Although war cannot be considered an artistic engagement, there is nevertheless art in the way war is waged. From Carl von Clausewitz to Lu Hsun and philosophers like Nietzsche and even Niccolo Machiavelli, including many military experts and analysts speak of the “Art of War” proper, meaning the tactics, techniques and strategies involved in a war, ancient or modern.
However, it is one thing to conduct war in an artful manner and a different thing to get inspiration for art works from wars or conflicts. The Napoleonic wars in France have inspired great artists to paint huge frescos and murals in admiration of the emperor’s various glories and conquests that went beyond Europe and into Africa, such as in Egypt. People who have never ventured into war theaters can nevertheless get an idea of what war looks like from realistic paintings of actual engagements.
In Africa too, various battles wedged by Africans, mainly Ethiopians and South Africans, have given inspiration to works of art and literature. Writing about the inspirations the Battle of Adwa has given to artists as portrayed in contemporary Ethiopian creative works, an observer wrote that “the results show that the creative works imagine the times before the Battle of Adwa as Biblical Ethiopia and a temporarily disturbing nature. The battlefield is depicted as a spiritual landscape and a grain of wheat. The significance of Adwa is transfigured as a boundless space and a flowing river.”
Almost all nations have their moments of glory and historical achievements to their credit. However, their significance mostly remains confined to their national boundaries, unable to transcend time and space, geography or history. The history of the struggles of black people for self-determination has always been a struggle for the assertion and reassertion of their blackness and their aspirations for freedom from alien, mostly white, domination either on the basis of race, economic supremacy or political oppression.
Africa is not only a land of origin but also the originator of the struggle for human dignity, racial equality and the right to live, thinks and dream according to its aspirations. From available sources, it is estimated that Africa is one of the oldest continents in the world. According to reliable sources, Africa is believed to have been created between 3.6 and 2 billion years ago. The earth is believed to be 5 or 6 billion years old.
Africa’s status as an ancient civilization is a long established fact. According to some sources, “it is an open secret that Africa” was the cradle of humankind and civilization.” Africa is so ancient and its civilization so original that the origin of the name Africa itself is subject to dispute. “The origin of the name ‘Africa’ is greatly disputed by scholars. Most believe it stems from words issued by the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans. Important words include the Egyptian word Afru-ika, meaning Motherland; the Greek word Aphrike; meaning “without cold” and the Latin word aprica; meaning “sunny”.
Like any continent, Africa was home to people who were not touched by civilization and “before civilization men lived in a state of nature with no rules of development witnessed today. Before development and civilization, the African continent had a different environment with different weather patterns.” To add one more important detail, it is believed that Africa as a continent was first discovered by the Portuguese. The ten oldest countries in Africa are Ethiopia, Egypt, Liberia, Mali, Sudan, Eritrea, South Africa and Nigeria. It is important to note here that Ethiopia is ranked top of the list of ten oldest African countries.
It is against this background that Africa’s struggle for survival and nationhood should be considered and as part of its process of identity formation, the struggle for independence has been its defining metric. When we speak of Africa’s struggle for independence, we are bound to be led to the first history of its resistance against foreign invaders. One of the resistance war the Zulu of South Africa waged against foreigners dates back to 1879. “In 1879 the British fought a war against the Zulu kingdom. The Zulus resisted bravely and were only defeated after a series of particularly bloody battles that have gone down in the annals of colonial warfare.”
The Zulu war against the British is considered the oldest African resistance war against foreign invasion. As such, it was also an African war fought as a resistance war against the first colonialists. By the same token the Battle of Adwa was an anti-colonial war fought against Italian invaders in 1896. The difference between the Zulu war against the British and the Battle of Adwa against the Italians is that the first ended up in the defeat of the Zulu kingdom while Adwa was the first African victory against a European colonial power.
When it comes to the Battle of Adwa, its impacts, significance and inspiration is wider and deeper as compared to the Zulu war against the British simply because it was a war that climaxed in victory. The other important point is that although the Zulu war was the first African resistance war, it is not as famous as the Battle of Adwa for the same reason. We rarely hear or read about the Zulu war while the Battle of Adwa has been a never ending fascination not only for Africans as a source of pride but also for Europeans as a historical event that has inspired generations of scholars and researchers to ask the vital question of how a backward African country could defeat an advanced industrial European power.
This is the bitterest pill most European scholars could not swallow so easily and still find it difficult to reconcile with this historical fact. They are forced to accept the facts simply because they have no way denying or evading or rejecting the historical fact that the Italians themselves have been forced to swallow whether they liked it or not. Wars are concluded in a few days, as the Battle of Adwa was won by the Ethiopians or it can last for weeks or months and even years. Yet their impacts and significance continue to reverberate for centuries as Adwa is still fresh in the hearts and minds of most Ethiopians who did not fought in the battle of course before it has become part of the collective national consciousness.
Adwa has military, economic, social and political significance that has not yet been fully studied or fully investigated by different generations of local and foreign scholars. Adwa is so vast and so deep that it cannot be fully grasped within a couple of centuries. As time passes, new aspects and new features are bound to emerge or be discovered. The fascinations are interminable as the outcome of the battle itself is enigmatic. Adwa, like any great battle and victory has also impacted the arts and literature and continues to do so in this century.
A few attempts were made to capture the significance of Adwa with films, paintings, and music but all these efforts have not yet scratched the surface of Adwa’s inspiration. Haile Gerima is perhaps the best cinematographer who kept the memories of Adwa alive with his film by the same title. While Haile Gerima’s efforts are highly commendable, it can be said that Adwa could also be the subject of a hundred epic films had we have the capacity to produce them.
European nations have captured their epic battles with films that have been celebrated globally. Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in the hands of the British led by Wellington is one among many such epic battles that have graced the silver screen. In Russia, Sergei Einstein has made a classic film about the revolution that was entitled “battleship Potemkin” depicting or capturing the sailors’ rebellion that was a pivotal moment in the revolutionary process. There will certainly come a time when Ethiopian filmmakers will also live up to the challenge of turning Adwa into an internationally acclaimed epic movie.
Many books have been written by foreign and Ethiopian authors, explaining the causes and effects of the Battle of Adwa from different perspectives. Some of the most prominent books are, “The Battle of Adwa” by Paulos Milkias Getachew, a book by the same title published by Reymond Jonas, “The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire” and others. It would be unrealistic to expect that any book, however extensive in its treatment of the Battle of Adwa, would exhaust the topic and theme of this African victory with far-reaching consequences.
Prominent historians and political scientists within and outside Africa are still writing about Adwa and its significance. Students are encouraged to research these immense historical events in their graduation theses. Yet, what is still lacking is a comprehensive history of the Battle of Adwa, which needs to be researched and written by prominent intellectuals in many fields of study with the support of national institutions such as the Ministry of Culture.
Such a work would not only be a great service to posterity but also a work that would clarify current misunderstandings that largely emanate from incomplete knowledge or information about the war and the factors and actors that shaped it. The history of the Battle of Adwa should be a factor of cohesion and unity and not that of division because it is an African victory that belongs to all Africans and black people all over the world. Adwa is also part of Africa’s culture, art, literature, history, economics, and politics. As such, the African Union should consider the prospect of naming Adwa Day, which would be marked all over Africa, with a view to putting our history in the service of Africa’s total liberation and as an inspirational factor for present and coming generations.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 6 MARCH 2024
