{"id":276038,"date":"2019-05-14T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMidWh0dHBzOi8vZmFjZTJmYWNlYWZyaWNhLmNvbS9hcnRpY2xlL2hvdy1oYWlsZS1zZWxhc3NpZS1tYWRlLXRoZS1hbWhhcmljLWxhbmd1YWdlLWV0aGlvcGlhcy1saW5ndWEtZnJhbmNhLWluLXRoZS0xOTMwc9IBAA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-09-19T12:53:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T16:53:50","slug":"how-emperor-haile-selassie-pushed-amharic-as-ethiopias-shared-public-language-in-the-1930s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/276038","title":{"rendered":"How Emperor Haile Selassie pushed Amharic as Ethiopia\u2019s shared public language in the 1930s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In May 2019 Face2Face Africa returned to a long language story: Emperor Haile Selassie made Amharic the official language of the modern Ethiopian state, and that choice still shapes schooling, courts, and identity fights across the Horn.<\/p>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"780\" width=\"780\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-601742\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/culture-national-theatre-1280.jpg?fit=780%2C780&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"How Emperor Haile Selassie pushed Amharic as Ethiopia\u2019s shared public language in the 1930s\" \/>\n<p>From the early twentieth century onward, Amharic became the language of administration and national media for millions who were not born speaking it. That created a shared public tongue, and it also left deep resentment among communities that saw their own languages pushed aside.<\/p>\n<p>The piece sits next to later debates about federal language policy under Abiy Ahmed\u2019s government. Readers who want the older imperial root of today\u2019s curriculum and identity arguments still need this historical framing.<\/p>\n<p>Kept as culture and history reference, the article is not a grammar lesson. It is a reminder that in Ethiopia a national language decision is never only about words.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/face2faceafrica.com\/article\/how-haile-selassie-made-the-amharic-language-ethiopias-lingua-franca-in-the-1930s\">Face2Face Africa<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How Haile Selassie made the Amharic language Ethiopia&#8217;s lingua franca in the 1930s&nbsp;&nbsp;Face2Face AfricaRight from the 20th century when Ethiopia&#8217;s Amharic was made the official language by Emperor Haile Selassie, it has been seen as one of a kin&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":601742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/culture-national-theatre-1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-19Oe","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276038"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754779,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276038\/revisions\/754779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}