It is the standard practice of authoritarian regimes to distort the facts of history so that the new ‘sanitized’ version of past and present events will suit their particular philosophies. To Nazi Germany and, in our case, Fascist Italy, propaganda was a forceful weapon – or so they had thought when dropping an audacious propaganda leaflet in 1941. Enjoy a delightful footnote from modern Ethiopian history in this week’s rather special Pankhurst’s Corner.
A Bizarre Propaganda Leaflet of 1941
Introduction
Word War II on the Horn of Africa witnessed interesting aerial communication. The most important such publication was no doubt Emperor Haile Sellassie’s air-borne newspaper Bandarachin, literally Our Flag, which was dropped by the British Royal Air Force, as described by one of its principal organizers, George L. Steer in his classic book Caesar in Abyssinia (London, 1936).
But there were other pieces of propaganda: one of the most curious of these. a now little-known Italian fascist work – which we consider today – was produced on the Spring of 1941.
Intended for the Christian Ethiopian population of Mussolini’s East African Empire, it was presented in the guise of a familiar religious picture – but its message, such as it was, was entirely secular, political and highly propagandistic.
The Picture
The picture is very loosely modelled on Ethiopian traditional art. The central feature, intended to emphasise Fascist Italy’s the “Christian” character, is a representation of the Crucifixion, which stands high in the skyline. To the left – the area allotted to the Good (or the Ethiopians) in Ethiopian traditional art – we see the massed soldiers of the Italian army. They are identified in an Amharic caption, as well as by the Italian flag: the flag of the now defunct Savoyan monarchy. To the right of the Crucifix are depicted Italy’s allies, the soldiers of Nazi Germany, also indicated by a caption, as well as by a flag bearing a Swastika.
Both Axis armies are, very clearly, victorious – and heroicly on the march. This, we are led to believe, dear reader, is presented as virtually inevitable, for a caption below the Crucifix tells us that “Christ is guiding the Italian and German Soldiers”.
Italo-German power is further manifested by the presence in the sky of three surprisingly small single-engine bi-planes, and on the ground by three substantial-looking caterpillar tanks, all presumably in the service of the Fascist side. The term tank being not yet in widespread use these armed vehicles are captioned with the Italian term carri armati, i.e. “armed cars”, and with the Amharic bere lebes, “clothed in iron”.
The British, as the picture insists, have – been utterly defeated. The “retreating British”, are thus represented by a mere four stragglers, in the right- bottom corner. One appears to have fallen on his head, and the remaining three seem to be scarcely any better off. Two other fleeing soldiers in the left lower register are also apparently British.
The Message
The work’s message is specified by in a relatively lengthy Amharic text which states that “Christ had guided and led the Soldiers of Italy and Germany to expel the British Soldiers from Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete”. These three countries, we are told, were all under Italian rule. Italian and German Soldiers, the message adds, were moreover “even in Egypt”.
Expanding on his theme the artist – or his sponsor – concludes by declaring that, because “Christian Italy” was “guided by Jesus Christ” it would “win the war”.
But of course, dear reader, it didn’t!
Richard Pankhurst 
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