For the first time Ethiopians and admirers of Emperor Menelik
are able to hear the voice of the
Emperor as well as that of his wife Taytu thanks to recent finding at the
British Library Sound Collection. The Ethiopianist scholar Dr. Edward Ullendorf
has written article about it on SOAS Bulletin back in 1969. The artricle is
entitled Emperor Menelik’s phonograph message to Queen Victoria. With the help
of the late Dr. Abraham Demoz, translation of the message was included in the
article. According to sources close to British Library, the message sent to Queen Victoria by Emperor Menilik and Itege taytu was sent years before the Emperor died. In the message, the Emperor speaking in Amharic laid out plainly the issue of Metema, border town between North West Ethiopia and the Sudan. More transcripts of the recorded voice messages correspondence between Queen Victoria on one side and Emperor Menilik & Itege Taytu on the other, can be found at my annual publication which was just released. To obtain the publication write to the following e-mail addresses: genaledc@gmail.com or lesyaan@yahoo.com
http://youtu.be/7qV27-OT5IE
ps.The quality of the sound is very low. It may have deteriorated due to old age or perhaps it is because of the way it had been recorded.