The campaign group sent its statement to the first meeting of a special panel set up by the university to consider AFROMET's appeal.
The panel, made up of experts handpicked by Edinburgh University, met for the first time today. It is expected to meet at least once more before making a recommendation about whether to return the manuscripts to the University Court.
Panel members asked AFROMET to send it a statement to show how its request met various criteria laid down by the university to cover requests for the return of items from its collection.
[More information on the Edinburgh manuscripts and the university's criteria is available on our treasure pages.]
Dear panel members,
We would first of all like to thank you for giving AFROMET the chance to address your first meeting.
Before getting down to your specific criteria, we thought it would be useful to state the essence of our case in the simplest possible terms.
At the heart of AFROMET's case is a belief that the Magdala manuscripts in your collection belong to Ethiopia. They were taken from the country by force, not by any legal means as part of any sale, trade or gift. We therefore see their return as a matter of justice.
Beyond that we believe that the return of the manuscripts would open up many exciting opportunities both for the people of Ethiopia and for the University of Edinburgh.
For Ethiopia, the return and the publicity around it would contribute to the country's growing awareness of its own unique history and culture. It would put the manuscripts into the hands of Ethiopian students and academics who would never be able to afford to fly out and study them in their present location. The return of the Magdala treasures from institutions across the UK and their display in Ethiopia will also go a long way towards boosting the country's tourism industry – a vital building block in its development.
For you, it would set the seal on the strong relationship that already exists between Edinburgh and Ethiopia. Your city has already led the way in returning Magdala treasures – most notably through the repatriation of a sacred Tabot from St John's Episcopal Church, Princes Street, and two hand-written manuscripts from residents. These returns have already created strong links between individuals and institutions. The return of the Magdala manuscripts in your collection would open the way to similar bonds between individuals, students and academics, particularly between your School of African Studies and, perhaps, the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in the University of Addis Ababa.
Now, to take your criteria one by one:
1. Evidence of past ownership relating to the item(s)/object(s) concerned and how the University acquired it/them.
Your own catalogue notes directly link three Ethiopic manuscripts in your collection with the looting that took place at Magdala. MS.461-462 are described as "Acquired by my friend Captain James after the taking of Magdala", while MS.655 is "From King Theodore's library at Magdala." The description of Captain James' "acquisition" no doubt refers to the auction of plunder organised to raise prize money for the troops. Although, as far as we know, there are no other references to Magdala in your records, two other manuscripts (MS.656, 673) were given to Edinburgh in 1869, the year after the expedition to Magdala. As the UK had no contact with Ethiopia during those years other than through the expedition, we believe it is highly probable that these two manuscripts were also taken from Magdala.
These details were taken from a copy of your catalogue accessed through Google. There may well be more detailed descriptions of the manuscripts and their origins in your records.
2. Authority of the requester
AFROMET has already gone to some pains in the past to prove its authority as a requester. Over the past year, you have received letters from a number of Ethiopian politicians, academics and citizens backing our claim. Among others, you have received letters from Fisseha Adugna, Ethiopia's Ambassador in the UK; Dawit Yohannes, Speaker of Ethiopia's House of People's Representatives and Teshome Toga, Ethiopian Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture.
AFROMET also believes that is has the support of the population of Ethiopia for its campaign. It is difficult to prove this categorically without conducting a national survey. But we can point you to the extensive coverage that AFROMET receives in the Ethiopian press. (You should see numerous mentions if you search the online archive of the Addis Tribune at www.addistribune.com). A concrete demonstration of this support was given at the return of the first Tabot in 2002. You will see from a video we supplied earlier this year that huge crowds of people lined the road between the airport and the cathedral in the centre of Addis. Our own website lets people type in messages of support and appeals to specific institutions. You should already have samples of those messages to show how passionately people feel about the return of the Magdala treasures. On top of that, you also received a number of letters from our supporters earlier this year.
AFROMET itself grew out of a core group of academics and other interested people who saw themselves as a focused catalyst for change rather than a mass movement. Since then, interest in the cause has grown and AFROMET has developed a number of ways for people to sign up as members.
3. Proof of cultural, religious or scientific importance of the item(s)/object(s) to the claimant community.
A lot of the proof of this importance is given in our answer to the previous point. The very fact of AFROMET's existence proves that Ethiopia's academic community feels that these manuscripts have huge cultural and scientific importance. The response of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the entire population of Addis Ababa to the return of the Edinburgh Tabot in 2002 shows that they share the same view. Anyone looking for a more current example of excitement over the return of stolen Ethiopian artifacts need only look at the coverage of Italy's recent promise to return an obelisk taken during Mussolini's occupation of the country. As to the religious importance of these items, your own School of African Studies will be able to tell you how members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church views hand-written sacred texts.
4. A rigorous assessment of the cultural, religious or scientific importance of the item(s)/object(s) to the University.
This one is really down to you. We would only point out that you would still have a significant collection of Ethiopic texts left on your shelves after the return of the Magdala manuscripts. You would also be able to copy the Magdala manuscripts before returning them.
5. The likely consequences of repatriation, for example, in terms of conservation, cataloguing and availability for research and scholarship.
If you return the manuscripts to Addis Ababa University, they would be kept in the Library of its Institute of Ethiopian Studies, which has good storage and conservation facilities. The Institute is currently in the process of raising funds for a new library building, which would have state of the art storage facilities and cataloguing. All manuscripts would be available to students and academics of Addis Ababa University and other institutions. If you want to ask more specific questions, Professor Richard Pankhurst of the Institute will be in the UK at the beginning of July. We would also be more than happy to show any of you around the Institute in person if you are willing to make the trip.
If the manuscripts were returned to the church, the manuscripts would probably be kept in one of the Cathedrals in Addis Ababa. All we can say about the storage facilities there is that the church has managed to preserve other manuscripts and religious artifacts for hundreds of years.
One of the over-riding principles of AFROMET is that Ethiopians are more than capable of looking after their own possessions.
Points 6 and 7 are again largely down to you. It might be worth pointing out that the British Museum is currently considering requests from AFROMET and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for the return of 10 Magdala tabots in its collection. A number of other UK institutions are considering similar requests.
In general, though, we would urge the University of Edinburgh to lead the way in recognising the justice of this request rather than waiting for a lead from bodies like the Museums Association. A general consensus among British institutions over the repatriation of plunder could take many years to establish.
We hope that answers most of your main points. If you have any other questions, AFROMET would be more than happy to answer them in time for your next meeting.
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