Planning has begun to erect a statue in London in the honour of Sylvia Pankhurst, the former British Suffragette, who devoted the last twenty years of her life to the cause of Ethiopian independence and progress. Sylvia Pankhurst’s interest in Ethiopia began in 1934 at the time of the Wal Wal incident, which the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini used as a pretext for the invasion of Ethiopia the following year. She wrote extensively to the British and international press regarding…

This week, and next, I dip into the records relating to Africa in 1936-40, of my mother, Sylvia Pankhurst, who edited “New Times and Ethiopia News” (here abbreviated as N.T. ; E.N.), a pro-Ethiopian, and Anti-Fascist weekly newspaper, at the time. I present the following excerpts fom her African correspondence, with a minimum of comment. Introduction Many European Liberals, Socialists and Democrats, and Anti-Fascists generally, were deeply interested in Ethiopia at the time of the Fascist invasion of the country…