Documentary: If Only I Were That Warrior. By Valerio Ciriaci. Awen Films, 2016. 72 mins. US$ 3.49 (Vimeo On Demand)
—-
Valerio Ciriaci, an Italian film maker based in New York, has produced a deeply disturbing but highly watchable documentary about the Italian occupation of Ethiopia from 1935 to 1941 and its unresolved legacy in Italy today. Rather than shocking the viewer with brutal images of the massacres committed by Italian troops led by Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Ciriaci builds the documentary around the inauguration, in 2012, of a monument dedicated to Graziani, located in the small Italian town of Affile. There, several people, including the mayor, articulate their admiration for Graziani, calling him ‘a hero’. The viewer will be tempted to regard these views as limited to the less educated rural population, and expects a more realistic assessment by the next character introduced, an experienced UN worker named Giuseppe de Bac, interviewed while driving through Ethiopia in his off-road vehicle, assessing agricultural projects.
Yet de Bac, despite his international background and apparent interest in Ethiopian culture, shows an off-putting nostalgia for the Italian occupation. Taking the documentary’s director to Italian cemeteries in the Ethiopian countryside, he proudly points to the roads and bridges built by Italian soldiers, casually commenting that he feels “the presence of the Italians and never feels alone” on his country assignment.
Italy’s brief occupation is the darkest chapter of Ethiopian history. Graziani had Mussolini’s explicit consent to use mustard gas against the local population, killing thousands and injuring many more. After an attack on the Marshal by local resistance in February, the Italian occupiers reacted with indiscriminate slaughter of Ethiopians in several neighorhoods of the capital. After killing hundreds of men, countless women and children were burnt alive in their homes — an episode known today as the “Addis Ababa Massacre“. An estimated 19,000 Ethiopian lost their lives during the killing spree.
Soon after, desperate to root out the resistance, the Italian troops, who received material support from Nazi Germany, rounded up two thousand people in Debre Libanos, a monastery lying northwest of Addis Ababa in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region. Those with calloused hands were allowed to live, but those with soft hands (indicated that they did not work in the fields) were executed, including hundred of monks. Country-wide massacres of community leaders, educated elites caused havoc across Ethiopia, leading to widespread rejection of the occupation. Around two thousand churches and around half a million homes were destroyed by the Italian armed forces.
Representing the lack of acceptance of Italy’s role in Ethiopia, de Bac seems unfazed by these stories. “There is no question that the massacres were poorly timed,” he agrees. Indeed, the UN has declared Graziani a war criminal. ”But war is war” he insists while cooking pasta, also commenting that Ethiopia’s capital was too polluted and that not enough was done to preserve Italian buildings.
Of course, such views are not entirely representative. The monument in Affile itself was initially proposed as a symbol for the Unknown Soldier and, upon approval, used public funds for its construction. Yet when the federal government learned that it was being dedicated to Graziani, the funds were revoked, and the mayor needed to use private funds. Yet Ciriaci excels at using this opportunity to showcase the lingering pride in Graziani and the Mussolini-era fascist government that continues to exist today in parts of Italy — not unlike in France or Great Britain, where the majority of the population believes colonialism had a positive impact on countries like India.
Still, the reaction to the monument was swift. Ethiopia’s diaspora from around the world began to stage protests at Italian embassies, often with active support from Italians. Affile made headlines in newspapers around the world and turned into an international embarrassment for Italy. In 2017, Affille’s mayor Ercole Viri received an 8-month prison sentence for building the monument. They were convicted under an Italian law that makes “fascism apology” a crime. Yet the monument did not affect Viri’s approval ratings, and he won reelection after its inauguration. He expects to run again in 2018, he recently told La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper.
Read also:
Book review: “From the Ruins of Empire” by Pankaj Mishra
Book review: “The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa” by Deborah Brautigam
