EDITOR CORBETT:
THE GLORY OF THE KING
Book Two: The Battle Of Adowa (In Progress)
PART ONE:
1. Before Adowa
BEFORE THEODORE'S dramatic suicide on Easter Monday, April 13, 1868, the most important of the minor kings was Menelik of Shoa, the area around present-day Addis Ababa.
Menelik had been captured by Theodore in 1855 when the emperor overran Shoa. The teenager had escaped several years later from the fortress at Magdala, and with the aid of the Gallas, who hated the emperor, he had regained the Shoa throne that belonged to his father.
Now Menelik had a very strong army, but was too prudent to attack Theodore himself; he stood back and waited for the British to defeat the emperor.
Following Theodore's death, Ethiopia had no emperor for three years and Menelik's ambition to gain the throne was impeded by other challengers -- Wagshum Gobaza, of Zagwe blood, who had proclaimed himself emperor under the throne name of Takle Giorgis II and Tigre's Prince Kassa.
Kassa had aided British commander Sir Robert Napier during his rescuing expedition of a number of Theodore-held prisoners from Magdala. When Napier left Ethiopia in May 1868, he gave the Tigrean prince guns, ammunitions and military supplies. These arms strengthened Kassa's 12,000 troops and they were easily able to defeat Gobaze's 60,000-man army in an 1871 battle.
Menelik, who had shown his sense of destiny by taking the throne name of the son of Solomon and Sheba, decided against challenging Prince Kassa, who declared himself King of Kings of Ethiopia and was crowned at Aksum, taking the throne name of Yohannes IV (John). While Emperor John had fought his way to the emperorship, Menelik ignored the struggles in the North and, acting on French advice, methodically set about conquering the rich Gallas country to the south and west of his kingdom. He bought modern equipment for his troops, and French adventurers, including the famed poet Rimbaud, did a furious business in outdated arms, which they bought in Europe for five-six francs and sold in Shoa for 40.
Although the new Negus was as brave as Theodore, possessing his virtues, but none of his vices, he never was given an opportunity to show his ability to develop the country.
The travellers of his generation were no longer freelancers like Bruce and Plowden, but bagmen with machines and western devices made in Birmingham and Leipzig and Lille and Brussels, and with a supply of blank treaty forms in their luggage. Through the whole of his reign he was almost ceaselessly distracted by the aspirations, military and commercial, of outside powers.
Egypt's ambitious and crafty Khedive Ismail, who harbored plans of conquerng Ethiopia, seized the whole of the Red Sea shore from under the shadowy suzerainty of Turkey, and by 1875 he had encircled John's territory on the east and south, and had occupied Berbera and Harar. He decided to attack John from the north, but the Ethiopians, fighting in the mountain country which suited them best, routed his two expeditions in 1875 and 1876.
The 1882 revolt of Arabi Pasha led to the bombardment of Alexandria and the British occupation. The Mahdist rebellion followed and by 1883 all the Sudan south of Khartoum was in hands of the Dervishes.
These disturbing neighbors didn't worry John at first; indeed, their victory might well prove an advantage, for on the strength of it in the British -- on whom the death of Gordon at Khartoum in 1884 seemed to make a disheartening impression -- advised the Egyptians to abandon all their southern conquests. When they evacuated Harar and the coast, it looked as if the obstacles to Ethiopian aggrandizment were melting unaided.
But they were only to be replaced by another menace. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 had turned the Red Sea from a cul-de-sac into a highway and had given a new importance to the coast.
The scramble for Africa was beginning, and the powers were becoming practised at unfurling flags.
The unwitting Emperor John was launched into the middle of an eternal triangle: Britain, France and Italy.
2. The Italians
IN 1869, a private Italian company had bought a trading station called Asab and a few years later it was taken over by the Rubbatino Shipping Company.
In 1882, the Italian government bought the port from the Company and sent a mission to Menelik in Shoa to conclude a trade treaty and to obtain his help in improving their colony.
As a late comer to the game, Italy was hungry for a piece of African territory, and Ethiopia, known to the Europeans as Abyssinia, with its interminable problems and occasional power vacuums, seemed to be ready for the picking.
In 1884, the British, for a short time, occupied the coast to be known as Eritrea, in order to evacuate certain Egyptian garrisons marooned by the Madhi in Sudan.
They sought Ethiopian help by promising Emperor John the ex-Egyptian territories behind Massawa.
The next year -- 1885 -- the British left, and at the same time encouraged and approved of Italy's occupation of further coastal towns, including Massawa, a move which brought them dangerously near to the newly-promised boundaries of Tigre.
John didn't object when the Italian staked a claim on the hot, humidly miserable lowlands along the Red Sea, but the situation changed abruptly when the Italians began trying to edge into the Ethiopian highlands.
Menelik had accepted guns and aid from the Italians in Somali, but he stood aloof as John challenged the encroachment from Massawa.
Skirmishes with the Ethiopians began to take place on the northern border and guerilla tactics, led by the mighty Ras Alula, wiped out the Italians at Dogli on Wednesday, January 26, 1887.
The defeat resulted in the evacuation of all up-country outposts.
The news trouble Rome.
Reinforcements were sent to Massawa.
Meanwhile, the British, disturbed at the prospect to war, sent Sir Gerald Portal to Shoa to try to preserve the peace, but to no avail.
The Italians marched inland, but before any battle took place they seemed to decide on new tactics.
They would bargain with Menelik against John.
3. A Ras Named Alula
ALTHOUGH THE BRITISH seemingly were willing to give away land, which didn't belong to them, to the Italians, a Tigrean ras, named Alula, stood his ground.
Alula was John's right-hand man, who sarcastically told the British emissary, Sir Gerald Portal: "The Italians can take Ethiopian land, but only after I become governor of Rome."
The son of a farmer, Alula, didn't have the advantages of the wealthy or influential, but his hard work moved him into a position of power. He would become one of Ethiopia's greatest leaders.
In later years, Portal would remember him, admirably, despite the fact, Alula had once imprisoned the British envoy.
Gerald Portal: He (Alula) was dressed in a long dark robe of purple silk, with, I think, some gold embroidery work on it. His head was uncovered save for his own curly hair, which he wore rather longer than was usual with Abyssinians, and not plaited in rows. His complexion was darker than most men of the Tigre mountains, being of a rich chocolate color. But, whatever, the color, the owner of that powerful, cruel and intelligent face would be bound to make his name known in any country, whether as a leader or destroyer of men. There's another striking peculiarity -- a pair of gleaming tawny eyes of much lighter color than the skin of his face. To these flashing yellow orbs whose effect was aided by a brilliant row of white regular teeth. I had seen such eyes in the head of a tiger and of a leopard, but never in that of a human being. On one side of the ras, on the divan, lay his curved sword, and on the other was a Martini-Henry carbine.
In Wylde's Abyssinia, the writer describes Alula like "an English gentleman, adding "I knew him for 20 years ... he never persecuted any man for his religion, which is a remarkable record."
Emperor Johnwas also furious at the British intrusion into Ethiopian land rights while encouraging and approving Italy's real estate grab. He wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, with these words: "How can you say that I shall hand over to the Italians the country which Jesus Christ gave to me? ... If your wish were to make peace between us, it should be when they are in their country and I in mine."
John was also extremely bitter at Menelik's refusal to help against the Italians.
In 1888, Emperor John from the northern province of Tigre had tried to gain a close relationship with the Shoan king, Menelik, by proposing a marriage between John's 12-year-old son, Araya, and Menelik's six-year-old daughter, Zawditu.
Menelik, at first, objected because he believed his daughter was too young.
On the wedding day, which was filled with pomp and splendor, Zawditu's gold cloth-covered tent was surrounded by some of the most beautiful women in Ethiopia. Cannons covered the area with thick smoke, and through the haze, came a procession of at least 500 slaves, 5,000 cattle and thousands of individual costly articles.
However, before the year was out, Araya died of poisoning, and a conciliation between the North and the South disintegrated because Menelik and the Italians were still gun dealing.
The real riff between Menelik and John festered into an open wound when the Emperor named his illegitimate son by his brother's wife, Mangasha, as his heir and successor, instead of Menelik.
The king of Shoa would have to wait for another day before ascending to the throne.
4. The Day John Died
ON THURSDAY, January 12, 1888, the Dervishes had come to Gondar, destroying all its Christian churches and killing both the clergy and people.
When Emperor John heard of the slaughter, he sent Negus Tekle Haimanot of Gojjam as his avenging angel, and his 100,000 men defeated them on the Field of Metema.
The ruler of Sudan sent out 80,000 men, under the leadership of Angah, and this time Tekle Haimanot was defeated and his daughter captured.
John wanted Ethiopia to have one religion and he decreed that all Moslems accept the Christian faith, and he even forced them to take communion. Those who refused were punished severely and sent away to the Sudan or regions around the Red Sea as refugees. As a result, these refugees wanted to attack the emperor at every opportune time.
After King Tekle Haimanot lost, he became dissatisfied and joined with Menelik and refused to cooperate with Emperor John, who proposed to go to Gojjam and Shoa to unite them through disciplinary action, or, if necessary, by force, but his advisers urged him against fighting with his own brothers while the country had outside enemies.
He listened to their advice and on Saturday, March 9, 1889, he went to Metema.
John had personally taken to the field along with Ras Mangasha, Ras Mikael and Ras Alula, who had been responsible for fighting the Italians above Massawa.
During the March battle, the Ethiopians smashed the Sudanese fortifications, but a stray Mahdist bullet struck John in the stomach.
At dawn on Monday, Match 11, 1889, he gathered all his chiefs around him and solemnly acknowledged Mangasha as his son and heir and put him in their care, particularly his trusted ras, Alula.
And then he died.
5. A Very Gross Act
JOHN's FAMILY, along with the bishops, placed the Emperor's body in a coffin.
However, the Dervishes seized it; took the body out of the coffin and beheaded it.
His head was taken to their leader in The Sudan, Anduruhman Calif Abdulahi, together with a gold watch, a gold-covered Bible, a letter that had been sent to him by Queen Victoria, and a pair of eyeglasses.
The Calif prepared a great feast and put the emperor's head on a stick and paraded it through his marketplace while the Calif rode on a camel, demonstrating his victory.
STEPHEN MENGESHA: My great grandfather, Emperor Yohannes IV, went to battle against the Dervish. He ruled from 1872 to 1889. The Dervish were then in power, in what is present-day Sudan. Yohannes lost his life as the infidels tried to conquer his Christian kingdom. He was killed by the Dervishes of the Mahdi in 189 at the Great Battle of Metema. Remember the movie, Khartoum? Well, when the Muslims -- the Dervishes -- reached the city of Gondar, they pillaged it. They burned all the churches and tried to convert the priests to the religion of Islam. Emperor Yohannes was wounded and died. The Dervishes came and exhumed the Emperor's body and once it was identified, decapitated him and put his head on a stick and were dancing in Khartoum. It was a big celebration for Islam, in slaying the Christian king.
It had been a fitting end for the Emperor to die at the moment of victory; but it was a terrible misfortune for this country.
At the time, Ethiopia was surrounded by enemies: John had disposed of the Dervishes, but the Italians remained at Massawa on the northeast frontier while in the south, Menelik of Shoa had allied himself with the Italians.
Menelik sent his man, Seyum, into Tigre while General Baldissera, rushed down and occupied the northern towns of Asmera and Keren.
When the old warrior, Alula, returned from Metema, he hunted down Seyum.
Although Mangasha and Alula, considered to be his "mind and arm," realized that three of their northern territories were in the grip of the Italians, they began to gradually assert their authority in Tigre.
6. The Rise Of Menelik
NO SOONER did the news of John's death on the Field of Metema reach Shoa than both Menelik and the Italians took advantage of the anarchy which followed.
Proclaiming himself Emperor on Tuesday, March 26, 1889, Menelik had no serious rival. He was able to trace his descent to the daughter of King David (1508-40), meaning he belonged to the Solomonic line; he was also the most outstanding personality among the rases; and the best argument of all, he had the Shoan army at his back.
The other claimant, Ras Mangahsa in Tigre, had no material advantage to offer.
With customary prudence, however, he determined not to act alone, and once turned for support to his Italian allies; here, obviously, was an opportunity for negotiation.
