By Tseday Alehegn: -
New York (Tadias) – Ethiopia, also called Yaltopya, Cush, and
Abyssinia, stands as the oldest, continuous, black civilization on earth, and
the second oldest civilization in history after China. This home of mine has
been immortalized in fables, legends, and epics.
Homer’s Illiad,
Aristotle’s A Treatise on Government, Miguel Cervante’s Don Quixote,
the Bible, the Koran, and the Torah are but a few potent
examples of Ethiopia’s popularity in literature. But it is in studying the
historical relations between African Americans and Ethiopians that I came to
understand ‘ Ethiopia’ as a ray of light. Like the sun, Ethiopia has spread its
beams on black nations across the globe. Her history is carefully preserved in
dust-ridden books, in library corners and research centers. Her beauty is
caught by a photographer’s discerning eye, her spirituality revived by priests and preachers. Ultimately, however, it is the oral journals of our elders that helped me capture glitters of wisdom that would palliate my thirst for a panoptic and definitive knowledge.
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Haile Selassie and Duke Ellington
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caught by a photographer’s discerning eye, her spirituality revived by priests and preachers. Ultimately, however, it is the oral journals of our elders that helped me capture glitters of wisdom that would palliate my thirst for a panoptic and definitive knowledge.
The term ‘Ethiopian’ has been used
in a myriad of ways; it is attributed to the indigenous inhabitants of the land
located in the Eastern Horn of Africa, as well as more generally denotive of
individuals of African descent. Indeed, at one time, the body of water now
known as the Atlantic Ocean was known as the Ethiopian Ocean. And it was across
this very ocean that the ancestors of African Americans were brought to America
and the ‘ New World.’
Early African American Writers
Although physically separated from
their ancestral homeland and amidst the opprobrious shackles of slavery,
African American poets, writers, abolitionists, and politicians persisted in
forging a collective identity, seeking to link themselves figuratively if not
literally to the African continent. One of the first published African American
writers, Phillis Wheatly, sought refuge in referring to herself as an “Ethiop”.
Wheatley, an outspoken poet, was also one of the earliest voices of the
anti-slavery movement, and often wrote to newspapers of her passion for
freedom. She eloquently asserted, “In every human breast God has implanted a
principle, it is impatient of oppression.” In 1834 another anti-slavery poet,
William Stanley Roscoe, published his poem “The Ethiop” recounting the tale of
an African fighter ending the reign of slavery in the Caribbean. Paul Dunbar’s
notable “Ode to Ethiopia,” published in 1896, was eventually put to music by
William Grant Still and performed in 1930 by the Afro-American Symphony. In his
fiery anti-slavery speech entitled “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
prominent black leader Frederick Douglas blazed at his opponents, “Africa must
rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand
unto God.”
First Ethiopians Travel to America
As African Americans fixed their
gaze on Ethiopia, Ethiopians also traveled to the ‘New World’ and learned of
the African presence in the Americas. In 1808 merchants from Ethiopia arrived
at New York’s famous Wall Street. While attempting to attend church services at
the First Baptist Church of New York, the Ethiopian merchants, along with their
African American colleagues, experienced the ongoing routine of racial
discrimination. As an act of defiance against segregation in a house of
worship, African Americans and Ethiopians organized their own church on Worth
Street in Lower Manhattan and named it Abyssinia Baptist Church. Adam Clayton
Powell, Sr. served as the first preacher, and new building was later purchased
on Waverly Place in the West Village before the church was moved to its current
location in Harlem. Scholar Fikru Negash Gebrekidan likewise notes that, along
with such literal acts of rebellion, anti slavery leaders Robert Alexander
Young and David Walker published pamphlets entitled Ethiopian Manifesto
and Appeal in 1829 in an effort to galvanize blacks to rise against their slave
masters.
