another was occupied exclusively with wiping up whatever the ruler’s dog had left behind. Another spoke very proudly of his occupation, which consisted in opening doors for the emperor. All the individuals speak of their occupations with genuine pride and satisfaction. The reader falls into a certain kind of bewilderment, even absurdity. With ever greater astonishment we observe that the figure of the emperor and his entourage are not “literary fiction”. Quite the contrary. Kapuściński in a masterly fashion collects and combines the brief and often insignificant details of the emperor’s life. From these scraps of the past there emerges for us a somewhat ironic image of the emperor — an absolute ruler.

Details from the life of Haile Selassie present him as a man who at first glance appears eccentric. Kapuściński focuses on what always interests people in the description of a real king and ruler, that is his whims, manners, and riches. The ruler of Ethiopia had a strictly defined daily routine, which he had carefully observed for 44 years. He began the day as usual by carefully listening to denunciations. A trifling matter — yet in a country like Ethiopia an extremely important one. Night is the worst time of day for the emperor. When he sleeps he has no influence over what is happening in the state. The emperor’s sleep is a good time for conspirators and coups d’état. Thanks to his spies he evaluates the situation perfectly. He is distrustful and closed in on himself. No one can guess what the ruler of Ethiopia is thinking. All details, even the most trivial, of the country’s life must be approved by the emperor. He could at the same time be extraordinarily meticulous (demanding reports on every transaction above ten dollars). Despite many eccentricities, he governed, in his own estimation, efficiently and prudently. Unfortunately the emperor’s entourage turns out to be treacherous and false. Soon it was to become the main reason for the ruler of Ethiopia’s fall.

The initial description of the emperor and the manner and method of governing the country is a deliberate device of the author. Kapuściński presents the emperor in an ironic and grotesque manner. The reader quickly becomes familiar with the figure of Haile Selassie. He sometimes even seems sympathetic. Kapuściński tries to present the emperor as a lone warrior who, with his characteristic reverence and gravity, steadfastly tries to transform the country he rules. The author initially presents an eccentric, an original person, devoid of feeling, in whom form takes precedence over reason. Kapuściński’s device serves its purpose. The testimony of witnesses often raises a smile, and sometimes astonishment. We feel sorry for the entourage, and above all for the Ethiopian people, enslaved by their ruler. At this seemingly crucial moment, Kapuściński begins to describe and present to us the emperor’s rule. It turns out that Haile Selassie is the ideal ruler. The emperor is a great statesman; he is kind to the people (he distributes his wealth). Haile Selassie builds magnificent palaces, brings engineers from distant Europe, wishes to build a modern Ethiopia — an island of civilisation and wealth on the poor continent of Africa. He changes the customary laws to new, civilised ones. He publishes the first newspapers, opens the first bank, introduces electricity, abolishes the slave trade, creates a postal service, brings the most modern wonders of technology not hitherto known in Ethiopia (cars and aeroplanes). Finally he places his stake on the education of youth, establishes the first university, sends students abroad at his own expense. All this builds the most positive possible image of the emperor. However, the ruler has a significant flaw — he is extraordinarily extravagant. Although officially he stands guard over every, even the smallest transaction, in spite of Ethiopia’s enormous economic backwardness he spends enormous sums on his own maintenance and representation. He builds palaces and castles in which he stays for only one day a year. All this resembles islands of treasure submerged in the hopeless poverty of society. Soon the utopia and idyll is disturbed by small incidents and misunderstandings. The second force in Ethiopia makes itself heard — the emperor’s servants. We begin to penetrate into the intricate cogs of the authoritarian state.

How does the apparatus of power in Ethiopia actually look? The reading of “The Emperor” begins to enter its decisive and most important phase. Thanks to the somewhat chaotic testimonies of witnesses we ourselves unmask the face of the emperor. We begin directly to meet people, we feel their fear and respect before power. Haile Selassie was a distrustful and secretive man. He wished to surround himself with people who would be first and foremost loyal and faithful. It is worth noting here that the emperor’s fears are fully justified. He himself took advantage of a moment of inattention and weakness of his predecessor, in order in 1916, with the help of Western embassies, to carry out a coup d’état, removing the legitimate heir to the throne, Lij Iyasu. Haile Selassie was a calm and peaceable man. His sole flaw was an almost morbid fear of treachery and conspiracy. For this reason the first and most important change he introduced after assuming power was the creation of a national network of spies. Ethiopia under the emperor’s rule was a state half inhabited by spies and informers. No one could feel safe. People often disappeared or perished in mysterious circumstances. Every Ethiopian, on seeing something disquieting, had the right and duty to report it to the emperor himself.