However, the Italians and Menelik would eventually go to war over the interpretation of a clause in their "peace and trade" alliance -- the Treaty of Wuchale (Uccialli).
The war would be Ethiopia's greatest military triumph and be the first - and only time - an African nation defeated a European colonial power.
The Battle of Adowa of 1896 was fought less than 20 miles from Aksum, where the Ark of the Covenant, the Very Essence of God, supposedly lies in a chapel next to St. Mary of Zion Church.
Aksum in the province of Tigre was also the sacred place where Ethiopian emperors were anointed and crowned for generations. Menelik, who was from Shoa and therefore an "enemy" of Tigre, for they believed they had the absolute right to rule Ethiopia, had to wait for his coronation day in the holy city.
7. A Place Called New Flower
FROM THE late 1870s, Menelik began to show interest in the region in which Addis Ababa is located and headquartered the royal camp at several sites in the area.
His first major settlement was established on the slopes of Mount Wuchacha, west of the present settlement, but he soon moved northwards, and set up his camp near the summit of Entoto Mountain, a choice determined by strategic considerations. It was here he created a palace.
The next important building to be constructed at Entoto was the Church of Maryam, a circular structure, the foundations for which were laid in 1885.
It was in this Church of Maryam that Menelik was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in November 1889. Even today, there's an effigy of the old monarch on its walls.
Entoto, as Menelik's capital, rapidly acquired a considerable population.
At the turn of the century, the British game-hunter and ethnographer, P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, described it as a "populous city," while his compatriot, Herbert Vivian, believed that it "must have comprised 50,000 souls."
The site, which had initially been selected as a fortress, wasn't suitable as a capital for more peaceful times.
Because of inclement weather much of the time on Entoto, Menelik and Queen Taitu used to ride down to the Plain of Filwoha - Amharic for "hot springs." Thermal springs, literally bubbled from the ground.
They paid their first visit there in 1885.
Queen Taitu asked her husband to give land on which to build her house. Taitu decided the place should be known as Addis Ababa, meaning New Flower.
Work on Menelik's palace began early in 1889, some months before his coronation as Emperor at Entoto, and the first stone buildings were erected in 1891. Menelik's original palace at Addis Ababa,however, was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1892, but was soon rebuilt. No fewer than 50 structures in the palace compound were erected within three months, and by 1894 the entire palace complex was virtually restored.
8. The Monarch Watchers
THE NEW emperor was a remarkable man, according to I.G. Edmonds in his informative book, Ethiopia -- Land of the Conquering Lion of Judah.
EDMONDS: He was described as being very dark of skin but tall and regally imposing. As a child he had been imprisoned on Amba Magdala by Emperor Theodore because he was of Solomonic blood and a possible candidate for the throne. Theodore was fond of the young man and treated him well, but Menelik -- conscious of his own destiny -- managed to escape from Magdala two years before Napier stormed the citadel. He had made his way to Shoa where he was sheltered by the Gallas, who hated Theodore. Through the influence of Galla friends, Menelik conquered Kaffa, a Galla province adjoining Uganda and Sudan. Other independent provinces and principalities along his borders also fell to the Ethiopia monarch.
After Emperor John was killed at Metema, Edmonds claimed that Ras Mangasha, whose army had been battered from the war with Sudanese rebels, didn't have a chance to challenge the fresh armies of Menelik or his right-hand man and cousin, Ras Makonnen. Also the position of the Ethiopia Orthodox Church was important. They would Menelik against an illegitimate son. So Ras Mangasha swallowed his disappointment and was content to remain as King of Tigre province.
Another monarch watcher, George Berkeley, who wrote a book, The Campaign of Adowa and The Rise of Menelik, in 1902, had his own views on Menelik.
BERKELEY: The most remarkable fact about Menelik's career is that although he has dominated a fighting nation like Ethiopia, he is himself by no means a warrior. Some Italian writers have even called him a coward, but his own description of himself is probably more accurate -- namely, that he is a man of peace who has several times been compelled to fight. It is in organizational and in diplomatic arts that he excels; he is careful, crafty, and perservering, the type of man to succeed in this world; and he is said to believe in his destiny.
The Menelik-era writer also related a story, told to him by an Italian army officer.
BERKELEY: He told me about Menelik's christening. His father, Ailu, came from the old royal stock that traced its descent to Menelik I, son of Solomon by the Queen of Sheba. Ailu was the oldest on of a great chief named Sahle Selassie, under whom Shoa attained its highest pitch of power. Now, Sahle Selassie's own name had been Menelik, but had he been warned by a monk to change it, or he would suffer great misfortune; he should,however, said the monk, call the son of his first-born by the name of Menelik, and the child so christened would one day be the conqueror of all Ethiopia and the greatest of all rulers since the days of Menelik I, son of Solomon. As soon as the slave girl gave birth to a boy, he was named Menelik. Throughout his life, Menelik had been attended by good fortune, so it seems as if this prophecy has been completely fulfilled. But if you're interested in his character, no description will have a better idea of it than the events that surround the Treaty of Wuchale (Uccialli).
9. A 'Lady MacBeth'
BIOGRAPHER LEONARD MOSLEY called Queen Taitu, Menelik's consort, a "Lady MacBeth."
The daughter of the ancient ruling house of Gondar, Taitu, in her youth was said to have had very light skin and to have been surprisingly beautiful.
On her 13th birthday, she was married to one of Theodore's generals, but Taitu deserted him after the fall of Magdala and married another general before she was 14.
He wasn't quite romantic enough for her and she deserted him to marry the governor of a northern province. At this time she came to the attention of Yohannes (John), who had her husband thrown in a dungeon, but Taitu -- who preferred to pick her lovers -- fled from the emperor to turn ip later married again to an officer in Menelik's army.
When Menelik saw her he got rid of his third wife, arranged a quick divorce for Taitu, and she became Queen of Shoa.
In Taitu, Menelik not only found a lover and a wife, but also a counsellor as adept at intrigue as he was.
It was said in later years that a lot of Menelik's success was due to his consort's shrewd advice.
Although Taitu had named her husband's new capital, Addis Ababa, it really was Menelik who picked the site, according to his chronicler, because his grandfather, King Sahle Selassie, had once predicted his gradson would some day return to build a city on the spot. Sahle apparently made the prediction after a local resident had given the king a horn of tej, the honey mead favored by the Ethiopians.
10. A Ras Named Makonnen
IF RAS ALULA was Mangasha of Tigre's "mind and arm," then Ras Makonnen's "pillar of strength." He was also the Emperor's special companion since he was a youngster and his first cousin.
Makonnen was born at Darafo Maryam in the Gola district on Saturday, May 8, 1852 to Princess Tenagne Worq, the daughter of Negus Sahle Selassie of Shoa and Dejazmatch Walda Mikael of the Doba and Manz nobility.
He stayed with his father for about 14 years during the time, Menelik, the son of Makonnen's uncle, Negus Haile Melakot, was still only the king of Shoa.
His father, Walda Mikael, then took him to Menelik and said: "Let this my son, your aunt's offspring. grow up with you in your place."
Menelik made Makonnen his special companion, quite apart from the obvious family ties.
He restored the ancient province of Harar to Ethiopia in 1886 and rose to the rank of ras in April 1890, after he returned from a celebrated Rome visit.
Before Yohannes' death, he suspected the Ottoman hold on Egypt was slipping. He was right. Sudan revolted under the guidance of the Mahdi -- the Guided One. As the government of Egypt collapsed, Britain moved in to keep order and became involved in fighting the Mahdi in Sufan. British troops were tied up in Egypt and also in sections of South Africa, so the British didn't try to hold Harar province in Ethiopia but evacuated Egyptian forces there in 1884.
The Emir Abdullah, son of the Arabic ruler of Harar before the Egyptians took control, was left in charge of the province.
Menelik, whose province of Shoa adjoined Harar, sent the Emir a message. He pointed out that Harar had always been considered an Ethiopian province. He was agreeable for the Abdullah to administer the provincial government, but the former land tax must be reinstated and paid to the king of Shoa.
The Emir sent Menelik a turban and a prayer rug along with an insulting letter suggesting the king of Shoa convert to Islam, "for only then will I consider you my master," he added. Menelik removed Abdullad without difficulty and then place Makonnen in charge of Harar in 1888.
In July 1892, a son was born to Makonnen near Harar. His name was Tafari and he would become the most famous emperor in Ethiopian history -- Haile Selassie I, the great-grandfather of Prince Stephen Mengesha.
11. Roman In The Emperor's Court
THE ITALIANS were opportunists.
In fact, they had their own man inside Menelik's Court.
His name was Count Antonelli.
A real charmer, with connections, for his uncle was the celebrated Cardinal Antonelli.
He had seen from the moment he arrived in Shoa, the future possibilities of the little kingdom.
With a keen grasp of the situation, he had become a good friend of Menelik's Queen Taitu and when he brought the monarch more tangible products of European civilization, he didn't forget Taitu, providing her with Parisian shoes and stockings.
The ambitious Antonelli was a firm believer in an alliance with Shoa. He had negotiated the first treaty in which Menelik was given rifles and ammunition and urged to defy Emperor John.
Now the prince of Tigre was dead and within a week in March 1889, Count Antonelli told Menelik he couldn't ask Rome to assist him without some kind of a "treaty of trade and friendship."
That document, to be known as the Treaty of Wuchale, named after a hamlet north of Dessie, and its disputed terms would be a lynchpin for future Ethiopian history.
It would ultimately become the immediate cause for the war that ended in the Battle of Adowa.
The bickering was just about to begin.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Book II: Corbett's The Battle of Adowa (In Progress)
EDITOR CORBETT:
THE GLORY OF THE KING
Book Two: The Battle Of Adowa (In Progress)
PART ONE:
1. Before Adowa
BEFORE THEODORE'S dramatic suicide on Easter Monday, April 13, 1868, the most important of the minor kings was Menelik of Shoa, the area around present-day Addis Ababa.
Menelik had been captured by Theodore in 1855 when the emperor overran Shoa. The teenager had escaped several years later from the fortress at Magdala, and with the aid of the Gallas, who hated the emperor, he had regained the Shoa throne that belonged to his father.
Now Menelik had a very strong army, but was too prudent to attack Theodore himself; he stood back and waited for the British to defeat the emperor.
Following Theodore's death, Ethiopia had no emperor for three years and Menelik's ambition to gain the throne was impeded by other challengers -- Wagshum Gobaza, of Zagwe blood, who had proclaimed himself emperor under the throne name of Takle Giorgis II and Tigre's Prince Kassa.
Kassa had aided British commander Sir Robert Napier during his rescuing expedition of a number of Theodore-held prisoners from Magdala. When Napier left Ethiopia in May 1868, he gave the Tigrean prince guns, ammunitions and military supplies. These arms strengthened Kassa's 12,000 troops and they were easily able to defeat Gobaze's 60,000-man army in an 1871 battle.
Menelik, who had shown his sense of destiny by taking the throne name of the son of Solomon and Sheba, decided against challenging Prince Kassa, who declared himself King of Kings of Ethiopia and was crowned at Aksum, taking the throne name of Yohannes IV (John). While Emperor John had fought his way to the emperorship, Menelik ignored the struggles in the North and, acting on French advice, methodically set about conquering the rich Gallas country to the south and west of his kingdom. He bought modern equipment for his troops, and French adventurers, including the famed poet Rimbaud, did a furious business in outdated arms, which they bought in Europe for five-six francs and sold in Shoa for 40.
Although the new Negus was as brave as Theodore, possessing his virtues, but none of his vices, he never was given an opportunity to show his ability to develop the country.
The travellers of his generation were no longer freelancers like Bruce and Plowden, but bagmen with machines and western devices made in Birmingham and Leipzig and Lille and Brussels, and with a supply of blank treaty forms in their luggage. Through the whole of his reign he was almost ceaselessly distracted by the aspirations, military and commercial, of outside powers.
Egypt's ambitious and crafty Khedive Ismail, who harbored plans of conquerng Ethiopia, seized the whole of the Red Sea shore from under the shadowy suzerainty of Turkey, and by 1875 he had encircled John's territory on the east and south, and had occupied Berbera and Harar. He decided to attack John from the north, but the Ethiopians, fighting in the mountain country which suited them best, routed his two expeditions in 1875 and 1876.
