IMAGINATIVE WRITINGS ON ETHIOPIA AND THE HORN OF AFRICA: SUPPLEMENT AND UPDATE

Author(s): Richard Pankhurst Source: Africa: Rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione dell'Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente, Anno 48, No. 2 (GIUGNO 1993), pp. 267-284 Published by: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40760785 Accessed: 15-12-2015 09:19 UTC

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Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa,as noted in a previousarticle 0), have been the subjectover the centuriesof considerablenumber of novels,short stories,plays and poems. The present study,which is based on further investigationin an area scarcelycharted with bibliographies,is designed to supplement,as well as to update,the earlierwork. Both articles,it should be noted,are concernedexclusively with works in languagesother than those of the region.The latterdeserve a study,or studies,of theirown.

AncientWritings The ancientGreeks, whose writingswere scarcelycovered in the earlier article,used the termEthiopia, as is well known,to designateall dark-skinned people south of Egypt. They made many referencesto Ethiopia in their literature.In the 9th centuryB.C. Homer in his Odesseywrites of the Ethiopiansas eschatoiandron, or the most remoteof men. In Book I of his Miad he has Zeus, the kingof the gods, leave heavenfor twelve days, with all the other gods, to visit the "blameless Ethiopians", while the goddess Isis later to their to in sacrificialrites to the immortal goes country participate " In the the sea god Poseidon is likewisesaid to have lingered gods. " Odessey delighted at one of the banquetsof the Ethiopians. Later, in the fifthcentury B.C., the dramatistAeschylus had Io, the " " wanderingwoman of PrometheusBound, travel to a far-offland inhabited " " " " by a nationof black men who lived near the fountainof the sun and " " the riverAethiops . Such ideas were slow to die. In the firstcentury B.C. the historian Diodorus Siculusthus wrote, in Homericvein, that Hercules and Bacchus,the " " son of Zeus, were both awed by the piety of the Ethiopians. In the 7th centuryA.D. the Byzantinewriter Placiduslikewise " Stephanus " observedthat the were loved by the because of justice , " Ethiopians gods and adds: Juniperfrequently leaves heaven and feastswith thembecause of theirjustice and the equityof theircustoms. For the Ethiopiansare said to be the justestmen and for that reason the gods leave theirabode frequentlyto visit them". (Quoted in F.M. Snowden, Blaks in Antiquity,Cambridge, Massachusetts,1970, p. 148).

(DR. Pankhurst, "ImaginativeWritings (Novels, Short Stories and Plays) on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa",Africa, Anno XL n. 4, dicembre1985, pp. 637-663.

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Sixteenth,Seventeenth and EighteenthCentury European Writings

Among European literaryworks referringto Ethiopia in late medieval times mention must be of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, published in Italian in 1515-33. Préster John figuresin Book XXII, while Astolfo flies over Ethiopia in Canto XXXIII. The historic background to these passages is discussed by " Enrico Cerulli in D volo di Astolfo sull'Etiopia nelTOrlando Furioso", Rendicontidella Reale Accademia dei Lincei, Classe di Scienze morali, storiche e filologiche (1932), Vm, 19-38. The subsequent visit to France in the seventeenth century of the Ethiopian adventurerSaga Krestos inspired the writingof a short anonymous French historicalnovelette La reine d'Ethiopie.Historiette comique (Paris, 1670). The author, presumablywishing to distinguishthe hero from other, and more negroid, Africans, notes that he was handsome, had an aqueline nose, and " " was without thick lips . In 1789, the year of the French Revolution, there appeared in Trêves a curious two-volume anonymous French work, entitled Grandor ou le héros abissin,histoire héroi-politique . It purported to be a translationof an Ethiopian " " sold a in to a traveller . Set in manuscript by Copt Egypt European " " Gondar and other parts of Ethiopia during the reign of King Saghed (presumably a distortion of one of the royal names of the period, such as Malak Sagad or Adyam Sagad), it tells the imaginary story of an Ethiopian nobleman called Grandor. Its main thrustis, however, to provide a discussion on of greater interest to late eighteenth century France, such as questions " " Democracy, Aristocracy, Arist-Democracy , and Despotism, etc.

The Legend of PrésterJohn

In addition to the creative writingsinspired by the legend Préster John, which were referred to in the previous article, mention may be made to a little known seventeenth century fictional French work: Philippe d'Alcripe's La nouvellefabrique des excellentstraits de vérité (Rouen, 1620?) which bore the sub-titleLivre pour inciterles resveurs[sic] tristeset merancoliques[sic] à vivre de It was afterwardsreprinted in Paris in 1853. The latter plaisir. long" edition states that it was augmentée des Nouvelles de la terre de Prestre Jehan". For the historyof the Préster John legend see in addition to the earlier cited works: Pierre Gustave Brunet, La légende du Pretre-Jean(Bordeaux, 1877), from the Actes de l'Académie des Sciences,Belle-Lettres at Arts reprinted " de Bordeaux-,Giuseppe Manacorda's La leggenda del Prete Gianni in Abissínia", in Luigi Ferrari's volume of essays Tonioli (Perugia, 1906); and Robert Silverberg,The Realm of PrésterJohn (New York, 1972), wich contains a valuable bibliographyon pp. 325-8.

