Quote by Haile Selassie: “Education is a means of liberation from ignorance and poverty.”

Learning is not just about getting a job or passing exams. It frees people from the traps of not knowing — not knowing their rights, their history, their options. Selassie frames education as the most powerful tool ordinary people have to change their circumstances.

Selassie made this address at the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa in 1963, a landmark moment for pan-African political unity. Many African nations had only recently gained independence from European colonial powers, and debates about how to build sustainable, self-sufficient societies were urgent.

Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, who led his country against the Italian invasion and became a symbol of African independence and resistance to colonialism. His speeches to the United Nations helped shape the principles of the Organisation of African Unity, founded in 1963.