The 1882 revolt of Arabi Pasha led to the bombardment of Alexandria and the British occupation. The Mahdist rebellion followed and by 1883 all the Sudan south of Khartoum was in hands of the Dervishes.
These disturbing neighbors didn't worry John at first; indeed, their victory might well prove an advantage, for on the strength of it in the British -- on whom the death of Gordon at Khartoum in 1884 seemed to make a disheartening impression -- advised the Egyptians to abandon all their southern conquests. When they evacuated Harar and the coast, it looked as if the obstacles to Ethiopian aggrandizment were melting unaided.
But they were only to be replaced by another menace. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 had turned the Red Sea from a cul-de-sac into a highway and had given a new importance to the coast.
The scramble for Africa was beginning, and the powers were becoming practised at unfurling flags.
The unwitting Emperor John was launched into the middle of an eternal triangle: Britain, France and Italy.
2. The Italians
IN 1869, a private Italian company had bought a trading station called Asab and a few years later it was taken over by the Rubbatino Shipping Company.
In 1882, the Italian government bought the port from the Company and sent a mission to Menelik in Shoa to conclude a trade treaty and to obtain his help in improving their colony.
As a late comer to the game, Italy was hungry for a piece of African territory, and Ethiopia, known to the Europeans as Abyssinia, with its interminable problems and occasional power vacuums, seemed to be ready for the picking.
In 1884, the British, for a short time, occupied the coast to be known as Eritrea, in order to evacuate certain Egyptian garrisons marooned by the Madhi in Sudan.
They sought Ethiopian help by promising Emperor John the ex-Egyptian territories behind Massawa.
The next year -- 1885 -- the British left, and at the same time encouraged and approved of Italy's occupation of further coastal towns, including Massawa, a move which brought them dangerously near to the newly-promised boundaries of Tigre.
John didn't object when the Italian staked a claim on the hot, humidly miserable lowlands along the Red Sea, but the situation changed abruptly when the Italians began trying to edge into the Ethiopian highlands.
Menelik had accepted guns and aid from the Italians in Somali, but he stood aloof as John challenged the encroachment from Massawa.
Skirmishes with the Ethiopians began to take place on the northern border and guerilla tactics, led by the mighty Ras Alula, wiped out the Italians at Dogli on Wednesday, January 26, 1887.
The defeat resulted in the evacuation of all up-country outposts.
The news trouble Rome.
Reinforcements were sent to Massawa.
Meanwhile, the British, disturbed at the prospect to war, sent Sir Gerald Portal to Shoa to try to preserve the peace, but to no avail.
The Italians marched inland, but before any battle took place they seemed to decide on new tactics.
They would bargain with Menelik against John.
3. A Ras Named Alula
ALTHOUGH THE BRITISH seemingly were willing to give away land, which didn't belong to them, to the Italians, a Tigrean ras, named Alula, stood his ground.
Alula was John's right-hand man, who sarcastically told the British emissary, Sir Gerald Portal: "The Italians can take Ethiopian land, but only after I become governor of Rome."
The son of a farmer, Alula, didn't have the advantages of the wealthy or influential, but his hard work moved him into a position of power. He would become one of Ethiopia's greatest leaders.
In later years, Portal would remember him, admirably, despite the fact, Alula had once imprisoned the British envoy.
Gerald Portal: He (Alula) was dressed in a long dark robe of purple silk, with, I think, some gold embroidery work on it. His head was uncovered save for his own curly hair, which he wore rather longer than was usual with Abyssinians, and not plaited in rows. His complexion was darker than most men of the Tigre mountains, being of a rich chocolate color. But, whatever, the color, the owner of that powerful, cruel and intelligent face would be bound to make his name known in any country, whether as a leader or destroyer of men. There's another striking peculiarity -- a pair of gleaming tawny eyes of much lighter color than the skin of his face. To these flashing yellow orbs whose effect was aided by a brilliant row of white regular teeth. I had seen such eyes in the head of a tiger and of a leopard, but never in that of a human being. On one side of the ras, on the divan, lay his curved sword, and on the other was a Martini-Henry carbine.
In Wylde's Abyssinia, the writer describes Alula like "an English gentleman, adding "I knew him for 20 years ... he never persecuted any man for his religion, which is a remarkable record."
Emperor Johnwas also furious at the British intrusion into Ethiopian land rights while encouraging and approving Italy's real estate grab. He wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, with these words: "How can you say that I shall hand over to the Italians the country which Jesus Christ gave to me? ... If your wish were to make peace between us, it should be when they are in their country and I in mine."
John was also extremely bitter at Menelik's refusal to help against the Italians.
In 1888, Emperor John from the northern province of Tigre had tried to gain a close relationship with the Shoan king, Menelik, by proposing a marriage between John's 12-year-old son, Araya, and Menelik's six-year-old daughter, Zawditu.
Menelik, at first, objected because he believed his daughter was too young.
On the wedding day, which was filled with pomp and splendor, Zawditu's gold cloth-covered tent was surrounded by some of the most beautiful women in Ethiopia. Cannons covered the area with thick smoke, and through the haze, came a procession of at least 500 slaves, 5,000 cattle and thousands of individual costly articles.
However, before the year was out, Araya died of poisoning, and a conciliation between the North and the South disintegrated because Menelik and the Italians were still gun dealing.
The real riff between Menelik and John festered into an open wound when the Emperor named his illegitimate son by his brother's wife, Mangasha, as his heir and successor, instead of Menelik.
The king of Shoa would have to wait for another day before ascending to the throne.
4. The Day John Died
ON THURSDAY, January 12, 1888, the Dervishes had come to Gondar, destroying all its Christian churches and killing both the clergy and people.
When Emperor John heard of the slaughter, he sent Negus Tekle Haimanot of Gojjam as his avenging angel, and his 100,000 men defeated them on the Field of Metema.
The ruler of Sudan sent out 80,000 men, under the leadership of Angah, and this time Tekle Haimanot was defeated and his daughter captured.
John wanted Ethiopia to have one religion and he decreed that all Moslems accept the Christian faith, and he even forced them to take communion. Those who refused were punished severely and sent away to the Sudan or regions around the Red Sea as refugees. As a result, these refugees wanted to attack the emperor at every opportune time.
After King Tekle Haimanot lost, he became dissatisfied and joined with Menelik and refused to cooperate with Emperor John, who proposed to go to Gojjam and Shoa to unite them through disciplinary action, or, if necessary, by force, but his advisers urged him against fighting with his own brothers while the country had outside enemies.
He listened to their advice and on Saturday, March 9, 1889, he went to Metema.
John had personally taken to the field along with Ras Mangasha, Ras Mikael and Ras Alula, who had been responsible for fighting the Italians above Massawa.
During the March battle, the Ethiopians smashed the Sudanese fortifications, but a stray Mahdist bullet struck John in the stomach.
At dawn on Monday, Match 11, 1889, he gathered all his chiefs around him and solemnly acknowledged Mangasha as his son and heir and put him in their care, particularly his trusted ras, Alula.
And then he died.
5. A Very Gross Act
JOHN's FAMILY, along with the bishops, placed the Emperor's body in a coffin.
However, the Dervishes seized it; took the body out of the coffin and beheaded it.
His head was taken to their leader in The Sudan, Anduruhman Calif Abdulahi, together with a gold watch, a gold-covered Bible, a letter that had been sent to him by Queen Victoria, and a pair of eyeglasses.
The Calif prepared a great feast and put the emperor's head on a stick and paraded it through his marketplace while the Calif rode on a camel, demonstrating his victory.
STEPHEN MENGESHA: My great grandfather, Emperor Yohannes IV, went to battle against the Dervish. He ruled from 1872 to 1889. The Dervish were then in power, in what is present-day Sudan. Yohannes lost his life as the infidels tried to conquer his Christian kingdom. He was killed by the Dervishes of the Mahdi in 189 at the Great Battle of Metema. Remember the movie, Khartoum? Well, when the Muslims -- the Dervishes -- reached the city of Gondar, they pillaged it. They burned all the churches and tried to convert the priests to the religion of Islam. Emperor Yohannes was wounded and died. The Dervishes came and exhumed the Emperor's body and once it was identified, decapitated him and put his head on a stick and were dancing in Khartoum. It was a big celebration for Islam, in slaying the Christian king.
It had been a fitting end for the Emperor to die at the moment of victory; but it was a terrible misfortune for this country.
At the time, Ethiopia was surrounded by enemies: John had disposed of the Dervishes, but the Italians remained at Massawa on the northeast frontier while in the south, Menelik of Shoa had allied himself with the Italians.
Menelik sent his man, Seyum, into Tigre while General Baldissera, rushed down and occupied the northern towns of Asmera and Keren.
When the old warrior, Alula, returned from Metema, he hunted down Seyum.
Although Mangasha and Alula, considered to be his "mind and arm," realized that three of their northern territories were in the grip of the Italians, they began to gradually assert their authority in Tigre.
6. The Rise Of Menelik
NO SOONER did the news of John's death on the Field of Metema reach Shoa than both Menelik and the Italians took advantage of the anarchy which followed.
Proclaiming himself Emperor on Tuesday, March 26, 1889, Menelik had no serious rival. He was able to trace his descent to the daughter of King David (1508-40), meaning he belonged to the Solomonic line; he was also the most outstanding personality among the rases; and the best argument of all, he had the Shoan army at his back.
The other claimant, Ras Mangahsa in Tigre, had no material advantage to offer.
With customary prudence, however, he determined not to act alone, and once turned for support to his Italian allies; here, obviously, was an opportunity for negotiation.
However, the Italians and Menelik would eventually go to war over the interpretation of a clause in their "peace and trade" alliance -- the Treaty of Wuchale (Uccialli).
The war would be Ethiopia's greatest military triumph and be the first - and only time - an African nation defeated a European colonial power.
The Battle of Adowa of 1896 was fought less than 20 miles from Aksum, where the Ark of the Covenant, the Very Essence of God, supposedly lies in a chapel next to St. Mary of Zion Church.
Aksum in the province of Tigre was also the sacred place where Ethiopian emperors were anointed and crowned for generations. Menelik, who was from Shoa and therefore an "enemy" of Tigre, for they believed they had the absolute right to rule Ethiopia, had to wait for his coronation day in the holy city.
7. A Place Called New Flower
FROM THE late 1870s, Menelik began to show interest in the region in which Addis Ababa is located and headquartered the royal camp at several sites in the area.
His first major settlement was established on the slopes of Mount Wuchacha, west of the present settlement, but he soon moved northwards, and set up his camp near the summit of Entoto Mountain, a choice determined by strategic considerations. It was here he created a palace.
The next important building to be constructed at Entoto was the Church of Maryam, a circular structure, the foundations for which were laid in 1885.
It was in this Church of Maryam that Menelik was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in November 1889. Even today, there's an effigy of the old monarch on its walls.
Entoto, as Menelik's capital, rapidly acquired a considerable population.
At the turn of the century, the British game-hunter and ethnographer, P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, described it as a "populous city," while his compatriot, Herbert Vivian, believed that it "must have comprised 50,000 souls."
The site, which had initially been selected as a fortress, wasn't suitable as a capital for more peaceful times.
Because of inclement weather much of the time on Entoto, Menelik and Queen Taitu used to ride down to the Plain of Filwoha - Amharic for "hot springs." Thermal springs, literally bubbled from the ground.
They paid their first visit there in 1885.
Queen Taitu asked her husband to give land on which to build her house. Taitu decided the place should be known as Addis Ababa, meaning New Flower.
Work on Menelik's palace began early in 1889, some months before his coronation as Emperor at Entoto, and the first stone buildings were erected in 1891. Menelik's original palace at Addis Ababa,however, was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1892, but was soon rebuilt. No fewer than 50 structures in the palace compound were erected within three months, and by 1894 the entire palace complex was virtually restored.
8. The Monarch Watchers
THE NEW emperor was a remarkable man, according to I.G. Edmonds in his informative book, Ethiopia -- Land of the Conquering Lion of Judah.
