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On 13 February 2024, the Dean of Westminster Abbey announced that he would agree 'in principle' to the return of a contentious Ethiopian Tabot. A replica of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tablets of the Law or the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabot had been looted by British forces during the Battle of Maqdala in today's Amhara region of Ethiopia in 1868. The possible return of the Tabot is the latest such object to be restituted to Ethiopia in recent years. It followed a formal request by the country's federal government for its restitution in July 2018, shortly after incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power. One can only welcome this move, but it should also be an opportunity to question the Abiy government's weaponisation of history and heritage within Ethiopia - particularly in the aftermath of the war on Tigray.
Tigray war and heritage
Despite the war having formally ended with the Pretoria Agreement in November 2022, peace is yet to take hold in Tigray. The devastation of the armed conflict wrought upon the region by allied Eritrean, Ethiopian, and Amhara forces was immense, with hundreds of thousands killed, the socio-economic structure of Tigray ripped apart, and an estimated 120,000 women and girls sexually assaulted by the marauding troops. The collective trauma will likely remain unfathomable for generations to come. As far as heritage is concerned, while Tigrayan and international archaeologists have yet to comprehensively assess the scale of the cultural devastation as a result of the war, what has been documented is harrowing.
Prior to the war, Tigray was home to some of the most extraordinary religious and cultural buildings, monuments, and storied histories in the world. Central Tigray was the site of the Axumite kingdom that, at its height, stretched into Southern Arabia, modern-day Yemen, as well as to Djibouti and Sudan. The city of Axum, in Tigray, was its capital for several centuries as it established relations with the Greco-Roman world and traded with communities in India and other ancient civilisations. The kingdom's slow decline began in the 7th century AD due to the growing Persian trade across the Red Sea, on which Axum previously held a monopoly.
The adoption of Christianity in the 4th century in the kingdom would prove particularly important for the material culture of Tigray, with detailed bibles, extraordinary metalwork and frescos all depicting its spread and specific interpretation. Moreover, the ancient stelae of Axum, the rock-hewn churches of Gheralta, and some of the earliest mosques in Africa are all present in the northernmost region of Ethiopia. Many of the century-old churches have magnificent paintings depicting biblical stories and Ethiopian history, which have long drawn pilgrims from across the country and the world to admire these fine works. These paintings and the historical manuscripts provide rich insight into the cross-cultural pollination of the Tigrayan, Mediterranean, and Arabic cultures, as well as the spread of Abrahamic religions in Africa.
The scale of the plundering and deliberate destruction of Tigrayan history and culture, alongside the broader war crimes committed by invading forces, is beyond comprehension. According to Mekelle University's Cultural Heritage Institute, at least 200 religious or cultural sites were documented to have seen either physical damage or witnessed the targeting of civilians. Within that vast number, the overwhelming majority were religious sites.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church and Islam have long played important roles in the daily lives of Tigrayan communities, with clerics and imams overseeing sacred multi-purpose spaces. In turn, as one might expect in wartime, many sought refuge in these sanctuaries, which were often removed from the fighting in their town or village on a nearby hill. Yet, this did not prevent the invading forces from reaching some of Tigray's most revered and isolated monasteries. For instance, the famous Debre Damo monastery that was built in the 6th century was shelled and subsequently looted by Eritrean soldiers in two separate instances in early 2021. The monastery, built high on a mountain, can only be reached by bravely scaling a tall cliff with ropes.
In Axum alone, Eritrean forces in November 2020 targeted the Church of Mariam Tsion complex, the Axum World Heritage Site main stelae field, and the Axum UNESCO World Heritage site management office. The Church of Mariam Tsion is considered to be the principal of all Ethiopian churches and monasteries and holds the purported Ark of the Covenant. Yet the Church's yard was one of the main sites of the days-long Axum massacre in November 2020 that left dozens of people dead as civilians massed to protect the sacred document. The fact that Abiy's government is now agitating for the return of a copy of the Ark, when his forces and Eritrean allies desecrated the ancient city, is galling. Other holy sites, too, were scenes of slaughter, such as a religious gathering in Maryam Dengelat, which saw dozens of unarmed worshippers, including children, killed by Eritrean forces on 20 November 2020. And in May 2021, 19 people were killed at the Abuna Yematta of Guh monastery, known for its frescos; the monastery is dedicated to one of the 'Nine Saints' of the 6th century.
