Origins

Born on 25 December 1995 in Addis Ababa, Shewa, Ethiopia, an ancient heartland of emperors and saints, His Imperial Highness Prince Estifanos Matewos carries within him the living flame of Ethiopia’s divine heritage.

Shewa, cradle of the Amhara people, has long been the spiritual and political axis of the Ethiopian Empire, where faith and kingship intertwine beneath the shadow of sacred mountains. A direct descendant of Emperor Menelik II, the great architect of modern Ethiopia and scion of the Solomonic Dynasty, Prince Estifanos’s lineage reaches back through the ages to King Solomon of Israel and the Queen of Sheba (Makeda), forming an unbroken chain that links Ethiopia to the wisdom and glory of antiquity.

Through his grandmother, Princess Bedriya Iyasu, granddaughter of King
Mohammed Ali of Wollo, and descendant of Fatima and Al-Hussain ibn Ali (May Allah be pleased with them), Prince Estifanos’s noble bloodline
also flows from the Household of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace
Be Upon Him), a sacred convergence of royal and prophetic descent. From this dual legacy, Solomonic and Prophetic, Prince Estifanos draws his sense of duty, vision, and purpose. His lineage is not merely a record of ancestry; it is a living covenant with history, a call to serve humanity, to uplift his people, and to carry forward the eternal light of Ethiopia’s destiny within Africa and the world.