He was born in 1902 in
Addisge,
Shewa to a Shewan
Amhara noble family. His father was
Dejazmach Sileshi Woldesemayat and his mother was
Woyzero Askale Garedew. His brother was
Dejazmach Bezabeh Sileshi. After receiving a church education, Mesfin began his military career in 1934 by joining the first modern
Imperial Bodyguard battalion. At the outbreak of the
Italian invasion in 1935, he was a major in the Ethiopian Army and fought at the
Battle of Maychew. After the Italians took
Addis Ababa in May 1936, Mesfin left for
Moretna Jiru in northern
Shewa, where he organized a rebel force against the Italian occupation. Together with his cousin
Aberra Kassa, he participated in the failed July 1936 attempt to liberate
Addis Ababa. Along with other
Shewan patriots, he unsuccessfully attempted to create a coordinating body for the resistance. As a patriot leader he operated in
Selale,
Merhabete,
Tegulat,
Wollega, and
Gojjam. In March 1938 he took part in the heavily fought
Battle of Fageta, where the Gojjam patriots achieved a notable victory. The first phase of his career as a resistance fighter ended in June 1938 when he crossed the border into
Sudan, together with Aberra Kassa's widow
Kebedech Seyoum and several other patriots. While in exile, Mesfin actively promoted the Ethiopian struggle for liberation. He established contact with
Haile Selassie in
Great Britain, moved between
Cairo and
Khartoum, and helped strengthen cooperation between patriots and exiles. Acting as an imperial messenger, he re-entered
Ethiopia carrying a radio and arms together with foreign anti-fascist agents such as
Paul Langlois, encouraging the patriots with promises of the emperor's return and the imminent liberation of the country. In 1940, when
William Platt asked patriot leaders in north-western Ethiopia to ally with Britain against
Italy, Mesfin escorted a mule caravan led by
Mengesha Jembere and
Negash Bezabih to
Al Qadarif to obtain arms and ammunition. He re-entered Ethiopia with
Haile Selassie in 1941 and played an active role in the liberation campaign. He later led a series of raids that resulted in the capture of
Gore and helped liberate south-western Ethiopia from Italian occupation. After liberation, he was appointed Governor-General of
Illubabor from 1942 to 1946 and then of
Kaffa from 1946 to 1955. During his tenure in Kaffa he encouraged aristocrats and the merchants to adopt modern coffee planting methods, and he had a special interest in coffee planting himself. He was briefly
Mayor of Addis Ababa in 1947. In 1955 he joined the
cabinet as Minister of Interior, serving until 1957, when he was appointed Vice-Governor-General of Shewa.
Ras Mesfin was enormously wealthy and widely considered the largest individual landowner in Ethiopia, and his estates were claimed to reach up to 50,000
gashas (2,000,000
ha) in Illubabor and Kaffa alone, in addition to large estates in Shewa and Hararghe. He was head of the
Patriots' Association, the national association of veterans of the resistance and a fiercely pro-monarchy group. After the
Ethiopian Revolution, he was arrested by the
Derg in August 1974 during the "creeping coup" and was among those summarily executed in the
Massacre of the Sixty. == References ==