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NineteenthCentury Songsters and Pseudo-TravelLiterature The termEthiopia was appropriatedin the middle of the 19th century a number of or Black American,minstrels. Several of them by Negro, " producedmusical works which bore the title Ethiopia", but in facthad no connectionwith the countryof that name. These publicationsincluded: EthiopianQuadrilles. Dances and Songsby the VirginiaMinstrels (New York 1843), which were arrangedfor the piano by A. Nagerj Onyqjva;Ethiopian Serenaders(Phildelphia, 1845), containingnine songs and a set of cotillons; two worksby the thenpopular musicologist Elias Howe, reportedlycontaining "new melodies": EthiopianAccordian Instructor (Boston, 1848), and The Ethiopianflute Instructor(Boston, 1848); two works under the pseudonym "Gumbo Chaff": The EthiopianGlee Book (Boston, 1848) and The Ethiopian ViolinInstructor (Boston, 1848); and an anonymouspublication The Ethiopian SerenadersOwn Book (New York, 1854, reprinted:Philadelphia, 1857). The growingpopularity of travelliterature in this period also led, as noted in the previous article, to the production of several imaginary traveloguesto Ethiopia.One of the best known,William Dalton's TigerPrince or Adventuresin the Wilds of Abyssinia(London, 1863), cited in the earlier article,was subsequentlytranslated into German by Elisabeth Hobirt, and appeared as Der Tigerfürst.Erlebnisse und Abenteuer. Natur - und Sittenschilderungenaus den WildnissenAbessiniens (Leipzig and Berlin,*1881). The namingof a Scottishship Ethiopiain 1874 led to the publicationof a volume of poems and humorousanecdotes, entitled Ethiopian Memorabilia July8-20, 1874 (Glasgow, 1874). This slim volume, which has of course nothingto do with Ethiopia as such, was dedicated to the BritishIndia Companyas well as to the vessel's builders. " " American interest in the name Ethiopia also resulted in the appearanceshortly afterwards, by RobertM. De Witt,of EthiopianPlays (New York, 1875). This volume containedcreative pieces by severaldifferent, and today unknown,authors.

The TwentiethCentury to 1940 Beside the novels related to King Solomon and thé Queen of Sheba mentionedin the earlierarticle reference should be made of a novel entitled Makeda, reine vierge.Roman de la reine de Soba (Paris, 1940). This " work," which was written,the title claims, a certain Prince Yacoub page "by , described, probably erroneously,as an ancien conseilleurde l'empire d'Ethiopie". The Frenchtext was by Gabriel d'Aubrède. The Queen of Sheba, and a Princecalled Menilek,also appear in a work of twentiethcentury fantasy, François de Courel'sLa fillesauvage. Pièce en six actes (Paris, 1902) which was first at the Theatre Antoine in performed" Februaryof thatyear. Three acts are set in at barbarouscountry", which is

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" " in one referredto as the countryof Menilek . It is describedby one place " of the characters(on 113) as inhabitedby a barbarouspeople"; who had " p. " centuriesearlier submittedto a Christianculture , and would one day " " " " astonishthe universe by the rapidityof its progress. (This idea that Ethiopiawas about to emergeas a majorAfrican power was veryprevalent in Francein the aftermathof Menilek'sunexpected victory at the battleof Adwa in 1896). Two other acts take in Paris, and a sixth in Beirut. The place " " principalcharacters include Abeliao, king of the Amaras ; and his son Kigérik. The play later inspiredthe creationof a very fancifulAmerican film, similarlyentitled The SavageWoman. The filmwas, however,entirely different in scope and character.Written by Clara Kimball, and directed by E. Mortimerand R.G. Vignola,it was shot in the Lasky Studio in Holywood, and released in 1918. In this storyactress Renée Benoil, afterher father's death, ran about the Abyssinianwilderness clad only in beads and animal skins.While exploringa ruinedtemple she is seen by a PrinceMenilek, who, strangelythinking her to be the Queen of Sheba, resolvesto make her his bride. She effectsher escape, however,and meets a French explorer,Jean Lerier,who, having been jilted by his girlfriendin Paris, decides to take Renée thereto make the old girlfriendjealous. In this he is successful,but Renée, realisingthat Jean does not reallylove her, violentlysmashes his pricelessAbyssinian relics. She thenboards a ship to returnto Africa.Jean, at this point,relises that he is trulyin love with the wild girl,and followsher. He is capturedby Menilek.Renée bows beforethe latter,and explainsher love forJean, whereupon the good Menilekreleases him. The two loversare united,and, we may assume,live togetherhappily ever after(2). Referencemay also be made at this point to severalRussian creative writings,which were not covered in the previousarticle. Prominent among these are those of B.N. Krasnov,who made his debut as an imaginative writerearly in the 20th century.Already the authorof a travelbook, Kazaki v dnevnik nachaVnikakonvoia Rossiiskoi missii v Abissinu v Afrike: " imperatorskoi 1897-98goduy i.e. The Cossacks in Africa:The Diary of the Commanderof the Escort to the Russian ImperialMission to Abyssiniain 1897-98" (St. he soon afterwardswrote an work Liubov' Petersburg,1899), " imaginative " Abissinski(Terunesh), i.e. The Love of an AbyssinianWoman (Terunesh) (St. Petersburg,1903). Severalof Krasnov'sshort stories set in Ethiopia were later published, afterWorld War I, in in his Terunesh' Aska [sic] Marram:poveresti, " Germany, i.e Terunesh,Askale Mariam: ShortNovels" (Berlin,1921).

(2) I am gratefulto Chris ProutyRosenfeld for detailson this film,as well as on three cited later: Una statoneall'inferno, Shaft in Africaand ExorcistU, and to Louis Haber for finding one of the more inaccessibleFrench novels here referredto.

