A Multi-Part Series on the Italian Invasion of Ethiopia
I’d love for Dominic and Tom to do a proper multi-part series on Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia and I genuinely think this could be one of the most compelling arcs they’ve ever covered.
Ethiopia is the only African country that was never formally colonised, which already makes it a fascinating outlier. But the story spans both World Wars and touches on so many threads that fans of this podcast would love:
• Mussolini and Italian imperial ambition — the 1935 invasion, poison gas, and the League of Nations’ failure to act
• Haile Selassie’s exile in Bath — this is my personal favourite part of the story. After the fall of Addis Ababa, Selassie sought refuge in Britain and actually lived in Bath. By all accounts he was this deeply dignified, slightly eccentric figure who would go on his regular walks through the town at the same time every day — and locals apparently started punctuating their own daily routines around his walks.
• The British alliance and liberation — the East African Campaign in WWII, and how Ethiopia was eventually restored
• Black liberation and the diaspora — the invasion sparked outrage across the African diaspora and the wider Black world, and Selassie became a symbol of resistance
• The Rastafarian movement — Selassie’s deification and what Ethiopia represented spiritually and politically to people across the Caribbean and beyond
• Pan-Africanism and the African Union — the invasion was a direct catalyst for the Pan-African movement, and Ethiopia’s role in the eventual founding of the OAU/African Union is a direct through line.
As a new fan of the podcast, I’ve noticed that there isn’t much coverage of African history and I would love to see this get some traction.