AN OPEN LETTER TO THE
AFRICAN UNION, THE ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT, THE OROMO LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF
SHASHEMANE, CARIBBEAN GOVERNMENTS, AND ETHIOPIAN PEOPLE GLOBALLY
THE SHASHEMANE LAND
GRANT:
A SACRED SYMBOL OF PAN-AFRICAN SOLIDARITY THAT SHOULD NEVER BE VIOLATED.
In the modern era the name
Shashemane is most commonly identified with Rastafari people who have
felt themselves called to make it a model city. But few people
understand the real historical and political significance of this land
grant that was originally given to Black people in the west during the
1930s as a sign of gratitude for their unwavering support of Ethiopia
when she was in her deepest hour of need. That was a time when the
sovereign nation of Ethiopia, the only remaining Free State in Africa,
was completely abandoned by all nations to the ravages of an Italian
invasion equipped with superior military force and armed with mustard
gas. At that time Ethiopia had only one real friend, and that was the
scattered nation of Black slave-descendents in the west who looked upon
Ethiopia with pride and offered their lives and their moneys in defense
of her freedom.
The following excerpt from
Wikipedia describes how deep was that hour of need in the years of
1935-1937. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Italo-Abyssinian_War
“Atrocities In
addition to conventional weaponry, Badoglio's troops also made
substantial use of mustard gas, in both artillery and aerial
bombardments. In total, the Italians deployed between 300 and 500
tonnes of mustard gas during the war, despite having signed the 1925
Geneva Protocol. The deployment of gas was not restricted to the
battlefield, however, as civilians were also targeted by the Italians,
as part of their attempt to terrorise the local population.
Furthermore, the Italians carried out gas attacks on Red Cross camps
and ambulances.[15]
The armed forces
disposed of a vast arsenal of grenades and bombs loaded with mustard
gas which were dropped from airplanes. This substance was also sprayed
directly from above like an "insecticide" onto enemy
combatants and villages. It was Mussolini himself who authorized the
use of the weapons:
The predominant part of
the work of repression was carried out by Italians who, besides the
bombs laced with mustard gas, instituted forced labor camps, installed
public gallows, killed hostages, and mutilated the corpses of their
enemies. Graziani ordered the elimination of captured guerrillas by
way of throwing them out of airplanes in mid-flight. Many Italian
troops had themselves photographed next to cadavers hanging from the
gallows or hanging around chests full of detached heads.
One episode in the
Italian occupation of Ethiopia was the slaughter of Addis Ababa of
February 1937 which followed upon an attempt to assassinate Graziani.
In the course of an official ceremony a bomb exploded next to the
general. The response was immediate and cruel, as he said "Avenge
me! Kill them all!". The Black Shirts of the Fascist Militia
fired randomly into the Ethiopians present at the ceremony killing
large numbers, and immediately after poured out into the streets of
Addis Ababa where they killed the Ethiopian civilians that they
encountered. They also set fire to homes and organized the mass
executions of a large groups of people.[17] The massacre claimed lives
of 30,000 Ethiopians.”
However, despite all the
above, successive regimes in Ethiopia have often seen Shashemane as an
unwanted reminder of The Monarchy that has been overthrown, without
realizing that Shashemane stands for something much bigger than the
concerns of local political rivalry. Ethiopians in general would do well
to recall that Mussolini’s mustard gas did not single out Amhara
royalists, Oromos, or Tigreans. His hostility was directed towards that
whole group of people known as Ethiopians, and Africans in the Diaspora
offered their assistance not to any one particular group but to all
Ethiopians who found themselves in dire need of assistance.
Ethiopia’s crisis
submerged tribal divisions both locally and internationally, reminding
African people of their essential oneness in face of the slave-master
forces of Europe that have always been a threat to African liberty. It
brought to the fore that spirit of Pan-African solidarity that is sorely
needed today to counter the strong psychological and economic tide that
continues to drain Africa of its precious human and intellectual
resources.
Those Black
slave-descendents who have settled in Shashemane have swum against the
popular tide and forsaken loyalty to the slave plantations of the west,
and have given their loyalty to Ethiopia instead. This is the best
living and enduring example of the Pan-African spirit that aided
Ethiopia in the past.
Against this background
Shashemane should therefore be treated as HOLY GROUND, a symbol of those
imperishable ties of loyalty and Pan-African unity that Africa must
cultivate and encourage today if it is to reverse its brain-drain and
begin to benefit from its vast human and intellectual resources that now
serve to enrich the west. Let us therefore free ourselves and our people
from ignorance, tribalism, and political myopia, and see the bigger
picture of Pan-African brotherhood that is symbolized by the A.U
headquarters stationed permanently in Addis Ababa, and by the small
settlement now known to the world as Shashemane.
Planned development of
Shashemane that does not include consultation with the residents of
Shashemane is disrespect for the legitimacy of that settlement. Planned
development that involves the destruction of properties in Shashemane,
without compensation, is violation of the sanctity of the historical
circumstances that created Shashemane. Planned destruction of the burial
places of those first patriarchs who journeyed in good faith to Ethiopia
is unforgivable sin. Moreover, such planned destruction is also an
economic set-back for those African descendents in the Diaspora who have
financially contributed to the development of Shashemane.
In a time when The African
Union has designated the Diaspora “the sixth region of Africa” as it
looks in that direction for assistance, let us all be reminded that to
violate the sanctity of Shashemane is to violate the sanctity of those
same bonds of kinship that are now being invoked today in the name of
Pan-African unity.
Ras Jahaziel
