Lij Seifu Mikael (Amharic: ልጅ ሠይፉ ሚካኤል, Säyfu Mikāēl, also Sayfu Mikael, Seifu Michael; 14 January 1898 – 23 September 1958) was an Ethiopian royal, member of the Solomonic dynasty from the House of Solomon that descended from the ancient Kingdom of Aksum, belonging to the branch of the aristocratic Amhara family from Ankober Shewa. He was the great-grandson of King Sahle Selassie of Shewa and his wife Queen Bezabish Dejene of Gojjam through his grandfather, Dejazmatch Mekuria Tesfaye of Gerim Gabriel, a first cousin of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia.
Emperor Menelik II and Emperor Haile Selassie, along with Lij Seifu Mikael were among the direct descendents of King Sahle Selassie.
Dejazmach Mekuria was once married to Woizero Man'alebish,Burke's royal families of the world, page 53 ISBN 0850110297 Published, 1980 Emperor Menelik's stepdaughter from his second wife Woizero Bafena. After their marriage was dissolved, she was sent to Wollo Province to marry King Mikael of Wollo.
Lij Seifu, a public figure, was educated in Paris at the Sorbonne. He was one of the earliest members of the Ethiopian royalty who started paying salaries to the serving members of their households advocating education, meaningful wages, and freedom of slaves making him an avid supporter of his cousin Ras Tafari, later Emperor Haile Selassie in his bid to become an emperor of Ethiopia who also held the same progressive Judeo-Christian values. He sponsored several Ethiopians for higher education including four artists whom he sent to France after discovering their skills at the Debre Bizen Monastery during his appointment as Consul General to Eritrea.
His public service includes Ethiopia's minister to France and Germany, represented Empress Zewditu as a special envoy to the UK, member of delegations to several European countries accompanying imperial officials and the Crown Prince and later the Emperor of Ethiopia, Ethiopia's Consul General to Eritrea and Governor of several districts until the eve of the fascist invasion of Ethiopia, Inspector General of the Ministry of Justice, advisor to the palace on establishing the several municipalities and reorganization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, administrator of coffee farms owned by the government in Arsi Zone and Hararghe, and Administrator of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, credited for overseeing the establishment of the Church's real estate interests to bolster the Church's income and modernize the secular administration of the Church. As one of the wealthiest Ethiopians of the time, some of the real estate establishments of the Church were personally financed by him as a gift to the Church. He believed the church needed to have a Vatican like administrative structure to help the Church attain modern, separate and significant financial position in addition to the Church's centuries of undisputed influence in the imperial government system.
During Ethiopia's preparations for the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1936), Lij Seifu, a prominent arms dealer, played a critical role in supplying the Ethiopian Empire with weapons. His company provided the majority of rifles and ammunition acquired by the imperial government and the private armies of Ethiopian nobility, often without immediate payment, to bolster the defense of national sovereignty against Mussolini's invasion. Notably, Lij Seifu supplied approximately 400,000 Maria Theresa thalers’ worth of arms to Ras Hailu Teklehaimanot, the governor and prince of Gojam, enabling the arming of Gojam's provincial troops under the prince’s command. In 2025, the value of these thalers, unadjusted for inflation, is estimated to range between $10 million and $20 million.
During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, he led an army at the Aussa desert front in the Afar Region and was captured after his army was annihilated by Italian bombers, shortage of ammunition, water, and food. He became one of the Ethiopian POWs during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War at Asinara designated as "one of the most dangerous Ethiopians" per surviving Italian colonial documents that have his name on top of the list of distinguished Ethiopians imprisoned by the fascists. He was imprisoned at the Island for four years.
Pursuant to his written accounts, in the beginning, he liked, admired, and supported his relative Emperor Haile Selassie, during his regency for his zeal and progressive policies but later grew to despise his rule after Ras Tafari became emperor, citing partisanship, disdain towards certain descendants of King Sahle Sellasie, the old officials of Menelik II and Empress Zewditu, contempt to criticisms and perceived isolation of early educated Ethiopians whom he wasn't responsible for their education; as a result, Seifu as one of the earliest educated Ethiopians who didn't owe their education to Ras Tafari, he believed the roles he played in shaping modern Ethiopian institutions, especially the foreign affairs bureau he helped organize as well as his diplomatic contributions and struggles before and during the Italo-Ethiopian war have been undermined.
Seifu expressed these opinions through his surviving poems he wrote during his imprisonment by the fascists at Asinara Island and later in his life as administrator of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. In one of his diaries, he expressed his grief over the knowledge of how Lij Iyasu was treated during his years of captivation and his subsequent elimination after Emperor Haile Selassie's decision to leave the country for exile in Europe. He blamed some of the Emperor's backward advisers with the exception of Luel Ras Kassa Haile Darge whom, he wrote, was too reverential to decide on the life of Lij Iyasu.
