#Viceroy of Italian East Africa

[the-funtime-autocrat]

One could not better indicate the style which a true leader possesses, even when his own life is at risk. It is said that among the last words uttered by the Duke of Aosta, the hero of Amba Alagi, were these: 'I would have preferred to die fighting, out there among my men. But perhaps this is vanity. A man should know how to die even in a hospital bed.' There is no true greatness, save in an impersonality, devoid of vanity, of sentimentalisms, of exhibitionisms, and of rhetoric. Only that which is personal in a true, higher sense is liberated and permitted to shine. And wherever such a man must lead or serve as an example, it will be an entirely different kind of bond which so tightly unites the man who commands with the man who obeys -- bonds that no longer appeal only to the irrational, emotional part of the human soul, the part which is ever open to suggestion.

Julius Evola, “Hierarchy and Personality.”

[greatworldwar2]

• Archibald Wavell

Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, was a senior officer of the British Army. He served in the Second Boer War, the Bazar Valley Campaign and World War I. He served in the Second World War, initially as Commander-in-Chief Middle East until his defeat by the German army in 1941. He later served as Commander-in-Chief, India, from July 1941 until June 1943, and then served as Viceroy of India until his retirement in February 1947.

Born the son of Archibald Graham Wavell and Lillie Wavell. He was born on May 5th, 1883 in Colchester, Essex, England. Wavell attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. After graduating from Sandhurst, Wavell was commissioned into the British Army on May 8th, 1901 as a second lieutenant in the Black Watch, and joined the 2nd battalion of his regiment in South Africa to fight in the Second Boer War. In 1903 he was transferred to join the battalion in India and, having been promoted to lieutenant on August 13th, 1904, he fought in the Bazar Valley Campaign of February 1908. In January 1909 was seconded from his regiment to be a student at the Staff College.

Wavell was working as a staff officer when the First World War began. As a captain, he was sent to France to a posting at General HQ of the British Expeditionary Force as General Staff Officer Grade 2, but shortly afterwards, in November 1914, was appointed brigade major of 9th Infantry Brigade. He was wounded in the Second Battle of Ypres of 1915, losing his left eye and received the Military Cross. As the war continued he continued to receive further promotions of rank until eventually in 1918 Wavell received a further staff appointment as Assistant Adjutant & Quartermaster General, working at the Supreme War Council in Versailles. In March 1918 Wavell was made a temporary brigadier general and returned to Palestine where he served as the brigadier general of the General Staff with XX Corps, part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.

The Middle Eastern theatre was quiet for the first few months of the war until Italy's declaration of war in June 1940. The Italian forces in North and East Africa greatly outnumbered the British and Wavell's policy was therefore one of "flexible containment" to buy time to build up adequate forces to take the offensive. Having fallen back in front of Italian advances from Libya, Eritrea and Ethiopia, Wavell mounted successful offensives into Libya in December 1940 and Eritrea and Ethiopia in January 1941. His troops in East Africa also had the Italians under pressure and at the end of March his forces in Eritrea under William Platt won the decisive battle of the campaign at Keren which led to the occupation of the Italian colonies in Ethiopia and Somaliland. However, in February Wavell had been ordered to halt his advance into Libya and send troops to Greece where the Germans and Italians were attacking. He disagreed with this decision but followed his orders. The result was a disaster. The Germans were given the opportunity to reinforce the Italians in North Africa with the Afrika Korps and by the end of April the weakened Western Desert Force had been pushed all the way back to the Egyptian border, leaving Tobruk under siege.

In early June Wavell sent a force under General Wilson to invade Syra and Lebanon, responding to the help given by the Vichy France authorities there to the Iraq Government during the Anglo-Iraqi War. Initial hopes of a quick victory faded as the French put up a determined defence. Churchill determined to relieve Wavell and after the failure in mid June of Operation Battleaxe, intended to relieve Tobruk, he told Wavell on June 20th that he was to be replaced by Auchinleck, whose attitude during the Iraq crisis had impressed him. Rommel rated Wavell highly, despite Wavell's lack of success against him.

Wavell in effect swapped jobs with Auchinleck, transferring to India where he became Commander-in-Chief, India and a member of the Governor General's Executive Council. Initially his command covered India and Iraq so that within a month of taking charge he launched Iraqforce to invade Persia in co-operation with the Russians in order to secure the oilfields and the lines of communication to the Soviet Union. Wavell once again had the misfortune of being placed in charge of an undermanned theatre which became a war zone when the Japanese declared war on the United Kingdom in December 1941. On February 23rd, 1942, with Malaya lost and the Allied position in Java and Sumatra. In order to wrest some of the initiative from the Japanese, Wavell ordered the Eastern Army in India to mount an offensive in the Arakan, which commenced in September. After some initial success the Japanese counter-attacked, and by March 1943 the position was untenable, and the remnants of the attacking force was withdrawn.In January 1943, Wavell was promoted to field marshal.

