BY KFLEEYESUS ABEBE
It is true Ethiopia is a very diversified nation in terms of language, religion, ethnicity, you name it. Those diversities as they are they can be taken as a blessing because they are who we are as a society. They as well are constant reminders of civilization and wisdom in general sense. If cautiously used, they can be source of wisdom and innovation. But the question is to what purpose these diversities were serving for the time we remember. In the recent times, there is too much attention in the things that each ethncities, religious institution and other groups exculsively own than things they share. The diversity therefore is also a political endangering or balantly speaking severing the unity of the people. As William Butler Yeats Second Coming poem stanza: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,” the result of division is quite hellish. Ethiopian in the meantime is more divided than united. There is conflict, political uncertainity and war that are holding on for the time. These are undeniable facts.
Some people are coming to their senses from the effects of division and looking for unity of Ethiopians. The nation needs unity of its people very badly now. But again how? After watching a series political satire movie, I found this: “What unites people? Armies? Gold? Flags? Stories. There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No one can defeat it.” A story is very powerful that reminds the past and direct the future. Lucky for us, we have many stories to build our unity on, to make a national narrative a generation can take on. You might think I am going to talk about Adwa victory. In fact, Adwa is very inspirational and maybe the source of a unique story I am going to talk about. I believe the remarkable story I am going to tell you is overshadowed by Adwa victory and not exploited enough to be a nation’s narrative. But really a good one! It is a story that shows the extent of Ethiopians’ resilence and love to their country.
In the beginning it wasn’t a story of victory but rather defeat. On october 1935, two hundred thousand soldiers of the Italian Army commanded by Marshal Emilio De Bono attacked from Eritrea (then an Italian colonial possession) without prior declaration of war. Ethiopian patriots had to face heavy armed Italian aggressor. They fought bravely despite Italy’s heavy artillery, airstrikes with bombs and use of chemicals weapons. The Ethiopian counteroffensive managed to stop the Italian advance for a few weeks. With cruelty of using mustard gas in aerial bombardments (in violation of the Geneva Protocol and Geneva Conventions) and deliberate attack of against ambulances and hospitals of the Red Cross, Italy won a decisive victory over a war that continued for two years.
It wouldn’t be a good story if it ended here. But the exile of the Emperor, the death of the partiarich or the dispersal of patriots hasn’t stopped the struggle. Ethiopian patriots began relentless gurrella warfare round Addis Ababa and elsewhere in the country. Ethiopians heed what their elders commanded and cooperate regardles of their differences. Among notable voices in the time was what Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarich of the time Abune Petros said shorly before he died in the hands of Italians as a martyer.
“My countrymen, do not believe the fascists telling you that the Patriots are bandits, the Patriots are people who are fighting to free us from the terror of fascism. Bandits are the soldiers who are in front of me and you, who have come from far, terrorize and violently occupy a weak and peaceful country: our Ethiopia. God gives to the people of Ethiopia the strength to resist and never bow to the Fascist army and its violence. An Ethiopian land can never accept the orders of the invading army. Land of Ethiopia; I condemn you if you accept such an invasion.”
They made the invader restless by hit and run attacks. Despite most of the original Ethiopian Army had been destroyed, a new resistance network was established. It became a struggle of every individual in Ethiopia. The Italian agression however continued to be atrocious as 30,000 of Addis Ababa residents salughtered on reprisal of assassination attempt of Marshal Graziani. The Ethiopian Patriots, well-nigh forgotten by the outside world, found themselves with allies in the Sudan, in Kenya, and, for a short while, in the British and French Somali Protectorates.
Emperor Haileselassie who was leading the active fight for two years long finally had to exile to England but hasn’t relinquished the fight. He was active in diplomatic effort and galvanzing support, organzing fighters inside and outside Ethiopia and providing logistic support. While still in Jerusalem, Haile Selassie sent a telegram to the League of Nations:
“We have decided to bring to an end the most unequal, most unjust, most barbarous war of our age, and have chosen the road to exile in order that our people will not be exterminated and in order to consecrate ourselves wholly and in peace to the preservation of our empire’s independence… we now demand that the League of Nations should continue its efforts to secure respect for the covenant, and that it should decide not to recognize territorial extensions, or the exercise of an assumed sovereignty, resulting from the illegal recourse to armed force and to numerous other violations of international agreements.”
Finally, Italian control ended when Emperor Haile Selassie entered Addis Ababa on May 5th (Miaza 27 in the Ethiopian calendar) 1941 and addressed the citizens, saying:
“Today is the day on which we defeated our enemy. Therefore, when we say let us rejoice with our hearts, let our rejoicing be not in any other way but in the spirit of Christ. Do not return evil for evil. Do not indulge in the atrocities which the enemy has been practicing in his usual way, even to the last.”
It is unfortunate event but on the other hand it has brought Ethiopians from all walks of life combined for a single cause; freedom. They take their respective roles in the struggle. They didn’t lost hope because some inconvenience of the time. They chose to be daring. Therefore, this story is an intersteting comeback of Ethiopian forces. It is a coming back to victory after a loss. It is a story of determination Ethiopians should be proud of. Most of all, the story shows country’s resilence even in the hardest of times. As we are now in the hardest of time, tested by numerous challenges, we don’t just take example from successes. We should also draw lessons from our failures and see how we can take corrective measures. How we can amend what is broken? How we can redeem ourselves as a society? How did we stand unite in the past? How did we bear difficulties and maintain our values? So, we can once again rise like a phoenix from the ashes of today? Due to this fact, I think Patriots Day (Miaza 27) is such significant day with a potential to be a national narrative; a source of encouragement to recover.
The Ethiopian herald May 5/2023
