On 18 January 2014, five Ethiopian journalists and media people strapped their backpacks over their shoulders and set off from Addis Ababa on foot. It was the beginning of the extraordinary walk that 42 days and about 1,000 kilometres later brought Ermias Alemu, Alemzewd Kasahun, Mohammed Kassa, Mulgeta Megersa (aka W), and Berhane Negussie to Adwa. Their journey [guzo in Amharic] ended in the valley at the foot of Mount Soloda on the 2nd of March, where they joined the celebration of the crushing defeat that the Ethiopian forces led by Emperor Menelik II inflicted upon the Italian invading army on the 1st of March 1896.
They did the entire journey on foot, walking an average of 25km a day. ‘Using any kind of transportation’ – Berhane Negussie explained – ‘was forbidden and unthinkable. The motto was: ‘Finish the foot journey or go back home’.1
Their serious attitude and determination echoed that of the Ethiopians who joined the massive mobilisation that Emperor Menelik had called to counter the Italian military aggression. The idea of the five people was to reenact that historic walks, and they did it with the only assistance of two friends and their vehicle used for communication purposes and food supply. Food, drinks and even money were supplied also by the local people, who warmly welcomed the five hikers all over their journey. ‘In some cities’ – Berhane pointed out – ‘people came out hundreds of miles, chanting to greet us’.2
Asked about the purpose of the walk, he highlighted the great extent to which the victory of Adwa has been concurring to the Ethiopia’s national sense of pride: ‘Our ancestors from all parts of the country united together and fought bravely to defeat the Italian army in the battle of Adwa. The victory not only laid the foundation for our independence, but also was an inspiration for the entire world to fight against colonisation’.3
The idea of carrying out that long walk to Adwa and the people’s enthusiastic reaction all over the journey provide large evidence of how Menelik’s victory is still meaningful after more than 120 years. In her 2001 song Adwa, the Ethiopian singer Gigi (Ejigayehu Shibabaw) well expresses this feeling by crediting the Adwa victory for ‘the life given to me in freedom’.
This impressive milestone in the history of anti-colonialism occurred at the core of the scramble for Africa, just about a decade after the Berlin Conference that marked the military annexation of the African continent by the European Powers. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 had made the Red Sea strategic and the Italians wanted an expansion in the area, encouraged by the British as a way to fight potential French influence. In the same year, the Italians established a station in the Assab Bay and in 1885 occupied Massawa, further penetrating into Eritrea and conquering Asmara in 1889. Six years later, the Italian forces led by General Baratieri began their expansion into Ethiopia, clashing against the army of Ras Mangasha and defeating them at Coatit first, and then at Debre Aila in 1895. In December of the same year, however, the forces of Fitawrari Gebeyehu and Gerazmach Tafese defeated the Italians at Amba Alagi and then in Mekele, where they forced the commander of the local fort to surrender. But the final confrontation took place about 7 miles east of Adwa, in and around the valley of Maryam Shavitu. The Italian totally lost more than 6,000 men, including 2,000 ascari, while 3,000-4,000 of their soldiers were taken prisoners.
This was not the only or the first defeat that a colonial power suffered in Africa. Less than twenty years earlier, in 1879, the British had been heavily defeated by the Zulus at Isandlawana in South Africa, but the echo of Adwa was incomparably louder.
According to the Italian historian Angelo del Boca, with the battle of Adwa Menelik ‘set into motion a mechanism that never stopped, blew on the embers of an African nationalism that seemed extinguished forever, broke the wire fence of the largest concentration camp on earth, stroke a mortal blow to the contemporary imperialism and the Berlin protocols’.4
The victory of Adwa became a symbol of freedom, independence and resistance against colonialism and oppression not only in Ethiopia and Africa, but also for the ‘African Americans in their political struggle to free themselves from slavery’.5
The victory of Adwa has a powerful symbolic value in Ethiopia, where it shows how successful it was to overcome political and religious differences. Menelik’s army included Agaws, Amharas, Oromos, Tigrayans, people from Gurage and other regions; it consisted of both Christian and Muslim soldiers. As the British poet of Ethiopian descent Lemn Sissay says in his beautiful The Battle of Adwa: ‘It was not just the warriors, but where they were all from’.6
This is the message that the five hikers endorsed with their journey to celebrate the Adwa victory, which, as Berhane Negussie explained, ‘it’s also the source of our unity and patriotism’.7
They journey took place in 2014, at the beginning of a new political setting for Ethiopia. The sudden death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in August 2012 had a twofold key political consequence: on the one hand, it left a power vacuum after the many years he had served as president of the country (1991-1995) and prime minister (1995-2012) at the head of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)-led governing coalition; on the other hand, it opened the ground for political change, as it would emerge with the radical reform programme launched by the new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed since 2015.
The unifying symbol of Adwa was thus evoked by the five hikers as a protection against the actual risk that centrifugal political forces disintegrated the Ethiopian ethnic federation composed of a variety of culturally different nations, nationalities, and peoples.
The journey on foot that the five journalist and media people carried out in 2014 went beyond having a national resonance: it established a tradition.
