Ethiopia, over the centuries, made a major impact, as we all know – or ought to know – on European, and especially Italian, consciousness. Francesco Trevisani and Marco Benefial This week we turn our attention to two notable eighteenth century Italian artists: Francesco Trevisani, or Trevisan (1650-1740 or 1746) and Marco Benefial, or Benefiale (1688-1764). …
Emperor Haile Sellassie, at the time of the Italian Fascist invasion of 1935-6, and for perhaps a decade thereafter, had a major impact on the world. His broadcasts from Addis Ababa, at the beginning of the Italian Fascist war, his desperate struggle in the face of the enemy’s overwhelming superiority in weapons – its use …
Ato Sebhatu Gebre Yesus Tesfai, Ethiopia’s pioneer gardener, was born in the Bodji Dirmaj area of Wollega in 1920. The ninth son of parents who had studied with Swedish missionaries near the port of Massawa, his father died when he was only three. Sebhatu came to Addis Ababa at the age of five and enrolled …