The renowned Japanese photographer, Kazuyoshi Nomachi who holds many photographic awards, has just produced a masterly photographic book on Ethiopia. Entitled “Bless Ethiopia”, it is published by Odyssey Publishers, of Hong Kong, and contains 160 stunning colour photographs of Ethiopia’s most beautiful scenery, historic sites, and varied highland and lowland people. The work, which is full of superb printed photographs, covers most of the country, is conceived with Japanese tenderness for Ethiopia, and comprises chapters on “Lalibela Pilgrimage”, “Life in…
We saw last week that the founding of Ethiopia’s first bank, the Bank of Abyssinia, in 1905, was followed, in 1915, by that institution’s issue of bank notes. This issue of paper money was something of a revolution in Ethiopian currency hisotry. The Bank of Abyssinia bank-notes took time to be accepted by the population at large. Charles Rey, a British businessman, claimed, in the 1920s, that paper money was not used outside Addis Ababa. A decade or so later…
Ethiopian banking history, in its modern sense, began towards the end of the reign of Emperor Menilek. This period witnessed the establishment, as most readers will know, of the country’s first bank. Called the Bank of Abyssinia, or in Amharic “Ye-Ityopya Bank”, it was an affiliate of the National Bank of Egypt, and was founded in 1905. Ten years later, in 1915, the bank began issuing bank notes. The issue of this paper money was another notable event in the…
The Ethiopian Parliament, and the People, Speak Out We saw last week that demands for the return of the Aksum obelisk were voiced constantly during the early 1990s. Now read on: Ethiopian demands for the return of the obelisk escalated in the run-up to the Adwa Centenary Celebrations in the Spring of 1996, when rumour, falsely as it turned out, got around that the Italian Government would chose the centenary of the Battle of Adwa to take action on the…
We saw last week that Ethiopian demands for the return of the Aksum obelisk, looted by the Italian Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini in 1937, and not returned in accordance with Article 37 of the Italian Peace Treaty of 1947 with the United Nations, escalated in the Spring of 1993. Now read on: The Addis Ababa Stadium Speaks One of the most important events in the obelisk struggle took place, on 28 May, 1992, when the Aksum Obelisk Committee obtained permission…
The re-erection of the Great Fallen Aksum Obelisk, as reported in last week’s Addis Tribune, has recently been requested in his official capacity by Ato Gabru Asrat, President of Tigray. This proposal, by the head of the region concerned, deserves serious consideration. Before doing so, in this article, it may be convenient to recall the background to Ato Gabru’s dramatic proposal. The Return of the Obelisk from Rome Ato Gabru Asrat’s request comes, as most readers will be aware, in…
The struggle for the return to Ethiopia of the Aksum obelisk, looted by fascist Italy in 1937 and so far not returned, has passed through several different stages. The movement has witnessed: a petition by 500 prominent Ethiopians, among them a former Prime Minister, Lij Mikael Imru, and many leaders of culture; a petition by several thousand Addis Ababa University students; the founding in Addis Ababa of an Aksum Obelisk Return Committee; a demonstration in the Addis Ababa stadium, in…
Last week we put forward for consideration the general question of the possible re-erection of the Great Fallen Obelisk at Aksum. This remarkable structure crashed to the ground in ancient times, was shattered, and consists today of six major fragments. A project for re-erecting the obelisk has recently been proposed by Ato Gebru Asrat, President of the Government of the State of Tigray, and has therefore entered the realm of practical politics. A Question of Feasibility We turn this week…
The photograph here published will, hopefully, be one of the last ever taken of the Aksum obelisk in Rome, prior to its historic repatriation to Ethiopia. This is expected to take place by aeroplane later this year. The photograph shows surrounding poles, before the erection of scaffolding, which, we are assured, is now in place. The picture also shows a shed, near the stele’s base, connected with dismantling, and diverted Roman traffic seen on the right. Of the pre-war Ethiopian…
Ethiopia, over the centuries, made a major impact, as we all know – or ought to know – on European, and especially Italian, consciousness. Francesco Trevisani and Marco Benefial This week we turn our attention to two notable eighteenth century Italian artists: Francesco Trevisani, or Trevisan (1650-1740 or 1746) and Marco Benefial, or Benefiale (1688-1764). Trevisani studied in Venice with the painter Zanchie, and later with another artist, Maratta, in Rome. Trevisani worked not only in the latter city, but…
Emperor Haile Sellassie, at the time of the Italian Fascist invasion of 1935-6, and for perhaps a decade thereafter, had a major impact on the world. His broadcasts from Addis Ababa, at the beginning of the Italian Fascist war, his desperate struggle in the face of the enemy’s overwhelming superiority in weapons – its use of poison-gas, and above all his historic speech to the League of Nations at Geneva, Switzerland, made him for many throughout the world a symbol…
Ato Sebhatu Gebre Yesus Tesfai, Ethiopia’s pioneer gardener, was born in the Bodji Dirmaj area of Wollega in 1920. The ninth son of parents who had studied with Swedish missionaries near the port of Massawa, his father died when he was only three. Sebhatu came to Addis Ababa at the age of five and enrolled in the newly established Teferi Mekonnen School. He studied first in French and then later in English. At the time, he lived with his brother-in-law,…
My previous article in these pages, on Ethiopia’s pre-war aeroplane Tsehai, currently kept in Italy’s aviation museum in violation of Article 37 of the Italian Peace Treaty of 1947 with the United Nations, has led to several repercussions, which we need not enter into at this moment. Mr. Ole G. Nordbo One repercussion, we can go into, however, is that my friend Ato Makonnen, formerly of Ethiopian Airlines, has presented me with a copy of an article on the aeroplane,…
While awaiting the return of the Aksum obelisk, looted from Ethiopia in 1937 on the personal orders of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, and not yet returned in accordance with international agreements, we have perhaps time to look at another interesting question of loot, also still in Italy. This is the question of the Ethiopian aeroplane Tsehai, which was named after Emperor Haile Sellassie’s daughter Princess Tsehai – who later travelled with her father to England, and became a trained…
Published by Blackwell Publishers, of Oxford, England, it forms one of their “Peoples of Africa” series. The volume, entitled “The Ethiopians”, covers the entire period of Ethiopian history from Lucy to the fall of Mengistu Haile Mariam. There are thus chapters on such subjects as “Punt, Pharaohs and Ptolemies, the Aksumite Kingdom, and the Coming of Christianity”; “The Rise and Fall of Gondar”; and ‘Beginnings of Modernisation: Menilek, Iyasu, Zawditu and Liberation”. The work also contains a wide range of…