Zewditu was born on April 29, 1876, in Yerer, Ethiopia, the daughter of Emperor Menelik II.
Zewditu was born on April 29, 1876, in the Yerer region of Ethiopia. She was the daughter of Negus Menelik (later Emperor Menelik II) and one of his consorts, Woizero Abechi. Her birth placed her within the highest echelons of the Ethiopian imperial nobility, though as a daughter rather than a son, her path to power was not preordained by the traditional succession customs of the era.
Raised within the royal court, Zewditu received an upbringing steeped in the religious traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which would remain central to her identity and eventual reign. Her early life was marked by multiple strategic marriages arranged for political alliance-building, a common practice for royal women of the period.
Her lineage and later marriage to Ras Gugsa Welle, and her position as Menelik II's daughter, eventually made her a candidate for succession amid the political turmoil following Menelik's incapacitation and the contested rule of his grandson Lij Iyasu. Zewditu's birth thus marked the beginning of a life that would culminate in her becoming the first reigning empress of Ethiopia and one of very few female heads of state in early 20th-century Africa.
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