Biography
Born Seife Sillasie Mikael in Ankobar, Northern Shewa, was active mainly during Empress Zewditu's reign and the earliest times of Emperor Haile Selassie.His father Ato Mikael, a prominent figure in Emperor Menelik II's court, studied in Germany and was the first Ethiopian to publish a modern Amharic mathematics book for Ethiopian students as well as a medical treatise. Seifu's mother, Ato Mikael's second wife was Lady Shewaferash Mekuria who was the daughter of Dejazmatch Mekuria Tesfaye, Emperor Menelik II's first cousin and his general who was the head of 10,000 elite forces armed with the most modern weapons of the time. The Dejazmach marched with Emperor Menelik II during the monarch's successful efforts in bringing the southern Ethiopian regions under the central imperial government. Before his ascension to power, he was one of Emperor Tewodros II's Shewan prisoners at Magdala with the young Menelik, then a Shewan prince.
Ato Mikael later died of the Spanish flu or "Hidar Beshita" as it was known in Ethiopia, a pandemic that claimed many lives in the months of October and November. Lij Seifu was in London when his father died. He was laid to rest at Debre Berhan Sillasie Church alongside his father-in-law Dejazmatch Mekuria. Ato Mikael's family hails from Ato Giorgis, an Amhara from Gondar, who traveled to Europe in the 16th century for academic reasons. That tradition of extensive travels either for academic or trade endeavors has continued to this day. The Giorgis family eventually married into the Ankober aristocracy which it finally and completely integrated into when Ato Mikael Birru married Lady Shewaferash, Emperor Menelik's niece.
W/o Shewaferash later married Ras Mesfin Sileshi's uncle Grazmatch Gizaw who was half brother of Ras Mesfin's mother and gave birth to W/o Ayelech Gizaw, Seifu's half sister. Ras Mesfin Sileshi was one of the most powerful men in the country and an accomplished patriot. He met his end during the infamous Massacre of the Sixty.
Seifu completed the traditional Ethiopian religious education both in Addis Ababa and Menz at the Gerim Gabriel Church located on his grandfather's estate followed by a few years at his father's trading post in Aden, Yemen where he attended modern school. He left for France after Lij Iyasu assumed imperial power and gave him permission to continue his education abroad at the Sorbonne University in Paris.
According to his renowned nephew Kebede Michael, besides the assistance of his wealthy father, he used his personal funds to pay for his education after inheriting a large amount of money from his grandfather Dejazmatch Mekuria Tesfaye who made him the sole heir to his estate. As a young student in Europe, he assisted Ethiopian diplomats and senior officials as an interpreter, thus having exposure to European heads of states early on. During that time, he cultivated lasting friendships with his father's friends, the foreign minister BlattenGeta Heruy Wolde Selassie, Mayor Mersha Nahusenay, Fitawrari Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariyam and later in Ethiopia with Hakim Workneh Eshete also known as Dr. Charles Martin who was a good friend to his father Ato Mikael whom the doctor regarded as a close friend and a go-to person to have an immediate access to Emperor Menelik with whom Hakim Workneh later enjoyed daily visits to treat the aging and ailing monarch. Ato Mikael was instrumental in arranging Hakim Workneh's marriage to W/O Qatsala Tullu. Seifu would later marry Hakim Workneh's daughter W/O Sarah Martin.
Professional life Upon his return from Europe and his father's death, Seifu as a young man traveled with Blattengeta Heruy Wolde Selassie and other senior members of the imperial government to Europe assisting them with his foreign languages proficiency and foreign affairs advice. He spoke fluent English, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, and Arabic as well as Ethiopian ethnic languages Amharic, Oromomigna and Tigrigna. In June 1919, he was among the special commissioners sent to Europe by Empress Zewditu who presented a letter of congratulations to the King and Queen of the United Kingdom for the success of the allied arms. He served as Ethiopia's Minister Plenipotentiary to France and Germany at different times between 1920 and 1927. He served as Ethiopia's Consul General to Eritrea appointed by Empress Zewditu in 1923 and lived in Asmara till the end of 1926. Generally regarded as a man close to Lij Eyasu, the future Emperor Haile Selassie held him with some uneasiness, later recalled him from Eritrea and made him governor of the lucrative Chercher, Baka, and Miesso region in 1927 during which time he started a modern coffee farm at Mangudetu in the Baka district. Known for his hot tempered impatience for tardiness and poor performance at work by public servants in the rather uncivilized province compared to Asmara where he served as Consul General, he came to be known as "Seifu Gomoraw" that means Seifu the Volcano. In the mid-1930s, Hakim Workneh got Seifu's old job as governor of Chercher and Seifu was appointed as deputy governor upon the departure of Hakim Workneh leaving for England.
In the early 1930s, he traveled to Europe with Blattengeta Heruy to help Ethiopia secure permission to buy arms and strengthen Ethiopian position in the League of Nations. He won support from Germany that supplied essential weaponry to Ethiopia in the amount of about six million Reichsmark. Seifu used his expertise as supplier of arms to the Ethiopian Empire to bypass colonial powers encircling Ethiopia to deliver the weapons and ammunition. While serving as a public servant, he also led a very successful arms supply business partnering with another French educated Ethiopian, Ato Gebre Ebziabher. According to the surviving documents, they bought, imported and sold weapons and ammunition worth millions of Maria Theresa Thalers, a favored currency of that time in the Ethiopian Empire. He used the proceeds to acquire expansive commercial real estate and start modern farms in the country.