Ethiopian Schoolboy's Letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair

[Oju]

Schoolboy's Letter to British Prime Minister

Gabriel B. Kassaye, a nine-year-old Ethiopian schoolboy in London, has addressed the following letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Dear Prime Minister Tony Blair,

We are on the eve of the new Ethiopian Millennium and it is a perfect time to take courageous steps and return Ethiopia's historical artifacts. We the sons and daughters of Ethiopian citizens in Britain and their supporters are asking the UK government to take a lead and return Ethiopian antiquities.

"The United Kingdom is one of the countries which still hold lots of Ethiopian historical artifact. Among them we find several ancient manuscripts, Ethiopian crowns, tabots, or altar slabs, golden church crowns, gold chalices, several processional crosses- all looted almost 140 years ego following the British expedition against Emperor Theodros of Ethiopia in 1867-7. The following are testimonies from those present at this large-scale looting.

The invading force "dispersed over the amba", or mountain top, "in search of plunder". The treasury was soon rifled", "tons" of "manuscript books". British historian Clements Markham.

The looted articles soon covered "the whole surface of the rocky citadel, the slopes of the hill, and the entire road to the [British] camp two miles off". American journalist H.M. Stanley '… while night was falling, he met a British soldier who was carrying the golden crown of the Abun, or head of the Ethiopian church, and a "solid gold chalice" weighing "at least 6 lb". Sir Richard Holmes, "Archaeologist" to the expedition and Assistant curator in the British Museum's Department of Manuscripts.

"The bulk of the looted manuscripts ended up at the British Museum(now the British library)', Royal Library in Windsor Castle, and Albert Museum, Cambridge University, Bodleian Library in Oxford, John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Royal Library in Vienna.

"Here are the most valuable manuscripts held in the Royal Library in Windsor Castle:

1. MS Eth Windsor I: a huge and exceptionally beautifully illustrated, early 18th century volume of the Miracles of Lord Jesus, and measuring no less than 13 1/2 inches by 11 1/2 inches, almost a foot square.

2. MS Eth Windsor II: a profusely illustrated work containing the Biblical Discourse of John Chrysostom in Praise of John the Baptist, and is ably decorated in so-called Gondarine style.

3. MS Eth Windsor III: another large work, measuring 14 inches by 12 inches, and dating from the early 18th century, it contains the Discourses of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.

4. MS Eth Windsor IV: dating from the 18th century, measuring 15 inches by 13 1/2 inches, containing the Nagara Maryam, or History and Miracles of the Virgin Mary with a painting on almost every page.

5. MS Eth Windsor V: particularly artistic manuscript- Miracles of the Virgin Mary , dated to 1758-1766, and containing a fine full page representation of the Qwer'ata Re'su, or Christ with the Crown of Thorns.

6. MS Eth Windsor VI: a valuable manuscript composed of a copy of the Four Gospels, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, and beautifully written and bound.

"There is no ambiguity as to the origin of the above Windsor Castle manuscripts. Each of the six manuscripts referred to above contains a note specifying that it belonged to the Church of Madhane Alam, i.e, to Emperor Tewodros's church looted in April 1868.

"The looting of Maqdala, which required fifteen elephants and 200 mules to cart away, was nothing other than an act of brute force. As the great British Liberal leader William Gladstone noted in 1871, the looting and procession of these Ethiopian antiquities has no justification whatsoever in International Law. These articles have no historical or cultural significance to us here in the UK, and it is no surprise that little is known about them in our schools. However, to Ethiopians, they are sacred and imposing symbols of their rich history and culture. It is their legitimate inheritance and the country's children deserve to see these looted artifacts to understand and appreciate the cultural heritage, which their forebears created.

"There were some attempts to return the articles to Ethiopia and those that succeeded were no more than sloppy diplomatic gestures. In 1923, the Foreign Office returned one of the crowns held in Victoria to visiting Regent, Ras Tafari Makonnen- later Emperor Haile Sellassie. On her State Visit to Ethiopia in 1965, Queen Elizabeth presented Emperor Haile Sellassie with Tewodros's cap and imperial seal.

A noted example is that of Lady Valorie Meux, one of then most important private collector of Ethiopian manuscripts. She bequeathed her entire collection of Ethiopian manuscripts in her Will, dated 13 January 1910, to Emperor Menilek. However, opposition to the repatriation led to overturning of the will (not invalidated) on the ground that Menilek was dead when Lady Meux died. A spurious argument since the Ethiopian monarch was in fact alive until December 1913, and had in any case heirs. Hence, Lady Valorie Meux collection is still unlawfully retained in the UK.

"Efforts to obtain the restitution of the Maqdala loot from the British Library have been blocked over the years by the argument that the institution cannot part with its possessions without legislative approval.

"Many Ethiopians and people of good-will in Britain and elsewhere have long felt that the dispute between Tewodros and the British Government in no way justified the looting of Maqdala. International justice requires all looted Ethiopian antiquities be repatriated to Ethiopia. Demands for restitution have been made in more recent years by the Association for the Return of Ethiopian Maqdala Treasures (AFROMET) which is based in both Ethiopia and Britain. The Ethiopian Millennium provides a perfect opportunity and our wish for the Ethiopian Millennium is that the UK government and Queen Elizabeth should return all Ethiopian historical artefacts to Ethiopia and Ethiopian people".

Gabriel B. Kassaye,

London, U.K.