EDMONDS: He was described as being very dark of skin but tall and regally imposing. As a child he had been imprisoned on Amba Magdala by Emperor Theodore because he was of Solomonic blood and a possible candidate for the throne. Theodore was fond of the young man and treated him well, but Menelik -- conscious of his own destiny -- managed to escape from Magdala two years before Napier stormed the citadel. He had made his way to Shoa where he was sheltered by the Gallas, who hated Theodore. Through the influence of Galla friends, Menelik conquered Kaffa, a Galla province adjoining Uganda and Sudan. Other independent provinces and principalities along his borders also fell to the Ethiopia monarch.
After Emperor John was killed at Metema, Edmonds claimed that Ras Mangasha, whose army had been battered from the war with Sudanese rebels, didn't have a chance to challenge the fresh armies of Menelik or his right-hand man and cousin, Ras Makonnen. Also the position of the Ethiopia Orthodox Church was important. They would Menelik against an illegitimate son. So Ras Mangasha swallowed his disappointment and was content to remain as King of Tigre province.
Another monarch watcher, George Berkeley, who wrote a book, The Campaign of Adowa and The Rise of Menelik, in 1902, had his own views on Menelik.
BERKELEY: The most remarkable fact about Menelik's career is that although he has dominated a fighting nation like Ethiopia, he is himself by no means a warrior. Some Italian writers have even called him a coward, but his own description of himself is probably more accurate -- namely, that he is a man of peace who has several times been compelled to fight. It is in organizational and in diplomatic arts that he excels; he is careful, crafty, and perservering, the type of man to succeed in this world; and he is said to believe in his destiny.
The Menelik-era writer also related a story, told to him by an Italian army officer.
BERKELEY: He told me about Menelik's christening. His father, Ailu, came from the old royal stock that traced its descent to Menelik I, son of Solomon by the Queen of Sheba. Ailu was the oldest on of a great chief named Sahle Selassie, under whom Shoa attained its highest pitch of power. Now, Sahle Selassie's own name had been Menelik, but had he been warned by a monk to change it, or he would suffer great misfortune; he should,however, said the monk, call the son of his first-born by the name of Menelik, and the child so christened would one day be the conqueror of all Ethiopia and the greatest of all rulers since the days of Menelik I, son of Solomon. As soon as the slave girl gave birth to a boy, he was named Menelik. Throughout his life, Menelik had been attended by good fortune, so it seems as if this prophecy has been completely fulfilled. But if you're interested in his character, no description will have a better idea of it than the events that surround the Treaty of Wuchale (Uccialli).
9. A 'Lady MacBeth'
BIOGRAPHER LEONARD MOSLEY called Queen Taitu, Menelik's consort, a "Lady MacBeth."
The daughter of the ancient ruling house of Gondar, Taitu, in her youth was said to have had very light skin and to have been surprisingly beautiful.
On her 13th birthday, she was married to one of Theodore's generals, but Taitu deserted him after the fall of Magdala and married another general before she was 14.
He wasn't quite romantic enough for her and she deserted him to marry the governor of a northern province. At this time she came to the attention of Yohannes (John), who had her husband thrown in a dungeon, but Taitu -- who preferred to pick her lovers -- fled from the emperor to turn ip later married again to an officer in Menelik's army.
When Menelik saw her he got rid of his third wife, arranged a quick divorce for Taitu, and she became Queen of Shoa.
In Taitu, Menelik not only found a lover and a wife, but also a counsellor as adept at intrigue as he was.
It was said in later years that a lot of Menelik's success was due to his consort's shrewd advice.
Although Taitu had named her husband's new capital, Addis Ababa, it really was Menelik who picked the site, according to his chronicler, because his grandfather, King Sahle Selassie, had once predicted his gradson would some day return to build a city on the spot. Sahle apparently made the prediction after a local resident had given the king a horn of tej, the honey mead favored by the Ethiopians.
10. A Ras Named Makonnen
IF RAS ALULA was Mangasha of Tigre's "mind and arm," then Ras Makonnen's "pillar of strength." He was also the Emperor's special companion since he was a youngster and his first cousin.
Makonnen was born at Darafo Maryam in the Gola district on Saturday, May 8, 1852 to Princess Tenagne Worq, the daughter of Negus Sahle Selassie of Shoa and Dejazmatch Walda Mikael of the Doba and Manz nobility.
He stayed with his father for about 14 years during the time, Menelik, the son of Makonnen's uncle, Negus Haile Melakot, was still only the king of Shoa.
His father, Walda Mikael, then took him to Menelik and said: "Let this my son, your aunt's offspring. grow up with you in your place."
Menelik made Makonnen his special companion, quite apart from the obvious family ties.
He restored the ancient province of Harar to Ethiopia in 1886 and rose to the rank of ras in April 1890, after he returned from a celebrated Rome visit.
Before Yohannes' death, he suspected the Ottoman hold on Egypt was slipping. He was right. Sudan revolted under the guidance of the Mahdi -- the Guided One. As the government of Egypt collapsed, Britain moved in to keep order and became involved in fighting the Mahdi in Sufan. British troops were tied up in Egypt and also in sections of South Africa, so the British didn't try to hold Harar province in Ethiopia but evacuated Egyptian forces there in 1884.
The Emir Abdullah, son of the Arabic ruler of Harar before the Egyptians took control, was left in charge of the province.
Menelik, whose province of Shoa adjoined Harar, sent the Emir a message. He pointed out that Harar had always been considered an Ethiopian province. He was agreeable for the Abdullah to administer the provincial government, but the former land tax must be reinstated and paid to the king of Shoa.
The Emir sent Menelik a turban and a prayer rug along with an insulting letter suggesting the king of Shoa convert to Islam, "for only then will I consider you my master," he added. Menelik removed Abdullad without difficulty and then place Makonnen in charge of Harar in 1888.
In July 1892, a son was born to Makonnen near Harar. His name was Tafari and he would become the most famous emperor in Ethiopian history -- Haile Selassie I, the great-grandfather of Prince Stephen Mengesha.
11. Roman In The Emperor's Court
THE ITALIANS were opportunists.
In fact, they had their own man inside Menelik's Court.
His name was Count Antonelli.
A real charmer, with connections, for his uncle was the celebrated Cardinal Antonelli.
He had seen from the moment he arrived in Shoa, the future possibilities of the little kingdom.
With a keen grasp of the situation, he had become a good friend of Menelik's Queen Taitu and when he brought the monarch more tangible products of European civilization, he didn't forget Taitu, providing her with Parisian shoes and stockings.
The ambitious Antonelli was a firm believer in an alliance with Shoa. He had negotiated the first treaty in which Menelik was given rifles and ammunition and urged to defy Emperor John.
Now the prince of Tigre was dead and within a week in March 1889, Count Antonelli told Menelik he couldn't ask Rome to assist him without some kind of a "treaty of trade and friendship."
That document, to be known as the Treaty of Wuchale, named after a hamlet north of Dessie, and its disputed terms would be a lynchpin for future Ethiopian history.
It would ultimately become the immediate cause for the war that ended in the Battle of Adowa.
The bickering was just about to begin.
THE GLORY OF THE KING
Book Two: The Battle Of Adowa (In Progress)
PART ONE:
1. Before Adowa
BEFORE THEODORE'S dramatic suicide on Easter Monday, April 13, 1868, the most important of the minor kings was Menelik of Shoa, the area around present-day Addis Ababa.
Menelik had been captured by Theodore in 1855 when the emperor overran Shoa. The teenager had escaped several years later from the fortress at Magdala, and with the aid of the Gallas, who hated the emperor, he had regained the Shoa throne that belonged to his father.
Now Menelik had a very strong army, but was too prudent to attack Theodore himself; he stood back and waited for the British to defeat the emperor.
Following Theodore's death, Ethiopia had no emperor for three years and Menelik's ambition to gain the throne was impeded by other challengers -- Wagshum Gobaza, of Zagwe blood, who had proclaimed himself emperor under the throne name of Takle Giorgis II and Tigre's Prince Kassa.
Kassa had aided British commander Sir Robert Napier during his rescuing expedition of a number of Theodore-held prisoners from Magdala. When Napier left Ethiopia in May 1868, he gave the Tigrean prince guns, ammunitions and military supplies. These arms strengthened Kassa's 12,000 troops and they were easily able to defeat Gobaze's 60,000-man army in an 1871 battle.
Menelik, who had shown his sense of destiny by taking the throne name of the son of Solomon and Sheba, decided against challenging Prince Kassa, who declared himself King of Kings of Ethiopia and was crowned at Aksum, taking the throne name of Yohannes IV (John). While Emperor John had fought his way to the emperorship, Menelik ignored the struggles in the North and, acting on French advice, methodically set about conquering the rich Gallas country to the south and west of his kingdom. He bought modern equipment for his troops, and French adventurers, including the famed poet Rimbaud, did a furious business in outdated arms, which they bought in Europe for five-six francs and sold in Shoa for 40.
Although the new Negus was as brave as Theodore, possessing his virtues, but none of his vices, he never was given an opportunity to show his ability to develop the country.
The travellers of his generation were no longer freelancers like Bruce and Plowden, but bagmen with machines and western devices made in Birmingham and Leipzig and Lille and Brussels, and with a supply of blank treaty forms in their luggage. Through the whole of his reign he was almost ceaselessly distracted by the aspirations, military and commercial, of outside powers.
Egypt's ambitious and crafty Khedive Ismail, who harbored plans of conquerng Ethiopia, seized the whole of the Red Sea shore from under the shadowy suzerainty of Turkey, and by 1875 he had encircled John's territory on the east and south, and had occupied Berbera and Harar. He decided to attack John from the north, but the Ethiopians, fighting in the mountain country which suited them best, routed his two expeditions in 1875 and 1876.
The 1882 revolt of Arabi Pasha led to the bombardment of Alexandria and the British occupation. The Mahdist rebellion followed and by 1883 all the Sudan south of Khartoum was in hands of the Dervishes.
These disturbing neighbors didn't worry John at first; indeed, their victory might well prove an advantage, for on the strength of it in the British -- on whom the death of Gordon at Khartoum in 1884 seemed to make a disheartening impression -- advised the Egyptians to abandon all their southern conquests. When they evacuated Harar and the coast, it looked as if the obstacles to Ethiopian aggrandizment were melting unaided.
But they were only to be replaced by another menace. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 had turned the Red Sea from a cul-de-sac into a highway and had given a new importance to the coast.
The scramble for Africa was beginning, and the powers were becoming practised at unfurling flags.
The unwitting Emperor John was launched into the middle of an eternal triangle: Britain, France and Italy.
2. The Italians
IN 1869, a private Italian company had bought a trading station called Asab and a few years later it was taken over by the Rubbatino Shipping Company.
In 1882, the Italian government bought the port from the Company and sent a mission to Menelik in Shoa to conclude a trade treaty and to obtain his help in improving their colony.
As a late comer to the game, Italy was hungry for a piece of African territory, and Ethiopia, known to the Europeans as Abyssinia, with its interminable problems and occasional power vacuums, seemed to be ready for the picking.
In 1884, the British, for a short time, occupied the coast to be known as Eritrea, in order to evacuate certain Egyptian garrisons marooned by the Madhi in Sudan.
They sought Ethiopian help by promising Emperor John the ex-Egyptian territories behind Massawa.
The next year -- 1885 -- the British left, and at the same time encouraged and approved of Italy's occupation of further coastal towns, including Massawa, a move which brought them dangerously near to the newly-promised boundaries of Tigre.
John didn't object when the Italian staked a claim on the hot, humidly miserable lowlands along the Red Sea, but the situation changed abruptly when the Italians began trying to edge into the Ethiopian highlands.
Menelik had accepted guns and aid from the Italians in Somali, but he stood aloof as John challenged the encroachment from Massawa.
Skirmishes with the Ethiopians began to take place on the northern border and guerilla tactics, led by the mighty Ras Alula, wiped out the Italians at Dogli on Wednesday, January 26, 1887.
The defeat resulted in the evacuation of all up-country outposts.
The news trouble Rome.
Reinforcements were sent to Massawa.
Meanwhile, the British, disturbed at the prospect to war, sent Sir Gerald Portal to Shoa to try to preserve the peace, but to no avail.
The Italians marched inland, but before any battle took place they seemed to decide on new tactics.
They would bargain with Menelik against John.
