FIKRE-KIDUS, A Magnificent Literary Novel on
Ethiopia
November 2, 2004
The Institute of Development
and Education for Africa (IDEA), Inc. likes to
congratulate Ato Daniel Gizaw for his magnum opus,
Fikre-Kidus, a novel based on Ethiopia’s
modern historiography and with focus on the Italo-Ethiopian
war of 1936-1941. The book, written in Amharic, is
a powerful literary work ever produced by an
Ethiopian that authenticates the trials and
tribulations of the Ethiopian people during their
patriotic struggle against Fascist Italian
occupation.
In
the companion menu to Fikre-Kidus, the
author introduces the reader in the following:
“In
1935, an arrogant dictator smelling blood and
itching for destruction invaded a peaceful nation.
It was unprovoked. It was unwarranted. It was
unscrupulous. And it was brutal. General De Bono
had repeatedly mentioned to Mussolini that massive
war was unnecessary, that if Italy wanted to take
Ethiopia, the latter’s resistance was minimal.
Mussolini, in his customary hubris scoffed
at De Bono, telling him that he would not take
Ethiopia even if she were offered to him on a
silver platter. Forty years earlier, his
forefathers had been terribly smashed by the
Ethiopian army under Emperor Menelik, and so the
dictator had an old score to settle.
At last an invasion force came roaring.
Mussolini who had boasted that he could blot out
the sunlight with his air force sent thousands of
airplanes and was unfettered. At the beginning
(long before he wrote a letter to Hitler saying
that Judaism was ‘a disease to be cured by fire
and sword’) he had incubated a much deeper
hatred toward blacks, as he was now ready to
eradicate the Ethiopians from the face of the
earth.
When he banned the popular book Amore
Nero (Black Love), he made it clear to the
Chief of his Cabinet, Baron Pompeo Aloisi that
entertaining any kind of intimacy with an inferior
race was intolerable and unacceptable. Filled with
such racist views, Mussolini came to Ethiopia not
only to conquer but also to annihilate. In five
years, between 1935 and 1940, nearly one million
Ethiopians perished due to this nameless
brutality. Blood poured like a river on the
mountains of Tembien, on the plains of Amba Aradom
and on the streets of Addis Ababa.
In the course of his campaign, Mussolini
had no problem in using chemical and biological
weapons to exterminate the Ethiopians. Thirty-two
thousand Addis-Ababans were massacred from
February 19th through the 21st,
1937. Graziani, his viceroy, had ordered the
bombing of several churches, including the Wadara
Mariam Church in Ankobar whose religious leaders
were mercilessly butchered. The destruction of
churches and religious leaders went on unabated.
In the process men and women were burned alive.
Three hundred Ethiopian monks at Debre-Libanos,
who led a monastic, solitude life, were killed in
one day for no apparent reason. Just like that!
Fascist soldiers cut up the throats of the monks
and took pictures holding heads while fresh blood
still dripped on their boots! All along kangaroo
courts were staged to justify such state sponsored
carnage.
It was the most egregious crime of the
century. Fascist soldiers were experimenting new
and horrific atrocities as if competing with each
other. Dragging a live youth from a vehicle became
an exciting method of killing. Pouring a gasoline
on innocent persons and torching bodies aflame was
another form of execution. Dropping a person from
an airplane from two or three thousand feet above
the ground was the other fashionable method of
death.”
The above terrifying experience,
unparalleled in human history, is systematically,
metaphorically, and dramatically illustrated by
the abler pen of Ato Daniel in Fikre-Kidus,
an amazing historical anecdote symmetrically
analyzed throughout the respective chapters, and
in a nutshell the book documents the evils of
Fascism and the gallantry and patriotism of the
Ethiopian people.
Fikre-Kidus have already enjoyed the
review of prominent Ethiopian scholars, critics,
statesmen, and professionals including Ato
Meshesha Biru, Ato Nega Asfha, Professor Samuel
Hailemichael, Dr. Ghelawdewos Araia, Ambassador
Ahadu Sabure, Professor
Awetu Simeso, and Professor Fikre Tolosa.
For further information on the contents of Fikre-Kidus
and the various themes incorporated into the
corpus of this magnificent book, please consult
the following link:
www.fikrekidus.com
We at IDEA also like to extend our
heartfelt gratitude to Ato Daniel for his
generous contribution of 25% of book sale to the
Institute of Development and Education of Africa.
We would like to encourage IDEA subscribers to
purchase this must read book and, in turn, support
the Institute’s program of African Education and
Scholarship.
Fikre-Kidus is a limited edition
hard cover of 440 pages, and it is only $30 plus
$4.50 for shipping and handling. Please make check
payable to Daniel Gizaw in the amount of
$34.50 and send it to the following address:
IDEA, Inc.
771 Kingston Avenue Suite 306
Oakland, CA 94611
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