“Coming To America 2” | an Ethiopian Prince Found His American Woman | Now She’s Married Into The Royal Family Of Ethiopia

American woman, 33, marries Ethiopian prince, 35, in a lavish wedding 12 years after they met in a Washington, DC nightclub

Ariana Austin, 33, married 35-year-old Joel Makonnen, a great-grandson of the last emperor of Ethiopia, on September 9 in Maryland

• The couple married 12 years after they met on the dance floor of Washington, DC nightclub Pearl

• Makonnen picked Austin up by saying she looked like a model in a Bombay Sapphire advertisement

• Makonnen, now a lawyer for Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, is related to Emperor Haile Selassie I though his second son, Prince Makonnen

• He was born in Rome, where his family lived in exile after a 1974 military coup

• The Ethiopian royal family claims descent to the Biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

An American woman became an African princess last month when she married into the royal family of Ethiopia – after meeting her future husband at a modern day ‘ball’.

Ariana Austin, 33, married 35-year-old Joel Makonnen, a great-grandson of the last emperor of Ethiopia, on September 9 in Maryland.

The couple married 12 years after they first met on the dance floor of Washington, DC nightclub Pearl.

Makonnen told the New York Times that he hit on his future bride and her friend using a cheesy pick-up line.

‘I said, “You guys look like an ad for Bombay Sapphire,” or whatever the gin was,’ Mr. Makonnen recalled.

Makonnen says he immediately knew he wanted to date Austin.

Not even five minutes later I said, “You’re going to be my girlfriend,”‘ he said.

While Makonnen didn’t immediately tell Austin about his family, the truth about his heritage came out as they started to seriously date and it’s something that fascinates Austin.

She appears excited to be apart of a family that traces their roots back to the Biblical King Solomon and Queen of Sheba.

‘It’s unbeatable heritage and history,’ Austin said. ‘It combines sheer black power and ancient Christian tradition.’

The two married last month in an elaborate Ethiopian Orthodox Christian wedding involving 13 priests in Temple Hills, Maryland.

The bride and groom both wore crowns and capes in the ceremony, making them look like the true royals they are. While Austin may not have royal blood in her background, she does come from an African American/Guyanese family with rich histories abroad. Her maternal grandfather was lord mayor of Georgetown, the capital of Guyana.

Hours before the ceremony, they hosted a formal reception at Foxchase Manor in Manassas, Virginia where their 307 guests dined on platters of Ethiopian food and pre-boxed slices of Guyanese black cake.

Makonnen, or Prince Yoel as he is officially known, is related to the last emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I, through his second son, Prince Makonnen.

Haile Salassie ruled Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, when he was overthrown by a Marxist Derg military coup.

Makonnen’s father, Prince David, was studying abroad at the time, and was thus able to escape imprisonment.

Makonnen was born in Rome, where his parents were living in exile, and was raised in Switzerland.

When he met Austin, he was perusing an undergraduate degree at American University.

The couple quickly stood the test of a long distance relationship when, after graduating from American in 2006, Makonnen took a six-month internship in France.

Austin went to Paris the next year, where Makonnen returned in 2008 before going back to Ethiopia to start a organization with his uncle to help Ethiopian youth.

In 2012, Austin returned to the U.S. to get a master’s degree in arts education at Harvard and the two decided to take a break that year.

But they were back together again by Valentine’s Day 2014, when Makonnen popped the question with an aptly shaped princess-cut diamond ring.

Their engagement is a funny story. Makonnen went over to his girlfriend’s house to propose, but he knocked on the door so forcefully that Austin thought someone was trying to break in and called her parents for help.

‘He was aggressively knocking so I didn’t answer. He came back, and then I opened the door,’ she said.

The two moved in together after the wedding, and are living in the Washington, DC area.

Makonnen works in the legal department at Otsuka America Pharmaceutical.

His new wife works in philanthropy at the Executives Alliance for Boys and Men of Color.