3. A Ras Named Alula
ALTHOUGH THE BRITISH seemingly were willing to give away land, which didn't belong to them, to the Italians, a Tigrean ras, named Alula, stood his ground.
Alula was John's right-hand man, who sarcastically told the British emissary, Sir Gerald Portal: "The Italians can take Ethiopian land, but only after I become governor of Rome."
The son of a farmer, Alula, didn't have the advantages of the wealthy or influential, but his hard work moved him into a position of power. He would become one of Ethiopia's greatest leaders.
In later years, Portal would remember him, admirably, despite the fact, Alula had once imprisoned the British envoy.
Gerald Portal: He (Alula) was dressed in a long dark robe of purple silk, with, I think, some gold embroidery work on it. His head was uncovered save for his own curly hair, which he wore rather longer than was usual with Abyssinians, and not plaited in rows. His complexion was darker than most men of the Tigre mountains, being of a rich chocolate color. But, whatever, the color, the owner of that powerful, cruel and intelligent face would be bound to make his name known in any country, whether as a leader or destroyer of men. There's another striking peculiarity -- a pair of gleaming tawny eyes of much lighter color than the skin of his face. To these flashing yellow orbs whose effect was aided by a brilliant row of white regular teeth. I had seen such eyes in the head of a tiger and of a leopard, but never in that of a human being. On one side of the ras, on the divan, lay his curved sword, and on the other was a Martini-Henry carbine.
In Wylde's Abyssinia, the writer describes Alula like "an English gentleman, adding "I knew him for 20 years ... he never persecuted any man for his religion, which is a remarkable record."
Emperor Johnwas also furious at the British intrusion into Ethiopian land rights while encouraging and approving Italy's real estate grab. He wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, with these words: "How can you say that I shall hand over to the Italians the country which Jesus Christ gave to me? ... If your wish were to make peace between us, it should be when they are in their country and I in mine."
John was also extremely bitter at Menelik's refusal to help against the Italians.
In 1888, Emperor John from the northern province of Tigre had tried to gain a close relationship with the Shoan king, Menelik, by proposing a marriage between John's 12-year-old son, Araya, and Menelik's six-year-old daughter, Zawditu.
Menelik, at first, objected because he believed his daughter was too young.
On the wedding day, which was filled with pomp and splendor, Zawditu's gold cloth-covered tent was surrounded by some of the most beautiful women in Ethiopia. Cannons covered the area with thick smoke, and through the haze, came a procession of at least 500 slaves, 5,000 cattle and thousands of individual costly articles.
However, before the year was out, Araya died of poisoning, and a conciliation between the North and the South disintegrated because Menelik and the Italians were still gun dealing.
The real riff between Menelik and John festered into an open wound when the Emperor named his illegitimate son by his brother's wife, Mangasha, as his heir and successor, instead of Menelik.
The king of Shoa would have to wait for another day before ascending to the throne.
4. The Day John Died
ON THURSDAY, January 12, 1888, the Dervishes had come to Gondar, destroying all its Christian churches and killing both the clergy and people.
When Emperor John heard of the slaughter, he sent Negus Tekle Haimanot of Gojjam as his avenging angel, and his 100,000 men defeated them on the Field of Metema.
The ruler of Sudan sent out 80,000 men, under the leadership of Angah, and this time Tekle Haimanot was defeated and his daughter captured.
John wanted Ethiopia to have one religion and he decreed that all Moslems accept the Christian faith, and he even forced them to take communion. Those who refused were punished severely and sent away to the Sudan or regions around the Red Sea as refugees. As a result, these refugees wanted to attack the emperor at every opportune time.
After King Tekle Haimanot lost, he became dissatisfied and joined with Menelik and refused to cooperate with Emperor John, who proposed to go to Gojjam and Shoa to unite them through disciplinary action, or, if necessary, by force, but his advisers urged him against fighting with his own brothers while the country had outside enemies.
He listened to their advice and on Saturday, March 9, 1889, he went to Metema.
John had personally taken to the field along with Ras Mangasha, Ras Mikael and Ras Alula, who had been responsible for fighting the Italians above Massawa.
During the March battle, the Ethiopians smashed the Sudanese fortifications, but a stray Mahdist bullet struck John in the stomach.
At dawn on Monday, Match 11, 1889, he gathered all his chiefs around him and solemnly acknowledged Mangasha as his son and heir and put him in their care, particularly his trusted ras, Alula.
And then he died.
5. A Very Gross Act
JOHN's FAMILY, along with the bishops, placed the Emperor's body in a coffin.
However, the Dervishes seized it; took the body out of the coffin and beheaded it.
His head was taken to their leader in The Sudan, Anduruhman Calif Abdulahi, together with a gold watch, a gold-covered Bible, a letter that had been sent to him by Queen Victoria, and a pair of eyeglasses.
The Calif prepared a great feast and put the emperor's head on a stick and paraded it through his marketplace while the Calif rode on a camel, demonstrating his victory.
STEPHEN MENGESHA: My great grandfather, Emperor Yohannes IV, went to battle against the Dervish. He ruled from 1872 to 1889. The Dervish were then in power, in what is present-day Sudan. Yohannes lost his life as the infidels tried to conquer his Christian kingdom. He was killed by the Dervishes of the Mahdi in 189 at the Great Battle of Metema. Remember the movie, Khartoum? Well, when the Muslims -- the Dervishes -- reached the city of Gondar, they pillaged it. They burned all the churches and tried to convert the priests to the religion of Islam. Emperor Yohannes was wounded and died. The Dervishes came and exhumed the Emperor's body and once it was identified, decapitated him and put his head on a stick and were dancing in Khartoum. It was a big celebration for Islam, in slaying the Christian king.
It had been a fitting end for the Emperor to die at the moment of victory; but it was a terrible misfortune for this country.
At the time, Ethiopia was surrounded by enemies: John had disposed of the Dervishes, but the Italians remained at Massawa on the northeast frontier while in the south, Menelik of Shoa had allied himself with the Italians.
Menelik sent his man, Seyum, into Tigre while General Baldissera, rushed down and occupied the northern towns of Asmera and Keren.
When the old warrior, Alula, returned from Metema, he hunted down Seyum.
Although Mangasha and Alula, considered to be his "mind and arm," realized that three of their northern territories were in the grip of the Italians, they began to gradually assert their authority in Tigre.
6. The Rise Of Menelik
NO SOONER did the news of John's death on the Field of Metema reach Shoa than both Menelik and the Italians took advantage of the anarchy which followed.
Proclaiming himself Emperor on Tuesday, March 26, 1889, Menelik had no serious rival. He was able to trace his descent to the daughter of King David (1508-40), meaning he belonged to the Solomonic line; he was also the most outstanding personality among the rases; and the best argument of all, he had the Shoan army at his back.
The other claimant, Ras Mangahsa in Tigre, had no material advantage to offer.
With customary prudence, however, he determined not to act alone, and once turned for support to his Italian allies; here, obviously, was an opportunity for negotiation.
However, the Italians and Menelik would eventually go to war over the interpretation of a clause in their "peace and trade" alliance -- the Treaty of Wuchale (Uccialli).
The war would be Ethiopia's greatest military triumph and be the first - and only time - an African nation defeated a European colonial power.
The Battle of Adowa of 1896 was fought less than 20 miles from Aksum, where the Ark of the Covenant, the Very Essence of God, supposedly lies in a chapel next to St. Mary of Zion Church.
Aksum in the province of Tigre was also the sacred place where Ethiopian emperors were anointed and crowned for generations. Menelik, who was from Shoa and therefore an "enemy" of Tigre, for they believed they had the absolute right to rule Ethiopia, had to wait for his coronation day in the holy city.
7. A Place Called New Flower
FROM THE late 1870s, Menelik began to show interest in the region in which Addis Ababa is located and headquartered the royal camp at several sites in the area.
His first major settlement was established on the slopes of Mount Wuchacha, west of the present settlement, but he soon moved northwards, and set up his camp near the summit of Entoto Mountain, a choice determined by strategic considerations. It was here he created a palace.
The next important building to be constructed at Entoto was the Church of Maryam, a circular structure, the foundations for which were laid in 1885.
It was in this Church of Maryam that Menelik was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in November 1889. Even today, there's an effigy of the old monarch on its walls.
Entoto, as Menelik's capital, rapidly acquired a considerable population.
At the turn of the century, the British game-hunter and ethnographer, P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, described it as a "populous city," while his compatriot, Herbert Vivian, believed that it "must have comprised 50,000 souls."
The site, which had initially been selected as a fortress, wasn't suitable as a capital for more peaceful times.
Because of inclement weather much of the time on Entoto, Menelik and Queen Taitu used to ride down to the Plain of Filwoha - Amharic for "hot springs." Thermal springs, literally bubbled from the ground.
They paid their first visit there in 1885.
Queen Taitu asked her husband to give land on which to build her house. Taitu decided the place should be known as Addis Ababa, meaning New Flower.
Work on Menelik's palace began early in 1889, some months before his coronation as Emperor at Entoto, and the first stone buildings were erected in 1891. Menelik's original palace at Addis Ababa,however, was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1892, but was soon rebuilt. No fewer than 50 structures in the palace compound were erected within three months, and by 1894 the entire palace complex was virtually restored.
8. The Monarch Watchers
THE NEW emperor was a remarkable man, according to I.G. Edmonds in his informative book, Ethiopia -- Land of the Conquering Lion of Judah.
EDMONDS: He was described as being very dark of skin but tall and regally imposing. As a child he had been imprisoned on Amba Magdala by Emperor Theodore because he was of Solomonic blood and a possible candidate for the throne. Theodore was fond of the young man and treated him well, but Menelik -- conscious of his own destiny -- managed to escape from Magdala two years before Napier stormed the citadel. He had made his way to Shoa where he was sheltered by the Gallas, who hated Theodore. Through the influence of Galla friends, Menelik conquered Kaffa, a Galla province adjoining Uganda and Sudan. Other independent provinces and principalities along his borders also fell to the Ethiopia monarch.
After Emperor John was killed at Metema, Edmonds claimed that Ras Mangasha, whose army had been battered from the war with Sudanese rebels, didn't have a chance to challenge the fresh armies of Menelik or his right-hand man and cousin, Ras Makonnen. Also the position of the Ethiopia Orthodox Church was important. They would Menelik against an illegitimate son. So Ras Mangasha swallowed his disappointment and was content to remain as King of Tigre province.
Another monarch watcher, George Berkeley, who wrote a book, The Campaign of Adowa and The Rise of Menelik, in 1902, had his own views on Menelik.
BERKELEY: The most remarkable fact about Menelik's career is that although he has dominated a fighting nation like Ethiopia, he is himself by no means a warrior. Some Italian writers have even called him a coward, but his own description of himself is probably more accurate -- namely, that he is a man of peace who has several times been compelled to fight. It is in organizational and in diplomatic arts that he excels; he is careful, crafty, and perservering, the type of man to succeed in this world; and he is said to believe in his destiny.
The Menelik-era writer also related a story, told to him by an Italian army officer.
BERKELEY: He told me about Menelik's christening. His father, Ailu, came from the old royal stock that traced its descent to Menelik I, son of Solomon by the Queen of Sheba. Ailu was the oldest on of a great chief named Sahle Selassie, under whom Shoa attained its highest pitch of power. Now, Sahle Selassie's own name had been Menelik, but had he been warned by a monk to change it, or he would suffer great misfortune; he should,however, said the monk, call the son of his first-born by the name of Menelik, and the child so christened would one day be the conqueror of all Ethiopia and the greatest of all rulers since the days of Menelik I, son of Solomon. As soon as the slave girl gave birth to a boy, he was named Menelik. Throughout his life, Menelik had been attended by good fortune, so it seems as if this prophecy has been completely fulfilled. But if you're interested in his character, no description will have a better idea of it than the events that surround the Treaty of Wuchale (Uccialli).
9. A 'Lady MacBeth'
BIOGRAPHER LEONARD MOSLEY called Queen Taitu, Menelik's consort, a "Lady MacBeth."
The daughter of the ancient ruling house of Gondar, Taitu, in her youth was said to have had very light skin and to have been surprisingly beautiful.
On her 13th birthday, she was married to one of Theodore's generals, but Taitu deserted him after the fall of Magdala and married another general before she was 14.
