Spain 1936, Ethiopia 2021: the fight against fascism continues …

CNT-AIT Fr

Leaflet distributed at the Vernet Concentration Camp on the occasion of Heritage Days. Because memory is useless if it does not highlight today’s struggles …

Eighty years ago, at the concentration camp Vernet d’Ariège (France), Tecle HAGOS died. The plaque on his grave reads « August 19, 1941, Ethiopian ». Not much is known about his life, except that he was probably part of a group of a dozen students from the Horn of Africa who had traveled to Spain in summer 1936. The announcement of a Revolution, made by workers and peasants, ordinary people which had triumphed over Fascism on July 19, 1936, gave them some hope, they who had seen this same Fascism seize their land in Africa few months before.

Were they Amhara, Tigrayan, Oromo, or some other Ethiopian ethnicity? We do not know and frankly we are not interested to know. Tecle Hagos and his companions had not come to give their youth for Catalonia, Aragon or Andalusia, not even for Spain, but they came for ridding Humanity of Fascism. And also because they shared with the Spanish revolutionaries a universal idea: that of establishing Liberty through Equality and Solidarity.

There, in this Horn of Europe, these sons of the Horn of Africa had shared the libertarian hopes of this people who began to dream aloud. They had also shared its disillusionment, once the politicians had regained their power in the Spanish Republic. Like the anarchists of the CNT-AIT and the militants of the POUM, some Ethiopian freedom fighters were accused without any evidence by the Communists of « treason » and eventually were slandered and also knew the the republican jails …

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The battle of Adwa: an Ethiopian victory that ran against the current of colonialism

The Conversation

Ethiopians attend a parade to mark the 123rd anniversary of the battle of Adwa last year. Photo by Minasse Wondimu Hailu

On the first day of March 124 years ago, traditional warriors, farmers and pastoralists as well as women defeated a well-armed Italian army in the northern town of Adwa in Ethiopia. The outcome of this battle ensured Ethiopia’s independence, making it the only African country never to be colonised. Adwa turned Ethiopia into a symbol of freedom for black people globally. It also led to a change of government in Italy.

The town of Adwa is located in Northern Tigray, closer to the southern border of Eritrea. Yeha, the capital of Ethiopia’s ancient empire from 980-400 BC, and the monastery of Aba Garima, which was founded in the sixth century AD, are located near the town.

The battle between Ethiopia and Italy took place in the mountainous terrain of the area.

Adwa still stands as witness to what ordinary Africans can do when they come together as farmers, pastoralists, women and rural people, workers and artists. They are able to score a decisive victory against global colonialist forces.

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