The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire

This is a really important book. The Battle of Adwa is a little-known event with much significance and historical impact. This battle, and the wider war, is so consequential it is really unbelievable so few know its history. Thank you to Professor Raymond Jonas for writing this account.The Battle of Adwa was a showdown between the Ethiopian, then Abyssinian, Imperial Army with auxiliaries, perhaps more than 100,000 in number, and the Italian Colonial Army numbering about 30,000 with Askari, or local soldiers the Italians trained and equipped in Eritrea. The sheer size of the Ethiopian Army along with the distance it moved—more than 500 miles—eclipses common misperceptions of the warfighting ability of African armies. It also countermands racial stereotypes about Africa itself, perhaps best summarized by the succinctly racist and abjectly wrong conclusion by the eminent German Philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: “Africa has no history and did not contribute to anything that mankind enjoyed.” Africa does have history and Africa is significant. In fact, Ethiopia, the oldest country in Africa, has almost three thousand years more of history as a nation than the modern state of Germany, which was not even unified in Hegel’s day. From a European perspective, it is also important that the Battle of Adwa invoked the collapse of the Crispi government in Italy and the definitive end of the political consolidation from the Risorgimento period, which could be best articulated in form by the colossal “Vittoriano” monument in Rome. This Italian government collapse fed the Italia irredenta (unredeemed Italy) movement which was instrumental in the foundation of Fascism by Mussolini and the subsequent reinvasion of Ethiopia before WWII—but that is another story.Professor Jonas, a European historian who teaches at the University of Washington, has written this definitive account of the battle, events leading up to the battle, as well as subsequent impacts, based upon years of research in the United States, Europe, and Africa: a global project for a battle with global reach. The hubris, racism, and betrayal internal to the Italian Army which led to the fateful tactical decisions and decisive Italian defeat on 1 March 1896 are laid bare through a detailed analysis of available sources ranging from official accounts on both sides, soldier memoires and written accounts, Italian court-martial testimony, and even Professor Jonas’s walking and exploration of the terrain and battlefield. This is one of the very few military histories of Africa, particularly a narrative of African combat performance in war, thus a rare gem—ironically written by neither a military historian nor an Africanist! I applaud Professor Jonas and hope that many others can build upon important work like his in this book. A small book about a big day with great consequence!

I bought this book after spending some time in Ethiopia as a member of a UN Peacekeeping Mission, during which time I was fortunate to visit the site of the battle some 107 years after. Ethiopia is a timeless land full of rich culture and beauty and the diversity of the country and its people are something to behold.In this work, the author has examined the lead up to the actual battle, its conduct and the aftermath, when the vast Ethiopian forces under Menelik marched some 1900 Italian prisoners back to Addis Ababa via various routes in order to parade them through the capital and also to use the prisoners as a bargaining chip for future relations with the great European powers.The author has produced a very good work of this significant battle, as the world moved into the twentieth century and headed into the First World War eighteen years later. The first major defeat of a colonial power by an African nation certainly made the world take heed. Some semblance of this defeat of a colonial power was also to be played out some forty six years later with the fall of Singapore and the defeat of a major colonial power by an Asian country was to set in motion the changes in the world in the post WW2 era.The book is well written and easy to read rich in personal accounts of various participants in the Battle of Adwa from Generals to ordinary soldiers; it does not dwell on lengthy historical oratory about the various political and social events of the world at the time but focuses on the grassroots events that lead to the Italian army arriving at Adwa and the subsequent battle and its aftermath. The personal stories many of the survivors from both sides makes interesting reading, especially the various fates of many of the Italian prisoners who were billeted out to families in Addis Ababa and how they then set about working in a new lifestyle until their repatriation back to Italy.The author includes many photos of the people and the terrain of the battle site in this book.In summary a well written and sourced account of one of history's significant battles, rich in personal accounts and well documented. It would be a very well rounded account of the battle of Adwa with a balanced account of events from both sides. Well done, Raymond Jonas...!