Ayele Bekerie, visiting professor at the Africana Studies and Research Center, poses with the book One House: The Battle of Adwa 1896 -- 100 Years in front of a display on the Battle of Adwa in the John Henrik Clarke Library. Adriana Rovers/University Photography
By Lerato Nomvuyo Mzamane
One of the largest battles of the 19th century has its centennial this year. The Battle of Adwa, which pitted Ethiopian against Italian forces, was fought on March 1, 1896, in what is today the town of Adwa in Ethiopia's northern Tigrai province.
As part of the anniversary's international observation, Ayele Bekerie, visiting professor at the Africana Studies and Research Center, and fellow academics and writers from Africa, North America and Europe have collaborated on a book titled One House: The Battle of Adwa 1896 -- 100 Years (Nyala Publishers, Chicago). The book tells its story by combining historical accounts with fiction, poetry, essays and art work, from the turn of the century to this year.
Commemorations of the Battle of Adwa are being held in many parts of the world throughout the year, and Bekerie has worked with the Africana Center's assistant librarian, Ayodele Ngozi-Brown, to create a display on the battle in the center's Clarke Library.
The battle was fought in the wake of a wave of European imperialism in Africa in the late 19th century, after various Western nations divided the African continent among themselves at the now infamous Berlin Conference. The reasons for the battle are complex, but the immediate impetus was a collective effort among Africans to prevent Italy from invading Ethiopia.
The perspectives in the book reveal not only the complex culture of the ancient Ethiopian kingdom, but also the range of people influenced by the battle and its impact on the African psyche of today. Adwa blunted the so-called "Scramble for Africa" and inspired freedom movements in America, Africa and the Caribbean, the authors point out. And in Europe, the defeat of well-equipped Italian soldiers became an embarrassment leading to what contemporary observers termed an "international humiliation." The defeat also led to proclamations in the West that Ethiopians were in fact "white," and many historians argue that Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 was a reaction to the humiliating defeat at Adwa 39 years earlier.
But for Bekerie, an Ethiopian, Adwa's lessons and legacy have special resonance.
When Bekerie completed his bachelor's degree in plant science at Haile Sellassie University in Ethiopia two decades ago, his family and community were enthralled, he said. The eldest of seven children, he was the first person in his neighborhood in Addis Ababa to successfully compete in the country's intense college admission procedures. For his parents, who had raised their children in poverty, his accomplishment was even sweeter.
"It was literally a life mission for them to make sure we got educated, sometimes at the expense of meals," Bekerie said.
Today, despite various challenges, he continues to support his family back home. And, in 1993, he was able to return to Ethiopia after almost 18 years of being in the United States.
"I was so happy to see my mother, brother and sisters," Bekerie said. "While I was there, two of my sisters got married and we had a big wedding."
In 1976, a United Nations Fellowship brought Bekerie to Cornell's Department of Agronomy for a master's degree. Upon its completion, he worked as a research support specialist here and later as an instructor at various colleges, always focusing on Ethiopia. Later he decided he needed to broaden the scope of his studies in order to maintain that focus.
"I began to realize there were lots of pieces missing," he said. He credits faculty members at the Africana Center, including James Turner, Abdul Nanji and the late Congress Mbatha, for their encouragement while he made the shift from agronomist to historian. But Bekerie insists the shift merely reflected his holistic educational upbringing, which emphasized a non-fragmented approach to study. He returned to Cornell for his master's in professional studies, and later, his doctoral work which centered on Ge'ez, a classical African writing system.
Today, Bekerie is an assistant professor of African American studies at Temple University, where he is also the founder and director of the Institute for the Preservation, Reclamation and Promotion of Ancient African Artifacts and Manuscripts. That institute provides information and support for the fundamental rights of Africans to own their cultural and historical data, much of which was brought out of the continent during periods of Western colonial invasion and plunder. As a visiting professor at Cornell, his lectures and informal talks on the subject have generated much interest. In the fall, he will teach courses on "African History: Early Times to 1800" and "Afrocenticity," and he will be on campus through the fall semester.
One House: The Battle of Adwa 1896 -- 100 Years can be ordered from its publishers by telephone at (312) 883-9818, or by e-mail nyalapub@aol.com. The book also has a World Wide Web site at http://www.tyrell.net/~jomodzn/cr-nyala.html.