CHAPTER 30

LATER THAT MORNING, FIVE thousand faithful subjects crowded into the square in front of Menelik’s imperial palace. They had been there since dawn waiting for confirmation of the rumor that most of them already believed.

Ceseli and Marco watched from her office window as five servants emerged from the palace carrying the great lion-skinned war drum of the empire and the heavy, crooked club. The drummer began a series of deep, powerful single thuds that could be heard for miles.

The people of Addis Ababa knew what it must mean. They hurried through the palace gates to the imperial residence, where the royal family and important government officials were standing on the second floor balcony.

In the emperor’s office, Yifru stood behind him as he took from his desk the mobilization decree he had written on September 28.

At a few minutes before 11 a.m., court dignitaries and military chiefs gathered around the drum. As the drumbeats stopped, the soldiers rose in one wave. Silence descended as the court chamberlain mounted a wooden chair and began to read the emperor’s proclamation.

“Listen! Listen! Open your ears!

The Lion of Judah has prevailed.

Haile Sellassie I, Elect of God,

King of Kings of all Ethiopia.

“People of my country Ethiopia! You know of Ethiopia’s ancient tradition since the days of Menelik and that she is well known and honored for her independence.

“Some forty years ago today, Italy, boasting of her ability and strength, wanted to acquire our people as slaves after destroying Ethiopia’s independence. When she came into our country to fight us, our God, who does not like violence, helped us, and when he gave us victory we did not seek to recover our land that had been taken. Your eyes can see and your ears can hear the yoke of serfdom that our brothers, who live in the areas Italy has usurped, have had to bear.

“We for our part entered a League of Nations that was established for the sake of world peace. We informed the League so that the offender be identified once the WalWal conflict had been looked into by the arbitrators, according to the law. When these men investigated the matter, they found in our favor, determining that the Ethiopian government had done no wrong and carried no responsibility for the attack which had taken place at WalWal.”

“That was the verdict,” Marco whispered.

“Shh . . . I can’t hear.”

“While the arbitration was going on, Italy did not abandon its warlike activities. She was meaning to deprive Ethiopia of her liberty and to destroy her. A nation without freedom is tantamount to a people driven from its land, being pushed like cattle by the hand of the enemy. A nation thus becomes one that lives in bitter affliction, and in humiliation, as a tenant watching its inheritance in its own country in the hands of other men. It becomes a country that has no control over its possessions, nor its livelihood, not even over the soil of its grave, one that exists by inheriting serfdom that passes on to the next generation.

“With other people, when a king or a bishop dies, his descendant is substituted for him. But when a country’s independence is extinguished, there is no replacement. While serfdom passes on from one generation to the next, it is an eternal prisoner living with a name that does not die. However proud Italy may be of her arms, she, too, is known to share in death.”

After the chamberlain finished, the cheering continued unabated. “Long live the emperor! Death to the Italians!”

Imperceptibly, the crowd swung around to face the balcony, where the emperor was standing. With the great dignity that surrounded all his dealings, he bowed to them.

“I am happy to see you before me with knives, swords, and rifles. But it is not I alone who knows, it is the whole world that knows that our Ethiopian soldiers will die for their freedom.

“Soldiers, I give you this advice: Be cunning, be savage, face the enemy one by one, two by two, five by five, in the fields and in the mountains. Hide, strike suddenly, fight the nomad war, snipe and kill. Today the war has begun, now scatter and advance to victory.”

Ceseli and Marco watched as the emperor finished while the cheering crowd of soldiers and people yelled.

“So it’s here,” Marco said. “I was hoping that I was wrong. That something, some country would intervene. Or Italy would stop.”

“I never thought it would come to this,” Ceseli whispered. “I believed in the League.”

“I’ll leave you now. I know I should tell you to leave, but I know you won’t listen to me. There’s something very important I need to do,” Marco said, gently kissing her on the top of her head. “Take care. I love you.”