Saturday 20 February 2021

COMMEMORATING THE MASSACRE OF ADDIS ABABA IN 1937.

 By Tsehai Berhaneselassie, PhD

19 February 2021 (የካቲት 12 ቀን  2013 ዓ.ም.)

Italians invaded Ethiopia in 1935 and patriots fought them until 1941. One  among many most memorable heroic acts was the attempt made to kill an Italian general, Rudolfo Graziani. This soldier had once boasted "The Duce will have Ethiopia, with or without the Ethiopians." Sure enough, Graziani tried to wipe out Ethiopians especially after two young patriots Moges Asgedom and Abraha Deboch tried to kill him on 19 February 1937.

This is an image of the two young heroes (from a book cover)


In reprisal the Italian Fascists hanged village elders


The Italian Fascists decapitated a patriot leader and took his head around.


Ethiopians recall the massacres every year.

The reprisal massacres began inside the palace and outside where the murder was attempted. The following monument commemorating the event was set up in 1955 just where the massacres began.


Former resistance fighters celebrated the memorial every year. I have always wondered if any survivor of that massacre in Addis Ababa itslef was MONG them. There must have been a time when.


2 comments:

  1. The grand children of the askaris are trying to bring in foreign power yet again into Ethiopia to occupy Ethiopia and resurrect them from the grave and propel them back to power. No way.

    ReplyDelete
  2. When will man learn?? The atrocities of nations is a scar on their history page, impossible to erase, no matter how hard they try.

    ReplyDelete