AFROMET 27 January 04

AFROMET sent the following letter to the UK's Queen Elizabeth II, asking her to return six illuminated manuscripts currently kept in Windsor Castle.

Your Majesty,

I had the honour during Your Majesty's memorable visit to Addis Ababa in 1965 to show Your Majesty and H.H. the Duke of Edinburgh round the Museum of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, of which I was then the Director.

Since that time the Museum has been much improved and modernised, and we have been able to obtain and display many new acquisitions.

During the last four decades Ethiopians have become increasingly conscious of the need to collect and preserve their country's unique cultural heritage. Despite Ethiopia's economic problems, significant efforts are being made to restore its historic monuments and to prevent the illegal export of its antiquities.

There has also been a growing consciousness of the extent to which Ethiopia was deprived of its cultural heritage as a result of the intervention of the British Expedition to Magdala of 1868. This awareness, and distress, has found a voice in the Association for the Return of Magdala Ethiopian Treasures, AFROMET, which has branches in both Ethiopia and Britain, and is chaired by the President of Addis Ababa University.

May I bring Your Majesty's attention to the fact that soldiers of the Expedition, on reaching Magdala, looted the Emperor's palace and the nearby Madhane Alam church, dedicated to the Saviour of the World - and even stripped his dead body? These spoils of war included over 400 Ethiopic manuscripts, many of them beautifully illustrated, two crowns (one gold and the other gilt); numerous hand crosses; an icon of Christ with the Crown of Thorns, acquired by Sir Richard Holmes, later Queen Victoria's librarian at Windsor Castle; at least two richly adorned royal marquee-type tents, and several ornately decorated silver drums, spears and shields, as well as many other items. Furthermore, since most of the objects seized were looted from the above-mentioned church there can be no denying that much of this spoliation constituted an act of sacrilege. .

Over the years a tiny fraction of this loot was returned to Ethiopia. An Ethiopic manuscript of the Kebra Nagast, or Glory of Kings (the national epic), was returned by the British Museum in 1873 at the request of Emperor Yohannes IV. It is presently preserved in one of the Addis Ababa church museums. One of Emperor Theodore's crowns kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum was returned to Empress Zawditu in 1925 after the visit to Europe of Ras Tafari Makonnen, the future Emperor Haile Sellassie.

Your Majesty may remember that on the occasion of your own visit to Ethiopia in 1965 you most graciously returned to the late Emperor, Theodore's royal cap and great seal.

More recently, the return from the Church of St John in Edinburgh of a tabot, or altar slab, was the occasion of national jubilation in Ethiopia. Subsequently, an anonymous well-wisher in Britain, responding to the arguments of AFROMET, last year returned personal amulet Theodore was wearing round his neck on the day of his suicide. On that occasion the Ethiopian postal authorities issued a set of commemorative stamps.

Though there have been several other acts of restitution, most of the treasures from Magdala are still in England, awaiting repatriation.

Ethiopian items of importance still in Britain include six of the finest Ethiopian religious manuscripts in existence, which are preserved in the Royal Library, in Windsor Castle.

These were specially selected for Queen Victoria, and are therefore, from the artistic point of view, virtually without equal anywhere in the world.

AFROMET would appeal to Your Majesty to lead the way by returning these manuscripts to their country of origin.

This act of restitution would be particularly appropriate at this moment when the Italian Government has just completed dismantling the great Aksumite obelisk, taken to Rome on Mussolini's personal orders in 1937.

The obelisk's return to Ethiopia, for which AFROMET has long campaigned, is now expected within the year.

AFROMET recognises that most (though by no means all) of the items looted from Magdala were well looked after during their stay in Britain, during a period in which Ethiopia was unjustly invaded, and before the establishment of modern museums and libraries. Ethiopia, in the last half century, has however made great strides with the establishment of institutions of higher learning, as well as the founding of up-to-date libraries and museums.

We therefore feel that the country is entitled to the return of its treasures, and is as capable, as are most other countries, of looking after its own cultural heritage.

Hoping for Your Majesty's kind understanding of AFROMET's just case,

Yours Sincerely,

Richard Pankhurst
Vice-Chair, AFROMET

PS. AFROMET's case, together with further information on items taken from Magdala and now in Britain, is set out in the Association's submission to the [British] House of Commons, published in the latter's Seventh Report of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, entitled "Cultural Property:

Return and Illicit Trade, 18 July 2000, Volume III, Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence, pp..pp. 354-8.

On the manuscripts taken from Magdala see also Rita Pankhurst, "The Library of Emperor Tewodros II at Maqdala (Magdala)", Bulletin of the School
of Oriental and African Studies (1973) XXXVI, Part 1, pp. 15-42.