On 22nd April Wavell returned to London. On May 4th he had an audience with the King, before departing with Churchill for America, returning on May 27th. On June 15th, Churchill invited him to dinner and offered him the Viceroyalty of India, made public on June 19th he assumed the Viceroyalty on October 19th. Lady Wavell joined him in London on July 14th, when they took up a suite at the Dorchester. When Linlithgow retired as viceroy in the summer of 1943, Wavell was chosen to replace him. he was formally named Governor-General and Viceroy of India. In 1947 Wavell returned to England and was made High Steward of Colchester. The same year, he was created Earl Wavell and given the additional title of Viscount Keren of Eritrea and Winchester.

Wavell died on May 24th, 1950 after a relapse following abdominal surgery in May. After his death, his body lay in state at the Tower of London where he had been Constable. A military funeral was held on June 7th, 1950 with the funeral procession travelling along the Thames from the Tower to Westminster Pier and then to Westminster Abbey for the funeral service.

[aiiaiiiyo]

Amedeo of Savoy-Aosta, viceroy of Italian East Africa, having lunch with his staff while besieged in the mountain fortress of Amba Alagi, Ethiopia, April 1941 [2792 x 2092] Check this blog!

[afishtrap]

The history of agricultural, botanical, pharmacological, and medical exchanges is one of the most fascinating chapters in early modern natural history. Until recently, however, historiography has been dominated by the British experience from the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, with Kew Gardens at the center of the “green imperialism.” In this article we address the hard-won knowledge acquired by those who participated in early modern Portuguese imperial bioprospecting in Asia. The Portuguese were the first to transplant important economic plants from one continent to another, on their imposing colonial chessboard. In spite of this, the history of Portuguese bioprospecting is still fragmentary, especially with respect to India and the Indian Ocean. We argue not only that the Portuguese—imperial officials, missionaries, and the people connected with them, all living and working under the banner of the Portuguese empire—were interested in gathering knowledge but also that the results of their endeavors were relevant for the development of natural history in the early modern period and that they were important actors within the larger community of naturalists.

Ines G. Županov and Ângela Barreto Xavier. "Quest for Permanence in the Tropics: Portuguese Bioprospecting in Asia (16th-18th Centuries)." Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Volume 57, Issue 4, pages 511 – 548.

As the Portuguese opened new oceanic routes and thus the way to early modern globalization, they had in the back of their minds a Roman model of land settlement and colonization. This goes against historiography that relies on the “network of settlements” theory.10 These intentions can be detected in the accounts of the conquest of Goa by Afonso de Albuquerque and all the way to the identity narratives of the Christianized Goan elites at the end of the seventeenth and in the early eighteenth century.

[...]

The difficulty of controlling the land and its production, and commerce and labor in Asia was due to the dense socio-economic arrangements and political organization already in place. In Sri Lanka, the Portuguese conquered the coastal area, including the kingdoms of Kotte and Sitawaka, and attempted to control both cinnamon cultivation and its trade, but they never succeeded in conquering the kingdom of Kandy (where most of the cinnamon was grown) in the inaccessible mountainous area in the center of the island. When the Portuguese lost its hold on Sri Lanka to the Dutch in the middle of the seventeenth century, regret at losing this territory turned into a series of narratives demanding its reconquest and extolling the beauties and riches of the island.16

By the end of the seventeenth century, instead of reclaiming the territory, the Portuguese pursued a less chivalrous goal of “stealing" (according to the Dutch) and transplanting cinnamon trees from Sri Lanka and India in Brazil. This was a long way from Dom Manuel’s initial policy of preventing the cultivation of Indian spices in Brazil, which continued to the end of the sixteenth century.17 It was also a belated effort, because the idea was an old one. Ambrosio Fernandes Brandâo proposed the transfer of pepper to Brazil in the text titled Diâlogos das Grandezas do Brasd (written c. 1617), attributed to him by Capistrano de Abreu. By describing the natural world of Brazil as infinitely useful and fertile, even more than the Asian, the author tried to prove his point that Brazil was the Promised Land for the Portuguese, as predicted by Dom Manuel’s astrologer.18

An incomplete series of letters in the Goan archives written between 1677 and 1690 shows the extent to which the Brazilian transfer was important to the Portuguese crown. Not only were saplings and seeds sent to Brazil but also cultivators from India. The king himself repeatedly demanded of the viceroys that they send “men experienced in cultivating cinnamon and pepper trees” to Bahia.19 There is evidence that plants were sent with Instructions (Regimento) on how to care for them during and after the transoceanic voyage.20 While the Portuguese continued their efforts, from the second half of the seventeenth century through the eighteenth, to make Brazil and, to a lesser extent, Portuguese Africa, with their vast territories, into centers of production of “Indian” cash crops, the competition for these same resources with the British, Dutch, and French was intense.

[...]