This was no accident. Particularly in the early days of the war, relics, manuscripts, and other ancient artefacts such as coins and bibles were seized by the invading forces, while religious buildings that have long offered sanctuary for Tigrayan communities were targeted through shelling. The al-Nejashi Mosque was one of the particularly important Islamic holy sites in Tigray that saw particular damage as a result of being struck by heavy artillery. Its dome, minaret, and several tombs were badly hit by the barrage. As many as 80 Tigrayan Muslims were also reportedly massacred at the mosque while attempting to protect the religious site from Eritrean forces. These soldiers went on to pillage the mosque compound, looting relics, rugs and manuscripts. In Mekelle, Tigray's regional capital, the palace of the 19th-century Ethiopian, and Tigrayan, Emperor Yohannes IV was once home to numerous notable artefacts, having been established as a museum with UNESCO's support. During the war, occupying Ethiopian soldiers looted and destroyed a significant number of these items.
The scale of the looting has not been fully assessed. Some of the missing manuscripts have infamously made their way onto online auction sites such as eBay, but many more remain missing and are unlikely to ever be recovered. In Shire town alone, for instance, 800 manuscripts were stolen. Hundreds of these manuscripts are in the Akumsite language, Ge'ez, written in a unique alphabet (ፊደል or fidäl), which is the only ancient writing system still functional in Africa today. Prior to the war, some of these manuscripts had occasionally appeared on poorly regulated art markets and online. The invasion of Tigray in November 2020, however, precipitated a sizeable increase in the number of these objects appearing on online sites. Items listed for online sale have included Christian Orthodox bibles that were flogged for far less than their true worth - one manuscript was listed at just US$ 754.
The priests, monks, deacons and scholars who were the bearers of this unique Tigrayan culture were also deliberately targeted. Over and above the human tragedy implicit in the murder of these men and women, their disappearance must be absolutely counted as a loss of intangible heritage. Much of their lost knowledge can be considered irreplaceable. In addition, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the war displaced two million Tigrayans within Ethiopia, not counting the many thousands of refugees who were driven into neighbouring Sudan. This mass exodus has destroyed the cultural and social fabric of Tigray.
Many months after the signing of the Pretoria Agreement, precise details of the damage inflicted upon the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church and cultural sites in Tigray are hard to come by. Access into Western and Northern Tigray remains complex, with Amhara militias and Eritrean forces still occupying swathes of the territory. Still, a Tigray Orthodox Church report in February 2021, just three months into the two-year war, revealed that 326 priests had been killed. The actual number is likely far higher. It is no accident that the scale of the losses went undocumented and that news of many of these horrors never reached beyond Tigray. The deliberate severing of the internet and telecommunications, as well as the silencing of journalists by the federal government, meant that the coverage was extremely limited. We may never know the full extent of the damage that was done to the culture and heritage of Tigray.
Significance of this modern-day looting and destruction
The sacking of Maqdala, for which the Ethiopian government has sought reparation, was part of a broader history of the colonial conquest and exploitation of the African continent. It was the final episode of the British deployment of several thousand soldiers to free a number of missionaries from Emperor Tewodros II's hold. At Maqdala, the Ethiopians were comprehensively beaten, and the city plundered by the British forces in turn, with elephants and mules hauling off the loot. No list has ever emerged of what was taken as the city burnt, and only a handful of objects have been returned to Ethiopia, including three silver cups and a shield in 2023. The return of the Tabot by Westminster Abbey comes in the broader context of European colonial powers restituting violently looted and colonially imported African objects to their former subjects. The British relationship with Ethiopia is somewhat different, considering that, famously, the country was never colonised and emerged from a former empire itself, but it is clearly important to situate the Tabot's return in the broader questions of how and when objects are restituted.
