[ Washington, D.C ]

This is the schedule of the Adwa centennial celebration in Washington DC.

Celebration of Adowa Victory

Ethiopians in Washington DC area will celebrate the centenary of Adwa Victory. The opening ceremony and the symposium which was originally planned to be held at the University of the District of Columbia main auditorium is now scheduled to take place at Felicity's Cultural Center 6210 Chillum Place NW, Washington DC 20011. The opening ceremony begins at 9:00 am on Friday March 1, 1996.

Topics to be Discussed

1. The battle of Adwa: Its Significance in the Anti-Colonial Movement of Africa
2. Menilik and the Battle of Adwa
3. The Battle of Adwa: Its Implications to Current Politics in Ethiopia
4. The role of women in the Battle of Adwa
5. The Battle Of Adwa and the Eritrean question
6. Mussolini's Revenge for Italian Losses At Adwa: The Ethiopian Holocaust of 1935-1941

Panelist

1. Dr. Getachew Haile
2. Dr. Shumet Sishagne
3. Dr. Mesfin Araya
4. Profesor J. Spencer
5. Professor S.Nyang
6. Mrs. Rothenfeld the author of Tayitu
7. Ms. Imani Nyah member of the committee for the holocaust of Ethiopia will show some slides from the battle of Maichew.

The Parade stars at 10:00 am Washington time at West front lower terrace infront of Capitol Hill and then march to Ellipse park through Pennsylvania Ave. Ethiopians are expected to use cultural outfits is this special event.

There will be Cultural show "Zekre Adowa ye kinetebebe Meshit" Almost all Ethiopian artists in the Washington DC area will participate in this evening, except those, who will travel for the same engagement in other places. Among those Tewodros Tadess, Judi Aweke, Teshome Meteku, Fantesh Bekele, Dereje Degefaw, Tilaye Gebre, Tameru Ayele, Gedeb Alfred, Agegnehu Beyene, Zena Meteku, Tameru, Aster Bekele, Yonas Mulat, Samson Mohamed, Tewodros Meteku, Getachew Abdi, Anwar Ahmed, Wesen Asfaw.and some others will participate.

For more information please call at (301) 585 5208 or AAPRDA or COEDF or Gafat. For those on the net you can direct questions or suggestions to me.

Thanks,
Gizaw Legesse


Here is a brief summary of how we are doing but first I would like to say in a few words why we will celebrate Adwa.

We decided to celebrate Adwa because of the following reasons

1) To show and emphasize that Adwa was a multi-ethnic victory against colonialism.
2) To counter balance the effort of TPLF to show Adwa as the victory or to be more precise resistance of ONLY Tigreans, which is what they teach in their schools in Tigrai.

3) To emphasize the role of Menilik. This is a very political point but inspite of all the differences there are two visions of Menilik one is that of the TPLF and its lackeys such as Endreas Eshete and Samuel Assefa that Menilik and the Shoans deliberately invaded Tigrai to impoverish it as opposed to fight the Italians. You can see Aregawi Berhe's piece from the mid 80's. Can Ethiopian register reprint that article please, please. I could help in finding the article. The second view is, Adwa is a black, Africa, but above all multi- ethnic Ethiopian victory over colonialism and symbol freedom.,

Here is a short summary of how we are doing, confirmed speakers at symposium

1) Dr. Getachew
2) Dr. Shumet
3) Dr. Mekibib
4) Mr. Melvin Foot
5) Dr. Solomon Yirga
6) Prof. Mesfin we will try to add some people

Cultural night,
Let me say how impressed we are at the response we are getting from our artists. Here is a list of people who have promised to participate.

Soliloquy
Ato Anwar
Ato Wossen
Band
Tilaye's band
Teshome Mitiku's band

vocals
Tewodros Tadesse
Fantish Bekele
Neway Debebe
Zena Mitiku
Tamiru
Agegnehu Beyene
Judy Aweke
Derege Degefu

Who are very willing but have engagements elsewhere we extend our thanks to

Assefu Debalkei
Beza Work
Shambel Belayneh
Ellias Tebabel

We produced the first flyers this weekend and we will try to saturate the area as soon as we can. We will have a T-shirt with Menilik on a horse back.

All suggestions, help, and ideas welcome!
Thanks
Gizaw Legesse

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