In discovering Portuguese natural history archives, such as those preserved in the Colloquies, we must also take into account the structure of the edifice that encloses them. In many respects, the detailed knowledge of plants and remedies that Orta displayed in fifty-nine chapters was not unfamiliar to the experienced Portuguese merchants, apothecaries, and physicians. Tomé Pires’s letter (1516) to King Dom Manuel, with its detailed list of “drugs,” shows that Orta did not start from scratch but rather built his knowledge on a half-century of intense Portuguese trade in Asian spices, plants, and medicines. How and to what extent manuscripts by royal officials, such as Tomé Pires (14657-1524 or 1540) and Duarte Barbosa (c. 1480-1521), circulated in Goa is impossible to reconstruct, but they certainly contained strategic information shared by Portuguese crown officials. In spite of their strategic value, the Italian geographer and compiler Giovanni Battista Ramusio managed to procure and publish the text of Duarte’s Book in 1550 and parts of Pires’ The Summa of the East, without mentioning the name of the author.28 And every merchant in Goa, Orta included, must have known the text written in 1554 by Antonio Nunes, Book of the Weights o f India, as well as Measures and Coins (Lyvro dos pezos da Yndia, e assy medidas e mohedas), which listed all the spices and medicinal substances (drogas) and how they were measured and priced in various coastal markets.29

Orta never mentioned these sources and authors by name, with the exception of the apothecary Simâo Âlvares. Without disclosing his name or quoting from his Information about All the Drugs that Go to the Kingdom (Enformaçâo de todalas drogas que vâo para 0 Reino), written around 1547, Orta paraded Âlvares’s opinion, with which he disagreed, that white and black pepper belong to the same plant30 That Orta and Âlvares were not the best of friends, and possibly even rivals, is clear from the way the story is told in the Colloquies, but it indicates how local social hierarchies were important for the construction of knowledge. It is also interesting that, almost fifteen years later, Cristôvâo da Costa takes Orta’s side in this dispute.31 He even adds a drawing of the “black pepper {pimenta negro)" in his Treatise, claiming that the plants of the white and black pepper were so similar that the drawing is a good representation of both.32

And yet, Âlvares was right, which proves Orta’s larger claim that merchants and experienced casados (settlers) in Asia knew better than the naturalists in Europe, from the Greeks to the modems, but his mistake remains a puzzle. The only possible answer is that he did not possess a pepper plant in his garden in the Rua dos Namorados in Goa and thus had no experience of its complete cycle of growth and the drying process. As it is known that, due to Portuguese demand, the cultivation of Malabar pepper expanded north into the foothills of Kanara during the sixteenth century, it may be inferred from the Colloquies that it had not yet arrived in the environs of Goa in Orta’s time.3

If Orta was so wrong on pepper, can he be trusted regarding other spices, simples, and plants, some of which he confessed having never seen personally, such as durian? Perhaps not, but the dialogical form may have helped him press his point with authority.34 It is only because of Ruano’s insistent request to be told something about this Southeast Asian fruit that Orta responded first “informally,” as the two interlocutors were on their way to lunch (or dinner), with a few evocatively titillating remarks, such as “the Malays say that it is good for the feast of Venus.”35 When Ruano was not satisfied, Orta offered a formal description containing the size, shape, and color of the fmit, as well as of its flowers and leaves. What is remarkable about Orta’s description is that, for someone who had not seen the fmit, it was quite accurate. This is confirmed by Cristôvâo da Costa who travelled to Melaka and made a drawing of the tree.36 Moreover, to describe the smell of the fmit, he borrowed Orta’s phrase, “rotten onions.”

[1baddmouthcrown]

