My Noble Ethiopians,

I am tired from the joy; I cannot give full report but we in Poland have succeeded to celebrate the Adwa Victory yesterday 22nd March l996. It took place here in Warsaw University.

A. The Seminar took place in the big room of the African Culture and Language Department.

The speakers were:
1. Professor A. Bartnicki
2. Professor J. Mantel-Niecko (Co-writers of Ethiopian History in Polish)
3. Taddele G. Hiwot (On the Legacy of Adwa Victory)
4. Mr. H. Brandys showed war slides on the Battle of Adwa
5. Ato Minase Zegeye showed slides he brought a month ago from Adwa and the surrounding (Ph.D. candidate on Eth. traditional Archit.)

B. The Reception took place in the Rector's Gold Room. What makes it unusually successful is Ethiopians came from almost all cities in Poland. A letter was written to all the fifty four Ethiopians living in Poland. And the outcome was almost forty percent. Since almost everyone except myself are students many of them had difficulty even to pay for the train tickets. And among those who could not come they sent their friends to minimize the expense. For the reception there were more than eighty Ethiopians, Ethiopianists and friends of Ethiopia.

The Nigerian Ambassador has helped me to share the expense of the wonderful reception. The hired Br. Country Club served with European food and drink and my wife brought the whole Ethiopian food to serve eighty people. The Ethiopian food was consumed to the last while the European food had to return half untouched. My little daughter acted as Taytu and recited the the story of the "Hour of Adwa Truth" in Amharic and in the Polish language. Since we had no musician I had to prepare 24 jokes of the time "Aleka's" jokes which made the reception full of memory of Ethiopia and Menilek and Taytu. We made the Rector's building smell Menilek's food.

I also managed to print a magazine in Amharic, English and Polish, 32 page, Menilek's picture on throne is painted by my own son Balhager. The largest writing is Tsegaye Tegenu's "The Logistic Base and Military Strategy of the Ethiopian Army..." the one posted on EEDN by Teodros K. The one page amazing contribution is from Professor J. Mantel-Niecko which begins "March 1st 1896 was a day of shock to Europeans." You cannot believe it is written by European, but I translated it and printed it in Amharic as well. And another title I wrote is "Menilek Made European Prisoners Help Build His City." And Paulos' view of Taitu as posted by Teodros K. on EEDN. And some of Tsegaye Gebre Medhin's poems. My family will have to go without salary for the coming two months of course. I first asked the South African Embassy to help me with the expense of printing. At first the lst Secretary for Politics said they will help and then I started the job, when it was time for payment the embassy gave me unwilling sign. I then understood such a radical position to help the pillar of African liberty Menilek shine at the expense of South African is too quick at this time And payed everything from my salary advance.

For lack of fund we could not manage to record the celebration on film, but there will be some rare pictures about Ethiopians and Ethiopianists holding each other.

After the ocassion Ethiopians even talked about their passport problem. Students are now expexted to pay 120USDollar to get their passport changed. There is no hope of finding part time job or opportunity of getting vacation jobs in Poland. And Ethiopians are not welcome to the neighbouring countries for Ethiopia does not have a colonial masters.

The final problem in the evening after leaving the Rector's Gold room was how to make the Ethiopians find a one night shelter until the morning for night trains have become risky these days.

It was a day break in Warsaw yesterday. Ethiopians with all kinds of family languages forgot the artificial division and felt like one of culturally advanced nation that stood shoulder to shoulder one hundred years ago.

'YeEtiopia Amlak Yetemesegen Yihun'. Yihm yeAndnet melekt New.

Fitsum Akbariachu,
Taddele, YeGebre Hiywot Beyene lij.

History of the Battle of Adwa | Adwa Victory Poems | Centennial Celebrations Around the World


Home Page

---

ADWA Page Sponsored by EthCITA

Please e-mail any comments and/or suggestions to
Fesseha Atlaw

---

Layout and Graphics Designed by Jomo Design . Copyright © 1996 Jomo Design. All Rights Reserved. Text content provided by EthCITA. Jomo Design is not responsible for the materials in this page except for the graphics.