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Esther

Esther Firke-Sellassie Antohin, born in Addis Ababa on April 30, 1960 (Ethiopian Calendar 1953).

She was the fourth of six children born to HIH Princess Edjigaheu Asfa - Wossen and Dejazmach Fikre-Sellassie Hapte-Mariam. Her Mother Princess Edjigaheu was the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Asfa-Wossen later known as Amaha Sellassie, born to him by his first wife Princess Wolte-Israel Seum.

The first marriage, which was of course arranged and mostly politically motivated by the Emperor, and Leul Ras Seum Mengesha of Tigrie, did not last but a few years. The crown prince re-married Princess Medeferiash Worq Abebe from whom he has three daughters, Princesses Mariam Sena, Sehin, and Sefrash and one son Prince Zere Yacob.

In 1971 at the age of 11 Esther, along with her two elder sisters and Brother went to the United Kingdom to attend Boarding school. They continued their education at Clarendon School in Abergale North Wales until June 1974. They went home to Ethiopia for the summer holidays, but were unable to leave; due to the Marxist revolution that had exploded that summer, All the members of the Royal family were black listed, and were prevented from leaving Ethiopia. Having survived the terrible events of both her parents detentions as political prisoners, and later having witnessed her mother's cruel and untimely death Esther, left Ethiopia in 1977 during the Red Terror that had gripped her country.

Arrived in the United States in the autumn of that year and joined her maternal Uncle Dr. Zewdie Gebre-Sellassie and his family in Arlington VA. That year she entered the local high school and tried to resume her education which had been neglected for three years while in Ethiopia.

The following year Esther entered Emma Willard preparatory school in up-state New York where she completed her high school diploma in June 1980. In the fall she went on to New York University and received her BA in Russian history and language. During her senior year there, she met and fell in love with her husband to be Anatoly Antohin. They were married in the Russian Orthodox Church in Old Jerusalem, Israel on March 2, 1984.

After their return, the newly weds set up residence in Jersey City, New Jersey, where they had their first child Edigaheu (Sasha). In 1985, Esther became involved, as a spokesperson for a fund raising campaign to aid the victims of drought in Ethiopia. With the assistance of Congressman Frank Guiarini of Jersey City and the community of that district in particular, she was able to raise $100.000 in five months. It was her long felt desire to invoke the name of Haile-Sellassie in a positive and meaningful way and hear was that opportunity to do so. They left Roanoke in 1989 and headed up North to Fairbanks Alaska in pursuit of a better position at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Esther was primarily involved in the care of her two young children but continued to be involved at the local schools, and the University she taught Russian Language.

In the summer of 1995, Esther and the family went to Ethiopia and returned back to Fairbanks that fall. She is a graduate student in the Masters Program of the Department of Anthropology and a store manager at McDonalds'.

@1999-2004 Sellassie CU

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