1935

1935 January 7 Ethiopia Christmas Day The Swedish H. R. H Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph hier to the throne arrives in Addis with his wife Princess Louise, his daughter Princess Ingrid and his son Prince Bertil. The French foreign minister Pierre Laval and Italian Prime Minster Benito Mussolini sign the Franco Italian agreement giving Italy a part of bordering French Somliland (now Djibouti) as part of Eritrea as well as the Aouzou strip in French Chad as part of Italian Libya. January 19 The League of Nations Council at session decide that the Wal Wal clash should be resolved by arbitration arbitrators should examine the interpretation of the frontier treaty of 1908 May 16 by investigation as according to articles 5 and 7 of the 1928 treaty as to wither Wal Wal is part of Ethiopia or Italian Somaliland. Du Bois publishes his Black Reconstruction in America. March 16 Garvey travels to London on the SS Talapa. March 17 Ambassador Takla Howargat makes submission to the League invoking Article 15 of the covenant. March 28 General Emilio De Bono is named commander in chief of Italian armed forces in East Africa and force invading from Eritrea. April Britain, France and Italy sign the Stresa. May 16 The Emperor sends message to Geneva ‘We request that, if Italy refuses to accept that the arbitration should examine and adjudicate upon all the attacks that have been made in the vicinity of the Somali-Ethiopian border since last December and should pronounce upon the interpretation of the treat of 1908 May 16, the Council itself will take the investigation in hand and resolve matters by a full examination on basis of article 15 of the covenant.’ May 25 As a result of the Emperor’s second submission the League decides arbitrators should be chosen. ‘Because it was Ethiopia’s desire that the judgement to be pronounced should be impartial and on an absolutely legal basis, she on her part chose arbitrators two men who were legal experts, one French Albert de Geouffre de La Pradelle, professor of law in the University of Paris, and one American Pitman B. Potter professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies at Geneva who were very well known for their knowledge and refinement in international law.’ ‘Italy on her part selected two Italians from among Italy’s government officials.’ Ethiopia’s clear conscience was aware of the rights due to her and We, therefore, submitted immediately our request to Italy to settle the matter on the basis of the text of the treaty, referring to the treaty concluded in 1928, by which Italy had undertaken that peace and friendship should forever persist between us and that, if a quarrel arose between us, this quarrel should have a peacful outcome on the authorative verdict of arbitrators. To this request, which we had presented, the reply was an absolute refusal, and Italy revealed her inflexible resolve to have the demands which she had submitted fulfilled in their entirety without investigation and without adjudication in the proper manner. The Emperor on July 18 of the same year. May Robinson arrives in Ethiopia. Garvey speaks at Hyde Park speakers corner. Garvey publishes Black Man monthly magazine from 2 Beaumont Crescent, West Kensington with Una Marson who would later work for the BBC Caribbean service as his personal secretary. Seay becomes the second woman in awarded member of the Order of the British Empire presented to her by Governor Burns and agrees with Womans League and Labourers and Unemployment Association on womens suffrage for voting age to be lowered to but proposes unemployed women rather than to be given suffrage be given land grants. June 25 Joe Louis Detroit’s Brown Bomber, scores a decisive technical knockout over the Italian Primo Carnera in the sixth round of their bout at the Yankee Stadium. Here is Louis standing over the bleeding, fallen Carnera, during one of the three knockdowns in the sixth round. June When the danger became more urgent, being aware of my responsibilities towards my people, during the first six months of 1935 I tried to acquire armaments. Many Governments proclaimed an embargo to prevent my doing so, whereas the Italian Government through the Suez Canal, was given all facilities for transporting without cessation and without protest, troops, arms, and munitions. From the Emperors speech to the League on June 30 of the following year. 3000 white and black men volunteer through the UNIA to fight. Garvey cautions Mossolini against aggressive action towards Ethiopia. Bayen graduates from Howard University medical school. July 8 Garvey in the Black man. July 10 Bayen leaves the U. S. for Ethiopia. July 18 The Emperor delivers speech to parliament. During the Ethiopian Crisis people from all other the world rallied support for the Emperor. July 23 The members of the International African Friends of Ethiopia with their various roles including C. L. R. James as Chairman, Amy Ashwood Garvey as Treasurer and Jomo Kenyatta as secretary hold their first meeting. July 28 Sunday The International African Friends of Ethiopia hold meeting at Faringdon Street, Memorial Hall. August 18 I.A.F.E. hold meeting at Conway Hall Treaty and lift arms embargo. August 26 IAFE hold rally at Trafalgar Square. THE DEFENCE OF ETHIOPIA The International African Friends of Ethiopia. (Formerly The International African Friends of Abyssinia) If devilish force prevails and causes a war then Abyssinia will arise; and, with its Emperor leading, followed by his people, whose courage and valour are known, will defend its country against the invader to the last drop of its blood. Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, at Addis Ababa, August 12th 1935. THAT IS THE POSITION WE ADOPT. Come to THE CONWAY HALL, Sunday August 18th, 1935 at 8 p.m. Resolutions demanding that the British Government keep their Treaty obligations by (a) Supporting Ethiopia in its struggle against Italian Fascism. (b) Raising the embargo on the export of Arms to Ethiopia will be moved. SPEAKERS: Dr. WILLIS N. HUGGINS, Ph.D., from America who has carried the protest of 40 organisations, both black and white, to Geneva, and will tell of the efforts of the Friends of Ethiopia in the United States of America. Mr. C. L. R. JAMES Mr. J. M. KENYATTA Chief TUFUHIN MOORE Dr. SANDRO MAGRI, An Italian Anti-Fascist. AN ETHIOPIAN. August 12 Ethiopia also pleads for the embargo to be lifted. August Garvey praises the Emperor as a gentleman and calls Mussolini a barbarian guilty of savagery. September 2 Amy Ashwood and the International African Friends of Ethiopia held a rally in London at Trafalgar Square. Afterwards, Amy posed for a photograph with two of the sons of the Ethiopian Minister Dr. Warqenah Eshete (aka Dr. Charles Martin), Benyam and Yosef (2nd and 3rd from the right). Both sons were Co-Founders of the radical and militant Black Lion Organization that was involved in liberating Ethiopia from Italian occupation and tyranny. Unfortunately, shortly after taking this photo the two were arrested in Ethiopia and summarily executed for the attempted assassination of the Italian Viceroy Marshall Rodolfo Graziani. — at Trafalgar Square. August Garvey praises the Emperor as a gentleman and calls Mossolini a barbarian guilty of savagery. September 3 The Wal Wal clash is adjudicated by arbitration niether Ethiopia or Italy responsible for the clash, Italy stops compensation. September 4 Italy submits memorandum of complaints to the council of the League of Nations. September 11 The Emperor makes radio broadcast. September 11 The Jamaica Gleaner The Honorable Amy Ashwood Garvey speaks before a London crowd at Trafalgar Square, denouncing the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. “No race has been so noble in forgiving, but now the hour has struck for our complete emancipation. We will not tolerate the invasion of Abyssinia.“ Mrs. Garvey said: “In this struggle, the black women are marching beside the men. You white people brought us out of Africa to Christianize us and civilize us, but all the Christianity and civilization you gave us for 320 years was slavery. You have talked of ‘The White Man’s burden.’ Now we are carrying yours and standing between you and Fascism.” She warned the British Government that if this became a struggle between the “Blacks” and the “Whites” that three quarters of the people of the Empire are colored. September 15 Nuremberg laws in Germany October 3 5:00 AM General Emilio De Bono, without a declaration of war, advances into Ethiopia from Eritrea crossing the Mareb river in the north by plane. Graziani implements the Milan plan all along the southern front to remove Ethiopian forces from various frontier posts and to test the reaction of a series of probes there. The Emperor orders a general mobilization. October 5 Italian I Corps take Adigrat and the League’s Committee of 13 report on the details of events occurred after the month of December of the previous year and up to October 3 of the present year. October 6 Italian II Corps take Adwa where the Italians were defeated 40 years ago in 1896 on March 1. Robinson witness’s the bombing’s of both Adigrat and Adwa. The Emperor orders Ras Seyoum Mangasha commander of the army of Tigre to withdraw a days march away from the Mareb river. The Emperor orders his son in law Dejazmatch Haile Selassie Gugsa to move back 89 and 56km (55 and 35 miles) from the border. October 10 The International African Friends of Ethiopia at a meeting at Clarks theatre in Castries, Saint Lucia protest the Foreign Enlistment Act and pass the following resolution in view of the provoked aggression of Italy against unarmed Ethiopia the penal clause of the above act be waived so far as it applies to west Indians to permit. October 11 Dejazmatch Haile Selassie Gugsa surrenders to the Italian commander with 1, 500 of his men at Adagamos the Italian outpost and defects to the Italian side leaving Makale, his capital in eastern Tigre at 1:00 am with 50 of his men meeting with the Italians. Bono at his HQ with Gugsa on the left. October 14 with De Bono proclaimed the end of slavery, with the livestock having been moved to the south to feed the army those no longer slaves were left with no other option but to loyal to the Italians. I am obliged to say that the proclamation did not have much effect on the owners of the slaves and perhaps still less on the liberated slaves themselves many of the latter the instance they were set free, presented themselves to the Italian authorities asking and now who gives me food. October 15 De Bono forces advance from Adwa occupy Axum, Bono loots Obelisk. October 19 The Bishop of Udine [Italy] writes, ‘It is neither timely nor fitting for us to pronounce on the rights and wrongs of the case. Our duty as Italians, and still more as Christians is to contribute to the success of our arms.' Ras Mulugeta is given orders and parades with army. October 21 The Bishop of Padua writes 'In the difficult hours through which we are passing, we ask you to have faith in our statesmen and armed forces.’ A. L. King and his Provisional Committee for the Defense of Ethiopia ship medical supplies to the Emperor. October 24 The Bishop of Cremona consecrated a number of regimental flags and said 'The blessing of God be upon these soldiers who, on African soil, will conquer new and fertile lands for the Italian genius, thereby bringing to them Roman and Christian culture. May Italy stand once again as the Christian mentor to the whole world.’ The Somali villages of Kelafo, Dagnerai, Gerlogubi and Gorahai in the Oganden are taken by the Italians. October 27 To His Excellency Graziani. The use of gas as an ultima ratio to overwhelm enemy resistance and in case of counter-attack is authorized. Mussolini. November The League of Nations places economic sanctions on Italy excluding oil. November 3 20 aeroplanes from the Regia Aeronautica drop bombs at Gorrahei the stronghold of Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan known to the British as Mad Mullah. Grazmatch Afawarq is hit on the leg by a bomb splinter whilst firing with a 37 mm Oerlikon named after the suburb of Zurich where these guns are made taking aim to bring down a plane. November 4 Waves of 20 Aeroplanes bomb Gorrahei. November 8 I Corps and Eritrean Corps take Makale. November 13 Graziani moves his headquarters to Baidoa. November 16 De Bono is promoted to the rank Marshall of Italy. November 19 The Emperor leaves for Jijiga the capital of Tigre. November 20 Grazmatch Afawarq is posthumously conferred upon with the rank of Dejazmatch. November 28 The Emperor leaves Addis for Dessie in the province of Wollo. November 30 The Emperor moves his HQ to Dessie. 