The Emperor’s favourite dog
Mammo Haile had worked as Emperor Haile Selassie’s valet for thirty years. He still works at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, where he takes care of his former master’s private quarters in the museum.
Philip Marsden, an English travel writer, who authored the book, ‘The Chains of Heaven, An Ethiopian Romance’ (HarperCollins publishers, 2005) met him there. Marsden described Mammo as a person who had ‘chaotic teeth, a hangdog expression, and an undimmed devotion to his master.’
Mammo told the writer his stories, including about His Majesty’s favourite dog, Lulu.
Marsden said he had seen a picture of Lulu sitting in the emperor’s lap while he stroked her with his small, feminine hands .He said she is a tiny, frog-eyed Chihuahua.
Here goes Mammo account. ‘If there was a reception Lulu would go around among the legs of the officials. If one one of them was holding a bad feeling about His Majesty, Lulu would touch the man’s foot and that was how His Majesty knew. One minister was very popular but Lulu touched his foot and after that no one trusted that man again. Lulu was a very brilliant dog.’
‘What happened to her?’
‘Paul killed her.’
‘Paul?’
‘Big palace dog. Like a big fighter, like a wrestling man. He took Lulu by the neck and shook her and shook her. She was only a tiny dog-and finito! Lulu finito.Such a tiny little dog.’ He looked down, toeing the ground with his shoes. I thought he would cry.
‘It was only after a year or two after that when they took His Majesty away.’
Leave a Reply
Recent Comments
 | Shimeles on Ethiopia’s new wine bran… |
 | Belaya on “Enkuan” a poem by… |
 | Dargie Tsegay on Ethiopia’s new wine bran… |
 | Zewditu Gudina Daba on Getachew Admase: A life in… |
 | habeshaviewsws on This site has moved |
where is the inistitute of Ethiopian studies?
Can u find Lulu’s picture. I wonder if there is a means to paste it here.
Nice story…but shame on you Paul, you are a bad dog, i think you got what you deserve…kicked out from the palace (guessing what dergue might have done with him)…and the name Paul, now why HIM named the dog ye ferengi sem….is it because the dog was German?
the link to HIM dog
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=75736329&imageID=1169514474&MyToken=a498adc7-0a01-43bf-ac0c-5ca67600b5ac
The Institue for Ethiopian Studies is at Addis Abeba University and the museum they talking about is also part of the university, pretty neat place
if you ever have a chance have a look at it.
So which one was Lulu? I see two of them here.
Lulu is the tiny dog in His Majesties hands. This such a nice picture. I’ve never seen it before. You can really see the smile on H.I.M’s face. Jah Bless. Jah Rastafari!
Look at it.
http://bloodandfire.co.uk/db/viewtopic.php?t=18994
Hi, I’m doing a paper on Haile Selassie’s dog Lulu, and I’d really appreciate it if you could tell me some more about your source detailing his death at the jaws of Paul.
Nice story my relatives in Hungary (Central Europe) still remember when HIM came to visit (1964) with His Lulu our nice likkle village (Bábolna) to see the world famous arabic stud over here. I have information that HIM took some horses as well. Is there probably any proof of this story in the museum about it?