Addis Ababa - Ethiopia's late emperor Haile Selassie went to his final resting place yesterday in an emotional, visually stunning reburial ceremony 25 years after his death.
High priests of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, dressed in brilliantly coloured robes and bearing large crosses of silver and gold, celebrated Mass outside the Holy Trinity Cathedral before solemnly leading Selassie's small coffin inside.
Selassie, one of Africa's most charismatic leaders who ruled Ethiopia for 44 years, was then lowered into a tomb next to that of his wife, Empress Menen.
The emperor, a god to followers of the Caribbean-based Rastafarian religion, was allegedly murdered in 1975 aged 83 by Marxist officers who seized power a year earlier.
Rita Marley, widow of the reggae singer Bob Marley, attended. "Rasta people will be all loving his Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie I. There is no end of his reign," she said.