Resistance hero Ras Desta Damtew was executed by Italian fascists in 1937, after which some of his belongings are believed to have been stolen. Now his grandchildren and the Ethiopian government are fighting to bring them home.
A sword and cloak of one of Ethiopia’s national heroes briefly surfaced on the website of an Italian auction house last month, reigniting a fierce debate about the country’s stolen heritage and the difficulties of securing restitution.
The items were advertised as belonging to Ras Desta Damtew, a son-in-law of the former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie and one of the leaders of the Ethiopian “Patriots”, resistance fighters who fought against Italian forces during the fascist occupation of Ethiopia from 1935 to 1941.
Ras Desta was captured by the Italians in February 1937 and summarily executed, an act which a UN commission later judged to have been a war crime.
‘Offensive’ Italian auction
“He was a hero, and he should have been treated as a prisoner of war,” Yeshimebet Kassa, one of Ras Desta’s granddaughters, tells The Africa Report. “This man was murdered. My mother was in exile when he was killed, I think she was about eight. She never saw her father again after the war.”
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