Image: The Lion of Judah (2756453335)

Description: The French inscription on the statue's base reads: "To his majesty the King Tafari Makonnen/In remembrance of his coronation/The Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company" Tafari Makonnen was the given name of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I. He used that name until he was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia on November 2, 1930. The Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company was the successor to the Ethiopian Imperial Railway Company. The Ethiopian Imperial Railway Company was formed in 1894 to build a railroad from Addis Ababa to the Red Sea port of Djibouti in French Somaliland. When the Ethiopian Imperial Railway Company failed in 1906, the rails reached only from Djibouti to Dire Dawa in eastern Ethiopia. According to Wikipedia: "In 1908, the assets of the [Ethiopian Imperial Railway] company were transferred to a new firm, the Comagnie de Chemin de Fer Franco-Ethiopien de Jibuti à Addis Abeba [The Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company], which received a new concession to finish the line to Addis Ababa. After a year of wrangling with the previous financiers and their governments, construction began anew. By 1915 the line reached Akaki, only 23 kilometers from the capital, and two years later came all the way to Addis Ababa itself." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Railway_Company_of_Ethiopia "Lion of Judah" is one of the titles used by the Emperors of Ethiopia. That title harkens back to the Queen of Sheba's visit to King Solomon in biblical times. The Lion of Judah symbolized the person of the emperor. It is also a national symbol of Ethiopia.

In the collection of the National Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Author: A. Davey from Where I Live Now: Pacific Northwest
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