A recent survey has shown that not all Ethiopians have sufficient knowledge about their history. This is even more enhanced when it comes to its ancient or relatively old history. Leaving aside the dispute over whether the history of our country is relevant for the present day Ethiopia or not, or even the leaders only, let’s limit our discussion on just how relevant the most recent history of our country is and how much the current generation is aware of it.
Few Ethiopians have not heard about the Victory of Adwa. It was given sufficient publicity and coverage in the media apart from being included in the scholastic curriculum of schools having its significance, what exactly happened and what consequences were recorded. Students have been encouraged to take part and awards were prepared for the best submissions, be they are poems, essays, plays, dramas etc. involving Adwa. Now that it is considered as part of the history of Africa as well, awareness about it is quite considerable.
Nevertheless, how about Victory Day, or the Patriots Day as it is also called, that is the day the unlawful occupation of Fascist Italian forces was crowned with the triumphal return of the Emperor Haile Selassie and the liberation of Ethiopia from the grip of Fascists? Is that story well told and remembered? Some surveys carried out on this story have showed that there is some confusion on what exactly had happened and how it is all understood.
It is repeatedly stated that Ethiopia has never been colonized by any alien force, but the closest that reached to such objective were the Italians. Fascist Italy had a grudge against Ethiopia owing to the humiliation it had submitted to Ethiopian forces led by Emperor Menelik II in 1896. Four decades later it tried again to conquer Ethiopia.
Throughout its long history across the centuries, Ethiopia has repeatedly been exposed to various alien attacks and invasions, but its heroic patriots have always repulsed every attempt with great sacrifice. Ethiopia has survived intact every invasion thanks to the indomitable resolve of its patriotic people who have never accepted foreign dominion nor control. And the five years of Fascist occupation has been subjected to all sorts of resistance by the patriots and it was the end of that occupation that materialized on May 5, 1941.
The five years between, 1936-1941, are called among Ethiopians as the ‘Dark Years’, the ‘Agony Years’, the ‘Years of Sacrifice’ etc. In the recent or modern history of Ethiopia, it has a special place; it is a special chapter! During those five years Ethiopia was subjected to the occupation of Fascist Italian forces.
The Italian leader Duce Mussolini had grown up with the history of his country having been defeated and humiliated by an unknown African country called Ethiopia or Abyssinia and he had vowed that he would not refrain from doing everything possible and imaginable to wash away this ‘shameful page’ of the history of his country. And what he called the ‘campaign of Ethiopia’ became the cornerstone of his foreign policy. He sustained that the only way to whitewash the history of his country was to conquer Ethiopia and complete the colonization of Italian East Africa or ‘l’Africa Orientale Italiana’, as they call it in Italian.
When Mussolini became the leader of Italy with his Fascist Party, the primary plan of his government was to launch an attack on Ethiopia and expand his colonial land and merge Eritrea in the North with Somalia in the South East to make it the ‘Italian East Africa’. Italy was not enjoying any economic success or expansion at the epoch, but carrying out the east African campaign was his primary objective all the same exposing the country to bankruptcy. Mussolini and his government earmarked millions of lire to finance the campaign. Up to 500,000 soldiers mostly volunteers were mobilized to embark on the Italian adventure to Ethiopia and vast arms and ammunitions were also prepared to help through in the campaign, not only to conquer the country but also to control and later administer it for good!
Mussolini planned to occupy the entire country and replace the ‘indigenous population’ with Italian settlers. The propaganda used was that Ethiopia was populated with few pagans and savages where slavery was practiced etc. and that Italy was there on a civilization mission!
The Fascists knew and understood that to conquer Ethiopia they needed to have the Orthodox faithful to their side. But if that was not possible (and it was impossible to support fascists who were cruel and merciless; notably the leaders of the church had transmitted the message that no Ethiopian national should submit to the invaders or risk to be excommunicated from the church.) they needed to do away with as many clergy and church leaders as possible. This was also reinforced by some collaborators, especially those who egoistically sided with the invaders in order to be given posts of prominence or position. These collaborators were key to the formation of policies the fascist invaders devised because they gave them valuable information.
However there was also the reverse side to the story. There were people who apparently seemed to side with the invaders but were valuable intelligence providers for the resistance movement and furnished timely and sensitive information to the patriots and their leaders. This facilitated the mobility of the patriots and helped them plan better their attacks or defenses. At other times the patriots leaders themselves tried to fix cease fires or truces with the Fascist forces thus buying time of recovery for their depleted forces, avail more provisions and get better reorganized and armed.
For five years there were ups and downs in the patriots’ resistance movement. There were periods in which the patriots were infiltrated by infiltrators and gross sacrifices were paid by the patriots because their whereabouts were well indicated to the Fascists hierarchs. At times these episodes had created a sense of hopelessness and disenchantment and there were temptations to put down totally the arms to the invaders. But there were immediately better days and some successes being recorded and good news coming from the international sphere as well, the morale of the patriots would be reborn and tides would turn in their favor. As they learnt that the Emperor in exile was active in the diplomatic sphere, the patriots would once again have renewed vigor and morale to resist the harsh days. Later on, with the joining of Mussolini the Axis Power with the Nazi Leader Hitler on the lead, the situation developed into another direction.
Italians had new enemies in the English and later on the Americans and Soviets. The Atlantic Alliance had been formed and Fascist Italy was now under their radar. These forces began attacking Fascist and Nazi positions in all fronts. The Fascists in Ethiopia were now facing more sustained attacks by the patriots becoming increasingly vehement and reinvigorated. With the hope of an imminent defeat of all Fascist forces our patriots ramped up their attacks. Morale was now completely on their side while the Fascists were getting more and more demoralized with the bad news that was coming from their country and the war fronts.
As we celebrate Victory Day we need to underline certain points because many factors have contributed to such important event. Even the contribution of the English cannot be underestimated; but for the record from the point of view of the country that actually suffered the atrocities of assaults and indiscriminate killings by invaders, the resistance and sacrifices of our patriots and even those who were not directly involved in the actual hostilities and fighting, such as the poor peasants, the farmers, the clergy, women and the youths who were in some form involved in the sacrifices, they need to be acknowledged and honored.
They were behind the patriots, the real fighters; they served as the backbone of the hostilities by providing shelter, provisions, water and medical treatment to the injured etc. They helped in the logistics and in availing vital intelligence. They were key players in the balance of forces.
When we celebrate the day, we also need to mark these points. May be one day full research will be carried out by our intellectuals and so many interesting stories will come out regarding these five dark years of Fascist occupation, but one outstanding fact is that Ethiopians have always united and fought against any form of alien aggression.
May 5, 1941 remains an important landmark in our recent history and may be this is the right time when we have to value these events and try to replicate them in unison. Ethiopia in 2021 may not be the same as Ethiopia in 1936. But whenever there are ‘threats on our sovereignty’, we need to have our heads up and be ready to fight back, all in one! Ethiopia is equaled by none!
BY FITSUM GETACHEW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD MAY 27/ 2021
