The radical modernity of Maurice Calka's 1954 commission was endorsed by Emperor Haile Selassie himself ushering in a new era for progressive Africanism. Sadly for both the Emperor and Ethiopia a brutal communist dawn was fast approaching.
I've subsequently leaned that the Emperor was taken aback on first seeing the sculpture and noted bemusedly that it did not look much like a lion! I found the sculpture early one morning still looking regal after all these years even with the addition of weeds growing out of his ears!
The lady passerby was checking me out because I was standing in the middle of morning traffic to get this angle.