Since then, the long walk to Adwa has been taking place every year with an increasing participation. The itinerary is more or less set: Addis Ababa, Weserbi (Sululta), Moye Gajo, Muke Turi, Lemi, Belbelete Yesus, Alem Katama, Midda, Jama Dogollo, Were Ilu, Guguftu, Gelsha, Dessie, Hayk, T’Is Abba Lima (where the Wuchale agreement was signed), Ysma Negus, Wuchale, Wurgessa, Mersa, Weldiya, Kobo, Ayer Marefe, Alamata, Ashenge, Addi Shegu, Mai Neberi, Qwiha, Mekelle, Wukro, Abraha Asbaha, Abuna Yemata (Geralta), Hausen, Nebelet, Enticho, Yeha, Enda Abba Gerima, and finally the valley at the foot of Soloda Montain where the battle took place.
The spirit of the journey and the difficulties also remained the same, as one participant in the 2019 hike, Daniel Ambaw, recounted:
‘The journey took 53 days. On the way to Adwa it was not allowed even to touch a car. It was very serious. There was no clean water. We had coordinators, they went by car and brought us food and water. Once we walked like more than 40km without seeing them, that means we had no water. We searched for springs on the way. It was in North Shewa, in a place called Ensaro, a very desert area, it was very, very hard. We walked a lot to find a spring, to drink water because even if we had clean water, it was hot and we drank a lot. During breaks or in the night we read history books. We thought that our fathers walked barefoot, there were no roads, and there was no transportation, and we were eighteen, but they were hundred thousand. We were walking in good shoes, but they walked on barefoot to give us that freedom. That encouraged us, that was a motivation behind. It was hard and painful especially for the first 15-18 days, because we did not have the experience to walk long-distance. Having grown up in Addis, we didn’t have that experience. It was painful, but the motivation behind our journey was that our fathers did it barefoot. Our fathers did it, there were no roads, it was dark. We walked on roads, with good shoes… We have to do it, that was our motivation. The people we met all over the country were very welcoming. They gave us enjera [flatbread], tella [homemade beer], and the faith that they had in us it was also a strong motivation: “You can do it, you are heroes”, they told us. I don’t consider myself as a hero, I’m just celebrating heroes, but the people saw us as heroes, and that was very interesting. While walking we had our songs, we tried to take some melodies from other singers and we wrote our own lyrics. We tried to make it fun; it was very tiring, so when we had an opportunity, we made it fun. Some people are fearing that Ethiopia is like fading and fading, they feel bad. The people from Ethiopia and most of the people of our generations think that might be greater issues than Ethiopianism, but when we walked we saw that there is Ethiopianism, there is a feeling, there is a welcoming tradition of the people. They were very welcoming. It was a great motivation. There were times when we said: “We have to go back”, but after we walked for 15-18 days, people began giving us food, sheep, goats, and other things, and we started to think: “This journey is not ours anymore, this is for the people, this is the people’s journey. If we go back, what would these people say?” The city administrators, the mayors of every city welcomed and met us, they encouraged us and paid for our food, accommodations, and other things. We had to go ahead’. 8
Also the purpose of the journey has not changed throughout the years and remains threefold: celebrate the Adwa victory, remember the Ethiopian heroes and praise the unity of the nation. The latter is one of the most difficult issues that Ethiopia is currently facing, as even the journey on foot to Adwa reflects. In 2018, the participants split in two groups due to different political ideas: one group, led by Yared Eshetu, created the Guzo Adwa Charitable Association on 20 June 2018; the other group remained informally organised under the leadership of Yared Shumete.
In spite of this division, the journey on foot to Adwa offers a great example of the cultural and political meanings that walking can have. As Yared Shumete said, history can be the object of manipulation, but ‘history is on the land on which each of us steps’ and even if many different groups participate in the journey, ‘at the end we'll all meet at Soloda, and we’ll be the ones to win. The end is victory’.9
Cover image: Anonymous Ethiopian painter, Battle of Adwa, 1906, detail, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Photos from top: 1st to 4th, courtesy Berhane Negussie, Guzo Adwa 2014; 5th, courtesy Daniel Ambaw, Guzo Adwa 2019; 6th, photo MdC, Guzo Adwa event at Taitu Hotel, Addis Ababa, 12 October 2018.
1. Berhane, Negussie, interview, 31 January 2020.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Del Boca, Angelo, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale. Dall’unità alla marcia su Roma, Bari, Laterza, 1976, p. 701, transl. into English by MdC.
5. Getachew, Metaferia, ‘Ethiopia: A Bulwark Against European Colonialism and its Role in the Pan-African Movement’, in Paulos Milkias and Getachew Metaferia (eds), The Battle of Adwa. Reflections on Ethiopia’s Historic Victory Against European Colonialism: Interpretations and Implications for Ethiopia and Beyond, New York, Algora, 2005, p. 195.
6. Sissay, Lemn, The Battle of Adwa, URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6rUSCJX7pg
7. Berhane, Negussie, interview, 31 January 2020.
8. Daniel, Ambaw, interview, Addis Ababa, 13 March 2019.
9. Yared, Shumete, የኢትዮጵያዊያን የጋራ ታሪክ በመፅሀፍ ሳይሆን በደም የተፃፈ ነው!, 2019, URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6PJzSv5d_w, transl. to English by Yohannes Hagos.
© Museo del Camminare 2020, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
