Monday, March 5, 2012

Adwa Victory 116th anniversary Celebration in Washington DC

Yesterday, the 116th anniversary of the Adwa Victory was celebrated in Washington, D.C. in an event organized by Ethiopian Heritage Society in North America(EHSNA). The well attended event started with various speakers recalling the historic day and the heroic roles played by leaders such as Menelik II, Empress Taytu & Ras Alula etc.. Poetry readings, a mini play themed on Adwa as well as traditional Ethiopian musical performance by Shambel Belayneh, Setegn Atenaw etc.. were part of the celebration. The keynote speaker was none other than Professor Raymond A. Jonas who published a book on the subject, entitled: The Battle of Adwa : African victory in the age of empire  published by University Press in November 2011. Video of the speech and the celebration is not released yet. But here is another video whereby the Author described the battle that incurred huge setbacks not only to Italian colonial ambitions but also to European Colonialism.
http://youtu.be/1tWwU15FPBs


Finally, as you can see below the Adwa victory was a front page lead story on March 4th 1896 New York Times. Apologies for the poor quality of the copies.