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Krasnov,it may be noted, acquired fame as a commanderof the Don Cossacks,after the Russian Revolutionof 1917, when he foughtagainst the Bolsheviks.He was subsequentlyexecuted in the Soviet Union in 1947. For " his life see Colin Darch, P.N. Krasnov's Journeyto Ethiopia", Africa {1915), XXX, 600-1. The period afterWorld War I also witnessedthe appearanceof at least two Englishnovels on Ethiopia not listed in the previousarticle. The first, GilbertFrankau's Master son: A Storyof an EnglishGentleman (London, n.d.), was writtenin 1924-5,and tellsthe somewhattedious tale of an Englishman who lived in Addis Ababa duringEmperor Menilek's reign. The second work, by Air-CommodoreL.E.O. CharltonC.B. C.M.G. D.S.O., was entitledThe " Secretof Lake Tana (Oxford,1936), and describesitself as an OxfordBook for Boys". A young English boy, Archie Glen, accidentlydiscovers an historicalsecret while on a holidayin Portugal.Propelled by thishe goes with a friendon a missionto flymedical stores to Addis Ababa at the timeof the Italian fascistinvasion. On theirreturn flight the two youngsterscrash near Lake Tana. They thus discoverthe secret,and are instrumentalin preventing it fromfalling into enemyhands. Britishinterest in Ethiopia arousedby the 1867-8 expeditionto Magdala may just conceivablyhave caused the popular Britishdetective writer Agatha Christieto give one of her charactersthat name, in her novelPeril at theEnd House (London, 1932). Two Americannovels about Ethiopia by Black authorsmeanwhile also appeared in this period. The first,by CharlesHenry Holmes, who used the pseudonymClayton Adams, was Ethiopia,the Land of Promise.A Book witha Purpose(New York, 1917). The other,by an unspecifiedauthor, was The EthiopianMurder Mystery (New York, 1935). It tells the storyof a beautiful Harlemsocialite, Christina van Dyke,who on the say-soof a Negro detective, JimWillison, is chargedwith the murderof an Ethiopianprince called Hailu Desta. She is, however,fortunately saved by a newsman,Roger Bates, who is convinced of her innocence. Another American work of this time was Clarence L. Blakely'sThe Ethiopian(New York, 1931), which the present authorhas thus far unfortunatelybeen unable to consult. Referencemay also be made to a fictionalisedGerman account of pre-invasiondiplomacy, Othmar Kraiz's Ol urn Rickett,Spiel mit Abessinien (Berlin,1935). Meanwhilein the field of the cinema the firstthree years of the fascist occupationof Ethiopia witnessedthe productionof five Italian featurefilms dealing with the war. They were Mario Camerini'sII grandepopolo 1936, Romolo Marcellini'sSentinella di bronzo,1937, GoffredoAlessandrini's Luciano Serrapilota, 1938, Guido Brignone'sSotto la Crocedel Sud,, 1938, and Flavio Calzavara's Piccoli naufraghi,1939. Also produced in these years were Jean-PaulPaulin's Jungla Nera, 1937, whichwas set in Somalia,and Goffredo

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Alessandrini's Abuna Messias, 1939, which dramatised the life of the great Cardinal Massaia. For a detailed account of the above films see G.P. Brunetta and J.A. Gili, L'ora d'Africa del cinema italiano (Rovereto and Trento, 1989-90), pp. 50-91.

The Early Post-World War H Decades

Most of the English literaryoutput of this period was covered in the previous article. Mention may, however, be made of a littleknown publication from BritishGuiana in South America: Norman E. Cameron's Three Immortals (A Collectionof Three Plays) (Georgetown, 1953). Written by a nationalistor Guianan author this volume contains three 3 -act plays, two of pan-Africanist " which deal with ancient Ethiopia. The first, Adoniya", which was performed at Queen's College, Georgetown, in 1943-4, tells the pseudo-Biblical story of an Ethiopian princess who was beloved by Moses. The latter thereby incurs the jealousy of the Egyptian lords. He is arrested,tried and condemned, but, with the help of Adoniya, escapes from prison and makes his way with her to Ethiopia where they are married. The second play, "Sabacco", which was at the same college in 1949, tells of the conquest of Pharaonic performed " " the , whose commander named Sabacco makes his Egypt by Ethiopians " sister Amenartas high princess. On the death of Piankhi, King of Ethiopia", Sabacco is named as the latter's successor. Another work not referredto earlier was R. Forbes-Watson's children's book Shifta! (London, 1954). Written by an English author, and published in " " the Oxford Children's Library it is actually set in Kenya, but tells the story of a fourteen-year-oldSomali boy and his sister Miriam, who lived in the northerndistrict of the colony. They and their relatives and friends encounter adventures as they resist an attack by shifta,or camel raiders, operating many " " in the so-called bad lands on the Kenya-Ethiopia border. Interest in Ethiopia on the part of Evelyn Waugh, whose creative writingson the countrywere earlier discussed, also found brief expression in one of his later novels Put Out More Flags (London, 1942). Several characters refer to, but do not visit, places in East Africa earlier well known to the author, among them Djibouti and the Ogaden. Also published in this period was French novel André Armandy's Quartier des légations. Roman (Paris, 1951). Written by a notable French travellerto Ethiopia, the author of an earlier travelogue La désagréablepartie de campagne.Incursion en Abyssinie (Paris, 1930), which passed through many editions, this novel tells of amusing diplomatic intriguesin an imaginarytown called Atbara, the capital of the imaginaryempire of Arafanie. Another, but very differentFrench offeringwas Marc de Gouverain's Retour en Ethiopie présentépar Hugo Pratt (Paris, 1970) in which a French volunteer teacher to Ethiopia returns after many years and presents us with much fantasyinterspersed with an authenticjournal. Huguette Perol's book of

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shortstories Contes et legendesd'Ethiopie: mentioned in the earlierarticle, was also publishedin an Itlian translation:Racconti e leggended'Etiopia (Catania, 1968). Ennio Flaiano's grippingItalian novel Tempodi uccidere(Milano, 1947), noticedin the previousarticle, subsequently gained furthercirculation, when it was publishedin French and German translations,respectively entitled Le cheminde travers(Paris, 1951) and Frevelin Äthiopien(Hamburg, 1953). German of the time included short Helmut " writings magazine story, Wuzanig's Schifta"in Merian(1966), XEX, No. 10, a children'sbook, Otto Strada'sKarawane in verboten(Berlin, 1957), and a collectionof poems,Ernst Otto Gläser's Die Zeit - as is nochweit. Ausgewählte Gedichte (Addis Ababa, 1967). Four Russiannovels about Ethiopiaalso appearedin thisperiod. One of the most original,Volodymyr Strana Ofir: istoricheskii IvanovychSynenko's " roman,i.e. "The Land of Ofir: An HstoricalNovel (Moscow, 1960), deals with the journeyof the earlyRussian travellerE.P. Kovalevskii,author inter " dia of Puteshestvievo vnutrenniuiuAkriku, i.e. A into the Interiorof " Journey Africa (St. Petersburg,1949). Two otherRussian novels were concernedwith the Adwa war of 1895-6 and Russiansupport for the One was N.N. Kit'ian'sZemechay i.e. Ethiopians." " zemecha,the Amharicterm for an expedition (Rostov-on-Don,1966). The other was a children'sbook: Iu Davydov's O druziakhtvoikh, Afrika, i.e. "About Your Friends,Africa" (Moscow, 1962) whichcontained three stories: 1) "The White Horseman", about the above-mentionedRussian traveller " Kovalevskii;2) Adhalib", about the late 19th Russiantraveller A.V. " Eliseev, authorof L'vinyianochi: etiud iz puteshestviiapo severo-vostochnoiAfrika", i.e. The Nights of the Lions: Notes from a Journeythrough Northeast Africa",Russkie vesti (1895) pp. 100-160; and 3) "The EarthlyAtlantica", about the Russian Red Cross Mission to Ethiopia of 1896-7. The last of these Russian novelswas E. Golubev's Uale Alemu nakhodit " " druzei: prinkiuchencheskaipovest' i.e. Wale Alemu finds Some Friends (Kostroma,1963), which deals interalia with the fascistinvasion of 1935-6. This period also witnessedthe publicationof a little-knownEthiopian Utopian noveletteabout Ethiopia,which was writtenby a young Ethiopian writer:Wolde Haile's Defendthe Name (Addis Ababa, 1968). Its author,with " Fikre Mariam Tsehai, subsequentlycoauthored an article entitled An InternationalLanguage", in Addis Reporter(1969), I, No. 30, p. 7. Somalia meanwhilewas the subject of Omar Eby's The Sons of Adam. Storiesof Somalia (Scottdale,Pennsylvania, 1970). This work containseight amusing,and culturallyvery interesting short stories, several of which tell of the activitiesof Christianmissionaries. Poetryappearing in this period included Giuseppe Marchese'sLa gioia