20 killed 100 wounded. December 4 Ras Imru advances from Gojam, his forces are bombed. December 5 The Italians take Abbi Addi. December 6 Lethbridge Herald newspaper THIRTY ITALIAN BOMBERS RAIN DEATH ON CITY AS EMPEROR AND SON WATCH Incendiary Bombs Set Field Hospital Palace of Crown Prince Wrecked by Blasts from Air 200 Injured Protest Attack on Red Cross Hospital Death Stalks Ethiopian Hillsides War is never a pleasant thing, and the current Italo Ethiopian war is no exception. Here is a new photo that graphically illustrates the tragedy of war. Two native soldiers who will probably never be honored by burial shot down by Italian planes. Similar scenes were witnessed today in Dessye where Italian bombers wreaked havoc before the eyes of Emperor Haile Selassie. By CHRISTIAN OZANNE (Copyright, 1935, by the Havas New Agency) ADDIS ABABA Dec 6 (C.P. Havas) Thirty two persons were killed and more than 200 injured when 30 Italian planes bombed Dessye today before the eyes of Emperor Haile Selassie and his, 11 year old second son, Prince Makonnen. Protests To League By JOSPEH E. SHARKEY (Associated Press Foreign Staff) GENEVA, Dec. 6 (A.P.) Emperor Haile Selassie, who escaped death in an Italian air bombing raid on his headquarters at Dessye today, protested directly to the League of Nations a few hours later against the bombing of Red Cross hospital.) Emperor Haile Selassie, who escaped death in an Italian air bombing raid on his headquarters at Dessye today, protested directly to the League of Nations a few hours later against the bombing of Red Cross hospitals and the killing of women and children. The Ethiopian monarch declared the American hospital at Dessye which was struck by bombs had displayed the authorized insignia of the Red Cross. Emperor’s protest The emperors protest stated (Continued on Page Two.) Ethiopian Emperor Fire Machine Gun Himself During Bombardment Of Dessye By Italian Squadron By James A. MILLIS (Copyright. 1935, the Associated Press.)WITH EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE AT DESSYE, ETHIOPIA.Dec. 6 Italian war planes struck at Emperor Haile Selassie’s headquarters today, bombing and machine gunning troops, civilians, the emperor’s palace, and hospitals indiscriminately.The emperor himself fough against the attack which lasted 17 minutes while more than 1000 bombs were dropped and at least 12 persons were killed and 200 wounded,The little, bearded man was talking to Dejazmatch (general) Birru and a doctor named Zeryos when the thunder of the bombing planes was heard (Continued on Page Two) December 10 The British and French foreign ministers Samuel Hoare and Pierre Laval Pact make an underhand agreement to sign Ogaden Tigray and Southern parts of Ethiopia away to Mussolini, the pact is leaked by a French newspaper and the foreign ministers are forced to resign. December 15 The Emperor launches the Ethiopian Christmas Offensive/Counteroffensive also refered to as the Dolo offensive. December 15 Ras Seyoum Mangasha and his army of Tigre with 30, 000 men Abiy Addi Beles River the Ethiopian center, Ras Kassa Haile Darge and his army of Beghemder province in Gondar with 40, 000 advance from Dessie to join Mangasha in the center, Ras Mulugeta Yeggazu Minister of War advances from Dessie with 80, 000 to Amba Aradam the steep sided flat topped mountain on the right of the Ethiopian center blocking the Italian advance to Addis Ababa, the Emperor with 40, 000 men advance from Gojjam towards Mai Timket to the left of Mangasha and Darge, the Ethiopian center. 1,000 Ethiopians cross the Tekeze river and advance toward the Indabaguna Pass. The Ethiopians attack the Italian commander Major Criniti’s forces composed of 1, 000 Eritrean infantry and L3 tanks, the Italians fall back to the the Indabaguna pass where 2, 000 Ethiopian soldiers are already waiting, the Ethiopians then encircle Criniti’s force. The Ethiopians kill two Italian officers and Criniti is left wounded. The Italians try to break out using their tanks which are immobilized by the terrain, the Ethiopians kill the infantry and rush the tanks killing their two man crews. The Ethiopians ambush the Italian relief column of ten tanks, two trucks and infantry sent to Criniti. The Ethiopians roll boulders infront and behind several of the tanks to immobilize them and then pick off the Eritrean infantry and the tanks. More tanks are immobilized by the terrain and two are set on fire. Criniti breaks out in a bayonet charge. There were 31 Italian casualties, 370 Askari were killed and five Italians were taken as prisoners, the Italians claim that there were 500 Ethiopian casualties which is a figure believed to have been much exaggerated. Next the Ethiopians plan for Ras Kassa and Ras Seyoum to split the Italian army in two and isolate the Italian I Corps and III Corps in Mekele and for Ras Mulugeta to Amba Aradam to crush both Corps. After Ras Imru retook Adwa he would invade Eritrea. December 17 De Bono recieves state telegram 13181, and is replaced as Marshall of Italy by Pietro Badoglio. December 18 Harvest of Gold. December 19 Thursday Daily Mirror SIR S. HOARE RESIGNS. December 21 Friday morning 21 aeroplanes bomb Dessie. December 22 Ras Seyoum retakes Abbi Addi. December 30 Red Cross unit at Dolo is bombed, Egyptian ambulance at Bulall attacked and Egyptian medical unit at Daggah Bur. December Julian arrives back in New York on the Cunard liner Aquitania. The Emperor attends a church service after the bombardment of Dessie The Emperor is named man of the year by TIME weekly magazine.

