Some reflections on the Ethiopian Patriots

Part II
The History of Resistance to the Italian Fascist Invasion and Occupation
(1935-1941)  

The third, and shortest, phase of Patriotic Resistance ran from Mussolini's disastrous entry into the European war early in June 1940, through the Allied capture of Addis Ababa on 6 April 1941, and the Emperor's return to it on 5 May, to the final Fascist surrender towards the end of November.

This last phase – which received considerable international publicity - was characterised above all by British, and to a lesser extent some other Allied, involvement in the struggle. The Ethiopian Patriots, whose ceaseless, and apparently unconquerable resistance, had largely demoralised the forces of occupation, now at last had allies - and limited military support - from abroad. They no longer had to rely, as in the past, only on weapons captured from the enemy.

Haile Sellassie, who had spent most of his exile in England , was meanwhile flown by the British to the Sudan , to lead the Ethiopian Liberation Campaign, initially into Gojjam. There he had the support of two British officers, Colonel Sandford and Major-General Wingate. The latter served as the Emperor's Field Commander. The British Royal Air Force also collaborated, by dropping leaflets dispatched in Haile Sellassie's name to the Patriots and the Ethiopian people in general.

The Emperor's campaign, and that of the by now victorious Patriots, formed part of a three-pronged Allied attack, initiated in the second half of January 1941, which brought about the collapse of the Fascist East African empire in only a matter of months.

The first attack began on 19 January, when British and Indian troops under General Platt crossed the Sudanese frontier at Kassala, and advanced into Eritrea . Winning the battle of Keren, they proceeded to capture Asmara , and then advanced victoriously into the northern Ethiopian province of Tegray .

The second attack, which opened on the following day, 20 January, was that of the Emperor, who had the support of a small army composed of Ethiopian refugees (some of them British-trained), Britons and Sudanese. Crossing the frontier from the Sudan near the Ethiopian village of Um Idla , where Haile Sellassie raised the Ethiopian flag, they were soon joined by increasing numbers of Ethiopian Patriots. They then advanced to Dabra Marqos, in Gojjam, before proceeding almost to the vicinity of Addis Ababa –where they were temporally halted by the British who wanted it to be captured by “white” troops. The Patriots, however, later served significantly in "mopping-up" operations, in Dase, Jimma, Gore, Debra Tabor, Amba Alarge, and Gondar - indeed throughout much of the country.

The third attack started only four days after the third, i.e. on 24 January 1941, when British and South African soldiers, under General Cunningham, crossed from Kenya into Somalia , and advanced to capture first Mogadishu , and then Harar, enabling them finally to win the race to capture Addis Ababa - on 6 April.

The contribution of the Ethiopian Patriots to the overall campaign, though insufficiently recognised by their British allies at the time, was undoubtedly considerable. During their long lone struggle they had done much to demoralise and immobilise the enemy, who, isolated from far-off Italy , and beleaguered in fortified posts by the Patriots, were in many instances in no position – or in no mood - to resist the Allied onslaught. Besides dominating their own central front in Gojjam the Patriots thus had a major influence in "softening up" their enemy on the northern and southern fronts - before contributing greatly to the final "mopping-up" in the country at large. Without them the Allied conquest of Ethiopia would have taken very much longer, and could not have been achieved without immense casualties.

General Considerations

Several general considerations, in conclusion, deserve to be made:

Firstly, the Ethiopians, who in 1936 had never been conquered, were a largely warrior people, intensely proud of their long history of independence – including their victory at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. Unlike freedom fighters in many parts of Axis-occupied Europe , they were accustomed to the use of firearms, and had long-established military traditions, as well as a tradition of abandoning their homes, and fleeing into the remote countryside as shifta, or rebels, against authority. Deeply religious, and accustomed to strenuous fasts, they were moreover immune to physical hardship, and many of them were fully prepared to die for their country and their faith.

The Patriots had no formal or unified command structure – which, was in a way helpful, for being non-existent, it could not be destroyed by the enemy. Many Patriot leaders, however, drew moral support through contact with their exiled Emperor – and the knowledge that he was alive, and had addressed the League of Nations . Others, no less patriotic, on the other hand did not forgive him for going into exile.

Secondly, the rugged and mountainous Ethiopian countryside, intersected by steep ravines, and then virtually without roads, favoured guerrilla resistance – even though the invading or occupying power made frequent aerial reconnaissance, followed by brutal attacks from the air.

Thirdly, the Fascist Empire was situated far away from Metropolitan Italy, and was surrounded by four British or French territories – the Sudan , Jibuti , Kenya , and British Somaliland – into which Ethiopian opponents of the Fascist occupation could flee, and find refuge. There was frequent, if intermittent, contact between the Patriots within the country and their compatriots abroad – from which the Patriots learnt that the Ethiopian cause had sympathy all over the world – not least from among Italians themselves.

Fourthly, Fascist ruthlessness and militant racism, largely, but by no means exclusively, associated with the name of Graziani, greatly reduced the possibility of compromise with the invader – while the Addis Ababa Massacre, and that of the monks of Debra Libanos, both in 1937, put a premium on Patriotic Resistance. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church - an influential factor - was also alienated from the occupying Power.

Fifthly, the Patriots were encouraged by the fact that they had never really been defeated. Though unable to invest enemy-occupied towns, or forts, they were able to operate fairly freely in much of the countryside, where enemy forces – or nationals, were virtually never seen. Ethiopia , at a grass-roots level was never in fact conquered.

Sixthly, the Patriot leaders were not unaware of the international dimension of their struggle. They saw that the expansionist policies of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany would, in all probability, lead sooner or later to a European war in which the Italian Fascist Empire would be isolated by enemy countries Britain and France , and might in fact collapse.

The struggle of the Patriots, though many of them did not realise it at the time, was thus intimately bound up with events in the wider world. Mussolini's declaration of war on Britain and France , which was welcomed by many Anti-Fascists abroad, greatly heartened the Patriots. Their hopes were however soon dashed by the fall of France - and the establishment of pro-Vichy rule in Jibuti, as well as by the Italian Fascist occupation of British Somaliland . Britain 's over-riding interest in India and the East, and its consequent determination to eliminate enemy control of the Red Sea led however, almost inevitably to the Ethiopian Liberation Campaign – and the restoration of Ethiopian rule.

Mussolini's entry into the European war was thus of decisive importance to the Ethiopian Patriots, who had until then fought alone, and had proved themselves virtually invincible. They in fact probably could not have been defeated without an overall Axis victory in the World War – or a separate peace whereby Italian rule was again recognised by the British, who had done so only three years earlier in 1938.

Ethiopia might then have had to wait longer for the independence for which the Patriots had fought – but it would surely have come with the Era of African Decolonisation only a few decades later.