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(Asmara,1965), a volume of romanticand other poems. One describesthe Red Sea, and anotherthe Ethiopiandesert. Three films of the period may also be mentioned.The first,an Italo-Frenchprodution, Una stagioneall'inferno or Une saison à Venfer,also knownas "A Season in Hell", directedby Nello Risi, and releasedin 1973, providesa fictionalisedaccount of the life of the poet Rimbaud,the subject, as we saw in the earlierarticle, of earlierfictional writing. It was partially filmedin Ethiopia. The part of the poet was played by Terence Stamp; EmpressTaytu by an amateurEthiopian actress, Mullu Mesfin,the daughter of Ras Mesfin;and EmperorMenilek and Ras Makonnenby two Ethiopian professionalactors of the post-warAddis Ababa stage,Debebe and Wegayu. The Rimbaudtheme was latertaken up in an abstractFrench production of 1990: Ferendj,which was produced by Tim Roth and Sabine Prenczina, with the cooperationof Unesco and the EthiopianFilm Centre. The thirdfilm, Stirling Siliphant's Shaft in Africa,was one of an exciting Americanseries featuringa Black detectivecalled Shaft,played by Richard Rowntree.Partly shot in Ethiopia, and using some Ethiopian actors, it featuredthe hero helpingan unidentifiedAfrican state stop slave-traders.

Post-EthiopianRevolution Writings Since the publicationof the earlierarticle many further novels and short storiesset in whole or in part in the area afterthe EthiopianRevolution of 1974 have appeared. Severalof them deservedetailed review. One of the most sensationalpieces of Britishcreative literature of this period is Nicholas Luard's Gondar (London, 1988), a fantastic,and much advertised,melodramic novel by a writerof thrillers,set in the eighteenth centuryEthiopian capital of that name. This volume,which runs to over 600 pages, is based in part on the author'sreading (or mis-reading)of James Bruce's Travelsto Discoverthe Source of the Nile (Edinburgh,1790). The characters,some of whom are derivedfrom the latterwork, include Rachel, a beautifulEthiopian hereditary princess- queen, who was allegedlyconceived at the source of the Nile; Acab Saat Salama, a greedyand unscrupuloushigh priestbent on seizingboth power and the princessfor himself; James Oran, a Scottishexplorer from the Hebrides,(and possiblya re-incarnationof Bruce); Mamkinga,a princefrom the neighbouringstate of Malinda; the latter'stwin sister an Arab soldier of fortune called Hadji; an Austrian Toomi; " " revolutionary,Ferdinand Grey Wolf; a Portugueseslaver Called de Souza; and Doho, an Ethiopian dwarf. The author also crowds in many other personalities,including, for good measure,Karl Marx. The Italian colonial presencein Africaprovides an historicalback-drop for one of the latest novels of Marina Warner,a Britishwoman writerof Italian descent.This novel The Lost Father(London, 1989) is a delicateand slow-pacedwork set largelyin southernItaly at Dolmetta,Rupe and Ripe near

This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:19:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions NOTEE TESTIMONIANZE 275 the Adriatic,but, spanningseveral decades, also moves to London, Naples, New York and Parnassus.The volumenevertheless has a considerableAfrican interest,with youngsouthern Italians considering whether to tryto transform Italyas socialistsor to enrolin theircountry's armies bound for the colonies. In 1912 Rosalba Httagorais in love with Tommaso Talvi, who may be " offto the colonies.She thoughtof Africaand its specialordeals with greedy excitement;she set herselfagainst its vast and glorioushorizons. She would be drinkingcoffee as if it cost less thanwater, wearing alligator shoes made to fit her prettyfeet, and watchingat Tommaso'sside a parade of half-nakedgirls withbracelets round theirlegs, while a group of handsome,grinning soldiers stood by. These images came to her from the metal engravingsof the conquestof Libya whichhad appearedin the illustratedjournals; she did not rememberthe differentcountries of the Italian empirein question,for all of Africa- Libya, Somalia, Eritreaalike - beat out a rhythmof adventure and spoils and heroism. The pictures showed her overseersstanding by ant-filesof 'natives' doubled over as they hacked the roads of progress throughmountainous desert; more grinningItalians cheered soundlessly under the joined twinarcs of a new bridge.A gang of black workerswearing white loinclothsfaced the cameragravely, looking as if it were somethingthey might be given to eat. On other pages, she had seen a village of huts... where - mothers Italian motherswith babies on their laps - were sittingon chairs,just like at home. They would achieve great thingstogether, Rosa sworeto herself,she would help him bringabout his visionof convertingthe armyto the cause of justice and " equality. 'I should like to go to Africa',said Rosalba drowsily.Caterina cried out, 'Don't go away, Rosa, please'. Rosa said, 'Perhaps he'll take me to Africa!'". A generation,and later, in Otober 1935 the Italian many pages, " magazines,the novelisttells us, were full of picturesof smilingAbyssinians and othersof war heroes;photographs of aeroplanesdropping fire out of the sky onto a landscape of mountainswhere tinyfigures could be made out, - running the Leader proclaimedthat Italywas his woman, and he would cajole and swear untilshe yieldedto him in her entirity;there was direction and mightand otherstrong meat in his wooing,as well as sweetflattery and heady enrapturementas the big round head thrustforward over the balcony in the Piazza Venezia, and roared, strongjaws jutting,spraying the crowds withbursts of his own gunfire,cramming them with promises of pleasureand power under his expertcaresses". Rosalba's brother,Franco Pittagora,is so inspiredby such rhetoricthat he decides to writean buffaabout the Queen of which would opera " Sheba," also celebratethe birth of Mussolini's Glorious . the Empire Humming" fascistsoldiers' marching song Faccettanera, bell'Abissina, he recallsthat the Leader was dreamingof changingevery Abyssinian into an Italian. The big

