Hirut Desta

Who is Hirut Desta?

Princess Hirut Desta is the daughter of Ras Desta Damtew and Princess Tenagnework Haile Selassie, and granddaughter of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. She is the widow of General Nega Tegegn, who was governor of the provinces of Begemder and Semien. She has been described by Nathaniel T. Kenney as a "trim, most democratic of princesses," who "was not above grabbing a tool from a workman, I suspect, and showing him how to use it."

Princess Hirut was educated at the Bolitho School of St Clare, Penzance, Cornwall, and Clarendon School, Abergale, North Wales.

She was imprisoned by the Dergue from 1974 until 1988.