l Scene I
Rodolfo Graizani is seen sat his new office in Addis Ababa .
A messenger salutes and hands him over a letter telling him it is from Benito Mussoloni.
Graizani reads the message loud
Dude,
We have done
Things good!
Hurrah at long last,
Using banned
Poisonous gas,
Ancient Ethiopia
We have subdued.
For our damaged moral,
We nurse after
The battle of Adwa,
The aforementioned news
Will be a nourishing food.
Slavish obedience
To fascism
In Ethiopia
We shall advance
Be firm
In our iron grip stance.
Hurrah, Ethiopia
Will remain Italian
Infuse that
We can
With the dictates
Of a gun.
(Graiziani stands up and walks in the room with a jubilant mood while the messenger watches him wide-eyed.)
Yes our subjects,
Ethiopians, serfdom
We shall teach
Hence summoning
Addis’ residents
Tomorrow
I have to make
A grand speech.
And also
I will
Coax priests
Slavish obedience to us
To subtly preach.
When our subjects lose
Their identity
We shall
Enjoy liberty
To siphon their wealth
Or property,
Also as a tactic
Among citizens
We should promote disparity.
Messenger what can you say?
Tomorrow will be my day!
(Messenger putting both hands on his head)
Good God
But I’m afraid
You may not do that
Unless every nation-loving
Ethiopian
You behead.
Be it luring them with a gold
Or threating them with asword
Unflinchingly religious leader
Will prefer to be a sod.
They will call down
On you a curse
If you try
To besmirch
Their abode
You see
Preachers and the laity
Have a genuine faith
In God.
Also to
Fight back
They are bold.
(Graiziani pointing his finger towards the messenger)
Get out
Me don’t try
To flout!
Rather, let me practice presentation
To grab the audience’s attention
Tomorrow putting on my uniform,
Bedecked with medals,
This message
I will drive home
The video footage
I will send to
Musoloni in Rome!
l Scene II
(Grizani dances into a podium. A messenger ask congregants to stand up for a tumultuous applause)
On nationalistic bombast
We have set a ban
Like it or not
Ethiopia is Italian
By the virtue of a gun.
(Among the congregants stands up a hoary-headed man)
We are citizens
Born free
Yield shall not we
To your crazy decree
Haven’t you read
How emperor Twedros II
Lodged a bullet
Into his head?
Not to surrender
Why don’t you look
After he fought hard
Why his life into his hand
He took.
How do you try
To subjugate
A nation,
With freedom that surfed
The tide of time to date?
Angry Graziani answers
How do you fail to realize
In the meantime Italy
Will help you
To civilize.
(A bomb is thrown by two young adults)
Swish blast
Swish blast
Soon Graiziani realized
How the breath
That could be his last,
Drew close fast.
To Graiziani
After it became stark
He narrowly escaped
A bomb attack
And his speech of
Subjugation
In Ethiopia is
An empty talk,
Still on the floor
He ordered attack.
l Scen III
(Infront of the Yekatit 12 Martyr’s monument a small kid asks his father how Ethiopians regained their independence after the massacre ordered by Griziani, who after surviving the bomb attack, gave instruction for a cold blood retaliation.
The father dressing the hair of his child and looking him said patriots that ambushed at the valleys and mountain of Ethiopia vowed to fight out invaders.)
Waging a gruella fight
Shortly we shall gain our right
Aiming from a tree high
We have patriots
That hit fighters’ jets on a dark sky
“ As hitting a nail on the head
We have fighters
That pierces through
A tight tread.”
“In the nook and cranny
And every gorge
We will wage
Many heroic fight
Enemies from
Our soil to dislodge”
“We have heroes
With an artillery missile
That pierces artillery apart!”
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition February 23/2020
BY ALEM HAILU G/K
