Cyber Ethiopia

We saw last week how Robert P. Skinner, the first American envoy to Ethiopia, who visited the country in 1903-4, summed up what he considered the interests in the area of the United States, the French and the British. The Russians: "the most interesting" of the European Powers Turning to the interests of the Russians, and to the role of their diplomatic mission in Menilek's Ethiopia, Skinner declared it the "most interesting" of all the European powers: "The Least Comprehensible" "because it is the least comprehensible by the ordinary rules of interest which govern international relations. Our Russian friends [he continued] have no apparent stake in Ethiopia - or at least that which modern society regards as such. There are no Russians in Ethiopia other than official Russians.

There is no Russian trade in the country, and there are no Russian frontiers nearer than Turkestan. Yet the Russian mission presided over by the accomplished M. Lechine, the Minister, included a hospital and dispensary, together with doctors, nurses, and everything else, all of which Ethiopia enjoys without money and without price. It is said some very strong sympathy exists between the Russian and the Ethiopian Churches. The Abouna [i.e. Head of the Ethiopian Church] was permitted to appear in the Russian Church as an ecclesiastic, and there is no doubt an analogy, if not a kinship, between the two religions. I fear that Europeans are somewhat sceptical, however, when it comes to regarding the religious bond as the one which unites these two peoples diplomatically. If Ethiopia possessed a coast-line it would be exceedingly easy to assume that Russia hoped sooner or later to obtain a Red Sea port; but in the actual state of affairs no such ambition can be entertained, except by the somewhat fanciful method of exchanging Russian influence in Ethiopia with some interested European Power in a position to give the Czar's Government the presumably coveted Red Sea outlet". Elaborating, and seeking to answer this apparent mystery of Russia's interest in Ethiopia, Skinner continued: "Only the Next Forty Years Can Demonstrate" "The real inwardness of Russian diplomatic effort in Ethiopia is a never-ending source of conversation in the empire [i.e. presumably by European residents] and many ingenious theories are spun regarding it, one of which is as valuable as another. Probably in what Pascal [i.e. the French man-of-letters, 1623-62] calls 'the research of the intention' the amateur in politics misses the true cause, in order to spin out theories which only the next forty years, or perhaps century, can demonstrate. Let us be reasonable, then, and assume that, Ethiopia being a Christian Power, now important, and likely to become more important, and ruled by wise men, it is a safe policy for Russia, as for any great nation, both as a measure of prudence and a measure of courtesy, to maintain cordial relations with this Power [i.e. Ethiopia]. May not the mysteries of diplomacy, here as elsewhere, consist largely in the fact that there are no mysteries?" Emperor Menillke, as Robert Skinner saw him "Our Young Men Must Be Educated" Skinner reports that, during his stay in Addis Ababa, he suggested to Menilek "that he send some of his young men to our American schools and colleges". 'Yes, that will come', said he; 'our young men must be educated. We have much to do... "The remark", Skinner comments; "was not without its significance. It showed a desire to see education spread, and it showed an entire absence of that self-sufficiency attributed by some writers to the Abyssinian nation. A recent English writer upon Abyssinia has said, speaking of their attributed immodesty: 'It is no doubt remarkable that a nation of niggers possessing three hundred thousand rifles should take a different tone from that of niggers who are not permitted to possess any'. This [Skinner continues] is a very harsh and unsympathetic way of dismissing a great people, but it reflects the spirit in which a large proportion of recent travellers have visited the country. The word 'nigger', in its English sense, is bereft of that half-affectionate swing which it acquires in America, and is meant to stamp with the seal of contempt the person to whom it is applied. In the case of the writer quoted, it showed an unwillingness to understand, and an inability to sympathize with, a race of men who have asked nothing of the world save to be left alone with their independence and their old civilization. "If Menelik Lives..." "Though this may be the national aspiration [Skinner continues], it has been fully recognized, I think, that further enlightenment is necessary to a perpetuation of that independence. If Menelik lives, he will very probably stimulate his young men to take an active interest in education, and to fit themselves for carrying on the work he has begun. To-day the great obstacle to education in foreign colleges is the almost complete lack of proper rudimentary training. Exceedingly few persons are able to read and write. The schools seem unable to get beyond instruction in the Gospels, and to find proper material for an intellectual uplifting it will be necessary for students to take long preliminary courses in the most elementary studies". Skinner spoke about the need for modern education in Ethiopia with the prominent French trader Leon Chefneux, and quotes the latter as declaring, "it will come, but it will come slowly". "Why Can't We Have an Amharic Typewriter?" On another occasion Skinner presented Menilek with a "beautiful American writing-machine". i.e. a typewriter, which had been donated by the manufacturers in the States. Thereupon, the American envoy recalls, "the practical mind of the Emperor developed the question immediately. "Why can't we have an Amharic typewriter?" "A Most Beautiful Arm" The typewriter, Skinner continues: "was carried away, and a magazine rifle of the latest model, a most beautiful arm, with burnished barrel and gold-plated mountings, bearing a special inscription, was presented. Now the imperial eyes brightened with evident pleasure. Mr Wales [a member of the mission], who had a similar rifle, illustrated the method of loading and firing, whereupon the Emperor followed the movements, and with the instant appreciation of the connoisseur, nodded approvingly. Interest in the new American gun was so intense that Mr Wales was required to fire through the open doorway at a blank wall. The ten shots rang out with startling rapidity. Generals, judges, colonels, and understrappers crowded about the doorway. The consequences were so satisfactory that His Majesty determined to try his own rifle himself, and, very slightly concerned for his generals and judges, raised the weapon to the proper angle, without changing his posture on the throne, and aimed through the same open doorway". "Menilek, a 'Bismarck'" Skinner, deeply impressed with Menilek, and his style of government, wrote, about the Ethiopian ruler with great, perhaps even excessive enthusiasm: "Menelik [he wrote] has created the United States of Abyssinia - a work for which he was endowed by Nature with the constructive intelligence of a Bismarck, and the faculty for handling men by the sheer amiability of a McKinley [i.e. the 25th. President of the United States, 1843-1901]. In his younger and salad days, when the crown of Choa sat uneasily on the head which dreamed then of a united Abyssinia, he knew how to be a Bismarck. To-day he is all McKinley. Unity is an accomplished fact, and he says as said McKinley: 'The day of exclusiveness is over'. I have talked of Menelik with many men, and upon whatever points in regard to his character they have disagreed, they have all asserted that his natural impulses are every one in favour of methods of conciliation and kindness". The Succession: "In the Mind of Everyone Visiting the Empire"; an "Orderly Transfer of Power" Skinner, like many observers of this time, was preoccupied with the question of the royal succession. It was a question, he wrote, "in the mind of everyone visiting the empire. It is fully believed by those who have interests in the country that when, in the course of nature, the shrewd and great Emperor Menelik shall have been gathered to his fathers, it will be found that he had made provision for an orderly transfer for the orderly transfer of power to other hands". [Menilek in fact appointed his first Cabinet in October 1907, and designated his grandson, Lij Iyasu, as his successor in May 1909]. "Fortunately for Ethiopia and the peace of the world", Skinner concludes, "the Emperor bids fair to resist for many a year the ravages of time. His vigorous manhood is attributed to a knowledge of 'the science of proper living, the benefits of temperance in all things, and the healthful influence of a balanced mind, from which all worries are expelled and few gain entrance". And more than that no man can say!