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stronghands of soldiersadvancing into Ethiopia and claimingit as Abyssinia, part of the new empire of Rome, were encirclingevery little black face, thrustingthe flaginto the women'sand children'shands; theywere colonising by the spit of the guns and the kiss of the invader,the bulletand the bed; these were the arms of the new crusaders,taking possession". " " Six monthslater, in May 1936, it was", we are told, the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross and, Italian troops were set for victoryin the empirebarely six monthsafter the invasionfrom Eritrea. The news was out: Addis Ababa had fallen.King VictorEmmanuel was on his way to Abyssinia. The King in personwas to greetthe championsof the Fatherland,to heap in praisethe aviatorswho droppedfire from the clouds as theypiroutted above the plains,to garlandthe warriorsof the Fatherland.The nativearmy was on the run underthe divineand elementalfury of the conquerors.In theirwhite nightshirts,waving matchstick spears, they would be yieldingperforce before the mightof the unconqueredfasces. Soon the fruitof civilisationwould be their". Franco Rttagora'sopera buffa about Solomonand the Queen of Sheba neverthelessruns into perhapspredictable difficulties. Wilbur Smith,the Zambian-bornauthor of Cry Wolf (London, 1976), mentionedin the previous article,subsequently wrote two furtherpopular thrillerswhich are set mainlyin South Africa,but touch in part on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.In the Powerof theSword (London, 1986), the hero, Shasha Courtney,joins the South AfricanAir Force, and in 1941 participates in the assaulton die ItalianEast Africanempire. After many adventures he is wounded,and receivesa D.F.C. and AfricaStar. The villainof Wilbur Smith'slater volume, Golden Fox (London, 1990), is a ruthlessCuban securityofficer called Ramón Machado, who, amongst manyother things, supposedly masterminds the depositionof EmperorHaile Sellassie.Another character in the novel,Elsa Pignatelli,is a memberof the Italian South AfricaSociety, and daughterof an Italianofficer supposedly on General De Bono's staffduring the Ethiopianwar of 1935-6. One of the most interestingimaginative American creative writers to touch on the area in this period was an Americanex-Peace Corps volunteer, RobertaWorrick (née Thomas),who lived in Ethiopiain 1971, and returned seventeen years later with her husband, who was involved in U.S. Governmentrelief work. She was shortlyafterwars killed while accompanying AmericanCongressman Mickey Leland, whose plane crashed on August 7, 1989. During her thus sadly curtailedliterary career Roberta Worrickwrote under the pen-name Maria Thomas. Besides a number of short stories publishedin magazinesshe was the author of three semi-autobiographical literaryvolumes: Come to Africaand Save Your Marriage(New York, 1987), AntonioSaw the OryxFirst. A Novel (New York, 1987), and a posthumous work AfricanVisas (New York, 1991). One of the best storiesin Come to

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" Africa and Save Your Marriage is Second Rains", whih is set in Ethiopia. It tells of an American woman, Charlotte Renoir, who is assigned to work in the country,and witnesses the Revolution two years later. " The bulk of African Visas consists of a novella, entitled The Jiru Road", in which Sarah Easterday, a young American Peace Corps volunteer, is initiated into the Ethiopia of the 1970's. She plunges into a totallydifferent " " culture, learns a new language that popped with explosive letters , endures dysentery,and revels in her escape from the American way of life. The " " volume also contains a short story entitled Ethiopia which tells of two Ethiopian refugees in the United States, a woman called Tsehainesh (in real life Woyzero Semianesh, a sometime secretaryat Haile Sellassie I University, see dediction in J. Markakis, Ethiopia: Anatomyof a TraditionalPolity, Oxford, 1974) who seeks, unsuccessfully, to sell Ethiopian popular paintings in America, and an employee of F.A.O. called Akalewerk who travels all over Africa. We hear of their in findingwork in a strange new country, problems " " the difficultyof obtaining the much-sought-after green card , without which legal employment in the United States is impossible, and, most revealingly, their reactions to the dramatic media coverage of the Ethiopian famine of the 1980's. African Visas also contains the following autobiographical passage, which to the creation of much of the writing surveyed in this study: helps" explain If you ask people who have ever lived in Ethiopia, they tell you that you never put it behind you. During Peace Corps trainingthere in 1971, the word was that Ethiopia had the highest dropout rate of any country in the world, but it also had the highest extension rate of any countryin the world. Which meant that if you stayed, you never wanted to leave. And after you left, all you wanted to do was to go back, and when you couldn't get there, you found Ethiopians outside, or they found you, or you found each other across the world..., as if by magic". Very differentin style and theme is WJ. Tyler's The Lion and the Jackal (New York, 1988). Written by a former Foreign Service Officer of the U.S. Department of State who was in Mogadishu at the time of the Somali invasion of in 1977-8, it is an set at the time of that " Ethiopia" imaginarystory " war. The blurb sums up the plot as follows: An ugly war is brewing between Ethiopia, and its small, Soviet-armed Moslem neighbor, a self-styled Marxist nation of nomads and camel porters with ancient claims to Ethiopia's agaden... Logan Talbot, a clever young American diplomat comes to seek his professionalfortunes on the Third World Frontier. He finds only boredom at the supine little embassy on the swelteringIndian Ocean littoral,and a kindly but inept ambassador. Grown lazy, cynical, and lecherous in this diplomatic Wild West, he looks on disdainfullyas the embassy is shrewdlyoutwitted by the host nation as it plays its Soviet patron against Washington's geopolitical strategistsand their fear of Soviet domination of the region. Roused finally

