EDITORS – BLACK AGENDA REPORT
When Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, the Black World rallied in support and solidarity. Marcus Garvey argued that the Black World was misguided and mistaken — and asserted that Haile Selassie was a fraud.
Ethiopia, or Abyssinia, has long held an exalted place within the history of the modern Black world and in the political imagination of Pan-Africanism. With Haiti and Liberia, Ethiopia was one of a holy trinity of sovereign Black countries during the nineteenth century. It was a territory onto which the African diaspora projected hopes and aspirations for Black freedom, self-determination, and nationality. Ethiopia’s near-mythical status was ordained in the Bible. “Princes shall come forth out of Egypt,” read Psalm 68:31, “Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands unto God.” What was dubbed the “Ethiopian prophesy” was interpreted as a promise for deliverance from slavery, the redemptive return to greatness of African civilization, and the vindication of the Black race. Prophesy appeared to be fulfilled when Abysssinian Emperor Menelek II defeated an Italian invasion on March 1, 1896 during the Battle of Adwa. The circle of history seemed to be closing. Ethiopia’s outstretched hand was closer to God.
Yet mythological states are also achingly real. The symbolic renderings of a place rarely align with the hard-facts of material existence. And in the case of Ethiopia, prophecy often collides with real-world politics. The pan-African Ethiopian defense campaigns of the 1930s offer a case in point. On October 3, 1935, Italy again attacked Ethiopia, launching an invasion of 200,000 troops from the Italian colony of Eritrea. This time Adwa was conquered and by 1937, Ethiopia fell under the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini. Black activists worldwide rallied around the throne of Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie. The International African Friends of Abyssinia, also known as the International African Friends of Ethiopia (IAFE), was founded in London in 1935 in response to the invasion. Counting CLR James, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Chris Brathwaite, and George Padmore as members, the organization called on the African diaspora to defend Ethiopia and staged rallies, passed resolutions, and protested the invasion to the League of Nations. For many IAFE members, Black people had to defend Black countries against white imperialism at all costs and without question.
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