Adwa Victory &‘Back to Africa’
Movement
When Italian colonialists encroached
on Ethiopian territory and were soundly defeated in the Battle of Adwa on March
1, 1896, it became the first African victory over a European colonial power,
and the victory resounded loud and clear among compatriots of the black
diaspora. “For the oppressed masses Adwa…would become a cause célèbre,” writes
Gebrekidan, “a metaphor for racial pride and anti-colonial defiance, living
proof that skin color or hair texture bore no significance on intellect and
character.” Soon, African Americans and blacks from the Caribbean Islands began
to make their way to Abyssinia. In 1903, accompanied by Haitian poet and
traveler Benito Sylvain, an affluent African American business magnate by the
name of William Henry Ellis arrived in Ethiopia to greet and make acquaintances
with Emperor Menelik. A prominent physician from the West Indies, Dr. Joseph
Vitalien, also journeyed to Ethiopia and eventually became the Emperor’ trusted
personal physician.
For black America, the early 1900s
was a time consumed with the notion of “returning to Africa,” to the source.
With physical proof of the beginnings of colonial demise, a charismatic and
savvy Jamaican immigrant and businessman named Marcus Garvey established his
grassroots organization in 1917 under the title United Negro Improvement
Association (UNIA) with branches in various states. Using the success of
Ethiopia’s independence as a beacon of freedom for blacks residing in the
Americas, Garvey envisioned a shipping business that would raise enough money
and register members to volunteer to be repatriated to Africa. In a few years
time, Garvey’s UNIA raised approximately ten million dollars and boasted an
impressive membership of half a million individuals.
Notable civil rights leader Malcolm
X began his autobiography by mentioning his father, Reverend Earl Little, as a
staunch supporter of the UNIA. “It was only me that he sometimes took with him
to the Garvey U.N.I.A. meetings which he held quietly in different people’s
homes,” says Malcolm. “I can remember hearing of ‘ Africa for the Africans,’
‘Ethiopians, Awake!’” Malcolm’s early association with Garvey’s pan-African
message resonated with him as he schooled himself in reading, writing, and
history. “I can remember accurately the very first set of books that really
impressed me,” Malcolm professes, “J.A. Rogers’ three volumes told about Aesop
being a black man who told fables; about the great Coptic Christian Empires;
about Ethiopia, the earth’s oldest continuous black civilization.”
By the time the Ethiopian government
had decided to send its first official diplomatic mission to the United States,
Marcus Garvey had already emblazoned an image of Ethiopia into the minds and
hearts of his African American supporters. “I see a great ray of light and the
bursting of a mighty political cloud which will bring you complete freedom,” he
promised them, and they in turn eagerly propagated his message.
The Harlem Renaissance &
Emigrating to Ethiopia
In 1919 an official Ethiopian
goodwill mission was sent to the United States, the first African delegation of
diplomats, in hopes of creating amicable ties with the American people and
government. The four-person delegation included Dadjazmatch Nadou, Ato
Belanghetta Herouy Wolde Selassie, Kantiba Gabrou, and Ato Sinkas. Having been
acquainted with African Americans such as businessman William Ellis, Kantiba
Gabrou, the mayor of Gondar, made a formal appeal during his trip for African
Americans to emigrate to Ethiopia. Arnold Josiah Ford, a Harlem resident from
Barbados, had an opportunity to meet the 1919 Ethiopian delegation. Having
already heard of the existence of black Jews in Ethiopia, Ford established his
own synagogue for the black community soon after meeting the Ethiopian
delegation. Along with a Nigerian-born bishop named Arthur Wentworth Matthews,
Ford created the Commandment Keepers Church on 123rd Street in Harlem and
taught the congregation about the existence of black Jews in Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, in the international spotlight, 1919 was the year the League of
Nations was created, of which Ethiopia became the first member from the African
continent. The mid 1900s gave birth to the Harlem Renaissance. With many
African Americans migrating to the north in search of a segregation-free life,
and a large contention of black writers, actors, artists and singers gathering
in places like Harlem, a new culture of black artistic expression thrived. Even
so, the Harlem Renaissance was more than just a time of literary discussions
and hot jazz; it represented a confluence of creativity summoning forth the
humanity and pride of blacks in America – a counterculture subverting the grain
of thought ‘separate and unequal.’
As in earlier times, the terms
‘Ethiopian’ and ‘Ethiop’ continued to be utilized by Harlem writers and poets
to instill black pride. In other U.S. cities like Chicago, actors calling
themselves the ‘National Ethiopian Art Players’ performed The Chip Woman’s
Fortune by Willis Richardson, the first serious play by a black writer to hit
Broadway.
