Richard Lee in Addis Ababa
One hundred and thirty-one years after a British military force ransacked Maqdala, the mountain capital of the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II, a campaign has been launched to convince Britain to return hundreds of artefacts stolen during the expedition.
The 32 000-strong force was sent to rescue missionaries held captive by Tewodros. It returned laden with booty, including more than 400 manuscripts. Among the lavishly illustrated documents were not only some of Ethiopia’s most precious religious writings, but the entire national archives.
Two of the emperor’s crowns and a gold chalice were taken. The church of Medhane Alem (Saviour of the World) was plundered – with processional crosses and 10 altar slabs added to the loot. Even the body of Tewodros, who committed suicide rather than submit to British rule, was not exempt. Rings, clothes and locks of hair were removed.
So many artefacts were taken that 15 elephants and 200 mules were used to take the goods down the mountain.
It is these artefacts that the Association for the Return of the Maqdala Ethiopian Treasures (Afromet) hopes Britian will hand back. It says they are needed to fill the gap in Ethiopia’s political and cultural history.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church – one of the most ancient Christian faiths – says the religious icons are still sacred objects to many Ethiopians.
A potential stumbling block is the fact that the artefacts are not housed in a single collection. Most of the manuscripts are in the British Library, but others are in libraries in Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. Six of the most valuable were acquired by the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Some of Tewodros’s hair is on show at London’s National Army Museum.
Richard Pankhurst, an Afromet member, says this difficulty can be overcome because the libraries have no right to keep “stolen goods”.
Pankhurst argues that Ethiopia now has the facilities to look after the artefacts, debunking fears that the manuscripts – some of which date back to the 16th century – would swiftly deteriorate if shipped home.
Those trying to block the return cite Ethiopia’s growing trade in antiquities. Priests have been implicated in the disappearance of religious icons.
Afromet has been emboldened by the success of a campaign that convinced Rome to agree to return the Axum Obelisk, looted by the Italians when they invaded Ethiopia in the 1930s. Afromet wants to persuade the Ethiopian Parliament to lodge an official request with the British government for the return of the treasures.
The main stumbling block to returning the treasures is that Britain would lay itself open to similar claims from around the world. Indeed, if the Maqdala artefacts were returned, surely Greece would have a cast- iron case for demanding the return of the Elgin marbles? And would Egypt not be able to reclaim its antique works of art from the British Museum?
Afromet’s chair, Andreas Eshete, admits this represents a problem but says: “Not doing a good deed for one nation because it would be impossible to do similar good deeds for other nations is not much of an argument.”