Kalkidan

My name is Kalkidan Renato, I am from Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. Today I live in Rome. I am 23 years old, living in Italy for 3 years.

How is Italy for me? Italy is very hot and very cold. I am struggling. If things go well, next year I will go back to my country.

I am an artist. I paint spiritual paintings, and the culture of my country. When I think about my home country, I am proud. Ethiopia is the only African country that never got colonized. We fought against Italy, and we were the winner.

If we would have been colonized, we would now speak Italian. But we speak our own language. We have got our own writing.

I don’t have deep knowledge about the Axum obelisk. There was a war, the Italians took the obelisk to Rome. After that we brought back the obelisk.

I was ten years old at that time. I remember the day when they brought back the obelisk. In 2008, I was watching it on television. We were excited, we were crying, and we were very happy to see our obelisk back in Axum.

It’s made by our forefathers, and it’s so beautiful. I even did a painting of Axum. This painting is now in the Ethiopian embassy in Rome.

That’s why, when it came back, we were proud. Our generation did this thing [the restitution, S.R.]. This is the reason why I cried.

Later I did go to Axum with my friends to visit the Tigray region. It is amazing. Axum is quite beautiful. There are three obelisks. One is big, two are smaller.

The lightning and the destruction in 2004?
No, I did not hear about that.

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