Posted to the web January 7, 2002

The discovery in Edinburgh, Scotland, of one of a dozen or so Holy Tabots, or symbolic Ethiopian representations of the Ark of the Covenant, looted by British troops from Emperor Tewodros's capital at Maqdala in 1868, will be followed, within the next few weeks, by its return to Ethiopia.

Ten other Tabots, also looted from Maqdala, remain at the British Museum, in London. The institution has thus far refrained from any comment on the Edinburgh repatriation.

The decision to return the Tabot from Edinburgh was taken by St John's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, at the suggestion of the Rev. John McLuckie, a staunch friend of justice, whose action we warmly commend.

John McLuckie supports the aims of AFROMET, the Addis Ababa-based Association for the Return of Maqdala Ethiopian Treasures. This association, which has the support of Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, has its own web site, and has provided written (and published) testimony to the British House of Commons Committee on Cultural Property: Return and Illicit Trade.

This is not the first act of private restitution from Britain, In July 1971 the Rev. F.B. Knowles and the parishioners of Pelworth church, near Stratford-on-Avon, decided that it was wrong to retain a processional cross looted from Maqdala. They accordingly handed it to Dr. Richard Pankhurst, who brought it to the Museum of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, where it is currently on display.

Such acts of restitution by British churches are warmly to be welcomed.

They raise, however, the question: When will other articles of Maqdala loot (including the ten Tabots in the British Museum), currently in the possession of British public institutions be returned?

The present British initiative, which was entirely voluntary, and motivated solely by a love of justice, also calls into question the remarkable inaction of the Italian Government in respect of the Aksum obelisk. This inexplicable inaction involves violation of that government's international obligations, as well as the ignoring of appeals for restitution made by the highest leaders of Ethiopia's State and Church.