Source

______

መስከረም 2፡ 1967 | ግርማዊ ቀዳማዊ ኃይለ ሥላሴ በንግሥት ኤሊሳቤጥ እና በሲ.አይ.ኤ. ወኪል በመንግስቱ ከመገደላቸው በፊት ለመጨረሻ ጊዜ የተሰማው ድምጻቸው

______

CIA Dethrones Haile Selassie

 

 

“Messing up with ZION”

The following French intelligence report was made on September 20, 1974, two weeks after Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed.

Sept. 20, 1974  (IPS)

W aving good-bye to his de-fangedlions and to one teenage youth who responded by yelling “Hang the thief!:’ Haile Selassie was unceremoniously packed into the back seat of a Volkswagen last week and whisked off by Ethiopia’s CIA-trained “progressive” military.

Despite his confinement,Selassie has been spared,at least temporarily,a worse fate. Britain’s Daily Telegraph,in an article prior to his downfall, wondered about the dilemmas of the Ethiopian Armed Forces Co-ordinating Committee (A FCC) in consummating their oft-interrupted act of coup d’etat (what Le Figaro called a “creeping putsch”) and speculated that the aged potentate “might die a natural death before the ponderous and cautiously executed military revolution reaches its conclusion.” The AFCC sputtered along for seven months, stage managing a scenario whose script was written 20 years ago by the CIA. It is no accident that the international press has referred frequently to the 1952-54 NasserNaguib maneuvers in Egypt in covering recent Ethiopian events. Refining the machinations and processes surrounding Nasser’s “Free Officers:’ the CIA created a complete philosophy and modus operandi for “progressive military governments:’ to be used whenever conditions are ripe.

Two, Three, Many Egypts

In the past five years, CIA-defined necessity has brought the “progressive” military tactic into frequent play. Under conditions of worldwide economic collapse, potential revolutionary ferment has been co-opted consistently by brutish military regimes peddling radical rhetoric. Africa is dotted by such regimes. In recent months, the experiment has been brought to the semi-advanced sector, like Greece and Portugal. Now advanced countries are slated for the same treatment – with Britain the first target.

In Ethiopia the AFCC quickly identified and isolated the nodal points of Selassie’s power base: the Coptic Church, a reported l00,OOO-man “Patriotic Association” loyal to the Emperor,and the backward peasantry. From the beginning;each element could attempt,at best, only a pathetic “Maginot Line” defense against a multi-flanked offense. At worst. they grew demoralized and terrorized – the near-unanimous mode of response.

At the slightest resistance (as when some “Old Guard” senators humbly pleaded for mercy for their jailed colleagues in mid-June) the AFCC ruthlessly squelched it; in this case by rounding up practically every aristocrat in the country and tossing the whole bunch into detention. As the New York Times of Sept. 20 described it: “The recipe is to move slowly and deliberately, with a mixture of toughness and persuasion. and to discredit opponents in the eyes of the citizenry.” Such precision has been essential to undermine by stages a complex belief structure centered on the person of the Emperor. During the past seven months, the AFCC encouraged demonstrations of students and workers,calling them off at will,and crushed them if they became troublesome, as did a communications workers’ sit-in in April and this

week’s student unrest. In these public manifestations,the AFCC were aided by Maoist crazies in the student and intellectual circles and by “labor leaders” in the CIA-dominated Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions, well-trained in manipulating worker ferment. These staged maneuvers had the combined effect of letting off steam. channeling rage, terrorizing the opposition, and creating enough chaos and confusion to establish that the military was the only stable reality.

Ethiopia First

Simultaneously, an ideology was manufactured. Labeled “Ethiopia First:’ it combines all the characteristics of a typical “progressive” military regime: extreme nationalism emphasizing the special qualities of “national heritage:’ complete “moral integrity” to contrast with the old regime’s bankruptcy, “anti-imperialism:’ virulent anti-communism. and vague lip service to international “Third Force” third world “solidarity.” This new religion saturates the controlled

national media. The only obstacle to the operation was the AFCC’s own hesitation to rule. They tiptoed around the final seizure of power. Finally. the AFCC let Lt. General Aman “Crazy Mike” Andam (whose peculiarities are detailed in the Africa Report in IPS No. 19) out of the bag as temporary front man. The necessity of participating in the CIA’s reorganization of the region and coping with complete national economic breakdown and residual unrest will force the AFCC to play a stronger hand.