“Ethiopia’s Book of the Year”

Richard Pankhurst (left) and Ian Campbell during the launch of The Plot to Kill Graziani

 

 

Ian Campell’s long awaited who dun it, The Plot to Kill Graziani was launched at Ras Makonnen Hall last week in a hard to top kicking off the 2011 Friend’s of the Institute for Ethiopian Studies annual lecture season. The hefty and lavishly photo-documented paperback, which involved decades of thorough investigative research and sleuth, is undoubtably deserving of Richard’s Pankhurst’s golden laud of, ‘Ethiopia’s Book of the Year.’

Never before heard voices from a handful of surviving witnesses, tracked down by Campbell in thrilling detective style, are of archival substance in this 500 page testament. Other events of the five year fascist occupation are treated contextually, but unsparing of gruesome detail. The initial official down-playing, followed eventually by elevation to national hero status of the two Eritreans who carried out the malfunctioned mission is examined, as is the likely authorisation for the attack from exiled Emperor Haile Selassie. Complexities of this patriotic turning point are also opened and aired as never before, likewise the unintended outcome including the ensuing massacre and loss of thousands of innocent Ethiopian lives both in the capitol as well as at Debre Libanos.

Cartoons popular during defiance of the Italian occupation

Mr. Campbell’s book just happens to have good timing, as such dedicated works often do, arriving in advance of the upcoming 75th anniversary of the atrocity. The League of Nations, embryo of the United Nations, turned it’s back on Ethiopia during that dark hour. Only the United States and the Soviet Union abstained from recognition of the then proposed legitimacy of Europe’s latest colonial ambition. It’s fitting somehow that Americans of Ethiopian heritage have now united to raise funds in order to erect a long overdue memorial at the site on the University of Addis Ababa campus.

The Plot to Kill Graziani, by Ian Campbell. Addis Ababa University Press 2011. Available at Book Depot and the University Book Centre. 109 birr.

-Bruce Strachan

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