California Italian Studies

This article presents a hitherto unexamined Italian Occupation-era sermon that highlights the relationship between the Italian colonial government in East Africa and a collaborationist faction of the Ethiopian Orthodox church. The text is a public prayer likely given by the Ethiopian Metropolitan of Aksum (or perhaps even the Nəburä əd [a clerical head]) in response to, and in support of, Italy’s declaration of war against Great Britain and France (June 10, 1940) on the outset of World War Two. The document consists of a short sermon (published bilingually in the original Amharic as well as in Italian translation) followed by a prayer, asking God to support Italy and the Italian Emperor (Vittorio Emanuele III) in its fight against France and Great Britain. It is an unequivocal piece of propaganda, issued by the Ufficio Diffusione Stampa dell’Impero, specifically by the Governo dell’Eritrea, Direzione del Personale e AA. GG., Sezione Studi, for the newspaper Corriere Eritreo (published on June 16). As such, while it is impossible to assess the text’s accuracy, the fact that the published version includes the original Amharic (incorporating  a number of Gəʿəz [Ancient Ethiopian, termed gheez in the Italian memo] words and phrases) would suggest it was composed by members of the EOTC (Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥədo Church) and then read by the elite clergy of Aksum (perhaps by the collaborationist metropolitan Yoḥannǝs I) and translated by the memo’s author, Gavino Gabriel. As I contend here, the existence of this sermon illustrates a profound localization of Italian rule by some elite clergy in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Indeed, as the text would seem to confirm, the some of the clergy of Aksum Ṣǝyon legitimated the Kingdom of Italy as they once did the Ethiopian Emperor.