In 1927, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to
London, Azaj Workneh Martin, arrived in New York and appealed once again for
African American professionals to emigrate and work in Ethiopia. In return they
were promised free land and high wages. In 1931 the Emperor granted eight
hundred acres for settlement by African Americans, and Arnold Josiah Ford,
bishop of the Commandment Keepers Church, became one of the first to accept the
invitation. Along with sixty-six other individuals, Ford emigrated and started
life anew in Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Students in America:
Mobilizing Support
In November 1930, Taffari Makonnen
was coronated as Emperor of Ethiopia. The event blared on radios, and
Harlemites heard and marveled at the ceremonies of a black king. The emperor’s
face glossed the cover of Time Magazine, which remarked on “negro newsorgans” in
America hailing the king “as their own.” African American pilot Hubert Julian,
dubbed “The Black Eagle of Harlem,” had visited Ethiopia and attended the
coronation. Describing the momentous occasion to Time Magazine, Hubert
rhapsodized:
“When I arrived in Ethiopia the King
was glad to see me… I took off with a French pilot… We climbed to 5,000 ft. as
50,000 people cheered, and then I jumped out and tugged open my parachute… I
floated down to within 40 ft. of the King, who incidentally is the greatest of
all modern rulers… He rushed up and pinned the highest medal given in that
country on my breast, made me a colonel and the leader of his air force — and
here I am!”
Joel Augustus Rogers, famed author
and correspondent for New York’s black newspaper Amsterdam
News, also covered the Coronation of Haile Selassie and was
likewise presented with a coronation medal.
After his official coronation,
Emperor Haile Selassie sent forth the first wave of Ethiopian students to
continue their education abroad. Melaku Beyan was a member of the primary batch
of students sent to America in the 1930s. He attended Ohio State University and
later received his medical degree at Howard Medical School in Washington, D.C.
During his schooling years at Howard, he forged lasting friendships with
members of the black community and, at Emperor Haile Selassie’s request, he
endeavored to enlist African American professionals to work in Ethiopia. Beyan
was successful in recruiting several individuals, including teachers Joseph
Hall and William Jackson, as well as physicians Dr. John West and Dr. Reuben S.
Young, the latter of whom began a private practice in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis
Ababa, prior to his official assignment as a municipal health officer in Dire
Dawa, Harar.
Italo-Ethiopian War 1935-1941
By the mid 1930s the Emperor had
sent a second diplomatic mission to the U.S. Vexed at Italy’s consistently
aggressive behavior towards his nation, Haile Selassie attempted to forge
stronger ties with America. Despite being a member of the League of Nations,
Italy disregarded international law and invaded Ethiopia in 1935. The Ethiopian
government appealed for support at the League of Nations and elsewhere, through
representatives such as the young, charismatic speaker Melaku Beyan in the
United States. Beyan had married an African American activist, Dorothy Hadley,
and together they created a newspaper called Voice of Ethiopia to
simultaneously denounce Jim Crow in America and fascist invasion in Ethiopia.
Joel Rogers, the correspondent who had previously attended the Emperor’s
coronation, returned to Ethiopia as a war correspondent for The Pittsburgh
Courier, then America’s most widely-circulated black newspaper. Upon
returning to the United States a year later, he published a pamphlet entitled The
Real Facts About Ethiopia, a scathing and uncompromising report on the
destruction caused by Italian troops in Ethiopia. Melaku Beyan used the
pamphlet in his speaking tours, while his wife Dorothy designed and passed out
pins that read “Save Ethiopia.”
In Harlem, Chicago, and various
other cities African American churches urged their members to speak out against
the invasion. Beyan established at least 28 branches of the newly-formed Ethiopian
World Federation, an organ of resistance calling on Ethiopians and friends
of Ethiopia throughout the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean. News of
Ethiopia’s plight fueled indignation and furious debates among African
Americans. Touched by the Emperor’s speech at the League of Nations, Roger’s
accounts, and Melaku’s impassioned message, blacks vowed to support Ethiopia.
