Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Honours Dani Stephenson with The Order of the Star of Ethiopia

Washington, DC: የካቲት 28, 2015 / March 7, 2023 — British music entrepreneur Daniel (Dani) Stephenson was recognised on March 4, 2023, at a ceremony in Washington, DC, by the Crown Council of Ethiopia, for his voluntary work and his hand in creating a memorial to the Ethiopian patriot fighters and British and Commonwealth forces who created the first Allied victory of World War II.

Mr Stephenson was created a Knight Commander of the Ethiopian Crown’s Order of the Star of Honour (KCSE) for helping to create the memorial for the Victory of Gondar, the final battle which ended the five-year occupation of Ethiopia in November 1941 by invading Italian forces. This major victory of World War II had gone largely unrecognised, even though it was the first time Allied forces had taken back territory which had been seized by the Axis forces.

Mr Stephenson, who is President of the Straight Forward Music Group, worked with the Ethiopian Crown Council to create the memorial tablets, which will be placed in a key location in London and in the Ethiopian city of Gondar in 2023. He also began working with the Crown Council — the last surviving legal entity of the Imperial Government of Ethiopia — to support humanitarian efforts in support of the Ethiopian people.

His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie, President of the Crown Council of Ethiopia, said, after investing Mr Stephenson with his knighthood, that he had contributed significantly to restoring the great ties of respect which were so dramatically demonstrated with the British and Commonwealth support for the liberation of Ethiopia in 1941.

The Victory of Gondar never received the attention it deserved, despite its strategic importance and high cost of human life, because it was so quickly followed by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, which brought the US into World War II. But, Prince Ermias said, “We can never allow the great sacrifices by Ethiopian, British, and Commonwealth peoples to be forgotten. We need that comradeship to be restored today.”