Yilma Deressa

Yilma Deressa (21 September 1907[1] – January 1979[2]) was an Ethiopian politician member of the Welega aristocracy. He served as Finance Minister (1957–1970)[3] and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1958-1960), Ambassador to the United States, and member of the Ethiopian Senate. John Spencer includes him in his list of five public figures who occupied the most important posts for the two decades following the Second World War.[4]

He was a member of the Welega aristocracy of southwestern Ethiopia. Yilma's father, Blatta Deressa Amante, whom Bahru Zewde describes was "perhaps the most prolific contributor to the weekly forum of the educated elite, Berhanena Selam", a newspaper, in the 1920s, was a cousin of Dejazmach Kumsa Moroda, the last king of Leqa Naqamte, Moti Moroda Bekere. Blatta Deressa was also a successful businessman, and served as a director in the Ministry of Agriculture in the 1930s, and after returning from exile in Sudan in 1941, Blatta Deressa acquired a reputation as an Oromo oral historian.[5]

  1. ^ "Deressa, Yilma" in The Middle East and North Africa, page 884. Europa Publications, 1961
    - "Deressa, Yilma" in The international who's who 1974-75, page 417. Europa Publications, 1974.
  2. ^ Everton S. P. McPherson, Rastafari and Politics: Sixty Years of a Developing Cultural Ideology : a Sociology of Development Perspective, page 98. Black International Iyahbinghi Press, 1991.
    - Heli von Rosen, Carl Gustaf von Rosen: An Airborne Knight-errant, page 198. Books on Demand, 2016
  3. ^ "Historical Background". June 4, 2011. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011.
  4. ^ Spencer, John H. (1984). Ethiopia at Bay: A personal account of the Haile Selassie years. Algonac: Reference Publications. p. 121. ISBN 0-917256-25-5.
  5. ^ Zewde, Bahru (2002). Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia. Oxford: James Currey. p. 75. ISBN 0-8214-1445-3.