An Ethiopian Artistic Curiosity
 
Paintings of the Battle of Adwa 1896

We historians (I can at least speak for myself) are not interested in Champagne and Fire-works. We would not say No to a tasty dish of Kitfo (or raw meat), and might look with favour at something like the Tour Eiffel in Paris or the London Eye which would permanently modify Addis Ababa’s landscape.
But what we really want is a building – or buildings, and/or an institution – or institutions – that will transform Ethiopia: so that people tomorrow, next year or in a century’s time will say ”That building (or institution) was established for Ethiopia’s New Millennium!
Which brings us to our most urgent issue for today: the launching of Addis Ababa University’s New Library Project.

In 1885 Italy seized the Red Sea port of Massawa, which had traditionally been Ethiopia’s main commercial outlet to the sea. This was the period of the Scramble for Africa, and the Italians occupied the port without any justification - and soon attempted to expand their colonial possession. They sought to penetrate inland from the torrid port, one of the hottest places in the world, to the cooler, more pleasant interior.
They were however soon thwarted by Emperor Yohannes IV’s brilliant commander Ras Alula Abba Negga, who defeated a unit of Italian interlopers at the battle of Dogali in 1887. The Italians, however bided their time. Two years later, in 1889, Emperor Yohannes was killed at the end of the battle of Metemma against the Sudanese Dervishes, and at about the same time the whole Ethiopian region – and lands even further south, was afflicted by a serious epidemic of rinderpest, followed by crop failure – and massive starvation. The Italians chose this moment of Ethiopian political and economic disintegration to advance into the northern Ethiopian plateau, where they established their so-called “first-born” colony of Eritrea in 1890.
Italy by then claimed a Protectorate over the whole of Ethiopia – a claim which Emperor Menilek stoutly rejected. Long negotiations followed. Italy was caught up by colonialist dreams – though many Italians opposed them. The Italian Government was, however, unwilling to abandon its Protectorate claim, whereas Menilek was unwilling to surrender Ethiopian sovereignty. When the Italian envoy Count Antonelli declared that his country could not withdraw its Protectorate claim without loss of honour Menilek’s consort, Queen Taitu, intervened, observing – in a famous phrase - to the Count, “We [Ethiopians] also have our honour to protect. You want Ethiopia to be your Protectorate – but that will never be!”
The dispute between Menilek and the Italian Government had thus reached a point where it could only be resolved only by resort to war.
The Italians attempted to establish their claimed Protectorate by overrunning most of Tigray province, whereupon Menilek marched north to confront them, The decisive battle, fought at Adwa, on 1 March 1896, resulted in a resounding victory for Menilek, after which the Italian Government abandoned its Protectorate claim – and recognized Ethiopia’s full independent sovereignty.
The months immediately following the Battle of Adwa were interesting from the artistic point of view in that they witnessed the production – by artists such as Alaqa Heruy and Alaqa Eleyas, of paintings depicting the historic clash of arms.
These works of art, which were painted on cloth, depicted Menilek and the Ethiopian army on the left side of the canvas, and the Italians on the right. Following old-time Ethiopian convention, in which the righteous were shown in full-face and the UnGodly in profile, these paintings depicted the Ethiopians with two eyes and the Italians with only one. The battle having been fought on St George’s day the Saint is often depicted in the sky – fighting of course on the Ethiopian side.
Such paintings continued to be produced in ensuing decades – and were among the most popular themes of traditional Ethiopian popular art.
They are indeed produced to this day: see the Art section in the Museum of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies.
The early Twentieth Century mean while witnessed major changes in Europe. Among these was the rise of Fascism in Italy. This began in 1922 with Benito Mussolini’s March on Rome - and was followed a decade or so later, as his aide Emilio De Bono later revealed, by his decision to invade Ethiopia. When the Duce finally launched his invasion – which many Italians opposed, in the autumn of 1935, his propaganda machine spoke of Fascist Italy’s need to “avenge Adwa” as well as find Italians “a place in the [African] sun”, and a land in which Italy’s “surplus population” could find work. One Italian Fascist journalist, Ciro Poggiali – an anti-Fascist at heart, went further. He complained that the Ethiopians had produced “crude” anti-Italian pictures – by which he was almost certainly alluding to the all-popular Battle of Adwa paintings, with which, dear reader, we are today concerned.
Mussolini’s invasion meanwhile continued. De Bono, the Italian commander in the north, was replaced by Badoglio; the invaders made extensive use of poison-gas which did much to break Ethiopian resistance; Addis Ababa fell to the enemy on 5 May 1936 – but the Ethiopian Patriot refused to surrender, and continued to resist throughout the ensuing occupation. Mussolini declared war on Britain and France, on 10 July 1940 – an act of folly from his point of view – though of great cheer to many Anti-Fascists, both Italian and others. This declaration of war triggered the Ethiopian Liberation Campaign, which culminated in the fall of Addis Ababa to the Allies, on 6 April 1941, and the return of Emperor Haile Sellassie to the capital only a few weeks later, on 5 May of the same year.
So we are confronted, historically, with two entirely different wars – though involving the same belligerents: Italy on the one side and Ethiopia on the other.
The first Italo-Ethiopian War resulted from Italian Colonialism, which was essentially the same phenomenon as the Colonialisms of Britain, France, Germany and Portugal.
The second Italo-Ethiopian War resulted from the rise of Italian Fascism, which was not dissimilar from Nazism in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
Entirely different wars – but what is curious is that many popular Ethiopian Battle of Adwa paintings produced in recent years caption the invading colonial army of 1896 as that of “Fascist Italy” – even though Mussolini at that time was only a child of thirteen – and virtually forty years were to elapse before his invasion of Ethiopia was to materialize.
And, if you don’t believe what I am saying, dear reader, go look at the Addis Ababa tourist shops!