This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:19:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 278 NOTE E TESTIMONIANZE fromapathy following his affairwith a beautifulItalian expatriate, Talbot can do nothingto preventthe crazy little war from happening,but in its aftermathreclaims something of himselfand his own shatteredambitions". Referencesto Ethiopia, and to various Ethiopians,including Emperor Haile Sellassie and his family,are to be found in BrytenBreytenbach's of Snow and Dust (London, 1989). It is a verysophisticated novel of Memory" " exile,betrayal, love and creation by one of SouthAfrica's leading Africaner The charactersinclude Meheret, a part-timeEthiopian woman poets. principal " " journalist,besides Mano, a mixed blood South Africanactor, and Bernum, an exiled white South Africanwriter. More biographicalin tone is a recentwork by an Italianwriter, Dante Andreasi'sAddis Abeba addio (Roma, 1991), whichhas a prefaceby the then Ethiopianambassador to Italy,Dr Feleke Gadle Giorgis.Based on the real-life memoriesof the author,who had lived in Ethiopia from1938 to 1957, and was the founderand presidentof the Rome-basedComitato Amici d'Etiopia, this work tells the storyof an Italian called Massimo, who, like Andreasi himself,had gone to Ethiopia duringthe fascistoccupation, and, like Maria Thomas a generationlater, had come to love the countryand its people. In the course of this work he describesvisits to Dire Dawa, Harar, the sugar estate at Wonji and other parts of Ethiopia, as well as Kenya, Rhodesia, Mozambique and South Africa. The EthiopianRevolution of 1974 and its aftermathprovide the setting of three French novels. The first,he trésordu négus (Paris, 1977), is an excitingpiece of fictionby the prolificand best-sellingspy-novelist Gérard de Villiers.His hero,C.I.A. super agentMalko who also appearsin manyof the author'sother writings,becomes involvedin the search for EmperorHaile Sellassie'ssupposed wealth,and an imaginaryprincess called Chewayé gets killed by the then Ethiopianruling clique, the Dergue. The second novel, whichdescribes post-revolutionary life in Addis Ababa as the authorimagines it, is by Jean Noél Pancrazi, and is entitledLalibela ou la mortnomade. Roman(Paris, 1981). The thirdnovel was P. Ngandu Nkashsma'sUn jour de grandsoleil sur les montagnesde l'Ethiopie(Paris, 1992), which the present writerhas thus far been unable to consult. A furtherFrench work of the period is Bernard Faye's Eleveursd! Ethiopie (Paris, 1990). Written by a sometimeFrench cattle-breederin Ethiopia,it containsa numberof fictionalisedshort storiesin addition to much factualmaterial on cattle-breeding. Other French creativewriting of the time includesa piece of creative literatureabout Somalia, Frederic Mitterand'sLettres ¿amour en Somalie (Paris, 1983). Creativeliterature in German owes much to a notable Ethiopianpoet and playwright,Dr. Fikre Tolossa, now attachedto the Columbia Pacific Universityin the United States. His writingsinclude two plays The

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Coffin-dealer(Bremen, 1982) and A Foot of Land (Bremen,1982), and three volumes of poetryKursbuch (Bremen, 1984), Der Flieder Tötet Die Rose? (Bremen,1987), and Und NanntenMich Bruder(Göttingen, 1987), as well as contributionsto Und Was Ist Für Ein Ort? (Bremen, 1884), and to an internationalanthology Plesse-Lesungen (Göttingen, 1986, 1987 and 1988). For " the work of the author see Ephrem Aklilu, Profile. Dr Fikre Tolossa, Playwright,TV Producer", EthiopianReview (September,1991, pp. 20-1, as well as the poet's own articlesin the March and May 1992 issues of that publication. " " Mentionmay perhapshere be made of a fictionalisedlife of Emperor Haile Sellassieby a Polish author,Ryzard Kapuchinski's The Emperorwhich was writtenin 1978. It went throughmany editions,for example London 1983, and was translatedinto numerous of languages. A stage version, adapted by Michael Hastingsand JonathanMiller, was produced in London at the Royal Court Theatrein 1987. For a discussionon the of authenticity" this production,and of the book, see a letterby R. Pankhurst,headed The Emperor", in The TimesLiterary Supplement, April 17, 1987. Much more realisticin characterare a numberof shortstories from the pen of a fine author,Getachew Zicke, who had earlierwritten two Ethiopian " poems, "A Proposal to Beneatha" and The Locked Mind", in the Americanpublication Black AmericanLiterature Forum (1981), Vol 15, no. 2. Getachew'sshort stories,many of which are semi-autobiographical, and are usuallyvery witty, deal with a varietyof modernEthiopian situations. They appearedin the Addis Ababa magazineQuarterly Yekatit. These contributions include "Savory Salt of the Earth" (1983), VI, No. 4, "Linda's Choice" (1983), VE, No. 2, "The Broken Heart" (1984), VII, No. 3, "The ConfirmedBachelor" (1984), Vu, No. 4, "The Lecturerin English" (1985), VIH, No. 3, "Then there was light" (1985), VTII, No. 4, "The Homecoming"(1985), IX, No. 1, "Some Kill when Jilted" (1985), IX, No. 2, "The Swaggerer'sWidow" (1989), XII, No. 3, "Love's Hurdles" (1990), XIV, No. and "Of No.^2, "Wingless Flight" (1991), XIV, 4, Mosquitoes and Men" (1991), XV, No. 2. Anothershort storyfeatured in the same publicationwas TesfayeGessesse's work "The Black Cat" (1988), XII, n. 2. Life in the is contrast in a short " Ethiopian" countryside by depicted story entitled Famine by an Ethiopian journalistMulugeta Gudeta which appearedin AddisReporter (1992), I, 1, a new Ethiopiamjournal called after a long deceased journalof the same name. The tale tellswhat happenedwhen Kebede, a father,decides to kill his remainingoxen to celebratethe wedding of his son Kassu beforefamished hyenas break into the stable to drag them away. Also of particularinterest is a furtherfascinating instalment of W.A.J. Semerjibashian'snostalgic memoriesof Addis Ababa's old-timeArmenian " community,earlie noticed in the previous article. His story Intriguesin

