On 13 April 1868 the British Army looted the churches of Ethiopia of all the treasures of its library and national archive, after a battle at the Palace of Maqdala waged to rescue a British diplomat who had been captured by then-Emperor Tewodros. The stripping of Maqdala in 1868 and the looting of priceless crowns, and innumerable manuscripts and crosses, constituted an immense depletion of Ethiopia’s cultural heritage. The loot from Maqdala in fact constituted the largest amount of Ethiopian cultural property ever shipped out of the country – and some of the most valuable booty snatched from Africa in the entire Colonial Era.
Outright opposition to the looting of Maqdala was voiced three years later, on 30 June 1871, by none other than the renowned British Liberal leader, and Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. Speaking in the House of Commons, he declared that the whole question of the acquisition of these two looted artifacts was “unsatisfactory… from first to last” and that “he deeply regretted that those articles were ever brought from Abyssinia and could not conceive why they were so brought. They [the British] were never at war with the people or the churches of Abyssinia.”
MAQDALA ACTIVISTS
A group of activitists, the AFROMET committee, has been campaigning for decades to have the Maqdala treasures reuturned to Ethiopia from the museums around the world where they now rest. Led by Jamaican-born Seymour McLean and Tagassa Wolde Selassie King, the Ethiopia-based group includes noted British archivist Prof. Richard Pankhurst who has compiled the most thorough database of the looted Ethiopian treasures. AFROMET has identified 468 looted items that can be traced to locations around the world. Only 10 Maqdala Treasures have been returned, including a precious crown presented to Empress Zaudito when she visited England.
Among the treasures, the Magdala Collection of historic manuscripts can trace the activity of Ethiopia from the time of Solomon and Sheba to the early 19th Century, Royal chronicles of over 200 Emperors of Ethiopia, their life and times. The 400 Axumite manuscripts presently held in Princeton University in America contain the history of another 150 Kings and their chronicles.
VALUABLE TREASURES
Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV, on ascending the Imperial Ethiopian throne in 1871, lost little time in raising the issue. On 10 August, 1872 he wrote to Queen Victoria and to the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Granville, requesting the return of two most valuable items looted from Magdala. One was a Ge’ez manuscript of the Kebra Nagast, or Glory of Kings, which told the story inter alia of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon. The other was the Kwer’ata Re’esu, an icon of Christ with the Crown of Thorns, which Ethiopian rulers had for hundreds of years taken with them on campaign.
On receipt of the Emperor’s letter the Foreign Office asked the British Museum authorities whether they knew about the picture’s whereabouts, but the latter replied that they had no information on the matter. This was perhaps not surprising, as the Museum’s representative at Maqdala, Sir Richard Holmes, had appropriated the icon for himself. The British Foreign Secretary wrote back to Emperor Yohannes on 18 December 1872, declaring that the picture could not be found.
Queen Victoria wrote to Yohannes in similar vein, observing: “Of the picture we can discover no trace whatsoever, and we do not think it can have been brought to England”. However, the picture was then, as we now know, actually in the possession of Holmes, who was by then Her Majesty’s librarian at Windsor Castle. Holmes’s possession of the icon became common knowledge in Britain.
No less remarkable was the story of Lady Valorie Meux, the principal private British collector of Maqdala manuscripts. Having met Ras Makonnen – and seen the intensity of his interest in his country’s manuscripts, on 23 January 1910 she bequeathed her collection to Emperor Menelek or his successor.
Lady Meux died on 20 December of that year, after which her Will created great excitement among British chauvinists, The Times reporting that “many [British] persons interested in Oriental Christianity… will view with extreme regret the decision of Lady Meux to send her valuable MSS out of the country”. Her Will was accordingly overthrown – and not one of her manuscripts was ever returned to the country to whom she had bequeathed them.
Though the cry for the return of historical artefacts has been endorsed by the United Nations in 2001 at the historic World Conference Against Racism, few world museums and universities are willing to give up their collections. Greece has long agitated for the return of its Elgin Marbles now housed in the British Museum, while South Africa continues to ask for the repatriation of the ‘Hottentot Princess’, the preserved body of a South African woman.
Recognising the reluctance of museums around the world to return treasures to countries of origin, the AFROMET committee has adopted a new approach for which they seek endorsement by all nations and peoples seeking access to their stolen treasures. AFROMET suggests that, based on laws covering intellectual and cultural copyright, funds earned by museums and universities from entrance fees, books and souvenir reproductions of stolen treasures should accrue royalties to countries of origin. AFROMET recommends that such countries also be allowed access to reproduce copies of their captured treasures in books, films and teaching materials for development of their national culture and education. AFROMET has appealed to the European Union to assist in preparing an economic valuation of the Maqdala treasures, and to support their call for payment of royalties.
REGGAE ENERGISES CAMPAIGN
From their base in Addis Ababa, the AFROMET Committee is also utilizing the medium of Reggae music to further sensitize the young generation of Ethiopians to the campaign for the return of the Maqdala Treasures. Jamaican reggae band Chakula, presently resident in Ethiopia, is composing a song about Maqdala for the first of a series of stage shows at the Addis Ababa University that will then tour the country at various other Universities and large secondary schools throughout the country. The Addis Ababa Committee is asking for help from Jamaicans in locating a "Double Base" acoustic type bass as used by Count Ozzie to enhance the "Drums of Rasta" band for the concert.
Further information on the Maqdala Treasures can be found at AFROMET’s website: www.afromet.org.
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