Aklilu Habte-Wold

Tsehafi Taezaz Aklilu Habte-Wold (Amharic: አክሊሉ ሀብተ ወልድ; 12 March 1912 – 23 November 1974) was an Ethiopian statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of Ethiopia during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I from 1961 to 1974 until his resignation due to the civil and military unrest brought by the student youth uprising and internal pressures of the soon to come military junta. He previously served as foreign minister before his premiership from 1943 to 1958. He was described leading the position of "Minister of the Pen" an ex-officio title due to his role as prime minister and handling all the practical leadership roles in the Ethiopian Empire.

Aklilu studied law at Paris-Sorbonne University (later Sorbonne University) from 1932 to 1936 where he earned his bachelor's of law from. Later following the end of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia thus prompting his return to Ethiopia. He was appointed foreign minister by Emperor Haile Selassie I to serve under then Prime Minister Makonnen Endelkachew later Prime Minister Abebe Aregai who was assassinated in the failed 1960 coup later replacing him as Prime Minister officially in 1961 following Ethiopia's first election during the 1961 Ethiopian general election implemented from the new 1955 Constitution. As foreign minister Aklilu signed the charter of the United Nations making Ethiopia one of the only independent African states who founded the institute.

He led the front efforts of building Ethiopian diplomacy as his time as the foreign minister and repairing the relations between post-fascism led Italy. And Ethiopia's placement in the global sphere as a politically neutral state in the pre-Non-Aligned Movement era towards the United States and the Soviet Union and other aligned countries while still fostering mutual beneficial relations between aligned nations.

After becoming Prime Minister due to the death of his predecessor he becomes the first non-feudal and democratically elected person from a poor background later educated who became prime minister and thus serving the second highest office in the land. During his first term passing on to his next term after winning the 1965 general election he imposed a highly unpopular tax policy (head tax) a revolt started nonetheless the long-fought Somali backed terrorist Bale revolt from 1963 to 1970 through the support of the United States and United Kingdom was ultimately stopped. After winning his third and last term following his election victory in the 1969 general election having the highest turnout of about 3.4 million voters following his previous election shifted the monarch as the leader who mainly represented Ethiopia out of country while he handled economic policy and domestic and legislative affairs in parliament and the country as a whole. He failed numerous times to implement land reform and couldn't secure enough parliamentary votes for his efforts to redistribute feudal-owned land to the broader population.

Following the 1973 oil crisis and the student revolts, Aklilu resigned as prime minister. He was replaced by Endelkachew Makonnen, but both were later both executed without due process or any judicial trial by the military junta in 1974, known as the Massacre of the Sixty or Black Saturday. He died at the age of 62.

Aklilu is often praised by later Ethiopian diplomats for his for front diplomacy as foreign minister and his transition of an aristocratic society to a transitional semi-democratic landscape.