Cyber Ethiopia

Readers may remember that two previous articles with the title "Mystery in the Red Sea" were published in ADDIS TRIBUNE on 14 and 21 March. They discussed a mysterious event which allegedly took place on board the British ship “Feroze” in the Red Sea at 10 p.m. on the evening of 15 June 1868. While they were sailing northwards up the Red Sea, and approaching Egypt, Emperor Tewodros's son Alemayehu was taken from his Ethiopian tutor, Aleqa Zenneb, to whom his mother had entrusted him, and was handed over to the care of a British officer, Captain Tristam Speedy. The question at issue, readers may recall, whether this alleged event actually happened, and what was its significance was. We tried, in those two articles, to examine the

issue through the almost diametrically opposed testimony of two British officials: Captain Speedy himself, and Queen Victoria's Special Envoy, Hormuzd Rassam. Speedy In the first article we drew attention to Speedy's claim that, while on board the “Feroze”, he had "heard an agonised scream, which was accompanied by a cry for me in Amharic, and which I recognised as springing from Alamayou. While running to the boy I was met by a messenger from Lord Napier requesting me to come as quickly as possible. I found Alamayou in the arms of Lord Napier suffering from the greatest agitation - after quieting with some difficulty his distress, the only solution the boy would give as to the cause of his distress was that Alaca Zarat [sic] had the evil eye". Speedy went on to assert that "the distressing alarm that then seized him rendered him so timid that for the next three months no persuasion could persuade him to sleep outside my arms". Prince Alemayehu and Capitain Speedy in England This report of Alemayehu's alleged distress and of his assertion that Zenneb had the evil eye is not, we pointed out, confirmed by anyone else on board ship. Rassam In the second article we took up the testimony of Queen Victoria's Special Envoy, Rassam. He suggested that Speedy was a pushy individual, and declared that Alemayehu's mother, before her death, had "complained... of the impropriety of Captain Speedy regarding the custody of her son". Commenting on this Rassam adds: "It may be that Captain Speedy, who is not very fluent in the Amharic language misunderstood the unfortunate lady's words". Rassam goes on to state that "the only wish which the poor queen expressed on her deathbed was that her son should continue his Amharic studies which he was then pursuing; and although an excellent Abyssinian Christian named Alacka Zannab (whose good character was well known to all the Europeans who knew him) was chosen by the Queen herself as his tutor, and confirmed in the appointment by Sir Robert Napier ..., this man was missed on arrival of the Prince at Suez". Rassam, referring to Speedy, also most significantly observes: "All the late European captives know with what hatred Captain Speedy was regarded by Theodore... so it is unlikely that the Queen to whom he was no stranger, could have meant him to take charge of her son, who would have learnt that he was given over to the very person so disliked by his a father". The Question In the second of the Red Sea Mystery articles I went on to ask whether we could reconcile the observations of Queen Victoria's Special Envoy with the testimony of her officer, Captain Tristam Speedy? And my e-mail has been buzzing away since ! From Sussex, England, our friend Lindsey Cove now provides a vitally important piece of evidence. Aleqa Zenneb This relates to the question of Aleqa Zenneb, a notable Ethiopian savant, who was supposedly dismissed, you remember, as a result of the alleged Red Sea incident of 15 June 1868. Zenneb, we should note, was a scholar of renown, highly respected, as Rassam says, by Tewodros's European captives at Maqdala, and later the author of the most important Chronicle of Tewodros. What does this scholar say about the Red Sea voyage, and the causes of his dismissal? The answer, such as it is, is embodied in a letter which he wrote, on 16 December 1868, to the German Protestant missionary Martin Flad. The original Amharic letter has not been traced, but an English translation of sorts appears in Professor Sven Rubenson's "Acta Aethiopica", Volume II - the last letter. In this epistle Zenneb explains that Rassam had at first stated that Alemayehu should be accompanied to London by eight Ethiopians, but that it was later decided that six of them should remain. The result was that the Prince travelled with only two "followers", i.e. Zenneb himself, and another man, by name Gebre Mariam. Discussing the Red Sea voyage, in the course of which Speedy replaced Zenneb, the latter states (in an unfortunately poor English translation): "Before we arrived at Suez and when we were still at sea, they (Captain Speedy) told us, he (Alam-Ayahoo) does not like you, remove, do not come near him. Then the next day they sent Alam-Ayahoo on shore. When we said, why do you separate us from the son of our Lord (Theodoros), Basha Falaka (the name under which Capt. Speedy is known in Abyssinia) replied: When man has too much blood, he dislikes his friend. When he (Dedjadj Alam-Ayahoo) has been 2 or 3 days on shore and has enjoyed the land-wind, he shall be well again, and afterwards you will be together with your Lord. And supposed [supposing] all this were not the case, I will buy [rent?] a vessel and take you until his heart returns to you (and Alam-Ayahoo likes you again). And saying this Falaka took his oath by himself, saying, may Falaka die! "On the following day Sir Robert Napier told us, that we should go to Massowa to Consul Munsinger [Werner Munzinger], and he gave us the Captain of the vessel for our introducer". Zenneb, we should note, was thus being dismissed, and sent back to Massawa, the gateway to Ethiopia, at the very moment that Alemayehu was about to continue his voyage (with Napier and Speedy) to England! Zenneb continues his letter by quoting Napier's words: "I (Sir Robert Napier) am going but Basha Falaka will come to you, to him you will tell all your concerns, and having said this he (Sir Robert) went off. Basha Falaka came and said: Give me the baggage of Dedjadj Alam-Ayahoo). And when we were delivering it fully, we said, why, if we have offended, let us be judged in a judicial way, why do you separate us?" Why, he was in effect asking, had the British authorities decided to separate him from the Prince to whom he had been appointed tutor? And he continues: "And they (Capt. Speedy) said: tomorrow I shall come and ferry you over to Suez where you will have money, whether you go or remain. "Injustice" "Then I said to him, but perhaps if you will not take us (on shore), will you not take us out (of the vessel) and send us to Samuel Gobat (the Anglican Bishop) [in Jerusalem]. He (Basha Falaka) said, in every [any?] case I shall come tomorrow, but he came not. We were much grieved and distressed, for we had no interpreter. We returned [to Ethiopia] without having received from him any money or paper, we returned. We have been wrong treated with great injustice". Elaborating on his indignation, Zenneb continued: "Is it right in your country to oppress a man by subtility? To be sure, the face of an Abyssinian is black, but has he not been created in the resemblance of the Trinity and been redeemed (sealed) by the blood of Christ?". Concluding, Zenneb declares: "In reference to our following - we followed the son of King Theodoros our Lord, because he (the King) had put us into office and brought us up. Besides it is the good feeling of Mr. Rassam (which encouraged us to follow Alam-Ayahoo). And now, I have written this that the Christians (of England) might know it..." New Testimony This, then, is the testimony of the learned Aleqa Zenneb. It is important in that it gives us a new dimension to the story – an Ethiopian dimension hitherto lacking from the picture. Interestingly, it says nothing to confirm Speedy's story about the supposed incident in the Red Sea on 15 June 1868. It does, however, tell how Zenneb, the Ethiopian scholar, was dismissed, by Speedy - and how he felt himself "much grieved and distressed", as well as the victim of "great injustice". And more than that no man can say!