Cyber Ethiopia

You probably all know, dear Readers, the beautiful engravings of the early nineteenth British traveller Henry Salt. He is now the subject of an important, and beautifully produced. Biography by Deborah Manley and Peta Ree (two sisters), entitled HENRY SALT. ARTIST, TRAVELLER, DIPLOMAT, EGYPTOLOGIST, published in London by Libri, in 2001.

It is well worth a read!

Ambitions over Sudan - and Ethiopia

Henry Salt, you may remember, paid two visits to Ethiopia during the Napoleonic wars (in 1805 and 1809); and was later appointed British Consul to Egypt. This was at the time of the great Egyptian ruler Mehemet Ali Pasha, who was trying to modernise his country - but also had ambitions over Sudan - and Ethiopia! Read the rest of this entry »

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Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935-6, the greatest colonial war ever fought on the continent of Africa, and the collapse of the League of Nations’ effort to restrain the aggressor, was followed by the establishment of the short-lived Italian Fascist colonial empire. This event, which was proclaimed on May 9, 1936, four days after the Italian occupation of Addis Ababa, ranked in Fascist mythology as second only to the Duce’s so-called March on Rome of October 1922, and took place in an atmosphere of euphoria approaching delirium, which set the tone of much subsequent Fascist propaganda.

The realities, even from the point of view of the Italian administration, let alone from that of the subject and oppressed population, were very different as the present series of articles, based largely on then confidential or unpublished Fascist and other Italian sources, attempts to show. Read the rest of this entry »

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Richard Rivington Holmes (later Sir Richard, 1835-1911) was an Englishman appointed by the British Museum to accompany the British Expedition against Emperor Tewodros of Ethiopia, in 1867-8. His task was to obtain Ethiopian objects for the museum.

We publish today, and next week, three of his letters, and one from the British Commander-in-Chief, Lord Robert Napier of Magdala. These hitherto largely unpublished documents are of considerable interest for Ethiopian history in general. They also throw light on the question of the loot from Emperor Tewodros’s capital, at Maqdala - and hence on the demand for the restitution of this loot currently demanded by AFROMET, the Association for the Return of Ethiopian Maqdala Treasures. Read the rest of this entry »

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We saw last week that on 16 May 1936, eleven days after the Fascist occupation of Addis Ababa, Pietro Badoglio, the newly appointed Italian Viceroy, despatched a telegram to Mussolini which proposed that the Fascist government of Ethiopia should be made at least some of the old Ethiopian ruling class.

Looking more precisely on what he had in mind, he declared:

“Exercised Command for Generations”

“In the region between Shoa and Eritrea, there were local noble families which it was not convenient to slight because they had exercised command for generations and have authority and prestige which can be valuable for us.” Such personages, he explained, included the descendants of Emperor Yohannes in Tegray, of Dajazmach Sabagadis in Agame, of the Wagshum in Lasta and other chieftains in Yejju, Ambasel and Wallo. Beyond the Takaze river the noble families, he declared, were of “less importance”, though still “usable in the administrative sub-divisions.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Over the last three weeks we visited Petra and other sites south of Amman. We continue our journey in Jordan this week

The Peoples’ of Jordan

There are three roads from Amman in the North to Aqaba in the south. The Desert highway is the fastest and most recent – where you can comfortably cruise at over 120 km/hour (I saw BMW’s go much faster!). The Dead Sea Road predictably passes the Dead Sea and continues down the Rift Valley south, following a narrow strip of barren desert next to the hills of Israel as you get close to Aqaba. The King’s highway is an ancient route named for the kingdoms of old – Moabite, Edomite, and Ammonite – but is windy and slow through the mountains. Read the rest of this entry »

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We saw last week that during the month or so after the Italian occupation of Addis Ababa, on 5 May 1936, the Italian Fascist leadership differed as to the type of regime which should be established in Ethiopia. We saw further that Mussolini gave his support in this matter to his doctrinaire Minister of the Colonies, Alessandro Lessona (whom the post-war Ethiopian Government, incidentally, was later officially to accuse as a War Criminal).

