Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt.
Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem.
Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?
Legacies of Empire The National War Museum, Edinburgh Castle 27 Nov 2020 – 29 Jan 2023 Examines the histories connected to objects brought back from colonial conflict by the military forces of the British Empire.
Projects
Baggage and Belonging: Military Collections and the British Empire, 1750 – 1900 A collaborative research partnership between the National Museums of Scotland and the National Army Museum that reappraises motivations for military collecting. It investigates cultures of collecting by members of the British armed forces while on campaign and garrison duty in Africa and India during the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Non-European collections in military culture A series of workshops of anthropology and military history experts organised by The Royal Society of Edinburgh, held from 2013-2015, that appraised the state of research into non-European military collections.
Military Encounters – Reassessing military collecting in North America and Tibet Researcher Rosanna Nicolson surveyed military collections from two British campaigns that bookend the period of high imperialism: the Seven Years’ War in North America (1754-63) and the Younghusband Mission to Tibet (1903-04). British Academy/Leverhulme Trust project – 2014. The Museum Ethnographers Group Blog has a post on the project.
Ethiopia
Articles/chapters
I don’t do things by halves – the incredible conservation of the James Bruce drinking horn – Part 1 :: Part 2 by Lydia Messerschmidt A two-part article on the restoration of a drinking horn that was taken by the Scottish explorer James Bruce of Kinnaird on 21 May 1772 after the Second Battle of Sarbakusa, Ethiopia. Now in the National War Museum in Edinburgh Castle. – FREE
Amulree, Basil William Sholto Mackenzie, Lord (1970). Prince Alamayou of Ethiopia. Ethiopia Observer, Vol. 13, No. 1, 8-15.
Bates, D. (1979, Dec 01). The Abyssinian Boy.History Today, 29, 816.
Jeśman, Czeslaw. (1966). The Tragedy of Magdala. Ethiopia Observer, Vol. 10, No. 2.
Langton, Jane. (1988). Alamayou, Prince of Abyssinia. Report of the Society of the Friends of St George’s and the Descendants of the Knights of the Garter, Vol. VI, No. 9
Allingham, W. (1907). A Diary. London: Macmillan & Co.
Bahru Zewde, (1991). A History of Modern Ethiopia: 1855-1974. London.
Bates, D. (1979). The Abyssinian Difficulty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bell, J. G. (1842). Extract from a journal of travels in Abyssinia, in the years 1840-41-42, Miscellanea Ægyptiaca, Association littéraire d’Égypte, Alexandria.
Blanc, Henry (1868). A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia. London: Smith, Elder.
C, C. [Cornelia Cotton] (1870). Anecdotes of Alamayu, the late King Theodore’s son. W. Hunt & Co: London.
Fraser, G. M. D. (2006). Flashman on the March: From the Flashman Papers 1867-8. London: HarperCollins.
Garretson, P. P. (2013). A Victorian Gentleman and Ethiopian Nationalist: The Life and Times of Hakim Wärqenäh, Dr. Charles Martin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Getatchew, H., Rubenson, S., & Hunwick, J. O. (1987). Acta Æthiopica: Volume 1. Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press.
Holland, T. J., Hozier, H. M., & James, H. (1870). Record of the Expedition to Abyssinia. London.
Johnson, S., Tillotson, G., & Jenkins, B. (1977). The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Laird, E. (2012). The Prince who Walked with Lions. London: Macmillan Children’s Books.
Markham, C. R., & Prideaux, W. F. (1869). A History of the Abyssinian Expedition: With an account of the mission and captivity of Mr Rassam and his companions. London: Macmillan.
Marsden, P. (2008). The Barefoot Emperor: An Ethiopian Tragedy. London: Harper Perennial.
Matthies, V., & Rendall, S. (2012). The Siege of Magdala: The British Empire against the Emperor of Ethiopia. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers.
Michael Daniel Ambatchew (1999). Alemayehu. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Neo Printers.
Pankhurst, Richard (1968). Economic History of Ethiopia, 1800-1935. Addis Ababa: Haile Sellassie I University Press.
