The obelisk now in Rome was looted after the Italian invasion of 1935. This happened at a time when Italy through her military might, and the poison gas she rained on the Ethiopian people, was able temporalily to control most Ethiopian towns. The Italians seized the obelisk from Axum in 1937, and took it to Rome, on the personal order of the then Head of the Italian Government, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
The obelisk, in height, is second only to the great fallen obelisk in Axum, and unlike the one still standing there, is decorated on all its four sides.
The looting of the obelisk arose from the wish of Mussolini, who erected it on the fifteenth anniversary of the fascist party's coming to power in Italy, on 28 October 1922. For him taking the obelisk to Rome was a boastful and dramatic way of showing that he was in control of Ethiopia, and that Italy had become a great and mighty nation. He achieved his dream; the obelisk was aised in Rome amid great festivity.
"To add insult to injury", as the saying goes, the fact that Mussolini flaunted the obelisk, this wounder of our civilisation, for all to see, as a symbol of our submission and servility, grieves all Ethiopians, in no small measure.
Be that as it may, at the end of the second World War Italy was made to sign a Peace Treaty with the United Nations. By the terms of Article 37 she entered into the obligation to return to Ethiopia all historical objects she had plundered after 3 October 1935, the date of the invasion. It was understood that these articles would force Italy to return Etitopia's historic objects including the obelisk to their place of origin at her own expense.
On the basis of this agreement, Ethiopia has repeatedly and rightfully requested that the great obelisk looted by fascist Italy should be returned. Moreover, the Ethiopian Parliament, formed by the late Emperor Haile Sellassie, passed a resolution in 1967, stating that the Ethiopian Government should forward a demand to Italy for the obdisk's return. The resolution advocated further measures to enforce this demand. These included the denial of entry visas to Italians wishing to enter Ethiopia, and the breaking-off of diplomatic relations, until Italy returned the obelisk.
Even though the Parliament's resolution was not implemented, the Emperor in the second volume of his autobiography My life and Ethiopia's Progress was the first to condemn Italy for the looting of the obelisk. He wrote: "The taking to Rome of the ancient obelisk raised at Axum one thousand and six hundred years ago by a King of Kings of a bygone era, that and innumerable other unjust deeds, were committed in the name of civilisation by the very hands or the direct will of the government which invaded my country, unexpectedly using poison gas". He in this way recorded for future generations the enormity of the crime Italy perpetrated against Ethiopia
Professor Richard Pankhurst, one of the foremost proponents of the Return of the Obelisk Campaign, wrote an article some twenty-seven years ago in support of the 1967 Resolution of the Ethiopian Parliament, in which he dernanded the obelisk's restitution. In this article he referred to the words of an Italian writer, Francisco Pierotti, who had written about the obelisk, and commented:
"The looted monument stands today in Rome, as it did during Mussolini's day, for all to see, because as Francisco Pierotti, one recent Italian author, wrote, 'We Italians like old stones'. We wonder whether there are not Etthiopians too who 'like old stones,' especially one fashioned by their forefathers and stolen from them as a result of a bestial poison-gas invasion which shocked the world"
More recently, Dr Vincenzo Francaviglia and two other Italian scholars presented a request to the Italian Government, urging the return to Ethiopia of the obelisk taken from it by the fascist regime.
The Axum Obelisk Return Committee, formed under the chairmanship of Fitawrari Amede Lemma, has been active in its campaign for the restitution of the obelisk. Three years ago, during the interval in the Ethio-Nigerian football match held in Addis Ababa stadium, members of the committee, accompanied by Ethiopian sports personalities Captain Miruts Yifter and Major Derartu Tullu and two prominent members of the Ethiopian Patriots' Association, walked round its entire length, carrying posters, and chanting, "Return our Obelisk !". Over forty thousand spectators joined in the resounding cry, "Return our Obelisk ! Return our Obelisk !", thus demonstrating unanimous support for the obelisk's restitution to Ethiopia.
In recent years many Ethiopian notable individuals and scholars, university students, as well as several African diplomats in Addis Ababa, and numerous scholars of Ethiopia all over the world including Italy, Britain, France, Sweden Canana, the U.S.A, India, Nigeria Zimbabwe, Egypt, and Israel -have joined the ranks of those pressing the Italian Government to honour its earlier solemn written pledge to return the obelisk to its place of origin. The Conference on the Safeguarding of Historical Objects, held in Axum in September 1994, and attended by prominent personalities and historians from Ethiopia and abroad, passed a resolution asking Italy to return the obelisk.
And more recently, the House of Peoples' Representatives of the Ethiopian Federal Government, during its 27th Plenary Session held on 7 February 1996, passed a unanimous resolution urging the Republic of Italy promptly to return the obelisk and other plundered national treasures to Ethiopia, he rightful and historic possession.
And last month, in June 1996, over 13,000 citizens of Axum itself signed a petition for the obelisk's immediate restitution.
The deep concern displayed over the obelisk's return by Ethiopian and foreign historians and other scholars, as well as by the House of Peoples' Representatives, and by the Ethiopian people in general, springs from the fact that the stele was hewn and carved by our forefathers, to replicate a ten-storey building. The obelisk is nothing short of a miracle of ingenuity, and a symbol of our historic civilisation, and a work of art created with architectural and technological knowledge unequalled at that time.
The return of the obelisk is demanded because of the realisation that it is one of the most ancient of the many and varied works of art created by Ethiopians over the ages. It is also one of the wonders of the world's cultural heritage. When seen standing at the place of its birth, with the descendants of the people who created it, its immense impact on all historically-minded visitors will be greater than now when it stands suffering from pollution in Rome.
For historians the investigation of objects of antiquity at their original sites, and within the context of their natural environment is of immense importance for research, and can offer a better understanding of richness of our history.
Our natural heritage, our rich diverse culture, our beautiful scenic mountains and rivers, varied and much prized flora, fauna, all these combined, help spread our fame throughout world, as well as to sustain our well-being. We look towards the future with hope, pray for their safe keeping, and demand the return all those unlawfully taken away from us. Ethiopia's diverse national heritage, and her natural wealth attract every year many tourist whose coming contributes to strenthening our relations with other countries, developing our economy and increasing our foreign exchange earnings. It is for these reasons that we demand a retum of obelisk.
Let no one suggest, in this age technology, that there are any tecnical reasons preventing the return of the obelisk, which was taken by Italy without any such difficulty sixty years ago.
It is high time, and very a propriate, for the intemational community in general, and for the people of Italy in particular, to press the Italian Government to return the obelisk to its place of origin, in accordance with the commitment entered into with the United Nations.
(The writer of this article is member of the Axum Obelisk Return Conznittee).