Ever-shining Patriotism

Amen Teferi

This year’s Ethiopian Patriots’ Victory Day is celebrated with a special emphasis on reinvigorating Ethiopian nationalism and patriotism. As one of a public holiday, Patriots’ Victory Day is being commemorated by Ethiopians every year on April 6th to give respects to the Ethiopian patriots who fought for the independence of their country.

On October 3, 1935, the Italian forces invaded Ethiopia which was then under the administration of Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. The surprise attack was declared after the World War II in which Italy invaded from Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. Because of the advanced and high-end armory that the Italians have, they conquered almost every town in the Northern part of Ethiopia that they attacked. Several attacks and bombings coming from the air and from the land landed on the Ethiopian soil which devastated the country and the military. On exactly May 5th of 1936, the Italian troops successfully conquered the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

Then, Emperor Haileselassie was in exile and tried to reach out and asked for the support of Switzerland at the League of Nations to seize the Italians. The League of Nations made a quick decision to support the request of Ethiopia but the rescue never resulted into success.

On the same month after the invasion of Addis Ababa on 1936, Dictator Benito Mussolini proclaimed the Italian King Victor Emmanuel III as the emperor of Ethiopia and Badoglio as the viceroy. Mussolini submitted the country to the rule of Italy and even proclaimed the Italianization of the country.

However, a lot of Ethiopian people were against the proclamation and had attempted to assassinate the Italian general Rodolfo Graziani. Following this incident, the Italians dealt with the Ethiopians severely and persecuted approximately 30,000 Ethiopians in Addis Ababa by firing squad and beheading. The tragic episode of the Ethiopians never ended just yet because even the women and children were put inside a gas chamber.

Despite this bitter chapter in the lives of the Ethiopians, they chose to remain strong to fight back the fascists. And exactly five years after the invasion of Addis Ababa, Emperor Haileselassie regained his ruling power by the decisive struggle of the Ethiopian patriots along with a movement composed of African black and white soldiers under the command of British soldier Major Orde Wingate. The forces of the Italians started to diminish. And on May 5th of 1941, the efforts of the Ethiopians bore fruits of success as the Italian occupation finally came to an end which liberated Addis Ababa.

Because of this remarkable battle of the Ethiopians against the Italians, the victory was recognized on May 5th 1941 and it has been celebrated annually since then as the Ethiopian Patriots’ Victory Day.

Benito Mussolini (in full Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, byname Il Duce, Italian: “The Leader”) was the first of 20th-century Europe’s Fascist dictators had a dream to establish an Empire and his dreams of empire led him to seek foreign conquests. His eye rested first upon Ethiopia, which, after 10 months of preparations, rumors, threats, and hesitations, Italy invaded in October 1935.

A brutal campaign of colonial conquest followed, in which the Italians dropped tons of gas bombs upon the Ethiopian people. Europe expressed its horror; but, having done so, did no more. The League of Nations imposed sanctions but ensured that the list of prohibited exports did not include any, such as oil, that might provoke a European war. If the League had imposed oil sanctions, Mussolini said, he would have had to withdraw from Ethiopia within a week.

But he faced no such problem, and on the night of May 9, 1936, he announced to an enormous, expectant crowd of about 400,000 people standing shoulder to shoulder around Piazza Venezia in Rome that “in the 14th year of the Fascist era” a great event had been accomplished: Italy had its empire. This moment probably marked the peak of public support for the regime.

He had certainly been aided by a favorable combination of circumstances, both political and economic; but his remarkable and sudden success also owed something to his own personality, to native instinct and shrewd calculation, to astute opportunism, and to his unique gifts as an agitator.

Anxious to hold power he navigated through riot, demonstration and fraudulent election and in a lightning speed he obtained full dictatorial power that was legitimized by the undoubtedly fraudulent elections of 1924. Benito Mussolini created the Fascist Party in Italy in 1919 making himself dictator prior World War II. Although the Fascist tells us otherwise it took over power in peaceful power transition. Italy's king peacefully relinquished power to Mussolini in 1922, but the dictator mythologized that he took the country by force.

Many Italians, especially among the middle class, welcomed his authority. They were tired of strikes and riots, responsive to the flamboyant techniques and medieval trappings of fascism, and ready to submit to dictatorship, provided the national economy was stabilized and their country restored to its dignity.

Mussolini seemed to them the one man capable of bringing order out of chaos. Soon a kind of order had been restored, and the Fascists inaugurated ambitious programs of public works. The costs of this order were, however, enormous. Italy’s fragile democratic system was abolished in favor of a one-party state. Opposition parties, trade unions, and the free press were outlawed. Free speech was crushed. A network of spies and secret policemen watched over the population. This repression hit moderate Liberals and Catholics as well as Socialists.

Mussolini was hailed as a genius and a superman by public figures worldwide. His achievements were considered little less than miraculous. He had transformed and reinvigorated his divided and demoralized country; he had carried out his social reforms and public works without losing the support of the industrialists and landowners; he had even succeeded in coming to terms with the papacy. The reality, however, was far less rosy than the propaganda made it appear. Social divisions remained enormous, and little was done to address the deep-rooted structural problems of the Italian state and economy.

Mussolini might have remained a hero until his death had not his callous xenophobia and arrogance, his misapprehension of Italy’s fundamental necessities. Born on July 29, 1883, in Dovia di Predappio, Forlì, Italy, Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was the eldest of three children. His father, Alessandro, was a blacksmith and an impassioned socialist who spent much of his time on politics and much of his money on his mistress. His mother, Rosa (Maltoni), was a devout Catholic schoolteacher who provided the family with some stability and income.

He was an ardent socialist as a youth, following in his father's political footsteps, but was expelled by the party for his support of World War I. In 1919, he created the Fascist Party, eventually making himself dictator and holding all the power in Italy. He overextended his forces during World War II and was eventually killed by his own people, on April 28, 1945, in Mezzegra, Italy.

Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, attempted to escape to Switzerland, but were captured by the Italian underground on April 27, 1945. They were executed the following day, on April 28, 1945, in Mezzegra (near Dongo), Italy, and their bodies were hung on display in a Milan plaza. The Italian masses greeted Mussolini's death without regret. Mussolini had promised his people Roman glory, but his megalomania had overcome his common sense, bringing them only war and misery. Ethiopia’s present generation should repeat its forefathers’ patriotism by subduing the abject poverty that is menacing the livelihood of millions.