The emperor’s immediate entourage consists of trusted but not fully certain people. It turns out that the emperor found a solution to this too. Haile Selassie paid for loyalty. It turns out that in so poor a country as Ethiopia, the sole goal in life is the attainment of wealth. The emperor generously rewarded every, even the most “minor” loyalty. He made wide use of promotions. Situations frequently arose in which a completely random person, virtually plucked from a crowd of onlookers, would suddenly become minister of the pen — the emperor’s right hand. Pure absurdity, but what is most strange is that such “random” people best fulfilled their task. When, however, their appetite for money grew disproportionately to their loyalty, the emperor would again promote a poor man. Illogical conduct, but extraordinarily effective. Yet this turns out to be the weak link in the powerful machinery of power. Thanks to the generous payments, Ethiopia becomes practically a caste state. The ruling elite consists of the rich, arrogant, and obstinate lords. The ruled are the poor farmers and workers. Internal conflicts among the ruler’s servants quickly arise. Everyone tries to be close to the emperor, since this means new and ever larger sums of money. A new and extraordinarily conscious group of people also begins to make itself heard — the students. It turns out that the emperor’s kindness goes unappreciated. Young people sent to study abroad return thoroughly changed. They do not wish to build Ethiopia, but to change it and adapt it to European models. Internal conflicts and disputes begin to tear the state apart. Secret organisations and conspiracies begin to form. The elites are fighting, the students are in revolt; even the peasantry, in whom the emperor saw the sole bulwark, is demanding its rights. The circle gradually tightens — the emperor loses support and reacts nervously and unpredictably. He sees his last salvation in the ever-faithful army. The troops take to the streets, suppressing rallies, killing demonstrators. The country is visibly sliding to the bottom. Soon the army mutinies; a nationwide revolution breaks out. Kapuściński, however, deliberately returns to the figure of the emperor. He presents him as a man abandoned and betrayed. The emperor desired the good of the people, wished to lift them from the dirt and poverty of Africa. He wished, however, at all costs to remain in power, to stand at its head, to be an authority, a ruler, a god… All this creates for us a unified and extraordinarily universal image of an absolute ruler. A ruler who wishes to manage the country like his own plot of land, striving to realise his absurd and sick visions.

“The Emperor” by Ryszard Kapuściński is an extraordinarily wise and substantial book. It presents totalitarian power in an ironic and grotesque manner. Kapuściński tries to convey to us that totalitarianism and despotism are a sick and inefficient system. Its internal contradictions will sooner or later lead to its death. This is especially well visible in the last scenes of “The Emperor”, in which soldiers in a highly symbolic manner lock with a key the door to the former emperor’s palace. The emperor becomes the victim of the system he himself created. There also occurs what may be called the autocratic ruler’s self-compromise, as evidenced by the subsequent conduct of Haile Selassie, who, stripped of everything, still considers himself Emperor of Ethiopia. Despite his poverty, he does not shed his dignity, but continues to live as a true emperor ought to live. “The Emperor” is a book that directly ridicules totalitarianism, and particularly so-called real socialism countries. An especially great resemblance can be seen to the Gierek era in Poland (building and consolidating the country). The book has a feel of satire, irony, and grotesquerie. However, these means are not artificially added. All of them arise from the skilful and truthful presentation of facts. This attests to the author’s undoubted journalistic talent. Kapuściński is a writer who, by showing an intimate and local problem, is able to relate it to problems that are nationwide, global. In “The Emperor” Kapuściński did something brilliant, combining reportage, interview, and chronicle in one whole. It cannot be said of “The Emperor” that it is a full reportage, nor is it a “full-scale” novel. Kapuściński creates an entirely new, yet how wonderful and atypical literary genre. All this means that “The Emperor” is genuinely a book worthy of recommendation.

Maciej Skórczewski

Note: This text was written in 2000 as a school assignment in Polish language and literature. Grade 4 (mainly for spelling errors :). After many years, having re-read the book, I understand it quite differently… The above work was probably written too literally.

source: kapuscinski.info