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Adwa 1896: Who Was Civilized & Who Was Savage?. A Profile of Colonial Expansion in Africa
For peoples and nations, as for individuals, anniversaries are occasions of celebration of a positive event or commemoration of what may be deemed negative. Centenaries represent cumulative memories of the temporal chunk of the past (the equivalence of two to three generations) by extant siblings on a grander and a more deliberate scale than mere annual anniversaries. Sometimes centenaries become occasions for spotlighting neglected, omitted or under-treated aspects of historical phenomena due to fresh perspectives or improved research skills and resources. And sometimes centenaries can also be used to critically review, reexamine, reconfirm or revise long held theories or beliefs about past events, accounts or conclusions. Needless to say anniversaries, especially centenaries are ways of bonding with the agony and/or ecstasy of the heroes and heroines of the past. They are occasions for rededication to carry the torch to yet another generation. Thus, Ethiopia's decisive victory over colonial Italy it the Battle of Adwa on March 1, 1896 has been celebrated annually as a national holiday in Ethiopia since 1897.
For Ethiopians in particular, and for other Africans in general, as well as for all human beings who advocate liberty, civility, justice and peace in relations among nations, March 1996 represents an important centenary. It celebrates a historic occasion when valiant African resistance fighters led by Ethiopian Emperor Menelik, Queen Tayitu and many other notables engaged in a series of battles (December 7, 1895 to March 1, 1896) a determined and well heeled European colonial invading force in northern Ethiopia culminating in the decisive Battle of Adwa on March 1, 1896. At the end of the day at Adwa, Ethiopian "victory was complete, the protest effective" and the news reverberated all over Europe and the United States. However, because of their insulation from mainstream communications systems, awareness of the event trickled down slowly among African peoples and also, to some extent, the black world in the diaspora. Whenever and wherever the news of Adwa was heard among black communities, it was received with unmistakable sense of pride and joy.
To be sure, Adwa was neither the first nor the last military confrontation between Italian and Ethiopia on Ethiopian...