But as the British forces systematically looted much of Maqdala, so did the Eritreans, Ethiopians, and Amhara in Tigray. The imperialist dimensions that lay behind the contrasting motivations of these three distinct forces that invaded Tigray in November 2020 have been particularly overlooked. The perpetrators of the destruction and pillaging had varying motives, but their interests converged for a moment when it came to destroying the Tigrayans - both corporeally and culturally.
The Eritrean armed forces
Despite initial denials, Eritrean troops were present on Tigrayan soil from the opening salvos of the war in Tigray (and even before, according to some sources). Over two years, the invading Eritrean forces were responsible for a litany of atrocities that amounted to war crimes, including several massacres of civilians, indiscriminate sexual violence, and the systematic destruction of Tigray's economic and agricultural infrastructure that subsequently induced famine. As far as Tigray's heritage is concerned, many witnesses assert that the Eritrean troops not only destroyed cultural sites themselves but also distinguished themselves in the art of looting. Dedicated units were responsible for raiding anything of value. From ancient manuscripts to livestock, from machinery to hospital equipment, items were systematically packed up and hauled back across the Eritrean border. Today, there are ongoing reports of Eritrean soldiers continuing to steal from Tigrayan towns and villages, which they still occupy many months after the end of the armed conflict.
While the Eritrean troops appear to have acted primarily out of revenge against the Tigrayans, whom many hold responsible for the 1998-2000 war between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and out of greed, Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki had a more ideological purpose.
The incumbent despot underwent military training in Mao's China towards the end of the 1960s, at the height of the Cultural Revolution. To understand this, we need to go back in history. Like many African states, the contours of modern-day Eritrea are colonial - defined by the Italian invaders from the Treaty of Uccialli in 1889. When Italy lost its colonies to the British during the Second World War, Eritrea fell under the latter's rule from 1941 to 1952. It then formed an uneasy federation with Ethiopia until, in 1962, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie annexed it directly to his polity, trampling underfoot all prior agreements of Eritrean devolution. Armed resistance was immediately organised, and it was in this context that Isayas Afewerki departed to undergo training in China in 1966, at the start of Mao's Cultural Revolution. On his return, he founded the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), a revolutionary, Marxist and nationalist movement seeking the liberation of the Eritrean people. In particular, their aim was to forge an Eritrean identity since, within its borders, the polity was a patchwork of peoples with diverse cultures and no real unity other than the colonial boundaries. In China, Isayas had been instilled with the ardent belief that to 'forge a modern Marxist state,' it was necessary to eradicate the 'Four Olds' (ideas, culture, customs, habits) and eliminate all traditional structures. For Isayas and others, this was further motivated by the reality that Tigrigna-speaking Orthodox Christians and Afars, the main ethnic groups in present-day Eritrea, exist on both sides of the Ethiopian-Eritrean border. Consequently, Isayas sought to deconstruct their particularism to favour a loyalty to the state and to break ties with their 'cousins' on the southern side of the border. The scarecrow for Isayas Afewerki and his party cadres remains the concept of an irredentist 'Greater Tigray.'
As a result, party celebrations and Eritrea's military structures have assumed the role of traditional religious events and social structures. Cultural institutions like the Eritrean Orthodox Church are under the thumb of the state - best symbolised by the deposition of Patriarch Abune Antonios in 2006, who was subsequently placed under house arrest until his death in 2022. In general, religion is viewed with deep suspicion by the Eritrean government as a possible motivating factor in sedition. According to reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the country is one of the worst in terms of religious freedom, with places of worship frequently destroyed and property looted. As a philologist, the author of these lines has, on several occasions, been offered looted manuscripts to purchase. Of course, the exceptional art deco heritage of Asmara or Massawa, the 'Pearl of the Red Sea', has been deliberately left to decay - as it represents Eritrea's colonial heritage.