Pankhurst, Richard (1983). Captain Speedy’s ‘Entertainment’: The Reminiscences of a Nineteenth Century British Traveller to Ethiopia. Africa 38 no. 3 428-48
Pankhurst, Rita (1973). The Library of Emperor Tewodros II at Maqdala (Magdala). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 36(1), 15-42.
Plowden, W. C., & Plowden, T. C. (1868). Travels in Abyssinia and the Galla Country, with an account of a mission to Ras Ali in 1848. From the MSS. of the late W.C. Plowden … Edited by … T.C. Plowden. London.
Rassam, H. (1869). Narrative of the British Mission to Theodore, King of Abyssinia. London: John Murray, Albermarle Street.
Rubenson, S. (1966). King of Kings, Tewodros of Ethiopia. Addis Abeba: Haile Sellassie I University in association with Oxford University Press.
Rubenson, S., Rubenson, S., Aklilu, A., & Aregay, M. W. (1994). Tewodros and His Contemporaries 1855-1868. Acta Æthiopica: Vol. 2. Lund: Lund Univ. Press.
Rubenson, S. (2000). Internal rivalries and foreign threats: 1869-1879. Acta Æthiopica: Vol. 2. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa Univ. Press.
Simpson, W., & Pankhurst, R. (2003). Diary of a Journey to Abyssinia, 1868: The diary and observations of William Simpson of the Illustrated London News. Hollywood, Calif: Tsehai.
Southon, Jean & Harper, Robert (2003). The Rise and Fall of Basha Felika: Captain Speedy, his life and times.
Stanley, H. M. (1874). Coomassie and Magdala: The story of two British campaigns in Africa. London.
Stern, H. A. (1862). Wanderings among the Falashas in Abyssinia: Together with a description of the country and its various inhabitants. London.
Waldmeier, T. (1886). The Autobiography of Theophilus Waldmeier, missionary. London, Leominster.
Zaneb, & Moreno, Martino Mario (1942). La cronaca di re Teodoro attribuita al dabtara ‘Zaneb’. Rassegna di Studi Etiopici II: 1, 160-1
What: A silver processional cross presented by Napier to the 1st Belooch Regiment. It was placed on a silver stand made in Birmingham and was meant to be an ornament for the regiment’s Mess.
Where: Exact location unknown. The 1st Belooch Regiment is one of the precursors of Pakistan’s modern-day Baloch Regiment which is based in Abbottabad.
Illustrated London News engraving
The Illustrated London News ran an article on the cross in its Aug. 28, 1869 issue:
ABYSSINIAN CROSS PRESENTED BY LORD NAPIER TO THE 1ST BELOOCH REGIMENT “Our readers will certainly recollect that, among the multitude of Illustrations we gave last year of the strange incidents of the British expedition to Abyssinia, were several crosses, and other church utensils or ornaments, either sent to this country as trophies, or seen and delineated by our Special Artist. The cross shown in an Engraving this week is part of the spoils of Magdala. This curious piece of work is about 150 years old. The head of the cross is formed of pure silver, very soft and ductile. It is decorated with engraved groups and figures chiefly illustrative of the history of Christ, according to the ideas of the Greek Church. On the obverse is represented, at its apex, Christ, crowned with thorns, undergoing his crucifixion with the two thieves. At the base of the cross are introduced the Blessed Virgin and St. John, with two cherubim. The betrayal of Our Lord, the flight of the soldiers, the scene of his being dragged between the houses of Herod and Pilate, St. Peter cutting off the servant’s ear, and the insulting act coupled with the question “Prophesy who struck Thee,” are represented on the transverse arms of the cross. On the reverse, at its apex, is shown God the Father as an aged man, placed above a space in which are introduced the Madonna and Child, and the background of which is formed by a curtain held up by two cherubim. St. George of Cappadocia is shown on horseback in the act of slaying the dragon. St. Michael is also represented in a characteristic attitude. The extreme points of the transverse arms on this side bear representations of the miracles of casting out a devil and curing the blind. The member of the cross which forms the blade of the shaft bears representations on both sides of the Fathers of the Desert. The interstices not occupied by figure-subjects are decorated with ornaments of a peculiar character, very curiously interlaced. This is well displayed in the flat circular band which springs from the shaft of the cross on each side, and supports the transverse arms. The shaft of the cross has engraved upon it an inscription in native characters, the translation of which is as follows :- “Presented by Colonel Welda Hunna to the Church of St. Raphael at Gondar.”
