ETHIOPIA: Twelve Traitors

It was necessary for Queen Victoria’s campaigners to execute Afghans by blowing them from cannon mouths to impress other Afghans sufficiently with the horror of their death. In Harar last week it was necessary for Ras Nassibu, the Ethiopian Commander facing Italian General Rodolfo Graziani, to impress with similar horror the simple African mind. Twelve Ethiopian traitors, accused of being pro-Italian, were led chained into Harar’s market place to the rattle of drums.

Twelve times a traitor was spread-eagled on the ground. Twelve times an executioner with a plaited bull whip laid on until quivering flesh and muscles came off in strips and the bones of the black man’s carcass gleamed white in Death. After the twelfth horror, Harar’s market place resumed its normal function, jammed with horse bargainers who ignored a pack of mangy dogs sniffing hungrily at bloody spots on the cobbles which they had almost licked clean.