By Dr. Richard Pankhurst:-
Ethiopia and the Awakening Africa, 1936-40
This week, and next, I dip into the records relating to Africa in
1936-40, of my mother, Sylvia Pankhurst, who edited “New Times and
Ethiopia News” (here abbreviated as N.T. ; E.N.), a pro-Ethiopian, and
Anti-Fascist weekly newspaper, at the time.
I present the following excerpts fom her African correspondence, with a minimum of comment.
Introduction
Many European Liberals, Socialists and Democrats, and Anti-Fascists
generally, were deeply interested in Ethiopia at the time of the Fascist
invasion of the
country in 1935-6, and shocked by the invaders’ use of
poison gas, the bombing of Red Cross hospitals and ambulances, the
shooting of prisoners captured in cold blood, etc.
Not a few European Anti-Fascists, however, shifted their
international interests, in the 1930’s, from one “Victim Country” to
another, from Ethiopia to Spain, from Spain to Czechoslovakia, and from
Czechoslovakia to Poland.
African consciousness of Ethiopia and of her plight, in the late
1930s and early 1940s was, by contrast, firmly grounded in issues of
race and colonial oppression, as well as admiration, if not veneration,
for Ethiopia, the only country on the continent to survive the European
Scramble for Africa.
Nationalist and Pan-African Ideas
For many Africans, sympathy for Ethiopia, the victim of unprovoked
aggression by a European colonial power, was moreover connected with
their own political awakening, and, the emergence and diffusion, through
support of Ethiopia, of nationalist and Pan-African ideas. For all
these reasons African opinion tended to be more constant than European
in its support of the Ethiopian cause.
African awareness of Ethiopia as an independent state struggling to
maintain its age-old independence may be said to date back to Emperor
Menilek’s historic victory over the Italians at the Battle of Adwa in
1896. Several persons of African descent, among them the Haitian leader
Benito Sylvain, had been profoundly moved by that event. Later, in the
Summer of 1935, at the time of Mussolini’s threatened invasion, Jomo
Kenyatta, as well as Mr C.L.R. James, of the West Indies, and several
other Africans or persons of African decent in Britain had banded
together, as we may see on another occasion, to found an International
African Friends of Abyssinia Society.
Difficulties of communication with Africa, and the latter’s then low
level of literacy and of political consciousness, nevertheless prevented
New Times and Ethiopia News from gaining any rapid contact with, or
circulation in, the continent. It was not long, however, before the
paper began to be read in the West Indies, and by the Spring of 1937 it
was known by many Africans in Anglophone Africa, as well as by many
persons of African descent all over the New World. Not a few articles on
Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Patriots, and Fascist oppression and terror in
Ethiopia, which appeared in Sylvia’s paper were moreover regularly
reprinted in the Nigerian Comet, the West African Pilot, the Southern
Nigerian Defender, and several other African publications.
Access to Sylvia’s paper was of some Africa-wide significance, not
only because it helped to articulate the African continent’s support for
Ethiopia, but also because it helped to break down parochialism in the
different African colonies. This it did by galvanising many readers into
support for a distant Victim Motherland, with whom they could, and did,
enthusiastically identify.
“Independent Motherland”
Some idea of the prevailing African attitude to the Fascist invasion
and occupation of Ethiopia, which many Africans regarded, and indeed
virtually worshipped, as their continent’s last remaining independent
Motherland, can be captured by referring to a few of the innumerable
letters that Sylvia received over the years. Some she published at the
time in New Times and Ethiopia News [see letters reprinted in issue for
30 January 1954], while others were later republished in her subsequent
journal Ethiopia Observer, or are preserved in her files, from which
several of the texts here cited are drawn.Taken together they constitute
a contribution to the literature of twentieth century emergent African
consciousness.
Pretoria, and Accra
Characteristic of the many letters my mother received at this time
was one from the Black Opinion Publishers, of Pretoria, South Africa,
who felt “the necessity of keeping our folks conversant with the latest
developments in Ethiopia”. From Dunkwa, in the Gold Coast (later Ghana),
Matt Arkhurst wrote to Sylvia from the Gold Coast Machinery and Trading
Company, declaring that “the people of this town show great interest in
your paper. They buy copies from the evening passenger train”. From
Benin, Nigeria, D.O. Imasgoie asked to be its agent, as he was “one of
the Africans who are greatly interested in our poor innocent Abyssinia”.
