Scene I
Rodolfo Graizani is seen sat in his new office in Addis Ababa.
A messenger salutes and hands him over a telegraph letter saying “ it is from Benito Mussolini.”
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 be Italian
Infuse that
We can
With the dictates
Of the gun.
(Graziani 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 gold
Or threatening them with a sword
Unflinchingly, religious leaders
Will prefer to be a sod.
They will call down
On you a curse
If you try
To desecrate
Their abode,(Pope Petros)
You see
Preachers and the laity
Have a genuine faith
In God.
Also to
Fight back
They are bold.
(Graziani 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
Also the video footage
I will send to
Musoloni in Rome!
Scene II
(Graziani dances into a podium. A messenger asks 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 the 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 Tewedros 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?
Peaceful Ethiopia when
Provoked has demonstrated
Its aura
In the Battle of Adwa
Also in Gundet and Gura.
Futile is the bid
Ethiopia to subdue
As outside pressure
Serves them a glue.
(Angry Graziani answers)
How do you fail to realize
In the meantime Italy
Will help you
To civilize?
(The two young adults (Moges Asgedom/Abrham Deboche) threw bombs )
Swish blast
Swish blast
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.
Scen III
(In front of the Yekatit 12 Martyr’s monument a small kid asks his father how Ethiopians regained their independence after the massacre ordered by Graziani, who soon 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 mountains of Ethiopia vowed to fight out invaders. They succeeded in doing so after a five year occupation of Ethiopia)
Waging a Guerilla fight
Shortly we shall gain our right
“Aiming from a tree high
We have patriots
That hit fighters’ jets on a dark sky!”(Patriot Belaye Zeleke)
“ As hitting a nail on the head
We have fighters
That pierces through
A tight tread.” (Patroit HaileMariam Mamo)
“In the nook and cranny
And every gorge
We will wage
Many heroic fight
Enemies from
Our soil to dislodge”(Geresu Dukie/ Jagama Kelo/ Abbebe W/Aregai/Omer Semeter/Balcha Abanefeso…)
“We have heroes smart
With an artillery missile
That pierces artillery apart!” (Patroit Bekle Weya)
(With beaming face seeing his father the kid sayds)
Papa successors
We shall let the
Freedom baton
Hoover high
“Sovereignty first”
We buy.
To let Ethiopia
March on a reform road
We shall fight
Till we became a sod.
BY ALEM HAILU
ETHIOPIAN HERALD 29 SEPTEMBER 2021