The Amhara militias
Since the introduction of the political system, sometimes referred to as 'ethnic federalism' by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in the 1995 constitution, certain elements among the Amhara have repeatedly claimed disenfranchisement and discrimination. In particular, the Amhara elite has cited the re-drawing of the internal territorial boundaries in Ethiopia into ethnic groups as having seized their rightful territory.
The tightly woven narratives of Amhara's claims to modern 'Ethiopia' and Tigrayan history played out across the war. According to representations taken from the 'Glory of Kings' (ክብረ ነገሥት or Kebrä Nägäst), a kind of national epic commissioned around 1270 by Yekuno Amlak, reputed to be Ethiopia's first emperor, the emperors are de facto Amharas and descend in a straight line from Menelik, the love child of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. The problem lies in what we define as 'Ethiopia'. Menelik is said to have brought the Ark of the Covenant to Axum, with the dynasty becoming its protector. But Axum is in Tigray, and there is no dynastic continuity between the Axumite sovereigns and Yekuno Amlak, the King of Shewa, who was likely born near Maqdala. Thus, the Tigrayans, the real inhabitants of the Axum region, complicate this ideal picture. Indeed, struggles between the Shewa-based Amhara emperors and the Tigrayans were constant over the centuries.
The reigns of Tewodros II and Yohannes IV further complicate the dubious 'history' that has long been claimed by Amhara nationalists. In 1855, Tewodros II was crowned emperor, 'king of kings' (ንጉሠ ነገሥት or Negusä Nägäst). Born near Gondar, Tewodros II was the son of a governor and entered the imperial family through marriage. The emperor led a pacification campaign that subdued or won over the myriad warlords across Ethiopia. In Tigray, Tewodros appointed the popular Kassa Mercha as the region's governor in a bid to co-opt the leader. The respected Kassa, however, rebelled against the emperor's centralising measure, and by 1862, Tewodros' effective power extended over only a small part of Amhara territory.
Concerned about the reputation of his lineage, Tewodros summoned the Anglican missionary Henry Stern, who had the audacity to point out that he was not of the Solomon lineage. Tewodros subsequently had the missionary arrested and eventually ordered the arrest of all Europeans in the kingdom. But in return, in 1868, the British Indian army dispatched the Napier Expeditionary Force to rescue the hostages held in the fortress of Maqdala. The Tigrayan leader Kassa Mercha supported the expedition, which led to the deposition of Tewodros.
After a succession struggle, Kassa ascended the throne in 1872 under the name of Yohannes IV. The emperor was therefore Tigrayan, not Amhara, as some like to claim. He was crowned in Axum, but his palace was built in Mekelle so as not to station garrisons in the holy city. Consequently, at this point, Mekelle was regarded as the de facto capital of Ethiopia. But this was without taking into account Sahle Maryam, the King of Shewa, who had grown up in the fortress of Maqdala with Tewodros II and refused to recognise the Tigrayan Emperor Yohannes IV. After the death of Yohannes IV in a battle in Sudan, Sahle Maryam was brought to power by the Amhara aristocracy and crowned Menelik II, named after the son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon.
In recent years, the memory of Menelik II has been repeatedly accessed, and in 2021, during the war, Amhara militiamen were openly donning headbands and flags marked 'Operation Menelik' (ዘመቻ ምኒልክ or Zämächa Menilek). From this extremist perspective of restoring Menelik II's empire, the Tigrayans represented an existential threat, and their memory had to be erased. The elimination of the Tigrayan bearers of culture, priests and scholars fell under this rewriting and capture of 'Ethiopian' history. The destruction of Tigrayan heritage and its reappropriation is a 'damnatio memoriae' (condemnation of memory).
The Ethiopian federal government
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018 on a reformist impulse that was to transcend the barriers of peoples and nations to form a unified Ethiopia. His early reforming agenda, however, soon gave way to an authoritarian and centralising impulse that his critics have cited as reminiscent of the Ethiopian Empire, which was based on an Amhara elite and assimilated Oromos. Abiy's supporters, on the other hand, exulted him as Menelik III. Indeed, in his book Medemer, which translates as 'Coming Together', Abiy repeatedly plays on imperial symbols and presents a muddled programme aimed at 'unity.' The concept of 'One Ethiopia' formed the basis of the ruling Prosperity Party that he founded in 2019.
