International African Institute

The Abyssinian Difficulty: The Emperor Theodorus and the Magdala Campaign 1867-1868 byDarrell BatesReview by: Richard PankhurstAfrica: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 50, No. 3 (1980), p. 321Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1159124 .

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Reviews of Books * Comptes Rendus

The Abyssinian Difficulty: the Emperor Theodorus and the Magdala Campaign 1867-1868. By DARRELL BATES. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1979. Pp. xiv, 240, map, plates, bibl. ?9.50

The rise of Emperor Tewodros of Ethiopia, the would-be moderniser, and unifier; his use of foreign missionaries to cast him cannon; his despatch of a letter to Queen Victoria which the Foreign Office left unanswered; his consequent quarrel with the British Government from whom he had hoped to obtain assistance; his imprisonment of a British consul, an envoy from Queen Victoria and a handful of other Europeans; the despatch against his mountain fortress of Magdala of a powerfully armed Anglo-Indian expedition complete with breech-loading Snider rifles, elephants and a twelve-mile long railway; his dramatic decision to commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of the victorious British; the looting by British troops of a thousand manuscripts he had collected; and the withdrawal of the British without any attempt at establishing a colony or protectorate-these are events which will for ever fascinate students of Ethiopian, African and indeed world history. The Magdala story is destined to be retold by writers of many nationalities and from various angles-and will soon be the subject of a film spectacular.

Sir Darrell Bates, C.M.G., C.V.O., a former British Colonial Secretary in Gibraltar, became interested in these matters for a fortuitous reason-because Robert Napier, the commander of the British expedition to Magdala, ended his career as Governor of that island. Sir Darrell's initial preoccupation with Napier, however, gradually widened, and at least partially justifies his sub-title.

The Abyssinian Difficulty, though telling us little about Tewodros and his aspirations, presents a gripping account of the Emperor's conflict with the British Government, as well as of the Magdala expedition, and the Ethiopian response thereto. Sir Darrell writes from a somewhat ethnocentric point of view. He is, however, sufficiently detached to describe the inefficiencies on the British side-28,673 of the expedition's 36,000 mules were for example 'destroyed or abandoned', and to raise the question why Napier decided to attack Magdala after Tewodros had released the prisoners whose liberation was the declared raison d'etre of the campaign.

Sir Darrell, though remiss in not clearly citing his authorities, provides a valuable bibliography, and has made good use of some little-known sources. He appears, surprisingly enough, to be the first author extensively to utilise Dr Austin's despatches to The Times (which clearly would repay the attention of an enterprising reprint firm).

RICHARD PANKHURST

Slaves, Peasants and Capitalists in Southern Angola 1840-1926. By w. G. CLARENCE-SMITH.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1979 (Cambridge African Studies Series 27). Pp. xii, 132, maps, bibl.

Anthropology is the child not of one but of several different imperialisms, and Portuguese imperialism gave it little scope. Despite its longevity, it left the ethnography and history of Guinea, Angola and Mozambique almost uncharted. Many scholars are now trying to fill this gap; this short but succinctly informative volume, on the least-developed 'Cinderella' southern region of Angola, is part of this concerted endeavour. It also attempts to show that anthropology can change its lineage and become a child of liberation, by using a new epistemology and relating its findings to contemporary developments in Angola. The epistemology is that of French Marxists such as Rey. Clarence-Smith uses this to trace the history of the 'articulation' between Angola's capitalist 'colonial nucleus' and the non- capitalist, 'tributary peasant social formations' in its orbit. However, the healthy empiricism with which this structuralism is applied reveals marked local variations in this exploitative

Reviews of Books * Comptes Rendus

The Abyssinian Difficulty: the Emperor Theodorus and the Magdala Campaign 1867-1868. By DARRELL BATES. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1979. Pp. xiv, 240, map, plates, bibl. ?9.50

The rise of Emperor Tewodros of Ethiopia, the would-be moderniser, and unifier; his use of foreign missionaries to cast him cannon; his despatch of a letter to Queen Victoria which the Foreign Office left unanswered; his consequent quarrel with the British Government from whom he had hoped to obtain assistance; his imprisonment of a British consul, an envoy from Queen Victoria and a handful of other Europeans; the despatch against his mountain fortress of Magdala of a powerfully armed Anglo-Indian expedition complete with breech-loading Snider rifles, elephants and a twelve-mile long railway; his dramatic decision to commit suicide rather than fall into the hands of the victorious British; the looting by British troops of a thousand manuscripts he had collected; and the withdrawal of the British without any attempt at establishing a colony or protectorate-these are events which will for ever fascinate students of Ethiopian, African and indeed world history. The Magdala story is destined to be retold by writers of many nationalities and from various angles-and will soon be the subject of a film spectacular.

Sir Darrell Bates, C.M.G., C.V.O., a former British Colonial Secretary in Gibraltar, became interested in these matters for a fortuitous reason-because Robert Napier, the commander of the British expedition to Magdala, ended his career as Governor of that island. Sir Darrell's initial preoccupation with Napier, however, gradually widened, and at least partially justifies his sub-title.

The Abyssinian Difficulty, though telling us little about Tewodros and his aspirations, presents a gripping account of the Emperor's conflict with the British Government, as well as of the Magdala expedition, and the Ethiopian response thereto. Sir Darrell writes from a somewhat ethnocentric point of view. He is, however, sufficiently detached to describe the inefficiencies on the British side-28,673 of the expedition's 36,000 mules were for example 'destroyed or abandoned', and to raise the question why Napier decided to attack Magdala after Tewodros had released the prisoners whose liberation was the declared raison d'etre of the campaign.

Sir Darrell, though remiss in not clearly citing his authorities, provides a valuable bibliography, and has made good use of some little-known sources. He appears, surprisingly enough, to be the first author extensively to utilise Dr Austin's despatches to The Times (which clearly would repay the attention of an enterprising reprint firm).

RICHARD PANKHURST

Slaves, Peasants and Capitalists in Southern Angola 1840-1926. By w. G. CLARENCE-SMITH.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1979 (Cambridge African Studies Series 27). Pp. xii, 132, maps, bibl.

Anthropology is the child not of one but of several different imperialisms, and Portuguese imperialism gave it little scope. Despite its longevity, it left the ethnography and history of Guinea, Angola and Mozambique almost uncharted. Many scholars are now trying to fill this gap; this short but succinctly informative volume, on the least-developed 'Cinderella' southern region of Angola, is part of this concerted endeavour. It also attempts to show that anthropology can change its lineage and become a child of liberation, by using a new epistemology and relating its findings to contemporary developments in Angola. The epistemology is that of French Marxists such as Rey. Clarence-Smith uses this to trace the history of the 'articulation' between Angola's capitalist 'colonial nucleus' and the non- capitalist, 'tributary peasant social formations' in its orbit. However, the healthy empiricism with which this structuralism is applied reveals marked local variations in this exploitative

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.151 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 21:30:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions