February 11, 2005
British plunder returned to Ethiopia
Ethiopia, & particularly the Ethiopian church have been lobbying for the return of various relics looted from their country for some time now & appear to be having a certain amount of success.
From:
The Scotsman
British plunder returned to Ethiopia,Thursday 10th February 2005
British Plunder Returned to Ethiopia
Two sacred paintings have been returned to Ethiopia 137 years after they were ripped out of a holy book by invading British troops.
The paintings were among Ethiopian treasures looted by British troops and later locked up in British museums, royal palaces and private collections.
The paintings were handed to the Ethiopian embassy in London this week by a British lawyer who inherited them from his great uncle, an embassy official said
The lawyer’s great uncle was an officer in the British force that captured Maqdala, the mountain capital of Emperor Tewodros.The monarch committed suicide to avoid falling into the hands of British troops in 1868.
British troops and others in their company plundered illuminated religious manuscripts, gold crosses, precious crowns and royal cloth.
Experts said the two full-page works that were handed back to Ethiopia were torn out of a book of the Miracles of Jesus or Mary – both venerated volumes in the literature of the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
The lawyer, who has asked to remain anonymous, told officials that he decided to hand them over because his conscience and children pressed him to do so.
“We believe that this is an example that should be followed by all institutions that hold Ethiopian loot, among them the British Museum and the Queen’s library in Windsor Castle,” said Richard Pankhurst of the Association for the Return of the Maqdala Ethiopian Treasures.
The royal family holds six religious manuscripts, which are said to be the finest examples of Ethiopian manuscripts anywhere in the world.
By far the most valuable item is one of two copies of the Kebra Negast – or Glory of Kings – Ethiopia’s holy book which is held in the British Library.
The Ethiopian Church and government has also been exerting diplomatic pressure on Britain to return the stolen items, which are cumulatively valued by Ethiopian campaigners at £1.6 billion.
- Looted sword returns to Ethiopia : October 15, 2005
- Ethiopia requests that Britain returns plundered treasures : April 21, 2005
- New research claims British ripped up Ethiopian manuscripts : March 26, 2005
- Ethiopia demands return of over four hundred stolen treasures : November 26, 2008
- Ethiopia recovers more looted artefacts : October 28, 2005
- Edinburgh University refuses to return Ethiopian artefacts : March 1, 2005
- British Museum agrees to loan of Ethiopian holy Tabots : April 23, 2005
- Britain to negotiate return of Ethiopian Tabots : November 5, 2004
Solomon Baye said,
10.12.09 at 12:10 pm
The return of Maqdala loots is non-negotiable and will give the Ethio-British relation a new dimension
Seymour Mclean said,
12.10.09 at 7:55 pm
The President of the European Central Bank
Jean-Claude Trichet
Please find our circular concerning the changing climate of European legal education today, we remember with deep gratitude those fathers of old who, as time and opportunity allowed, worked with much care and labour and have left us books for the preservation of the Faith and for the increase of learning and knowledge.
For the attention of the Swedish Presidency of the European Union, and members of the European Community, this law, The Fetha Nagast will be applied to the looted Ethiopian manuscripts in the European Union today. You have already been served with background papers from the Parliament and Commission. Is this a matter within the competence of the Swedish Presidency of the European Union? I am Ras Seymour Mclean.
Conquering Lion of Judah
Haile Selassie I.
Elect of God, Emperor of Ethiopia.
The long and great history of Our country demonstrates that Our people have always both administrated and lived according to the law. Our people were at first ruled by Mosaic law, but after the advent of Christianity to Ethiopia they came later to be governed by the Fetha Nagast, – a work combining both spiritual and secular matters, the former part pertaining to the spiritual, the latter to the temporal affairs of Our people. The Fetha Nagast has been venerated, supported, and applied by both the government of Our Empire and by the Church. The names of scholars learned in this law are famous in the history of Ethiopia, particularly since the reign of Emperor Zar’a Ya’qob when both the study and enforcement of the Fetha Nagast began.
By the providence of the Almighty this bulwark of the law was preserved for Our people. Venerated for many centuries, it provided for our people an invaluable source of legal principles.
When we ascended Our Imperial Throne and enacted a Penal Code compiled on the basis of the Fetha Nagast, We made all necessary provisions for the printing of the Fetha Nagast, in order that it might be available to Our people. Owing however to the invasion of Our country by the enemy, the copies which had already been printed, but not distributed, were burnt together with the printing press.
When, with the assistance of the Almighty, We returned victorious to Our country and subsequently made provision for the codification of Our laws, realizing that those who had helped us in the process of codification had availed themselves of the provisions of the Fetha Nagast , We ordered that its text be printed together with a commentary thereon, and offered to Our people for their assistance.
We are pleased that this great work, for so many centuries the basis of law and the administration of justice in Our country has now, under the auspices of the Faculty of Law of the University to which We have given Our name, been translated into English so that it may be known to scholars of other countries.
No modern legislation which does not have its roots in the customs of those whom it governs can have a strong foundation. The effort which has been made by the Faculty of Law of Our University to disseminate the knowledge not only of the new codification but also of the historically rooted legal practices of Ethiopia, which by the providence of the Almighty we have preserved, and which are the source of Our new legislation is befitting and deserving of Our warmest approval.
Given at Our Imperial Palace in Addis Ababa this 29th day of August 1968.
Haile Selassie I.
Emperor.
Dec 8 2009 Lucia Day – Swedish Advent and Christmas traditions
The Swedish tradition of Lucia and her followers bringing light, and music during the darkest part of the year is celebrated everywhere in Sweden – in the family of Man Sweden, from the lowest citizen to The King Himself, obey the laws of mankind. The Presidency of the European Union demand’s balanced and sober reflection.
Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts in the British Library acquired since the year 1877. By S. Strelcyn. Published for the British Library.
Preface.
The first catalogue of the Ethiopic manuscripts preserved in the British Museum was published in 1847. It was the work of the great scholar August Dillmann and contained descriptions of eighty-two volumes. Thirty years later W. Wright’s important Catalogue was published with a description of a further 408 Ethiopic manuscripts which had been added to the British Museum collection since 1847. More than 350 of this large total had been brought from Ethiopia following the British expedition against Emperor Twedoros, (1867/8). This is what W. Wright said on this point in the Preface to his Catalogue (pp.iii-iv).
When the expedition against Emperor Twedoros was organised by the English Government in 1867, it was determined to send an archaeologist to accompany it, and Mr R.R. Holmes… was selected by the Trustees for this purpose. It was hoped that Mr Holmes would be able to visit sites of importance, to collect antiquities, and to procure valuable manuscripts. The state of the country, the hurried character of the expedition, and the route chosen for the army, prevented the first part of this program from bring carried out. Of manuscripts Mr Holmes was able to procure only a very few on the way up the country….., but their scarcity was easily accounted for when the fortress of Magdala…, fell into our hands. Emperor Twedoros intended…, to build there a church, in honour of the Saviour of the World (Madhane Alem)…, Emperor Twedoros for years previous to 1868 had been actively engaged in collecting manuscripts from other churches for the endowment of the church he proposed to build, and the result was a library of about a thousand volumes, which fell into the hands of our victorious troops. From these a selection was made for the English Government with the assistance of that accomplished scholar Mr. Werner Munzinger, then one of the European consuls at Massowah…, The remainder of the Magdala library was given away in presents to the priests of the various churches which our troops passed on their return to the coast. Some volumes had no doubt been previously ‘looted’ by our soldiers, and many more were purchased from their later owners by officers of the army. In fact, the numbers of manuscripts brought to this country in 1868, judging by what I have myself seen in the hands of private individuals and in other libraries, cannot, at the lowest computation, have been less than five hundred.
The Magdala library considerably enriched the collection of Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum, making it the richest in Europe. At this time the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris had only 170 Ethiopic manuscripts (described by H. Zotenberg in 1877). The other European libraries being less well endowed. Since then the collection in the Bibliotheque Nationale gas been considerably enlarged, mainly by the addition of three large collections, those of d’Addadie, Mondon-Vidaihet, and Griaule, and the number of their Ethiopic manuscripts is now almost 1000 (more than 970).
The collection of the Vatican Library which, in 1924, numbered only seventy-nine, has also grown rapidly during the last forty years. The purchases made by Mgr. S. Grebaut in Ethiopia in 1926 for this library (119 manuscripts) and private donations augmented the number to about 300 (van Lantschoot 1962. Since then the Vatican Library has been offered a number of donations, among them the Enrico Cerulli collection, and have made further new acquisitions, but none of these manuscripts has yet been described. We can, nevertheless, assume that as far as actual numbers are concerned, the Vatican Library has now the second largest collection in the world. The British Museum, its collection slowly increasing during the last hundred years, now has about 600 manuscripts and closely follows the Vatican Library.
Ashenafi said,
09.25.10 at 12:36 pm
Hi i am realy suprise that when i was learnt when i was a small boy about Ethiopian History.Now i founded that was real.
My comment is not only all things to be back to Ethiopia.But also we have to ask that why??????????????? the british was came to our country and open a fire and killed our fathers?????????????
This is un forgatable history that no one coudnot answer this. So if it is any answer , we need our heros’ fathers blood must not left like wildblood.like some where else unknown eliense. So our fathers blood is too….expensive.
So the british must answer this question that why they come our country they killed our generation???????????
so so so far………………!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why also like Italian History our generation to know about this cruel history why we didnot event one monument every where about this history?
Thanks Dear Nations!
Sincerly yours Ashenafi