He wasn't quite romantic enough for her and she deserted him to marry the governor of a northern province. At this time she came to the attention of Yohannes (John), who had her husband thrown in a dungeon, but Taitu -- who preferred to pick her lovers -- fled from the emperor to turn ip later married again to an officer in Menelik's army.
When Menelik saw her he got rid of his third wife, arranged a quick divorce for Taitu, and she became Queen of Shoa.
In Taitu, Menelik not only found a lover and a wife, but also a counsellor as adept at intrigue as he was.
It was said in later years that a lot of Menelik's success was due to his consort's shrewd advice.
Although Taitu had named her husband's new capital, Addis Ababa, it really was Menelik who picked the site, according to his chronicler, because his grandfather, King Sahle Selassie, had once predicted his gradson would some day return to build a city on the spot. Sahle apparently made the prediction after a local resident had given the king a horn of tej, the honey mead favored by the Ethiopians.
10. A Ras Named Makonnen
IF RAS ALULA was Mangasha of Tigre's "mind and arm," then Ras Makonnen's "pillar of strength." He was also the Emperor's special companion since he was a youngster and his first cousin.
Makonnen was born at Darafo Maryam in the Gola district on Saturday, May 8, 1852 to Princess Tenagne Worq, the daughter of Negus Sahle Selassie of Shoa and Dejazmatch Walda Mikael of the Doba and Manz nobility.
He stayed with his father for about 14 years during the time, Menelik, the son of Makonnen's uncle, Negus Haile Melakot, was still only the king of Shoa.
His father, Walda Mikael, then took him to Menelik and said: "Let this my son, your aunt's offspring. grow up with you in your place."
Menelik made Makonnen his special companion, quite apart from the obvious family ties.
He restored the ancient province of Harar to Ethiopia in 1886 and rose to the rank of ras in April 1890, after he returned from a celebrated Rome visit.
Before Yohannes' death, he suspected the Ottoman hold on Egypt was slipping. He was right. Sudan revolted under the guidance of the Mahdi -- the Guided One. As the government of Egypt collapsed, Britain moved in to keep order and became involved in fighting the Mahdi in Sufan. British troops were tied up in Egypt and also in sections of South Africa, so the British didn't try to hold Harar province in Ethiopia but evacuated Egyptian forces there in 1884.
The Emir Abdullah, son of the Arabic ruler of Harar before the Egyptians took control, was left in charge of the province.
Menelik, whose province of Shoa adjoined Harar, sent the Emir a message. He pointed out that Harar had always been considered an Ethiopian province. He was agreeable for the Abdullah to administer the provincial government, but the former land tax must be reinstated and paid to the king of Shoa.
The Emir sent Menelik a turban and a prayer rug along with an insulting letter suggesting the king of Shoa convert to Islam, "for only then will I consider you my master," he added. Menelik removed Abdullad without difficulty and then place Makonnen in charge of Harar in 1888.
In July 1892, a son was born to Makonnen near Harar. His name was Tafari and he would become the most famous emperor in Ethiopian history -- Haile Selassie I, the great-grandfather of Prince Stephen Mengesha.
11. Roman In The Emperor's Court
THE ITALIANS were opportunists.
In fact, they had their own man inside Menelik's Court.
His name was Count Antonelli.
A real charmer, with connections, for his uncle was the celebrated Cardinal Antonelli.
He had seen from the moment he arrived in Shoa, the future possibilities of the little kingdom.
With a keen grasp of the situation, he had become a good friend of Menelik's Queen Taitu and when he brought the monarch more tangible products of European civilization, he didn't forget Taitu, providing her with Parisian shoes and stockings.
The ambitious Antonelli was a firm believer in an alliance with Shoa. He had negotiated the first treaty in which Menelik was given rifles and ammunition and urged to defy Emperor John.
Now the prince of Tigre was dead and within a week in March 1889, Count Antonelli told Menelik he couldn't ask Rome to assist him without some kind of a "treaty of trade and friendship."
That document, to be known as the Treaty of Wuchale, named after a hamlet north of Dessie, and its disputed terms would be a lynchpin for future Ethiopian history.
It would ultimately become the immediate cause for the war that ended in the Battle of Adowa.
The bickering was just about to begin.
Foreword
ETHIOPIA HAS A GREAT LEGEND concerning King Solomon of Israel and the Queen of Sheba, whose name was Makeda and also Saba, for she was known by both names. There's some dispute, however, whether she was the Queen of Aksum and the Land of Sheba (which also included the southern Arabian peninsula), but she definitely settled in Aksum.
Of course, Makeda wasn't the first emperor or empress of Ethiopia, but there's a story that her father, Agabos, became ruler after he killed the King Cobra, which was an object of worship with the people sacrificing their children to it.
Agabos was succeeded by his daughter, Makeda, who visited Solomon in Jerusalem and they had a son whose name was Menelik (also Ibna Hakim, Bayna-Lehkem and David II) and he's the reason for the Ethiopian claim to the Solomonic Dynasty and it was this Menelik, who brought the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Aksum some 3,000 years ago.
This is found in the Kebra Negast (The Glory of the Kings of Ethiopia), which is an historical account of how Menelik and the sons of Jewish noblemen and the priest Zadok took the Ark and replaced it in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Later, the High Priest recognized that the Ark in the Temple is a replica and not the real thing, particularly, after the Israelites went to war with it and lost. Previously, they had never lost a war when they took the Ark with them.
Zadok then realized who the culprit was, but he wasn't about to implicate his son, Azariah. So he says, "it's lost."
It's never found in Israeli history after that. It simply disappears. This whole thing was hush-hush. It was completely forgotten.
ON THE ABYSSINIAN SIDE, it became very evident from the time of Menelik that there was great rejoicing when the Ark was brought to Aksum.
Again it's a challenge to any scholar to say what if it wasn't a fake; that Menelik didn't actually bring it to Ethiopia.
Ethiopian chronicles relate a lot of miracles that were performed because of its presence and it continued to gain great respect, so much so that emperor after emperor has come to acknowledge the presence of the Ark and bring their crowns to Aksum because they believe that's the place where they come face to face with their Creator.
The only one higher up than the Emperor of Ethiopia was the Creator and they believed the presence of the Ark was a justifiable cause to offer their crown. Its magnitude starts building into the nation's history; into church history and into the heritage of the country.
TODAY, I BELIEVE it is of monumental importance, for the building of the Third Temple, the cornerstone of the revival of the Jewish faith and the coming of all Jews to Israel.
It has been pursued by various people throughout history prior to the Italian occupation of Ethiopia and during the Italian occupation (through the auspicies of the Roman Catholic Church) during the late 1930s and even after the restoration of my great grandfather, Emperor Haile Selassie, to the throne.
They're still looking for it even today.
Of course, Makeda wasn't the first emperor or empress of Ethiopia, but there's a story that her father, Agabos, became ruler after he killed the King Cobra, which was an object of worship with the people sacrificing their children to it.
Agabos was succeeded by his daughter, Makeda, who visited Solomon in Jerusalem and they had a son whose name was Menelik (also Ibna Hakim, Bayna-Lehkem and David II) and he's the reason for the Ethiopian claim to the Solomonic Dynasty and it was this Menelik, who brought the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Aksum some 3,000 years ago.
This is found in the Kebra Negast (The Glory of the Kings of Ethiopia), which is an historical account of how Menelik and the sons of Jewish noblemen and the priest Zadok took the Ark and replaced it in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Later, the High Priest recognized that the Ark in the Temple is a replica and not the real thing, particularly, after the Israelites went to war with it and lost. Previously, they had never lost a war when they took the Ark with them.
Zadok then realized who the culprit was, but he wasn't about to implicate his son, Azariah. So he says, "it's lost."
It's never found in Israeli history after that. It simply disappears. This whole thing was hush-hush. It was completely forgotten.
ON THE ABYSSINIAN SIDE, it became very evident from the time of Menelik that there was great rejoicing when the Ark was brought to Aksum.
Again it's a challenge to any scholar to say what if it wasn't a fake; that Menelik didn't actually bring it to Ethiopia.
Ethiopian chronicles relate a lot of miracles that were performed because of its presence and it continued to gain great respect, so much so that emperor after emperor has come to acknowledge the presence of the Ark and bring their crowns to Aksum because they believe that's the place where they come face to face with their Creator.
The only one higher up than the Emperor of Ethiopia was the Creator and they believed the presence of the Ark was a justifiable cause to offer their crown. Its magnitude starts building into the nation's history; into church history and into the heritage of the country.
TODAY, I BELIEVE it is of monumental importance, for the building of the Third Temple, the cornerstone of the revival of the Jewish faith and the coming of all Jews to Israel.
It has been pursued by various people throughout history prior to the Italian occupation of Ethiopia and during the Italian occupation (through the auspicies of the Roman Catholic Church) during the late 1930s and even after the restoration of my great grandfather, Emperor Haile Selassie, to the throne.
They're still looking for it even today.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Corbett's ID*: From Pulpit To End Zone
THERE WAS A GNAWING in the pit of my stomach. At 3 in the morning. And it wasn't from The Missus' cooking.
No, the cause of this severe case of stomach acidity started in the pulpit on Sunday. Now before you think I'm criticizing my pastor's preaching -- heaven forbid -- it was the subject matter he brought up, which deserves at least a few groans.
It involved three words: 'The Golden Compass.' There I've said it.
In the past, the Ol' Columnist has attempted to lay waste to such deplorable flicks/books as 'The DaVinci Code', but TGC apparently goes beyond and like another questionable legacy, known as Harry Potter, it spreads its anti-Christian theme among the younger generation.
Now, I'm certain our resident movie genius will have his own take on TGC, but for me, this film with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig is unadultered trash without ever seeing it. The reason for making such a statement is that it's based on Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials.
Pullman makes no apologies and he's already been quoted as saying: "I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief."
While there have been a battery of ground wars throughout the planet, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan -- there has been a spiritual conflict between the forces of good and evil. And it has become more and more evident with the barrage of books and movies denouncing a person's faith and trying to "crucify" their beliefs.
Of course, it's time that congregations of believers stood up and declare themselves rather than let the likes of Pullman drag them down into a pit of burning embers.
Atheists have been spewing their "faith" among the naive, now being led by Pullman, who apparently believes the "afterlife consists of bodies breaking into particles and being recycled into the material world," while the tenets of the Christian faith are being forgotten and being dismissed as "fantasy."
One of the strongest critics of Pullman's books and the film was Focus On The Family's Adam Holz, who called them "a deliberate attempt to foist his viciously anti-God beliefs upon his audience."
Holz also went on to claim that other messages in the story had praise for "witchcraft, evolution, divination, homosexuality and premarital sex."
Meanwhile, Terry Sanderson, president of Britain's National Secular Society, criticized TGC and its director, Chris Weitz, for removing the "anti-religious elements from Pullman's book." Sanderson told The Guardian: "They are taking the heart out of it, losing the point of it, castrating it." Pullman, incidentally, is one of the society's honorary associates.
***
AND SPEAKING OF RELIGION: Some people will use any excuse to be complete jerks. So it's not a sophisticated word, but it fits the British government with their weak response to those Sudanese sword-wielding criminals after they threatened the very life of British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons over a teddy bear. Has the world gone completely insane? If it had been called George, would all the Georges of the world seek revenge by calling for a marshmallow-tossing revolution?
***
INJUSTICES IN THE SPORTS WHIRL: Perhaps you missed it, but everyone from Rocco Roman to Pierre Vercheval were inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame in September. And there have been 12 commissioners from Syd Halter to Mark Cohon, but still two of the most illustrious players in league history -- Dick Thornton and Mel Profit -- have been left out in the cold. Why? Could it be they were unafraid to voice their opinions concerning what they considered were "Mickey Mouse" tactics in running the league? Sorry for bringing up your name, Mickey.
No, the cause of this severe case of stomach acidity started in the pulpit on Sunday. Now before you think I'm criticizing my pastor's preaching -- heaven forbid -- it was the subject matter he brought up, which deserves at least a few groans.
It involved three words: 'The Golden Compass.' There I've said it.
