05 June 2008 - 04H13
Italy returns Ethiopia’s Aksum obelisk
Seven decades after the 1,700-year-old Aksum obelisk was removed by Italian troops from northern Ethiopia, UNESCO-sponsored work to relocate the monument to its original site has begun. (Report: N.Trabelsi, F.Berruyer)
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It’s a historical and an enormous event for the inhabitants of Aksum, in northern Ethiopia. Their obelisk has returned, 70 years after it had been stolen by Benito Mussolini.
Young and old came to greet this important symbol of Ethiopia’s identity and history. Italy, whose troops removed the famed Axum obelisk during their occupation of Ethiopia, has returned the obelisk to be restored at its original site.
“We are so happy with the return of the obelisk,” said an old man. “Our government worked hard to get it back. It’s our identity. It’s an important symbol for the whole country.”
“The Italians had a moral obligation to give it back because they stole it from us,” he added.
A man too young to remember Fascist Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia shares the elder’s happiness.
“The inhabitants of Aksum are not the only ones who are happy to witness the return of our national pride, but the whole of Ethiopia as well,” he said. “This is where our obelisk belongs.”
Berhane Gebewahid is particularly ecstatic about the Aksum obelisk’s re-installation. He’s been guarding its site for the last 27 years. The 69-year-old still remembers how painful it was to see it snatched away from his country.
“I felt as if my own son has left us for a long time to go somewhere far away,” he said. “And today he’s back home. The obelisk is like a part of my own family.”
Italy’s friendly gesture was widely praised by Ethiopians. Gebewahid and the Italian expert overseeing its return are now firm friends and share a common enthusiasm for Ethiopia’ heritage. It took three years of hard work and mutual cooperation to solve this error of the past.
“Whatever is not yours has to go back to where it belongs,” said Kebede Amare, commissioner for tourism and culture in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. “We have so many heritage artefacts taken by different individuals and institutions. This is the beginning of bringing them back to where they belong.”
Construction work at the obelisk site will continue until the official inauguration on September 10. In the meantime, Aksum camels are impatiently waiting for tourists.
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Comments (1)
Retrun of Ethiopian Obelisk
The former Habashi, who are brefly noted in the Koran, never occupied more that a strip of land between the Ethiopian Highlands and portion of Eretrea in the Red Sea. When the Italians conquered Addis Ababa in 1935 and photos at the times showing people in chains and sold in the various markets of the city. The infamous Berlin Conference allowed Menelik to conquer for the first time of Somali inhabited land. The Amhara and the Tigre, the mainly Christian of past and present rulers, as in the past and present the owe their power to the Europeans and Americans suport. The Ethiopia of today is the one of the past: poor, corrupt, unjust, and subservient to foreign powers, and there is past to brag about.