“This cross has been presented by Lord Napier to the 1st Belooch Regiment, who have had it fitted up in a silver vase by Messrs. Hardman and Co., of Birmingham, with the intention of using it as an ornament on their mess-table, to commemorate the part taken by it in the capture of Magdala. The shaft of the stand, which is also of silver, is decorated with engraving en suite, and bears the following inscription round the base:-” Presented to the 1st Beloochees by his Excellency Lord Napier, G.C.B., G.C.S.I., Commander-in-Chief of the Abyssinian Expedition, in commemoration of the Fall of Magdala, 1868;” and on the regimental badge, engraved on the base, is inscribed :-” 1st Belooch Regiment-Delhi-Abyssinia.”
What: Sistrum – a percussion instrument used in religious events
Where: The Horniman Museum, 100 London Rd, London SE23 3PQ
The database entry dates it to 1868. It reads: “Tsenatsil, sistrum. The pierced iron frame holds two metal bars from which five jingling plates are suspended. Wooden handle.”
Museum reference number: M24.8.56/123
Provenance: Britain’s Abyssinian Expedition took place in 1867/8
What: The Amulet which Emperor Tewodros of Ethiopia was wearing on 13 April 1868, the day of his dramatic suicide at Maqdala, returned to Ethiopia on 28 September 2002
Where: The Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa
It is now possible to piece together the greater part of the Amulet story. To do so we must however begin by going over part of the ground touched upon in these columns in the last two weeks.
The Suicide
Tewodros, rather than fall into the hands of his enemies, committed suicide, we would recall, on 13 April 1868. Lifting his pistol to his mouth he fired it, and fell down dead, thereby gaining a unique posittion in his country’s history. Within only a matter of moments British soldiers rushed into the citadel.
The British seizure of the fortress was followed, as we have seen, by extensive looting. Clements Markham, one of the leading British historians of the campaign, notes in his “History of the Abyssinian Expedition”, p. 359, that, immediately after the capture of the fortress, “the troops dispersed over the amba in search of plunder”.
Another eye-witness, the American writer Henry Stanley, writing of the loot in his book “Coomassie and Magdala”, pp. 457-9, observes: “There was an infinite variety of gold, and silver, and brass crosses… heaps of parchment royally illuminated; stacks of bibles; missals, and numberless albums… Over a space growing more and more extended in infinite bewilderment until they dotted the whole surface of the rocky citadel, the slopes of the hill, and the entire camp two miles off”.
Tewodros’s body
The British troops had by then found Tewodros’s body. This is reported by Markham, who recalls (p. 353) that “a crowd [of soldiers] came round the body, gave three cheers over it, as if it had been that of a dead fox, and then began to cut and tear the clothes to pieces until it was nearly naked”.
The above account is confirmed by Stanley. He reports (p. 459) seeing a “mob… of officers and men, rudely jostling each other in the endeavour to get possession of a small piece of Theodore’s blood-stained shirt”.
Sapper Bailey
Tewodros, in accordance with Ethiopian tradition, was wearing an Amulet round his neck when he died. This too was looted – by a certain Sapper Henry Bailey of the Tenth Regiment of the British Royal Engineers.
Sapper Bailey, we know for certain, was one of the first to enter the fortress of Maqdala. This is evident from a statement by his commanding officer, Major Pritchard, which appeared in the London Times, of 11 July, 1868. Thus quotes the major as stating that Bailey was “one of the first on the wall of Magdala”.
This caught the notice of the local press. Bailey was a Notting Hill man, so the Bayswater Chronicle, of 18 July, carried the following report:
“One of the HEROES OF MAGDALA – We understand that Henry Bailey, Sapper, 10th. Company Royal Engineers, who so nobly rushed off into Magdala and planted the British flag in that fortress was honourably mentioned in the despatches of Sir R. Napier, and whose name was read out on parade at Brompton barracks, Chatham, on Friday, July 10th., is the nephew of Mr. Dunford, superintendent to the late volunteer Fire Brigade of Notting-hill”.