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10 Things To Know About Yekatit 12 

Yekatit 12 It is a date in the Ethiopian calendar, equivalent to 19 February in the Gregorian calendar, which is commonly used to refer to the indiscriminate massacre and imprisonment of Ethiopiansby elements of the Italian occupation forces following an attempted assassination of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Marchese di Neghelli, Viceroy of Italian East Africa, on 19 February 1937.

MarshalThe March…

[aiiaiiiyo]

The Duke of Aosta, viceroy of Italian East Africa, having lunch with his staff while besieged by Commonwealth and Ethiopian troops in Amba Alagi, Ethiopia, April 1941. Amba Alagi fell on 19 May 1941. [2792 x 2092] Check this blog!

[1baddmouthcrown]

Emperor Menelik II born 17th August.

Lion Judah

Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. Genesis 49:8-12

The colonization of Africa the second ItaloEthiopia war.

These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. Revelation 17:14

Negust Tafari coronation as Emperor Haile Selassie at the Cathedral of Saint George Coronation, His Imperial Majesty’s speech at the League of Nations.

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 

His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 

And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 

From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19:11-16 

No man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth able to open the book, loose the seven seals thereof neither to look thereon read it except from the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David.

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. Revelation 5:5

Description of Isaiah 63

The opening of the seven seals ‘Come and see’.

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? Revelation 7

Ras Tafari in Jamaica.

In 1933 Leonard Percival Howell began to preach about the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie in the parish of Saint Thomas at largely attended meetings accused of ‘Blantant swindle selling pictures at 1s per piece to boost the sale of King RasTafari of Abyssinia son of King Solomon by the Queen of Sheba. Howell held meetings in Trinity Ville and Seaforth of 300 and in 1934 was trailed and sentence for two years sedition and even blasphemy and Robert Hinds ‘his disciple’ led astray by evil doctrine sentenced to one year at the Saint Thomas Circuit Court in Morant Bay by Chief Justice Robert Lyall Grant. 

It was around this time that Leonard Percival Howell published the Promised Key under his alias Gong Guru Maragh, of which the front cover of also bore the name of post Nigerian President and Pan Africanist Nnamdi Azikiwe who was the then editor of the African Morning Post in Accra, Gold Coast. 

The Promised Key was adapted from Fitz Balintine Pettersburgs Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy which was published in 1925, other Ras Tafarites such as the house of Nyahbinghi as well as Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards in his Black Supremacy in Righteousness of Salvation stuck with this tradition of Black Supremacy as well as for using the titles King Alpha and Queen Omega.

meanwhile the second ItaloEthiopia war began over the Italo Ethiopia Treaty of 1928 similiarly to the first ItaloEthiopia war in 1895. 

The Italians built a military post on within the border of Ethiopia in 1930 which caused the WalWal incident in 1934.

The members of the League of Nations especially France and Britain failed to comply with Article X of the covenant and did not act to assist Ethiopia under Italian aggression they wanted Italy as an ally against Germany it was Italys plan to make Ethiopia an East African colony along with Eritrea and Italian Somalian. 

1935 January Pierre Laval and Benito Mussolini sign the Franco Italian agreement which gave Italy a part of bordering French Somliland (now Djibouti) as part of Eritrea as well as the Aouzou strip in French Chad in Italian Libya. 

December Samuel Hoare Pierre Laval Pact was secretly agreed to sign Ogaden Tigray and Southern parts of Ethiopia away to Mussolini when this was found out they were forced to resign. 

Stresa Front, Locarno Treaty, Adolf Hitler, Austria Satellite State remilitarization of Rhineland, Anglo German Naval agreement. 

July 25 economic sanctions arms embargo was imposed on both Ethiopia and Italy however these were limited in regard to Italy, the United States of America who was not a member of the League exported to Italy.

August 12 Ethiopia also pleads for the embargo to be lifted.

September 2, 1935 - Amy Ashwood and the International African Friends of Ethiopia held a rally in London at Trafalgar Square. Afterwards, Amy posed for a photograph with two of the sons of the Ethiopian Minister Dr. Warqenah Eshete (aka Dr. Charles Martin), Benyam and Yosef (2nd and 3rd from the right). Both sons were Co-Founders of the radical and militant Black Lion Organization that was involved in liberating Ethiopia from Italian occupation and tyranny. Unfortunately, shortly after taking this photo the two were arrested in Ethiopia and summarily executed for the attempted assassination of the Italian Viceroy Marshall Rodolfo Graziani. — at Trafalgar Square. 

The Honorable Amy Ashwood Garvey speaks before a London crowd at Trafalgar Square, denouncing the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.“No race has been so noble in forgiving, but now the hour has struck for our complete emancipation. We will not tolerate the invasion of Abyssinia." Mrs. Garvey said: "In this struggle, the black women are marching beside the men. You white people brought us out of Africa to Christianize us and civilize us, but all the Christianity and civilization you gave us for 320 years was slavery. You have talked of 'The White Man's burden.' Now we are carrying yours and standing between you and Fascism." She warned the British Government that if this became a struggle between the "Blacks" and the "Whites" that three quarters of the people of the Empire are colored. Jamaica Gleaner, September 11, 1935. 

1936 May His Imperial Majesty boardS the train from Addis Ababa to Djibouti, with the gold of the Ethiopian Central Bank. According to Barker, A. J. (1971). Rape of Ethiopia, 1936. New York: Ballantine Books, Graziani suggested to Mussolini that he have the train bombed which however he didn’t see fit to do so. 

