Historically the courts of Ethiopian royalty moved around the length and breadth of Ethiopia as they engaged in defending the nation from insurrection and invasion. Tents therefore, were an indispensable item to serve as shelters until the monarch and his courtiers could return to their built up palaces and castles. Two particular tents which belonged to Emperor Tewodros, are featured in this week’s Pankhurst’s Corner, along with a reminder in this Ethiopian millennium year. That they must be repatriated…
Archive for April, 2008
Today, let’s talk of tents
Posted in Restitution, The Maqdala loot on April 21, 2008| Leave a Comment »
A tour of Italian archives on Ethiopia
Posted in Italy, Restitution on April 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Today, dear Reader, I will take you on a tour of some Italian and Ethiopian archives.
Let us start in perhaps the easiest way by looking at the UNESCO-sponsored Guide to the Sources of the History of Africa, more especially the volume on Italian-sources: the Guida delle Fonti per la Storia dell’ Africa a Sud del Sahara esistenti in Italia.
It was edited by my old friend Professor Carlo Giglio, once a Fascist, but by my day far less committed –and a great conversationalist. The volume was published in 1973 by the Inter Documentation Company, of Zug, in Switzerland, and is in itself an important source.
Richard Pankhurst 