The Amulet
Bailey, as one of the first to enter the fort, was, not surprisingly, one of the first to come across Tewodros’s body. This enabled him, as we now know, to snatch the deceased monarch’s Amulet.
Bailey certifies this in a note which he subsequently affixed to the still card on which the amulet was pasted. His statement reads as follows:
Tewodros’s Amulet
“I hereby certify that this charm was taken from the neck of King Theodore on the 12th. [a mistake for 13th.] of April 1868, as he lay dead inside the gates of Magdala by me. Henry Bailey, Sapper, 10th. Compy. R.E.” [i.e. 10th. Company Royal Engineers]
Bailey had, however, apparently no interest in keeping the “charm” as he called it. He accordingly gave it to his uncle, Mr. C.W. Dunford, who lived nearby at Sudbury Road, Notting Hill. This he did on 5 August, as certified by another note he attached to the amulet. It reads: “Presented to me by Mr. C.W. Dunford of Sudbury Road, Bayswater, on the 5th. August 1968. Henry Bailey, Sapper, 10th. company R.E”.
The Amulet Lost to View
Tewodros’s Amulet, like much else of the loot from Maqdala, then disappears from view. It is apparently not hear for an entire century – until 1968, when the present writer published a photograph of it with a brief note in Ethiopia Observer, Volume 6, Number 3, p. 291.
This publication of the above article has thus far not been noted on the press.
The Anonymous Donor
The Amulet’s then owner was firmly convinced that the Amulet should be returned to Ethiopia – at an appropriate moment, when its return could contribute to the wider cause of the restitution of Ethiopia’s looted heritage. That time came with the establishment, in 2000, of AFROMET: the Association for the Return of Maqdala Ethiopian Treasures; and the subsequent return, in 2002, of the Tabot most fortuitously discovered, and returned, by the Rev. John McLuckie of Edinburgh.
The present writer accordingly repatriated the Amulet, on behalf of the anonymous donor, at the end of September of this year.
AFROMET gave the Amulet’s return its full support, and organised an important and well-attended Press Conference, which was held at the Sheraton Hotel, Addis Ababa, on Saturday 2 November at 10am. The event was introduced by AFROMET Vice-Chair Ato Tafari Wossen, and featured an exhibition on Maqdala organised by AFROMET-member artist Zeryehun Yetemgata. Professor Andreas Eshete, the Association’s Chair, began by explaining the aims and objectives, as well as the history, of AFROMET, and paid tribute to the importance of the return of the Tabot from Scotland, after which Mr. Tony Hickey read out a message of support from the Rev. John McLuckie of AFROMET-UK.
The New IES Library
The present writer thereupon related the story of the loot from Maqdala, and of the Amulet, and emphasised the importance of building the new IES Library. AFROMET-member Ato Hailu Habtu then read out the Ge’ez text of the Amulet, presented a provisional English translation of it, and explained that the document revealed that Tewodros’s christening or baptismal name had been Sarsa Dengel.
After this Professor Andreas presented the historic artifact to the Professor Baye Yimam, the Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies. This gift was conceived as AFROMET’s contribution to the Institute’s New Library Project which is now actively underway.
Professor Baye Yimam, in receiving the gift from AFROMET, emphasised the historic importance of the Amulet, and observed that through it we felt that we were almost in Tewodros’s presence.
William Gladstone
All this cannot but remind us of the discussion in the British House of Commons, on 30 June 1871, when the great British statesman, William Gladstone, commenting on loot taken from Maqdala, observed, as quoted in “Hansard”:
“He deeply regretted that those articles were ever brought from Abyssinia, and could not conceive why they were so brought. They [the British people] were never at war with Abyssinia… he [Gladstone] deeply lamented, for the sake of all concerned, that those articles, to us insignificant, though to the Abyssinians probably sacred and imposing symbols, or at least hallowed by association, were thought fit to be brought away by the British army”.