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This contrasts with the 'Everyone at Home' vision within the ethnic federal system that was established under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a Tigrayan and one of the founders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and latterly the EPRDF. Although no longer in power at the federal level, the TPLF was presented and perceived as an obstacle to the implementation of Abiy's project. The euphemistic 'law enforcement operation', commonly known as the Tigray war, was launched on 4 November 2020 but had been prepared long before, with the official aim of neutralising the TPLF's cadres. It went far beyond its stated mission, and several scholars and institutions have argued that the war waged upon Tigray was genocidal. As highlighted, numerous UNESCO World Heritage sites were bombed, and the deployment of ground troops led to widespread destruction. The heads of the TPLF were far from the sole aim of this 'law enforcement operation'.
While there was some convergence on the aim - to eradicate the very culture and memory of the Tigrayans - there was a misunderstanding between the allies on the premise. The 'One Ethiopia' of the Amharas is imperial, while the 'One Ethiopia' of Abiy Ahmed is messianic by nature. Indeed, the Prime Minister has made no secret of the fact that his own mother predicted that he would become the '7th King' of Ethiopia. This sense of divine election is linked to his Pentecostal faith based on charisma, the universal priesthood, and favouring the Spirit over the Letter. The iconoclasm of Pentecostalism denotes greater freedom of interpretation of tradition.
It has also contributed to the downfall of the corrosive alliance between Bahir Dar, Addis and Asmara. The past 12 months have seen the Ethiopian government's bold, if not imperialist, proclamations of its rights to access the Red Sea. Initially directed towards Eritrea in 2023 prior to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Somaliland, this contributed to the deterioration of relations between Abiy and Isayas. In the domestic Ethiopian political context, the rupture between the government and its former Amhara allies is complete as well. A brutal insurgency and counter-insurgency are currently being waged in the Amhara region, while discontent is growing in Addis Ababa amid the return to the hardline security measures of the Tigray war. Many of the Amhara forces, some known as 'Fano', that were culpable in the massive ethnic cleansing exercise in Western Tigray in the early months of the war have maintained their close military relationship with Asmara, which continues to arm and train them as it seeks to undermine Addis.
Too many people are claiming the same heritage
The demand for the return of the Maqdala Tabot and other jewels of the then Amhara/Ethiopian capital was made at a time when the union between the three forces was at its strongest. Throughout 2018, meetings were held with Abiy Ahmed, Isayas Afewerki and the former president of the Amhara region, Gedu Andargatchew. Today, though, water and blood have flowed under the bridge. The alliance between Abiy Ahmed, Isayas Afewerki and the Amhara nationalist leaders has been comprehensively shattered.
On the question of Ethiopia's heritage, voices are now also being raised to denounce the destruction by Abiy Ahmed's government of the old city of Addis Ababa, which was built by Menelik II and later nicknamed Piassa. The return of the Tabot from Westminister Abbey might have helped heal the trauma of the destruction of Maqdala by the British army and taken on an eschatological dimension. In fact, the violence at Maqdala paved the way for the rise of Menelik II. The Ethiopian prime minister is now taking the historical reappropriation one step further by using the process of destruction to rebuild in his own image. After trying to wipe out the heritage of Tigray, after razing the Amhara quarter of Addis Ababa, Abiy Ahmed is now even transferring the Battle of Adwa Museum from Tigray to the smoking ruins of Menelik II's Piassa. By doing so, the Ethiopian prime minister is seeking to usurp the victory of Menelik II for the greater glory of Menelik III - himself.
Charlotte Touati is an affiliate researcher with the IRSB, Christian apocryphal literature and early Christianity, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. A historian specializing in Ge'ez manuscripts, her current research focuses on the impact of long history on current security and geopolitical issues.