The Emperor and hunting party in Ethiopia before the Italian invasion drove him into exile. It was taken on the Addis Ababa to Djibouti railway line in the early 1930s just after he’d been officially crowned as Emperor.

1936 May 4 H.I.M. sails from Djibouti in the British cruiser HMS Enterprise.

May 8 arrives at Haifa.

from Mandatory Palestine sails to Gibraltar on the way to Britain.

May 5th after the fall of Addis Ababa the sanctions are dropped.

Benito Mussolini also used poison gas and mustard gas which were exposed by International Red Cross.

June 7th The Emperor himself addresses the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

During the Ethiopian Crisis people from all other the world rallied support for the Emperor including The International African Friends of Ethiopia among whos members included Amy Ashwood Garvey, Jomo Kenyatta, C. L. R. James and George Padmore. 

Mexico, China, New Zealand, Soviet Union, Republic of Spain, United States USSR also did not recognize Italys occupation. 

New York, NY - Scene outside the offices in Harlem of the Pan-African Reconstruction Association, as some of Harlem’s male population studies the banners and posters before signing up for the possible war service in Abyssinia.

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Mussolini and Hilter become allies during the Spanish Civil War, Mussolini declares war on Britain and France attacks British in Egypt Sudan, Kenya, British Somaliland.

1941 May 5th the Emperor returns to Ethiopia with the East African Campaign. 

David the Israelite descended from the tribe of Judah and Goliath The Philistine.

And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick. And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.1 Samuel 18:6-7

And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee. And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him. And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands. And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came, and drew nigh to meet David, that David hastened, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. 1 Samuel 17:32-51

Howell was charged with Assault Occasioning actual bodily harm Spanish Town R. M. Court His Honor C. M. Mac Gregor charge with assault occasioning actual bodily harm to Jeremiah Simpson Evelyn Magee Nathaniel Osborne and assaulting Standford Edwards pleaded not guilty. Mr. N. A. Clare, Clerk of Courts for Saint Catherine prosecuted while the defense was conducted by Mr. F. A. Pixley large number from Pinnacle also came to the courtroom until restrained from entrance the prosecutions case was incompleted and further hearing was postponed until Saturday.

1935 The pullman company negotiate with the BSCP.

1936 Howell marries Teneth Bent.

Du bois visits Nazi Germany, China and Japan.

1937 the BSCP and the pullman company enter contract together.

1938 January strike for higher wages at Serge Island in the parish of Saint Thomas 1, 400 workers, armed 24 injured, 60 arrested. 

April 29 Westmoreland strike 4 killed, 13 injured and 105 arrested.

May 23 Kingston strike.

Howell sent to Bellevue Asylum.

1939 April Howell founds the Ethiopian Salvation Society and purchases 485 acres in the hills of Saint Catherine, 5 miles on the road to Sligoville,  the free community founded by English Reverend Baptist Minister James Mursell Phillippo in 1843, named after the 2nd Marquess of Sligo, Governor of Jamaica, Saint Catherine also being the parish with the most number of active sugar plantations at the time Howell established this settlement which became to be known as Pinnacle.

1941 July 14 Pinnacle raided for first time 72 arrested. 

Randolph Madison Square Gardens.

July 24 Howell arrested sentenced to 2 years released 1943 April.

December 23 Howells Wife Teneth Bent Howell dies, Howell accused of murdering her and arrested but is acquitted 1944 April 6.

1948 Ganja Dangerous Drugs Act began to be used against Rastafarite.

1948 January 8 Howell 6 months in prison.

1950  Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP, and, Arnold Aronson, of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council found the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR).

1951 January 18 Howell sentenced to 2 year in prison for Ganja.

1954 April Howell arrested for illegal practice of medicine. May two of Howells adolescent sons arrested under false pretense. May 27 biggest Ganja raid as of that time £3, 000 seized.

1957 Randolph Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom with Martin Luther King Jr.

1958 Pinnacle burnt by Police members disburse.

Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards used to work at Up Park Camp the British army headquarters in Kingston Jamaica he said that one day he was painting a building and he fell off the ladder he saw this as a calling, a sign from the Father to redeem his people, Prince Emmanuel said that he was at Back O Wall Ackee Walk since 1944 on the 1st March 1958 lead the protest for Human Rights Repatriation with Nyahbinghi drumming.

Prince Emmanuel then moved to Galilee (Harris Street), Jericho (Spanish Town), Greenwich Street, David Lane, 54b Spanish Town Road Denham Town Western Kingston, and finally 10 Miles Bull Bay in the parish of Saint Andrew North East of Warieka Hill.

The Back O Wall and Dungle off Foreshore Road (now Marcus Garvey Drive) area was bulldozed between 1963 and 1966 for the new Tivoli Gardens which was the site of social unrest and declared state of emergency in 2010 on account of Christopher Coke Dudus.

Randolph Youth Marches for Integrated Schools in Washington, DC.

1960 Howell arrested for Ganja Tredegar Park and sent to Bellevue.