The Battle of Adwa spurred Ethiopia into a new and different stratosphere of development. The Africa Hall which was at the core of Emperor Haile Selassie’s vision for Africa got a facelift and entombs great African leaders who took on the baton of creating a postcolonial Africa.
This is where the 9th Session of the African Statistics Commission convened from October 28 to November 1. African statisticians and geographers have to mark this moment because it is the Adwa battle of Renaissance for the rest of the continent. This is particularly so as the world is battling a multipolar crisis. Africa holds the jewels of hope.
This is from Moshoeshoe’s forgiveness of cannibals that devoured his grandfather, to the release of the 3,000 Italian prisoners of war in the Battle of Adwa of 1896, to the 1994 Kagame authorship of no retaliation in the aftermath of a devastating genocide, and Mandela’s stance of reconciliation. Africa holds the key to world peace. After all, it is over its beauty and minerals the greedy West has consistently decided to go to war.
The Treaty of Versailles saw Africa carved into spaces that Europe remained at war over in two historic world wars and counting. When African statisticians and geographers took a tour of Addis it was clear that the Adwa war had just begun and victory over want, war, pestilence and disease was telescopically won.
The battle of Adwa was a turning point in African history showing that Africans can unite and defeat colonial powers.
— Kwame Nkrumah
In 1999 I boarded a flight to Addis Ababa and landed at Bole. Nothing to compare with Johannesburg’s airport, nor would the Ethiopian Airline fleet compare with that of SAA. I would subsequently go to Addis so many times that even a statistician would lose count.
Things had remained static. A symbolic Hilton Hotel and the prestigious-what-would-Addis-be-like-when-it-gets-its-act-together-landmark Sheraton located in the valley were the two monuments. Besides the blue and white Russian Lada taxi, the seemingly rickety Ethiopian Airlines, some sizzling njera, the sweet tej, breathtaking Addis nightlife, and the unique and stomach-wrenching revolving head dance moves, Addis remained Addis.
A decade later Addis made a big spurt forward. The more than half-a-century-old blue and white Lada was increasingly replaced by green and yellow 20-year-old and younger Japanese cars. Construction had begun. Ethiopian Airlines became the preferred airline to this African capital that hosts the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the AU Commission.
The trend gathered momentum as annually and continuously Addis was changing. Covid-19 put the brakes on travel and for three years I did not go to Addis. In 2023 I was back and things had changed. I was in Addis last week and it had changed completely. The rate of acceleration is asymptotic. Marking the height of the change is the new museum and a park for culture and history matters in development. The space between the Hilton and the Sheraton has now been filled up.
I have not been to other cities in Ethiopia, but the story I am told is the same.
What then is the significance of the 1896 Adwa War to the African statisticians and cartographers who convened last week? Mandela said: “The victory of Adwa in 1896 demonstrated the resilience of the African people and served as an inspiration to all those who were fighting against colonialism throughout the continent.”
Kenneth Kaunda noted: “The spirit of Adwa lives on in the hearts of all Africans. It reminds us that we are capable of achieving great things when we stand united.”
To Kwame Nkrumah, “The battle of Adwa was a turning point in African history showing that Africans can unite and defeat colonial powers.”
As for Winston Churchill, “the crushing defeat of Italy at the hands of Ethiopians resulted in a great blow to European prestige.”
For the longest time, African statisticians and cartographers acted independently. By so doing they deprived the continent of an important dimension of development.
Huddled together at the huge new museum we were captivated by the modelled terrain of war in Adwa. Statistics and geographic information became a mentally revealing reality that facts are fine to discuss, but where they occurred is even more important and revealing. Facts are about the what and the how largely, but without the where they are deficient and incomplete and may not be acted upon.
For the longest time, African statisticians and cartographers acted independently. By so doing they deprived the continent of an important dimension of development. Meeting at the historic Africa Hall created for them their Adwa moment. The rapid developments in Addis show that the rise of the sleeping giant that is Africa is nigh. Accompanied by facts of what, how and where, Africa draws deep from Adwa to project and catapult itself into the future.
This is the message that we bring from our congregation of former and retired statisticians, current statisticians and young and future statisticians. As we gathered there, we also invoked the spirit of the departed and notably that of a renowned African statistician, Michel Mouyelo-Katoula, whose family was invited to the commission to commemorate his life with us.
As the Italians were decisively defeated by the coming together of all Ethiopian tribes to defend their fatherland, so too in the not far distant future, African statisticians and cartographers/geographers will successfully reveal and unveil the power of Adwa resident in them.
Dr Pali Lehohla is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.
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