The Rev John McLuckie - St John's Edinburgh Jan 2002

Tewodros and the Destruction of Maqdala

Emperor Tewodros II was, by any account, as remarkable and significant a leader for modern Ethiopia as he was a complex one. He was a moderniser, a cultural champion, a successful military leader and, in his final act of resistance at Maqdala, seen as a courageous patriot. His modernising vision encompassed the abolition of slave trade, the building of a road network, literary renaissance, land reform, and a thoroughgoing series of military reforms.

These sought to deal with demilitarisation, the problems of looting, irregular payment of troops, indiscipline and new technologies. It was this last area that led to the events of his eventual downfall. His suspicions of manoeuvring on his northwest border by the Egyptians led to his appeal to the British to supply him with technical support to construct new artillery. When these requests were completely ignored, he imprisoned some Western missionaries and diplomats, with whom he had previously enjoyed good relationships, to strengthen his case for a hearing. The British response to the crisis was to send an expeditionary force of some 32,000 men (about 12,000 were soldiers) to secure the captives' release. This was achieved and made easier by the non-resistance of Tewodros' tribal enemies. The battle of Maqdala, the imperial mountain stronghold, occurred at a time when Tewodros' power-base had dwindled significantly. As an innovator, Tewodros was impatient in the pace of his reforms and the singularity and force with which he had pursued his programme had alienated many.

When Maqdala fell and Tewodros committed suicide, the British soldiers engaged in an extensive looting spree, and there was much to be had. 400 manuscripts and books, crowns, chalices, crosses, icons and Tabots (consecrated wooden altar slabs) were taken and the majority of the items were collected to be auctioned to the force, the sum raised being divided as a reward for a successful campaign. A large proportion of the loot found its way to the British Museum but some remained in private possession. One of the Tabots was taken by a Captain Arbuthnot of the 14th Hussars who may have been an Aide de Camp to General Napier, the leader of the expedition. On return to Britain, recognising the religious significance of the artefact, he presented the Tabot to St. John's Church in Edinburgh.

Appeals for the return of the Loot

The immediate political reaction to the looting was significant. Lord Napier, in remorseful mood, petitioned parliament for the temporary housing of the more significant items of the loot until they could be returned to Ethiopia, a position supported by the Prime Minister, William Gladstone. Napier said that Britain's argument had been with Tewodros, not the Ethiopian people. Since then there have been regular attempts to have the loot returned. For Ethiopians, it represents a major part of the nation's cultural and religious history through manuscripts gathered at a time of cultural and linguistic renewal. It also represents a living faith, which, in the sack of Maqdala, suffered a humiliating desecration. In particular, the Tabots focus the presence of God in every Ethiopian church and are held in the greatest reverence as symbolic of the Ark in the Jewish Temple. Their removal is an act of sacrilege comparable to the removal of the Reserved Sacrament in an Anglican or Catholic church.

The Ethics of Repatriation

The repatriation of Maqdala's looted treasures is an act of justice and solidarity. The treasures were taken violently, even by the standards of the time, and the British campaign could be said to have been a heavy-handed response to a crisis born out of a poor awareness of Ethiopia's cultural mores and political needs. Today, Ethiopia is a nation that has had its struggles with civil war fed by Cold War dynamics, famine, HIV and reconstruction. In the face of such realities, the nations of the world seek to express the common quest for a more just global order built through partnerships, not domination. Acts of restitution and reparation can accompany strategies for equitable trade and shared political solutions to global realities. The repatriation of symbolic treasures taken in a very different era represents a very small but emotionally significant kind of restitution and may offer the opportunity of building awareness and solidarity.

St. John's and the Tabot

For the community of St. John's, the repatriation of the Tabot can be for us the chance to meet Christian brothers and sisters from another tradition and express something of that hope for an alternative world order of partnership. It is also an opportunity for penitence for an act of desecration committed in the name of our nation 133 years ago. In our own day, strong nations continue to assert their kind of order upon weaker ones. In our Christian faith, weakness is itself seen as strength when its recognition of vulnerability leads to the expression of mutual interdependence. The One who laid down his life to right wrongs may be calling us to live creatively in a world of change by responding to difference with understanding and by transforming hatred and violence through loving solidarity. In this small act of friendship, we hope that we may learn something of that call.

Epiphany 2002