Princess Ijigayehu Amha Selassie /princess Ijigayehu Asfaw Wossen | |
Spouse: | Dejazmatch Fikre-Selassie Hapte Mariam |
Issue: | Prince Samson Fikre Selassie Princess Rahel Fikre Selassie Princess Meheret Fikre Selassie Princess Aster Fikre Selassie Princes Bekere Fikre Selassie Prince Yishaq Fikre Selassie |
House: | Solomonic dynasty |
Father: | Amha Selassie |
Mother: | Wolete Israel Seyoum |
Birth Place: | Dessie, Wollo, Ethiopian Empire |
Death Place: | Akaki Prison, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
Religion: | Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo |
Burial Place: | Ketchene Medhan Alem Church |
Princess Ijigayehu Amha Selassie (4 September 1936 – 23 January 1976) was the eldest child of Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen of Ethiopia by his first wife, Princess Wolete Israel Seyoum and was the granddaughter to Emperor Haile Selassie.
Through her mother's family she was a great-great-granddaughter of Emperor Yohannes IV. Princess Ijigayehu was married to Dejazmach Fikre Selassie Habte-Mariam,[1] the heir to the old Welega Kingdom of Leqa Naqamte, and brother to Woizero Atsede Habte-Mariam (wife of General Mulugeta Bulli) and Princess Mahisente Habte Mariam (wife of Prince Sahle Selassie). Dejazmach Fikre Selassie and Princess Ijigayehu were the parents of six children (all created Princes and Princesses by their grandfather Emperor Amha Selassie while in exile):
Princess Ijigayehu notably accompanied her grandfather Emperor Haile Selassie on his state visit to Italy and also on his state visits to South Korea, Australia, and Malaysia.
Princess Ijigayehu was imprisoned with the rest of the Imperial family on September 11, 1974, the day before Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by the Derg. She died in early 1976 after medical neglect while still in prison.[2] She was buried at the Ketchene Medhan Alem Church in Addis Ababa by her children and her mother who were under surveillance but not imprisoned. Early the following year, all her children, along with other children of the Imperial family, escaped from Ethiopia. Her husband remained imprisoned for 8 years and died in August 1996.