April 1, 2005
ARTICLE: Smuggled Ethiopian treasures sold on eBay
Here is my first article for the Sub Saharan Informer - published here because the paper, as yet, does not have a website.
Ebay, the world's biggest online marketplace, was this week accused of allowing the sale of smuggled Ethiopian treasures on its website.Academics said they had evidence that holy historic crosses - and at least one sacred manuscript - were being auctioned off through eBay despite an Ethiopian government ban on the export of cultural and religious antiques.
Elizabeth Giorgis, acting director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa University, said she was writing to eBay directors to demand they block the sales. "It is totally inappropriate for a company like eBay to be selling these smuggled treasures," she added.
"They are in effect encouraging people to rob the country of its cultural heritage. They have a moral obligation to protect these objects."
Giorgis decided to speak out after being contacted by a number of Ethiopians in the US who had seen a number historical Ethiopian objects for sale on the website.
In one case, an eBay seller claimed he had tracked down a priest's gospel and a collection of silver crosses belonging to a cash-strapped family living in Ethiopia. He justified his high price for the items because of the difficulties arising from Ethiopia's export restrictions.
In the seller's description, he stated: "Due to current Ethiopian government export restrictions, no gospels or silver crosses are now allowed to be legally taken out of Ethiopia and for this reason the offering price is extremely reasonable and not nearly the premium that should be asked for such a valuable and rare Ethiopian religious relic of museum quality."
EBay currently has strict guidelines banning people from using its site to sell artefacts from the USA's Native American and Hawaiian populations. But the company has no similar guidelines relating to historic items from other cultures from outside North America.
"This is a clear case of double standards," said Giorgis. "Why go out of your way to protect items from your own country but do nothing to protect African treasures?"
She also questioned whether eBay has set up strong enough safeguards to prevent the sale of illegally smuggled goods via its servers. She urged it to follow the lead of bricks-and-mortar auctioneers like Christies or Sothebys who have to check the background of antiques before offering them to the public.
Giorgis was backed up by the Institute's Professor Richard Pankhurst, who is also vice chair of AFROMET (www.afromet.org) - an organization dedicated to retrieving hundreds of priceless treasures taken during the British invasion of Ethiopia in 1868.
"Unless they get permission to export these items, the sellers are breaking the law," said Pankhurst. "It is only because of the relative poverty of Ethiopia - and the high prices being offered for these objects, that is happening at all."
Hand-written goatskin bibles, prayer books and colourful illuminations dating as far back as the 17th century currently exchange hands for up to $3,900 a piece on the popular website. Many of the items are modern - and therefore exempt from export restrictions.
But the Sub Saharan Informer found at least one other case of a seller claiming to have bought an antique manuscript inside Ethiopia before exporting it to America.
Ebay was not avaialble to comment on this story as the Sub Saharan Informer went to press.
Posted by aheavens at April 1, 2005 11:10 AM
Comments
I thought this was an April fools day joke until I did a quick ebay search.
Posted by: Camdon at April 8, 2005 9:18 PM
Hi there, my name is Renee i'm a Journalism student at the United States International university and i was woundering if you are a journalist and if so what is your opinion of the way the media operates in Eastern Africa or Uganda.
Posted by: renee at October 7, 2005 8:59 AM
I can't believe it, my co-worker just bought a car for $47363. Isn't that crazy!
Posted by: Betsy Markum at January 10, 2006 12:33 AM
Why would Germany and all these other countries be so obsesed about obtaining ancient Ethiopian artifacts when for so many years they have tried to convince us and the rest the world of their supieriority, could it be because they all really know the secrets to our true beginings of civilization and the human race are or was in Ethiopia. HMMMMMMM
Posted by: iahest at May 26, 2006 3:53 PM
I am very glad to see the comments forwarded by Elisabeth W/Giorgis from the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa university about the illicit trafficking and selling of Ethiopian cultural heritage on ebay. According to the Ethiopian law exporting and selling of cultural heritage such as rare hand written manuscripts, anicent church crosses and other cultural objects that have cultural, artistic and scientific values are not allowed either for sell or for export outside the country. plese stop robbing the cultural heritage of this old nation that has contributed a lot the world including Ethiopian alphabet,coinage,calender,manuscripts at least dating to the early beginning of the first millenium AD. Aksum, the northern part of Ethiopia was the cross road of to Europe, Asia and Africa in the first century AD. In the thrid century AD, this country issued its own gold, silver and bronze coins that are on sell on this ebay. please stop selling our heritages which are our identity. Stop encoraging the illicit traffiking of cultural heritage in this country. Stop selling our cultural heritage.
Posted by: tekle at June 24, 2008 12:44 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.
Posted by: Seymour Mclean at December 10, 2009 11:50 PM