As recounted in 'The Scramble For Africa' by Thomas Packenham, during the nineteenth century the entire continent of Africa was colonized by europeans - with the exception of Ethiopia.
This is due to one reason alone - Ethiopia posesses the Ark of the Old Covenant, and the nation which carries the Ark in battle cannot lose. King Menelik II's right arm was his general Ras Allula, the commander in the Battle of Adowa. He had also been the right arm of Emperor Yohannes before him. Ras Allula was loyal to the hilt and ever victorious. The British tried unsuccessfully at first to conquer the Sudan where their greatest war hero of that century - Charles Gordon - was slain in Khartoum by the army of the Mahdi. As long as the Mahdi lived, they beat the British every time. The Mahdists lost, however, when they fought with Ethiopian armies led by Ras Allula.
In 1896, the Italians marched deep into Ethiopia. They were met by the forces of Ras Allula at Adowa twenty miles west from Aksom, the ancinet capitol where the Ark of the Old Covenant is kept. On the day of the battle, Ras Allula's army carried the Ikon of Saint George the Dragonslayer into the battle along with the Ark of the Covenant. Saint George is the patron saint of Ethiopia. The Italians were slaughtered. They were all running for their lives by nine o'clock in the morning. Their commanding general was killed in battle. The African servants who had been fighting with the Italians then revolted and slaughtered their former masters. It was a great day for all Africa. Ras Allula captured three thousand italian soldiers. These were all that remained as the rest of the italian force had died in battle. These three thousand italians were permitted to return to Italy, but they were first castrated so they would never have any children. For years after this italian sailors feared so much of going to Africa, they would often mutiny rather than go there.
That occurred in 1896.
The most prominent group of persons involved in colonialism were wealthy jews, and at the time of the Battle of Adowa the Rochschild family controlled european politics. Of crucial imporatnce to the future of Ethiopian politics, the zionist movement was "officially" begun at that time. I am certain there are other reasons as well for the timing of the conference, but in reference to the Battle of Adowa in 1896, the jewish powers behind colonialism decided to make a damage assessment in the form of the World Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland the following year - 1897. This conference was in part a reaction to the Ethiopian victory at Adowa because the european powers who did the bidding of the Rothschilds had failed to completely subjugate Africa, which had been the colonists' aim.
According to 'Waters Flowing Eastward' by the Russian writer Paquita de Shismareff, a young Russian policeman was among a force of police dispatched to break up the conspiratorial meeting. As this Russian guard later recounted in older age in 1938, the complete text of the 'Protocols of Zion' were found on the speaker's desk at that meeting.
King Menelik of Ethiopia had earned the wrath of the colonialists for his victory. They correctly reasoned from this battle that it was not possible for them to defeat Ethiopia militarily. Therefore, they sought out a traitor from among the Ethiopian people thenselves who would sell out his people by doing their bidding. They found such a person in a member of Menelik's court - Ras Makonnen.
Ras Makonnen became a friend and associate of Jews and europeans much more than King Menelik, whom he plotted against. He met with jewish reprensentatives of the German government in 1905. He was promised that his son Ras Tafari would be emperor instead of Menelik's son. Indeed, Ras Tafari received supprt from the jewish dominated British and in turn american governments through most of his long career. He put Menelik's son in prison and had him murdered. This fact is documented in 'We the Black Jews' by Joseph ben Jochanan, a learned history of the falasha jews of Ethiopia:
http://www.blackclassicbooks.com/servlet/Detail?no=12 There was much resistance to Ras Tafari during the period from 1916 to 1930. He used brutal tactics to become emperor as documented in 'Haile Selassie: The Early Years - 1892 to 1936' published by Red Sea Press. Th e revolts are also documented very well with pertinent illustrations in 'A History of Modern Ethiopia: 1855 -1991' by Bahru Zewde which is published by East African Educational Publishers with offices in most or all East African countries as well as the University of Ohio Press. This informative book is widely available in Addis Ababa, and i purchased a copy at the House of Khemet in Wahington, DC indicating it is commonly available from Africa-American bookstores. 'The Emperor' by Ryszard Kapuscinski recounts the good, bad, and ugly of Ras Tafari's life by interviews with many servants who knew and interacted with him first hand.
Ras Tafari's mother was an Oromo muslim making him ineligible to become King of Ethiopia according to the traditional strict requirements for the Solomonic kingship. He brutally put down a loyalist (loyal to the true leaders) resistance in 1928 by executing its leaders. His cousin Empress Zewditu was the Queen of Ethiopia until her husband was slaughtered in an imporsant civil war battle in 1930 by Tafari's henchmen. After this battle, he coldly assasinated Empress Zemditu and his British sponsors televised his coronation worldwide. At that time he blasphemously took on the name Haile Selassie (Almighty Trinity) to himself. He also depended on the League of Nations rather than God to defend him against the Italian invasion in 1935. Obviously, the Italian invasion was a judgment from God both for the King's sins as well as for Ethiopian peoples' turning from the fervency of religion that their parents and ancestors had which had been occuring in Ethiopia especially since the modernizing Emperor Tewodros in the mid-nineteenth century. One indication that Tafari was a brutal dictator was that his people continually revolted against him. (Discounting the lesser rebellions, there were major revolts against Tafari in 1946, 1960, and 1974 - the last one being successful. For myself, the crowning signal of what sort of man was Ras Tafari was his close and lifelong friendship with the zionist movement and modern israel.
An excellent book stating the traditional Ethiopian view of Ras Tafari is 'The Classic Case of Ethiopia' by Ermias Kebede Wokle-Yesus, Nibure-Id to which I would refer anyone (rastafarians in particular) finding disagreement with what I have written above. The book is available from:
Ethiopia: Kingdom of God Services
P. O. Box 43262
Washington, DC 20010
Phone: 301.597.8074
E-Mail: ekogyesus@aol.com
- Dionysios