Still others wrote letters to Haile Selassie, some giving advice, others
support and commentary. “I pray that you will deliver yourself from
crucifixion,” wrote one black woman from Los Angeles, “and show the whites that
they are not as civilized as they loudly assert themselves to be.”
Although the United States was not
officially in support of Ethiopia, scores of African Americans attempted to
enlist to fight in Ethiopia. Unable to legally succeed on this front, several
individuals traveled to Ethiopia on ‘humanitarian’ grounds. Author Gail Lumet
Buckley cites two African American pilots, John Robinson and the ‘Black Eagle
of Harlem’ Hubert Julian, who joined the Ethiopian Air Corps, then made up of
only three non-combat planes. John Robinson, a member of the first group of
black students that entered Curtis Wright Flight School, flew his plane
delivering medical supplies to different towns across the country. Blacks in
America continued to stand behind the Emperor and organized medical supply
drives from New York’s Harlem Hospital. Melaku Beyan and his African American
counterparts remained undeterred for the remainder of Ethiopia’s struggle
against colonization. In 1940, a year before Ethiopia’s victory against Italy,
Melaku Beyan succumbed to pneumonia, which he had caught while walking
door-to-door in the peak of winter, speaking boldly about the war for freedom
in Ethiopia.
Lasting Legacies: Ties That Bind
Traveling through Harlem in my
mind’s eye, I see the mighty organs of resistance that played such a pivotal role
in “keeping aloft” the banner of Ethiopia and fostering deep friendships among
blacks in Africa and America. I envision the doors Melaku Beyan knocked on as
he passed out pamphlets; the pulpits on street corners where Malcolm X stood
preaching about the strength and beauty of black people, fired up by the
history he read. The Abyssinia Baptist Church stands today bigger and bolder,
and inside you find the most exquisite Ethiopian cross, a gift from the late
Emperor to the people of Harlem and a symbol of love and gratitude for their
support and friendship.
Several Coptic churches line the
streets of Harlem, and the ancient synagogue of the Commandment Keepers
established by Arnold Ford continues to have Sabbath services. The offices of
the Amsterdam News are still as busy as ever, recording and recounting the past
and present state of black struggles. Over the years, the Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture has carefully preserved the photographic proofs of
the ties that bind African Americans and Ethiopians, just in case the stories
told are too magical to grasp.The name ‘Ethiopia’ conjures a kaleidoscope of
images and verbs. In researching the historical relations between African
Americans and Ethiopians, I learned that Ethiopia is synonymous with ‘freedom,’
‘black dignity’ and ‘self-worth.’ In the process, I looked to my elders and
heeded the wisdom they have to share. In his message to the grassroots of
Detroit, Michigan, Malcolm X once asserted, “Of all our studies, history is
best qualified to reward our research.” It is this kernel of truth that
propelled me to share this rich history in celebration of Black History Month
and the victory of Adwa.
In attempting to understand what
Ethiopia really means, I turn to Ethiopia’s Poet Laureate Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin.
“The Ethiopia of rich history is the heart of Africa’s civilization,” he said.
“She is the greatest example of Africa’s pride. Ethiopia means peace. The word
‘ Ethiopia’ emanates from a connection of three old black Egyptian words, Et,
Op and Bia, meaning truth and peace, up and upper, country and land. Et-Op-Bia
is land of upper truth or land of higher peace.”
This is my all-time, favorite
definition of Ethiopia, because it brings us back to our indigenous African
roots: The same roots that African Americans and black people in the diaspora
have searched for; the same roots from which we have sprung and grown into
individuals rich in confidence. Welcome to blackness. Welcome to Ethiopia!
About the Author:
Tseday Alehegn: is the Editor-in-Chief of Tadias Magazine. Tseday is a graduate of Stanford University (both B.A. & M.A.). In addition to her responsibilities at Tadias, she is also a Doctoral student at Columbia University.
Tseday Alehegn: is the Editor-in-Chief of Tadias Magazine. Tseday is a graduate of Stanford University (both B.A. & M.A.). In addition to her responsibilities at Tadias, she is also a Doctoral student at Columbia University.
Source: Tadias Magazine