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Addis Ababa ", Ararat (Spring, 1990), pp. 50-6, tells of the rivalryfor Madame Fifi's favoursof two well-respectedArmenian residents of the city: ProfessorSarkis of the KevorkoffSchool and Deren, an accountantat the Kevorkofffirm. Indian lifein Ethiopiais reflectedin two little-knownGujarati novels by an Indian writer,Gunvantrai Acharya's Harari (Ahmedabad, 1981) and Sakkarbar(Ahmedabad, 1981). Also of interestis a play by an Ethiopian author in England,Gebru Asfaw'sDung Hill. An AbstractEthiopian Play (London, 1992). The story centreson the interplayof threedoctors, Dr Albert,a German,Dr Wagner, an American,and Dr Le Breton,a Frenchman.They discusstheir respective philosophies, in Shavian vein, as they travel from England to an underdevelopedcountry called Topuland (Ethiopia?). Passingreference to the Italo-Ethiopianwar of 1935 is foundin an Irish play of this time: Brian FreTs Dancingat Lugnasa,which was firstshown in the Abbey Theatrein Dublin, and later,in 1992, at the GarrickTheatre in London. The play,which is set in Irelandcontains English songs alludingto Mussolini'sinvasion. Turningto poetrymention should be made of ProfessorClaude Sumner, a prolificCanadian Jesuitwho has taughtfor many years at Addis Ababa University(previously Haile SellassieI University),and is authorof not a few workson Ethiopianphilosophy. He produced a series of volumesof French poetrywith an Ethiopianbackground. The seriesbears the generaltitle Poesies The firstvolume Tome I. Kebero (Addis Ababa, 1976) is called éthiopiennes. " afterthe Amharicword for drum", and containsfour and " plays fiftypoems. One of the former,entitled Makeda", deals withthe legandarystory of the Queen of Sheba; another,"Hikar", tells of Ethiopia in Biblical times. The second volume Alem. (Addis Ababa, 1977) is called H, Heptalogie" éthiopienne " afterthe Amharicword for world . It containsthree plays, two set in Ethiopia.The first,"Montagne de lumière",features King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, as well as Adam, Eve and Satan, and takes place at the beautifulchurch of Debra Berhan Sellase near Gondar. The second " " play, compagnonsde la terre is set in the high Ethiopianplateau, and features eightforeigners: two Africans,two Americans,an Indian, a Greek, a Russian and a Japanese. The third volume, Tome HI. Krar. Odes d'inspiration (Addis 1978), is called after a well-known éthiopienne Ababa, " Ethiopian* musicalinstrument, and containsa Suite éthiopienne:La flutedu berger and a "Symphonie éthiopienneen trois mouvements",as well as poetry inspiredby the writersGerald Manly Hopkins and John Milton. A further, unnumbered entitledPoesies Zema (Paris, 1981), called volume, a Ethiopiennes. afterthe Ethiopianword for music", containsa furthertwenty poems, with Englishtranslations. One of themtells of the Ethiopianlake Babogaya,near Bishoftuor Debra Zayt,in which ProfessorSumner loves to swim.

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The professor also authored La couleur de mon chant (Yaounde, 1977) which contains his French renderingof four English plays by the well-known Ethiopian playwrightTsegaye Gabre-Medhin: Tetros", based on Tsegaye's " " Petros at the Hour", "Le rêve du roi" on "Tewodros", Le silence des cordes" on "Azmari", and "Oda", on "The Oda-Oak Oracle". For a literaryanalysis of the firstof these plays see Ethiopia Observer (1973), XVI, 118-24. In the field of the cinema the Ethiopian Revolution provides the background to an Ethiopin film, Haile Gerima's Harvest: 3000 Years, which was shot in Ethiopia and produced in the United States in 1975. A fictional work of social criticismit dramatises a peasant family'sstruggle for survivalon the farm of a wealthy landlord. For interviews with the producer see C. " McMullin, Un regard africain sur la sombre Amérique", Afrique-Asie(1980), " No. 212, pp. 53-4, and F. Avari, Entretien avec Haile Gerima, réalisateur éthiopien"; CarrefourAfricain (1985), No. 87, pp. 28-9. Another film of this period was an American work Exorcist II: The Heretic,which was released in 1977. Though shot in the United States part of the storytakes place in Ethiopia, with simulated scenes of the religious centres of Debra Damo and Lalibela The story features a young Ethiopian doctor, played by James Earl Jones, and a young Ethiopian monk, played by an " Ethiopia actor, Fisseha Demetros, who was also listed as African technical " consultant . Mention may also be made of a thus-farunpublished film-script,the late Jaspar Lynch's melodramaticJourney to JudgementRock, which dealt with the British expedition to Maqdala in 1867-8. This work was considerably re-writtenover the years, by Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin and the present author, in part to make it more historically accurate, in part to make it more acceptable to an Ethiopian audience (3).

The Ethiopian Civil War, and Stories of Refugees

The Ethiopian civil war of the late 1980's, and its antecedents, was the subject of four novels. The first,by an Australian supporter of the Eritrean Peoples' Liberation Front (Eplf), Thomas Keneally, is Towards Asmara (London, 1989). It tells story of a group of journalists and supporters of the Front, who, braving bombing by Mengistu Haile Mariam's Ethiopian Air Force, enter Eritrea from the Sudan. The characters include Darcy, an Australian lawyer turned journalist; Henry, an American aid-worker seeking the release of his Somali fiancée; Christine, a young French woman searching for her photographer father; Lady Julia, an English woman crusading against

(3) A copy is in the presentauthor's possesion.

