April 14, 2005
Still waiting #3
Amsale Sibhu leant back on his wooden bench outside St Mary of Zion church in Ethiopia's ancient town of Axum and raised his hands in resignation.
"Yesterday was so joyful. We were ready to dance all through the night," said the Orthodox Christian theology teacher. "The priests had rehearsed all their songs and their chants.
"Then at 11 o'clock I heard the news that our obelisk was not coming back. Everyone was so sad."
Amsale Sibhu had spent the past week counting the days until the return of a 140-ton obelisk from Italy, almost 70 years after it was stolen from their town by Mussolini's invading fascist troops. He had taken to the streets every night to watch a string of candle-lit parades, dancing displays and other cultural events, all designed to celebrate the historical homecoming.
Yesterday morning, he was also one of thousands of Axumites left desperately disappointed when their 1,700-year-old obelisk simply failed to appear.
The return was due to take place at 4am at the town's newly-renovated airport, close to Ethiopia’s contested border with Eritrea. According to plans carefully laid out over the past year and a half, the top part of the obelisk should have arrived in the hold of a Russian-made Antonov aircraft, carefully packed into a crate.
It should have been officially welcomed by Ethiopia’s prime minister Meles Zenawi and paraded through the streets, lined with joyful Axum citizens. (The two remaining parts were due to arrive over the next 10 days ahead of a reconstruction and re-erection of the entire monument later in the year.)
Instead, late on Monday, the country's Ministry of Youth Culture and Sport was forced to release an announcement written in the local language of Tigrinian saying that the return has been postponed for a number of unspecified technical reasons.
The prime minister's plane was called off. Scores of international journalists who had planned to cover the event cancelled their tickets. Hundreds of tents erected to house an army of circus performers and brass band musicians were pulled down.
Italian authorities, the statement said, had raised some last minute logistical issues which meant the return was now postponed indefinitely.
The statement was short on specific detail, Ethiopian ministers said yesterday, because the Italians had given them little specific detail.
"The Italians are not telling us anything," said Netsanet Asfaw, Ethiopia's state minister for information yesterday morning. "We don’t know what is going on any more."
"I do not know enough to give you any details," said Ambassador Teshome Toga, Ethiopian minister for youth, culture and sports and chair of the national committee coordinating the return of the obelisk. "We have not been given an explicit explanation why the flight was delayed. Everything is in place at our end to receive the obelisk."
The Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa yesterday declined to comment. Off the record, officials in Italy were more talkative, putting a large chunk of the blame at the feet of the Ethiopians. The Ethiopian government had jumped the gun naming Wednesday April 13 as the return date, said one. There was still a host of technical details to settle, said another. There was no radar system at the airport to guide in the plane. They were still unsure whether the approaching road was strong enough to take the load.
Meanewhile in Axum, the town’s citizens were left picking up the pieces.
"There has already been a 70-year delay," said Like Huryan Abay Legesse, a highly-respected chanter at St Mary of Zion. "It was the same in 1963, during Emperor Hail Selassie's time. The Emperor proclaimed that people must stand by in Axum for the return of the stellae [obelisk]. But nothing happened.
"The same thing happened during the Derg (the Marxist regime that overthrew the Emperor). But no one believed them. Now we are afraid the stellae will never arrive."
The returning obelisk is one of several hundred funeral monoliths set up in Axum during the mighty pre-Christian Axumite empire. It was taken on the orders of Mussolini and erected in Rome as a fascist battle trophy.
Posted by aheavens at April 14, 2005 7:59 PM
Comments
well, what worries me now is after all these; i hope nothing major happens with the landing of the plane. i have no idea why italy should be worried about returning it. it is not even standing up anymore at Rome. If they dont return it or they are coming up with excuses to delay it, what then are they going to do with it? put it in a store at the airport forever!!! i reckon they (the italians) are being extra careful to scrutinize every step so that nothing can go wrong with the arrival and the eventual re-erection of the obelisk. we have waited for so long for it, so it is better to be sure the safety now to the last detail. mind you, i strongly reckon the government would left no stone unturned to make sure it arrives before May 15th.)
Posted by: GM at April 14, 2005 9:41 PM
I can't understand why the Italians are doing this, My people have been waiting for this event to happen all their lives. I just hope everything is ok with the Obelisk. It was so easy to take it in the past, it should be 10X easier to bring it back now decades later.
Worried Axumawit
Posted by: Yordanos at April 15, 2005 5:01 PM