This week’s corner concludes Professor Pankhurst’s three part series on the events, personalities and collective effort behind the successful repatriation of the Obelisk from Italy. The Ethiopisant scholar however, ends this article in tantalizing manner… We saw in the last article how the original Aksum Obelisk Committee, an entirely private body composed of less than a dozen individuals, albeit people of good will, helped to launch a movement for the return of the Aksum obelisk which Mussolini had looted from…

The historian continues the series relating to the events surrounding the return from Rome of the Aksum Obelisk, looted and transported in 1937. In this edition, Professor Pankhurst reveals an as yet untold display of staunch solidarity with Ethiopia’s right of restitution by Chief Segun Ulusola, the then Ambassador to Ethiopia of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as the esteemed emissaries of Zimbabwe, Egypt and others, including prominent Ethiopians and the crowd at Addis Ababa Stadium… Part Two…

Personal recollections of the Aksum obelisk issue: Early days This first in a series of articles about what must be rated as one of Ethiopia’s most successful, wholly unofficial and private initiative led grouping – the Aksum Obelisk Return Committee is timely…. Even as we speak, the returned obelisk is being re-mounted on the same spot it had stood on for centuries before it was carted away to a forced exile….. I write today, dear reader, as one of the founders…

Reprinted from the “Guardian,” London The world’s largest transport planes are in line to bring home one of the biggest pieces of loot in the long history of imperialism. It is a giant granite pillar or stela, weighing roughly 170 tons, which presently stands in the middle of the Piazza di Porta Capena in Rome. Put there by Mussolini in 1937, the huge obelisk was seized in revenge for Italy’s defeat by Ethiopian forces at the battle of Adwa near…

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…