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the local mutilationof women;and an Ethiopianprisoner-of-war called Major Fida. The second book, by an Americanwriter, James Webb, is Somethingto Die For (New York, 1991). In some ways reminiscentof WJ. Tyler'sThe Lion and theJackal, discussed above, it tellsthe excitingtwin story of a war in the Ogaden desert and of two American politicians,a cunning young bureaucratand a savvypolitical operator, who are rivalsfor the favoursof a beautifulwoman. The third,and by far the most culturallyinteresting novel of the civil war, an Irish Catholic and scholar,is Kevin " by" missionary O'Mahoney's Meaza of Ethiopia.An HistoricalNovel of theEthiopian Revolution (Addigrat, 1991). Writtenby the authorof an earlierimportant work of scholarshipThe EbullientPhoenix. A Historyof the Vicariateof Abyssinia(Asmara, 1982, 1987, Addis Ababa, 1993) "Meaza" is a sensitive,and remarkablyreadable, story about the EthiopianRevolution and its aftermathas it affectedtwo Ethiopian officers,Lieutenant-Colonel Beyene and his namesake Captain Beyene, the latter'sbeautiful daughter Meaza, who is the heroineof the book, and several otherwell- drawn characters. The work beginswith the plottingwhich accompaniedthe last yearsof Emperor'Haile Sellassie'sreign and ends with the defeat,and collapse,of PresidentMengistu Haile Mariam's regime. The story,which has an epic quality,illustrates many aspects of Ethiopianlife in thisperiod, both in Addis Ababa and the northernprovince of Tegré,where the authorhimself resided for most of the time, and where he collecteda numberof Amharicand Tegrenyasayings which he quotes in their originalas well as in English translation.The heroine'sname "Meaza", as he explains,"means 'fragrance', the title of the book containsa second meaning:'the fragranceof hence, " Ethiopia' . The fourth,and most recentwar novel, is by a prominentofficial of EmperorHaile Sellassie'sgovernment who subsequentlydefected to the United States,where he taughtas a professorin Howard University,becoming a leading supporterof the Eplf. He is the author of several studies on Ethiopianconstitutional law and recentEritrean an Horn of Africanpolitics. This novelis Dr BereketabHabte Selassie'sRiding the Whirlwind.An Ethiopian Storyof Love and Revolution(Trenton, New Jersey,1993), but has appeared too recentlyfor detailedmention in these pages. A new creativeliterature on Ethiopianrefugees, also touched upon, as we have seen by Maria Thomas,came into existencein this period. One of the earliestworks in this categorywas a semi-autobiographyby a former Ethiopianwoman senatorMarta Gabre-Tsadick:A Refugee'sStory (London, 1983). Somewhatmore dramaticwas a novel by an Americanmissionary who had spent thirteenyears in Ethiopia: Jodie Collins's Code Word Catherine

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(Wheaton,Illinois, 1985), which told of the imaginaryescape fromEthiopia afterRevolution of no less than ten royalprincesses. Yet anotherwork of this genre is Adane M. Asres's Cry (Toronto, Ontario,Illinois, 1987). It tellsthe "colourfuland fast-movingstory", as the blurb says,of two Ethiopianrefugees, Kaleb and Menelik,who, escape from theirnative country, travel to Melekalin the Sudan, and thencethrough some ten other countries,before finallyarriving at their destinationin North Americasafe and sound. " OperationMoses", the emigrationof Felashas,or JudaicEthiopians, to Israel in 1984-5, served as the inspirationfor a melodramaticnovel by an Americanwoman author,Sonia Levitin'sThe Return(New York, 1987). It tells the storyof a group of Felashas, born and bred in who, Ethiopian," " escapingMengistu Haile Mariam'sregime, as the authorputs it, returned to Israel (which theyhad of course had neverpreviously seen). Refugeesfrom Somalia also figureprominently in a remarkablyperceptive novel of the period: Marion Molteno's A Shield of CoolestAir (London, 1992). The author,who grew up in South Africaand also lived in Zambia, givesan autobiographicaltouch to her accountof the Somali refugeescene as she is organiserof a refugeeeducation project in South London. The titleof the book comes froma Somali poem by SayyidMohamed Abdille Hassan. Largelyset in London the book featurestwo Somali Anab and " refugees, Haleem, cut offfrom their past, anxiousabout the future,battling their way throughan anonymousbureaucracy", and Hassan, half Somali, half British, who works,like the authorherself, in a refugeeorganisation. The book is writtenwith delicacyand feeling,and ranks far above most works on the refugeetheme. Two of the finest,and best illustrated,children's books of recentyears also appeared in this period. They were writtenby a Britishwoman author; and sometimeteacher in Ethiopia,Elisabeth Laird, and illustratedin colour with Ethiopian manuscriptillustrations from the BritishLibrary's Magdala Collection.The first,The Miracle Child: A Storyfrom Ethiopia (London and New York, 1985), was writtenin collaborationwith Abba AregawiWolde Gabriel, an Ethiopianprelate in Britain,and was translatedinto Finnishas IhmeitäTekevä Lapsi (Helsinki,1985). The MiracleChild presentsone of the miraclesof the Ethiopiansaint Takla Haymanot.A reviewof this book was publishedin Quadernidi StudiEtiopici (1985-6), 6-7, pp. 320-1. The second book, The Road to Bethlehem(London and New York, 1987), deals with an Ethiopianversion of the Biblical story,and carriesa forewordby the Archbishopof Canterbury'slong imprisonedassistant Terry Waite. This work was translatedinto Welsh, as Tua Bethlehem(Cardiff, 1987). Another story by Elisabeth Laird, entitled "The Stonecutter", translatedfrom an unpublishedcollection of Ethiopinfolk stories by Gessesse

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Belay, appeared in an anthology:Julia Eccleshare's Tobie and the Face Merchantand OtherStories for Six Year Olds (London, 1991). Thoughthe presentstudy, like its predecessor,is confinedto writingsin non-Ethiopianlanguages mention may be made in passing of two studies which appeared in this period, by the Ethiopianliterary historian Dr Taye Assefa. Both deal with Téwodros's in " EthiopianEmperor position Etiopian fiction: Tewodros in Historical Fiction", Ethiopian " Journalof Ethiopian Studies (1983), XVI, 115-28, and, in Amharic, YäTewodros Enba ena YäTangut MestirnVerawi gemgäma" in Taddese Beyene,R. Pankhurstand ShiferawBekele, Kasa and Kasa. Papers on the Lives, Times and Imagesof Téiuodrosn and YohannesIV (1855-1889)(Addis Ababa, 1990), pp. 173-83. Ethiopia an the Horn of Africa,it will be apparentfrom the above survey,continue to be the inspiration,or at least the setting,of an ever wideningrange of creativeand imaginativewritings. Their characterreflects ever changingperceptions of the region. RichardPankhurst

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