Addis Tribune 30 January 04

A dramatic turn of events has taken place on a Select Committee of the British House of Commons, which has been discussing the loot from Maqdala in the light of the imminent return from Italy of the Axum Obelisk.

This discussion was initiated by AFROMET, the Association for the Return of Maqdala Loot, which has been campaigning, as most readers will be aware, for the return to Ethiopia of the loot from Emperor Tewodros's citadel at Maqdala, taken by British troops in 1868.

AFROMET emphasises that the looting of Maqdala was entirely unjustified in international law, and that, since a large part of the booty was seized from the church of Madhane Alam, it was in fact an act of sacrilege.

AFROMET has petitioned the Queen of England, the British House of Commons, and other institutions. The Association's testimony on the loot from Maqdala was duly published in the House of Commons Cultural Property: Return and Illicit Trade Seventh Report, Vol. III.

New Developments

The question of the Maqdala loot has now come up again in the House of Commons Select Committee on Cultural Objects. In its recently released official report of 16 December 2003 includes an important section on "sacred objects" in which it discusses British Museum holdings of Ethiopian cultural property, and, imlicitly supporting the views of AFROMET, states:

Magdala Treasures

"As the previous Committee identified, there has been consensus over the need to treat claims for the restitution of human remains and spoliation as special categories.

There are strong arguments, which the HRWG acknowledges implicitly, that sacred objects should be added to this list. One example of a claim involving indisputably sacred objects concerns the "Magdala treasures".

In 1868 Sir Robert Napier headed a British expedition which looted, then burned, Magdala, Emperor Tewodros' mountain stronghold in north-western Ethiopia. This sacking extended to the nearby Church of Madhane Alam. In accordance with common practice the collected loot was auctioned soon after to raise prize-money for the enlisted men and contemporary accounts indicate that Richard Holmes, Assistant in the British Museum's Department of Manuscripts "armed with ample funds" out-bid all in most things" on behalf of the museum. There are Ethiopian religious and royal artifacts scattered around the world in private and public collections.

The objects sought most ardently by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church are, perhaps, the Tabots which 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.

The British Museum does not display the Tabots within its collection, paradoxically, in deference to the practice of the Ethiopian Church. A number of Magdala artefacts have been returned from other collections and sources over the years and we note, parenthetically, that the Italian Government has begun to work on returning the iconic Axum Obelisk which was looted by Mussolini's army in 1937.

We believe there to be a patent absurdity in a situation where the British Museum does not display artefacts - out of due deference to other cultural and religious values - but is not in a position even to consider returning them. We hope that the British Museum's legal consultations have this case in mind as well as human remains.

Though the Report focuses on the Tabots currently held in the British Museum, it should be emphsised that the loot from Maqdala still in Britain includes many other articles, including numerous crosses and manuscripts - the latter of immense historical importance, as well as a gold crown and a chalice, two silver royal drums and colourful royal tents - and part of Tewodros's hair and clothing.

The Select Committee must now turn to these items too!