In the past, the Ol' Columnist has attempted to lay waste to such deplorable flicks/books as 'The DaVinci Code', but TGC apparently goes beyond and like another questionable legacy, known as Harry Potter, it spreads its anti-Christian theme among the younger generation.
Now, I'm certain our resident movie genius will have his own take on TGC, but for me, this film with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig is unadultered trash without ever seeing it. The reason for making such a statement is that it's based on Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials.
Pullman makes no apologies and he's already been quoted as saying: "I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief."
While there have been a battery of ground wars throughout the planet, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan -- there has been a spiritual conflict between the forces of good and evil. And it has become more and more evident with the barrage of books and movies denouncing a person's faith and trying to "crucify" their beliefs.
Of course, it's time that congregations of believers stood up and declare themselves rather than let the likes of Pullman drag them down into a pit of burning embers.
Atheists have been spewing their "faith" among the naive, now being led by Pullman, who apparently believes the "afterlife consists of bodies breaking into particles and being recycled into the material world," while the tenets of the Christian faith are being forgotten and being dismissed as "fantasy."
One of the strongest critics of Pullman's books and the film was Focus On The Family's Adam Holz, who called them "a deliberate attempt to foist his viciously anti-God beliefs upon his audience."
Holz also went on to claim that other messages in the story had praise for "witchcraft, evolution, divination, homosexuality and premarital sex."
Meanwhile, Terry Sanderson, president of Britain's National Secular Society, criticized TGC and its director, Chris Weitz, for removing the "anti-religious elements from Pullman's book." Sanderson told The Guardian: "They are taking the heart out of it, losing the point of it, castrating it." Pullman, incidentally, is one of the society's honorary associates.
***
AND SPEAKING OF RELIGION: Some people will use any excuse to be complete jerks. So it's not a sophisticated word, but it fits the British government with their weak response to those Sudanese sword-wielding criminals after they threatened the very life of British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons over a teddy bear. Has the world gone completely insane? If it had been called George, would all the Georges of the world seek revenge by calling for a marshmallow-tossing revolution?
***
INJUSTICES IN THE SPORTS WHIRL: Perhaps you missed it, but everyone from Rocco Roman to Pierre Vercheval were inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame in September. And there have been 12 commissioners from Syd Halter to Mark Cohon, but still two of the most illustrious players in league history -- Dick Thornton and Mel Profit -- have been left out in the cold. Why? Could it be they were unafraid to voice their opinions concerning what they considered were "Mickey Mouse" tactics in running the league? Sorry for bringing up your name, Mickey.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Warning: Enemies within the gates
IT WAS LIKE a devastating punch to the solar plexus. The unthinkable could happen.
As a former Middle East Bureau chief for a major news-gathering organization, based in Jerusalem, word that parts of that Israeli city were up for grabs sent shivers up and down my spine.
I, at first thought it was just a nightmare and I'd wake up soon, but it seems feasible that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has placed Jerusalem, or some of it, on the bargaining table in an effort to appease the Palestinians and the likes of Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), who succeeded the vicious Yasser Arafat.
And Olmert has been quoted as believing that "the current Palestinian leadership is not a terrorist leadership."
Present-day Israeli politicians, such as Olmert, must never forget the atrocities committed against the Jews by supposed "civilized" people from the past; the more than six million, who died during Hitler's reign of terror.
Of course, the Jews have suffered through atrocity after atrocity for some 1,900 years, and should never, never give away The Land for what could prove to be just smoke and mirrors.
On Monday, the Arabic Al Quds Al-Arabiya stated Olmert had agreed that Arabs in eastern Jerusalem would be granted Jordanian citizenship. In addition, Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon has advocated the Palestinian Authority be allowed to make its capital somewhere in East Jerusalem, according to Bill Wilson of Koenig's International News.
And in a supposed age of mass communications, this possible "enemy" takeover has only been met with silence, both within Israel and in the rest of the world. As one observer wrote: "There have been no rallies, no mass demonstrations, no expressions of outrage by American Jewish organizations -- just one big yawn."
While Olmert has had his own problems in recent court proceedings, it appears as if his close aide and friend, Ramon, is leading the charge for dividing Jerusalem and also "his own plan to hand over half of the city to the Palestinian Authority (PA), not to Jordan," according to Hana Levi Julian.
She also quoted National Union Knesset Member Tzvi Hendel, who railed: "I realized a long time ago to my sorrow that there was no doubt Olmert would divide Jerusalem. Today it has become clear that even the Temple Mount is on the sales sheet for destruction."
So, obviously, this division includes the Muslim-controlled Temple Mount and even the Western Wall, the "heart of hearts of the Jewish people," in Jerusalem.
In the same article, Julian pointed out that Olmert's leanings towards dividing the city was in contradiction to his promise he made to Christian Zionists last year.
It would appear Olmert is now siding with the Americans' scheme to give equal shares to both the Jews and the Arabs in a so-called "peace" initiative. However, in this observer's opinion, such a giveaway would only allow terrorist organizations such as Hamas a strategic foothold in its vile effort to actually wipe Israel off the face of the map. And all this would be done with Iran's Ahmadinejad smirking in the background.
The combination of the U.S. and Olmert's weak leadership, seemingly, knows no bounds in giving up The Land, a sliver of a nation given to them by Almighty God, according to the Bible. It's a belief held by millions of Jews and Christians throughout the world.
Former Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has voiced his concerns in response to Olmert's recent speech in the Knesset.
"Olmert will place Hamas men on the walls of Jerusalem," Netanyahu was quoted in the Israel Insider, adding, "Jerusalem will fast become a pilgrimage site for terrorists from all over the world. Handing over half of Jerusalem to the Palestinians would render the other half uninhabitable ... The town's square will once again stand empty."
Netanyahu, also in the same Israel Insider article, claimed ceding parts of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinians would enable Hamas to fire rockets at Tel Aviv and elsewhere.
While Netanyahu has held the belief Iran's long-range scheme would be the annihilation of Israel and then the U.S., which could include Canada, it might not have to be done by force, but by such benign subterfuge as first taking over Jerusalem with soft-pedalled diplomatic words.
The words from Psalm 137, the song of the exiled children of Israel, sung by the waters of Babylon, should never be forgotten:
How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand
forget her cunning.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth;
if I prefer not Jerusalem above my highest joys.
As a former Middle East Bureau chief for a major news-gathering organization, based in Jerusalem, word that parts of that Israeli city were up for grabs sent shivers up and down my spine.
I, at first thought it was just a nightmare and I'd wake up soon, but it seems feasible that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has placed Jerusalem, or some of it, on the bargaining table in an effort to appease the Palestinians and the likes of Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), who succeeded the vicious Yasser Arafat.
And Olmert has been quoted as believing that "the current Palestinian leadership is not a terrorist leadership."
Present-day Israeli politicians, such as Olmert, must never forget the atrocities committed against the Jews by supposed "civilized" people from the past; the more than six million, who died during Hitler's reign of terror.
Of course, the Jews have suffered through atrocity after atrocity for some 1,900 years, and should never, never give away The Land for what could prove to be just smoke and mirrors.
On Monday, the Arabic Al Quds Al-Arabiya stated Olmert had agreed that Arabs in eastern Jerusalem would be granted Jordanian citizenship. In addition, Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon has advocated the Palestinian Authority be allowed to make its capital somewhere in East Jerusalem, according to Bill Wilson of Koenig's International News.
And in a supposed age of mass communications, this possible "enemy" takeover has only been met with silence, both within Israel and in the rest of the world. As one observer wrote: "There have been no rallies, no mass demonstrations, no expressions of outrage by American Jewish organizations -- just one big yawn."
While Olmert has had his own problems in recent court proceedings, it appears as if his close aide and friend, Ramon, is leading the charge for dividing Jerusalem and also "his own plan to hand over half of the city to the Palestinian Authority (PA), not to Jordan," according to Hana Levi Julian.
She also quoted National Union Knesset Member Tzvi Hendel, who railed: "I realized a long time ago to my sorrow that there was no doubt Olmert would divide Jerusalem. Today it has become clear that even the Temple Mount is on the sales sheet for destruction."
So, obviously, this division includes the Muslim-controlled Temple Mount and even the Western Wall, the "heart of hearts of the Jewish people," in Jerusalem.
In the same article, Julian pointed out that Olmert's leanings towards dividing the city was in contradiction to his promise he made to Christian Zionists last year.
It would appear Olmert is now siding with the Americans' scheme to give equal shares to both the Jews and the Arabs in a so-called "peace" initiative. However, in this observer's opinion, such a giveaway would only allow terrorist organizations such as Hamas a strategic foothold in its vile effort to actually wipe Israel off the face of the map. And all this would be done with Iran's Ahmadinejad smirking in the background.
The combination of the U.S. and Olmert's weak leadership, seemingly, knows no bounds in giving up The Land, a sliver of a nation given to them by Almighty God, according to the Bible. It's a belief held by millions of Jews and Christians throughout the world.
Former Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has voiced his concerns in response to Olmert's recent speech in the Knesset.
"Olmert will place Hamas men on the walls of Jerusalem," Netanyahu was quoted in the Israel Insider, adding, "Jerusalem will fast become a pilgrimage site for terrorists from all over the world. Handing over half of Jerusalem to the Palestinians would render the other half uninhabitable ... The town's square will once again stand empty."
Netanyahu, also in the same Israel Insider article, claimed ceding parts of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinians would enable Hamas to fire rockets at Tel Aviv and elsewhere.
While Netanyahu has held the belief Iran's long-range scheme would be the annihilation of Israel and then the U.S., which could include Canada, it might not have to be done by force, but by such benign subterfuge as first taking over Jerusalem with soft-pedalled diplomatic words.
The words from Psalm 137, the song of the exiled children of Israel, sung by the waters of Babylon, should never be forgotten:
How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand
forget her cunning.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth;
if I prefer not Jerusalem above my highest joys.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
From Ahmadinejad To Ramage Trial
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD has blood on his hands. And no matter how revisionists, including those in the United Nations and at Columbia University, try to dull the senses with their rhetoric, this Iranian terrorist had no business on our side of the pond. And while Columbia president Lee Bolinger tried to belittle Ahmadinejad with his introductory remarks, nevertheless, the question remains: Why was this Madman even invited?
Why would anyone want to listen to this little demon, one filled with hate and destruction, including wiping Israel off the map and then annihilating the United States? There are those that would believe that Canada would be safe if there was such a (nuclear) confrontation between the U.S. and Iran. But that really is questionable, not when the N word is so freely used.
Ahmadinejad is a liar and a fraud and such despicable words as Israel being "vanished from the pages of time" must naw at the innards of any sane person.
As someone who has worked as an investigative reporter in The Land, the threat as posed by Ahmadinejad is real and countless people within the Jewish state are concerned with that creep's threats. And yet the U.S. and its liberal bent tolerate such a demonic presence.
Again, this columnist asks the question: Why?
***
The second question for today has to be: Why are 2,500 Canadians still in southern Afghanistan?
Now, the warriors would offer the premise that we are saving a civilization and silencing terrorists in that war-torn country. Perhaps, that's true, but the question still remains: Are we, as Canadians, willing to sacrifice our elite troops? Are we?
That question came to mind Tuesday after learning of the death of Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, a 24-year-old reservist with the King's Own Calgary regiment.
Cpl. Hornburg was hit by a mortar shell and quoting from a CBC News report, "he was fixing a truck that had fallen off the Leopard tank in the Panjwaii district, about 47 kilometres west of Kandahar city."
Of course, the questions as to why we are there must be answered in time for 71 Canadians and one diplomat have been killed and our military machinery with the endorsement of Canadian PM Harper plan to stay there until at least 2009 and, undoubtedly, beyond.
Why? Is it to "rebuild the democratic process"? And at what cost, Ottawa? More lives of our elite?
Just in the past few months, the final bell has tolled for the likes of Hornburg, Maj. Raymond Ruckpaul, Master Warrant Officer Mario Mercier, Master Cpl. Christian Duchesne, Pte. Simon Longtin, Cpl. Jordan Anderson, Cpl. Cole Bartsch, Master Cpl. Cpl. Colin Bason and the list goes on and on.
Why? And for what?
***
And then there are those why? questions in the playpen of life -- sports.
Mike Tyson, once tagged as the Baddest Man on the Planet, will probably be just a prisoner number, for his trangressions -- and soon.