From Lagos, also in Nigeria, a general merchant E.E. Anamyonwu declared
that his compatriots were “eagerly in need of papers which give
Ethiopian news”. Martin A.K. Adover, of Accra, Gold Coast, wrote of his
great desire to obtain “the best news regarding our poor brethren now
suffering under the hands of the Italians”, and added, “the crucifixion
of Ethiopia came as a great shock to us the coloured races of Africa. We
pray to God that He, the most powerful, should stand and deliver His
people”.
The Reverend Morris Mattavous, and the Graziani Massacre
One of the earliest, and long the most enthusiastic West Indian
interested in things Ethiopian was the Reverend Morris Mattavous, of
Jamaica. His first published article appeared in N.T. & E.N., on 13
March 1937 ,in the immediate aftermath of the Graziani Massacre. Taking
as his title the Biblical phrase “Ethiopia is Stretching Forth unto
God”, he wrote, in emotional vein, “I am deeply interested in the
Ethiopian trouble”, and added:
“I am a black man, and all black men’s troubles are mine. For as much
as the Italians have done these brutal acts to my brothers they have
done them also unto me.
“Fellow Africans, this is the day of our gathering, let us arise and
answer the call of Ethiopia. How? By rallying to the cause in every way
we can possibly help”.
Support for Ethiopia was also voiced by innumerable people in humble walks in
life. Mr Basil Graham, an ex-soldier from Demerara, British Guiana,
who had participated in the first World War, wrote on 1 March 1937:
An Ex-Soldier
“I am an ex-Soldier of the 2nd British West Indies regiment, and I am
desirous of being of some service to my Fatherland [i.e. Ethiopia]. I
am one who is thoroughly against the Invasion of Ethiopia, and am
praying daily for a chance to meet the Italian army in the field of
battle with modern arms… I had vowed never to fight in a war again, but I
have changed my mind. My blood boils with rage to know that my strong
right hand is laying wasted in Guiana when a nation of no fighting
qualities
[i.e. Italy] is taking advantage of my brothers. I pray daily that
God will give us that chance, and we are going to have it very soon.
England will yet fight Italy, and then it will be our chance. We are
thousands in the West Indies and British Guiana who are willing to die
for justice… Heaven hear our prayer. I beseech You to give us that
chance if it is Thy will”
Addressing Sylvia specifically , he continued. “If I can be of any
service to your society for the Ethiopian cause I am ready for the job..
“It grieves us to stand in Guiana and see insults upon insults heaped
upon our Mother Country [Ethiopia] which we love… and [are] willing to
sacrifice our lives through Hell again to right that wrong”.
Wishing to Fight for Ethiopia
Another African wishing to fight for Ethiopia was Joel Edison
McKeanley, of South Africa, who wrote: “we of the coloured races of
Africa have followed this Mussolini bully from the kick-off… many of us
are prepared to fight for Ethiopia. We want no reward… we want a chance
to prove to His Majesty Emperor Haile Sellasssie that he is just as much
our Emperor as he is in Abyssinia”.
Support for Ethiopia, and condemnation of Fascist Italy, was likewise
voiced by J.A. Moruku, a West African in Britain, who exclaimed: “The
young people of African decent feel that Italy has invaded our
fatherland… If it were not for your paper the young Africans would not
know what is happening in Africa today, as the whole of the press in
Europe has no room to publish the Ethiopian case… Mussolini forgets that
it is the black soil of Africa that makes the white soil of Europe rich
today and the same black soil of Africa will one day cause the downfall
of Europe”.
The Graziani Massacre
Many readers, such as Mr J.D. Addison, of Takoradi, in the Gold
Coast, were in particular deeply shocked by the Graziani Massacre.
Asking Sylvia to pass on his condolences to Dr Martin, who had
personally lost two of his sons, Addison wrote: “It seems vain to try
and express one’s feelings and intense regret; they are too
overwhelming. But he [Dr Martin] may derive some tiny grain of comfort
in knowing that there are friends who share his sorrows. Believe me, all
of us in the Gold Coast are deeply grieved… I mean far more than I can
write”.
An anonymous reader from Uganda, expressing similar sentiments,
declared, “Glory and love are due to those martyrs of freedom – sons of
Africa – who are ready to die for motherland, whose heroic deeds words
do not suffice to describe. Their memory will be for ever green”.
Source: http://www.linkethiopia.org
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