Lessona’s Guide-lines, and Telegrams

Lessona, it was, who, as we have seen, drew up the official guide-lines for the Fascist administration’s attitude towards Ethiopian chiefs. He elaborated on these principles in a telegram which he despatched to the Fascist Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani on August 4. In this wire Lessona stated, very definitely, that Mussolini, the Head of the Government, as he liked to term him, did not consider it “opportune that Ras Seyoum be called to take part in the consultative organs of the government.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Over the last four weeks we visited Petra and other sites south of Amman. We complete our journey in Jordan this week

NORTH OF AMMAN

Jerash

Only an hours’ drive north of Amman is probably the best preserved Roman city in the world. This famous site draws many visitors, but the sheer size of its’ long colonnade lined streets and immense buildings accommodates the crowds easily.

A large parking area filled with buses and cars disgorges the visitor for a short walk up to Hadrians’ Gate and the entrance to Jerash (called Gerasa locally). Visitors from England in particular can be forgiven for thinking that Emperor Hadrian spent most of his time in the British Isles building the Hadrian Wall which protected them from my warlike ancestors – the Picts. Hadrian was in both places, but actually spent much more time in the Middle East, especially as the Governor of Syria. While Hadrian was Emperor for 21 years he traveled extensively through the vast Roman Empire of his day. Read the rest of this entry »

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We saw last week that Alessandro Lessona, the Italian Fascist Minister of the Colonies (soon to be Minister of Italian Africa), questioned Emilio De Bono, the former Italian Commissioner for Eritrea, maliciously, in the summer of 1936, about the cost of the Asmara-Massawa road, which had been built during his time in office.

Enter Italo Balbo

While this dispute smoldered on several observers began remarking, no less maliciously, that De Bono’s road-building in Libya had also been particularly expensive. The fact that subsequent construction work was noticeably cheaper was pointed out by Lessona’s patron, Marshal Italo Balbo, one of Mussolini’s first collaborators, in an article in the journal “Nuova Antologia. This was summarised in the Rome daily “Il Messaggero” of February 26, 1937.  Read the rest of this entry »

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‘Sinai’. Just the word evokes mystical images of biblical times – Moses and the burning bush and the Ten Commandments.

Astoundingly, the place lives up to the image. The jagged peaks rise from the flat plains, with broad wadis (valleys) dividing ranges. Between the peaks the rock formations run down, still like the rivers of lava they once were.

Monastery of St. Catherine’s

In the deep south of the peninsula, the Monastery of St. Catherine’s rises box-like from the desert, a tiny citadel of humanity confronting the wilderness. Uncharacteristic green blooms from the ‘garden’ behind – a lonely olive plantation and other basic plants which helped to reduce the dependency of the monastery on outside supplies during the long periods of isolation and repression. The high walls and towers attest to the need for defence from the hostile surroundings and treasure hunters attracted by the monastery’s wealthy reputation. At certain points all the ground level entrances were bricked up and access for goods and people was only by a pulley system over the 30 foot walls. Read the rest of this entry »

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Over the last two weeks we visited Petra and other sites south of Amman. We continue our journey in Jordan this week

Moses and Mount Nebo

Jordan is inextricably linked with the tales of the Holy Land, and one of the most important links is Mount Nebo, from where Moses gazed into ‘the Promised Land’. Although like most biblical sites there is some uncertainty and controversy about whether this is the true site of Moses gazed from, the level of description from Deuteronomy is greater than that for most other places.

One of the nice things about Mt. Nebo is that it is a holy spot for all the Middle Eastern religions. Roman Catholics from the Franciscan order bought the site in 1932, and erected a monument that rather narrowly describes Mt. Nebo as a “Christian Holy Site”. Read the rest of this entry »

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