Why?
Well, Tyson could land back behind bars for a lengthy stretch after being convicted in an Arizona court. He nearly crashed his vehicle into a cop car and, in turn, they uncovered cocaine and marijuana. Of course, Tyson, the one-time feared world heavyweight champion, has been in deep trouble before. He spent three years in an Indiana cell after a rape conviction back in 1992 and also three months in 1999 for assault charges in Maryland.
Why? What a sad case and he's only 41.
***
Then there's former Boston all-star shortstop Jose Offerman, who has seen action with Philadelphia, New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers.
On Aug. 14, Offerman apparently went off the deep end and attacked a pitcher and catcher while playing for the Atlantic League's Long Island Ducks. The 38-year-old was nailed with two counts of second-degree assault and Monday in Bridgeport, Conn. he pleaded not guilty. He'll be back in court Oct. 17.
Why? It appears to be a case of diamond rage.
***
Finally, 48-year-old Rob Ramage has been in a Newmarket, Ont. courtroom the past few days. The former Toronto Maple Leaf player has pleaded not guilty to five criminal charges.
On Dec. 15, 2003, Ramage was driving a rental car in Woodbridge, Ont. and collided with a Nissan Pathfinder, driven by Michelle Pacheco. Rampage's passenger, former Chicago Blackhawks star Keith Magnuson, was killed and Pacheco was injured in the head-on crash.
Why? Among the charges against Rampage were impaired and dangerous driving.
Why would anyone want to listen to this little demon, one filled with hate and destruction, including wiping Israel off the map and then annihilating the United States? There are those that would believe that Canada would be safe if there was such a (nuclear) confrontation between the U.S. and Iran. But that really is questionable, not when the N word is so freely used.
Ahmadinejad is a liar and a fraud and such despicable words as Israel being "vanished from the pages of time" must naw at the innards of any sane person.
As someone who has worked as an investigative reporter in The Land, the threat as posed by Ahmadinejad is real and countless people within the Jewish state are concerned with that creep's threats. And yet the U.S. and its liberal bent tolerate such a demonic presence.
Again, this columnist asks the question: Why?
***
The second question for today has to be: Why are 2,500 Canadians still in southern Afghanistan?
Now, the warriors would offer the premise that we are saving a civilization and silencing terrorists in that war-torn country. Perhaps, that's true, but the question still remains: Are we, as Canadians, willing to sacrifice our elite troops? Are we?
That question came to mind Tuesday after learning of the death of Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, a 24-year-old reservist with the King's Own Calgary regiment.
Cpl. Hornburg was hit by a mortar shell and quoting from a CBC News report, "he was fixing a truck that had fallen off the Leopard tank in the Panjwaii district, about 47 kilometres west of Kandahar city."
Of course, the questions as to why we are there must be answered in time for 71 Canadians and one diplomat have been killed and our military machinery with the endorsement of Canadian PM Harper plan to stay there until at least 2009 and, undoubtedly, beyond.
Why? Is it to "rebuild the democratic process"? And at what cost, Ottawa? More lives of our elite?
Just in the past few months, the final bell has tolled for the likes of Hornburg, Maj. Raymond Ruckpaul, Master Warrant Officer Mario Mercier, Master Cpl. Christian Duchesne, Pte. Simon Longtin, Cpl. Jordan Anderson, Cpl. Cole Bartsch, Master Cpl. Cpl. Colin Bason and the list goes on and on.
Why? And for what?
***
And then there are those why? questions in the playpen of life -- sports.
Mike Tyson, once tagged as the Baddest Man on the Planet, will probably be just a prisoner number, for his trangressions -- and soon.
Why?
Well, Tyson could land back behind bars for a lengthy stretch after being convicted in an Arizona court. He nearly crashed his vehicle into a cop car and, in turn, they uncovered cocaine and marijuana. Of course, Tyson, the one-time feared world heavyweight champion, has been in deep trouble before. He spent three years in an Indiana cell after a rape conviction back in 1992 and also three months in 1999 for assault charges in Maryland.
Why? What a sad case and he's only 41.
***
Then there's former Boston all-star shortstop Jose Offerman, who has seen action with Philadelphia, New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers.
On Aug. 14, Offerman apparently went off the deep end and attacked a pitcher and catcher while playing for the Atlantic League's Long Island Ducks. The 38-year-old was nailed with two counts of second-degree assault and Monday in Bridgeport, Conn. he pleaded not guilty. He'll be back in court Oct. 17.
Why? It appears to be a case of diamond rage.
***
Finally, 48-year-old Rob Ramage has been in a Newmarket, Ont. courtroom the past few days. The former Toronto Maple Leaf player has pleaded not guilty to five criminal charges.
On Dec. 15, 2003, Ramage was driving a rental car in Woodbridge, Ont. and collided with a Nissan Pathfinder, driven by Michelle Pacheco. Rampage's passenger, former Chicago Blackhawks star Keith Magnuson, was killed and Pacheco was injured in the head-on crash.
Why? Among the charges against Rampage were impaired and dangerous driving.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Definitely O.J. all day, every day
ALTHOUGH THE O.J. SAGA first began in California in 1994, it's now shifted to Glitter Gulch -- Las Vegas -- in 2007. And the script is becoming more and more bizarre with the Ol' Columnist once again mesmerized by the escapades of the former NFL superstar.
Maybe, I should call my brother, the psychologist. Perhaps, he has a solution to this addiction, which also consumes millions around the world, who are caught up in his antics.
While his wizardry with the Buffalo Bills and later with the San Francisco Forty-Niners earned him NFL accolades and later big bucks as an advertising pitchman, I never realized his influence until that summer of 1994 when his infamous Ford Bronco ride across the freeways of southern California was front-page news. It continued for months upon months until he was found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.
Later, he lost a $33.5 million civil suit and then he went into relative obscurity in Florida.
However, in the interim, the courts had tried to get money in a number of incidents from a supposed "stone."
That was until late 2006 when a projected two-part TV special and a book, entitled 'If I Did It, Here's How It Happened.' The outcry was heard everywhere. So much so that Simpson and the book publisher, Judith Regan, were denounced.
In a November, 2006 column I tried to relate the deep feelings of the Goldman family concerning O.J.
In the New York Daily News, Kim Goldman was quoted as saying, "It's disgusting. Judith Regan is an opportunist. She's helping a murderer get his voice out there. Is this (book) supposed to be a stocking stuffer for Christmas? It's gross."
Then Fred Goldman, Nicole's father, told the New York Post, "There's little that would surprise me from this murdering s.o.b., but this does reach an all-time low, even for him."
Not quite, Mr. Goldman.
For the past few days, the familiar TV fare has been "O.J. All Day, Every Day."
Those who have been on an excursion to the moon have, perhaps, missed the continuing saga so I'll fill you in on the sordid details. At least some of the grimy details that have been gleaned at the time of this writing.
It appeared the Goldmans might get a semblance of justice and some dollars from taking over the publication of Simpson's book and renaming it, "I Did It."
However, O.J.'s antics or behaviour was just beginning as he showed up in Las Vegas for a Saturday wedding.
With a tape recorder catching every word, mostly unfit for family consumption, O.J. and his so-called posse entered a Las Vegas hotel room. It appears as if O.J. was after some of his memorabilia from his glory days on the gridiron.
The wild and foul-mouthed confrontion eventually led to Simpson being placed under arrest and put in a jail cell.
At the time of this writing, there's a possibility of him being set free on $150,000 (15% cash; 85% collateral) bail Wednesday morning.
But one thing is for certain, O.J. is back and the headlines should definitely read: Excrementum, Tauri, Omnium. Superat.
(It's okay. Even my brother, the psychologist, would probably use such words in describing O.J. and his so-called pals.)
***
SPEAKING OF FOUL WORDS: Remember NBA superstar and now New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, who at one time was with the Toronto Raptors? Well, now Thomas is in hot water during the sexual harassment trial brought on by fired Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders. In a report in the New York Daily News, Thomas, in a video deposition, "drew a distinction between whites and blacks when it came to the B-word." The Knicks fired her in December 2005 and she wants $10 million from the club and Madison Square Garden, according to the Daily News.
***
HAPPINESS IS A WARM ELECTRODE: That headline in Popular Science magazine led me to Gregory Mone's fascinating story about how Diane Hire's life was changed in almost an instant. It seems Hire suffered from severe depression for some 20 years. In the Cleveland Clinic's surgical center, neurosurgeon Ali R. Rezai along with an anesthesiologist, a psychiatrist and several nurses performed "a radical form of neurosurgery called deep-brain stimulation, or DBS," according to the magazine. The complicated operation involved two volts of electricity being sent through wires inserted in her skull. After the operation, Hire was quoted by the magazine as saying, "I'm really happy. I feel like I could get up and do all sorts of things."
Maybe, I should call my brother, the psychologist. Perhaps, he has a solution to this addiction, which also consumes millions around the world, who are caught up in his antics.
While his wizardry with the Buffalo Bills and later with the San Francisco Forty-Niners earned him NFL accolades and later big bucks as an advertising pitchman, I never realized his influence until that summer of 1994 when his infamous Ford Bronco ride across the freeways of southern California was front-page news. It continued for months upon months until he was found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.
Later, he lost a $33.5 million civil suit and then he went into relative obscurity in Florida.
However, in the interim, the courts had tried to get money in a number of incidents from a supposed "stone."
That was until late 2006 when a projected two-part TV special and a book, entitled 'If I Did It, Here's How It Happened.' The outcry was heard everywhere. So much so that Simpson and the book publisher, Judith Regan, were denounced.
In a November, 2006 column I tried to relate the deep feelings of the Goldman family concerning O.J.
In the New York Daily News, Kim Goldman was quoted as saying, "It's disgusting. Judith Regan is an opportunist. She's helping a murderer get his voice out there. Is this (book) supposed to be a stocking stuffer for Christmas? It's gross."
Then Fred Goldman, Nicole's father, told the New York Post, "There's little that would surprise me from this murdering s.o.b., but this does reach an all-time low, even for him."
Not quite, Mr. Goldman.
For the past few days, the familiar TV fare has been "O.J. All Day, Every Day."
Those who have been on an excursion to the moon have, perhaps, missed the continuing saga so I'll fill you in on the sordid details. At least some of the grimy details that have been gleaned at the time of this writing.
It appeared the Goldmans might get a semblance of justice and some dollars from taking over the publication of Simpson's book and renaming it, "I Did It."
However, O.J.'s antics or behaviour was just beginning as he showed up in Las Vegas for a Saturday wedding.
With a tape recorder catching every word, mostly unfit for family consumption, O.J. and his so-called posse entered a Las Vegas hotel room. It appears as if O.J. was after some of his memorabilia from his glory days on the gridiron.
The wild and foul-mouthed confrontion eventually led to Simpson being placed under arrest and put in a jail cell.
At the time of this writing, there's a possibility of him being set free on $150,000 (15% cash; 85% collateral) bail Wednesday morning.
But one thing is for certain, O.J. is back and the headlines should definitely read: Excrementum, Tauri, Omnium. Superat.
(It's okay. Even my brother, the psychologist, would probably use such words in describing O.J. and his so-called pals.)
***
SPEAKING OF FOUL WORDS: Remember NBA superstar and now New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, who at one time was with the Toronto Raptors? Well, now Thomas is in hot water during the sexual harassment trial brought on by fired Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders. In a report in the New York Daily News, Thomas, in a video deposition, "drew a distinction between whites and blacks when it came to the B-word." The Knicks fired her in December 2005 and she wants $10 million from the club and Madison Square Garden, according to the Daily News.
***
HAPPINESS IS A WARM ELECTRODE: That headline in Popular Science magazine led me to Gregory Mone's fascinating story about how Diane Hire's life was changed in almost an instant. It seems Hire suffered from severe depression for some 20 years. In the Cleveland Clinic's surgical center, neurosurgeon Ali R. Rezai along with an anesthesiologist, a psychiatrist and several nurses performed "a radical form of neurosurgery called deep-brain stimulation, or DBS," according to the magazine. The complicated operation involved two volts of electricity being sent through wires inserted in her skull. After the operation, Hire was quoted by the magazine as saying, "I'm really happy. I feel like I could get up and do all sorts of things."
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