Aseffa

A long time ago I was a student in Europe and I came for a visit to Rome. I took a night tour on a bus, and the guide was explaining about all the statues and the historical sites that we saw on our way.

When we reached the spot of the obelisk, he didn’t say anything... nothing. He didn’t utter a word. But I knew that our obelisk was there. So… anyway.

They were hiding it from the tourists. While they were explaining about all the other historical sites and obelisks, and so on. They just didn’t mention our obelisk.

The next morning I was with my colleague, whose name is Alemayu. And I asked him to go with me to that site again. And we went and admired the obelisk standing there in the centre of the traffic roundabout.

It was standing in front of what is today’s FAO [United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization - S.R.], which was at that time the Italian Ministry of the Colonies.

Some people had been writing slogans onto the obelisk, in Amharic: “This is not Axum. Bring our obelisk home.”

So you know... it makes you think about how the world is divided in such a way that some people do not care about the interests of other people — but only see and consider their own interests. Even against the interests of other people. So that’s how reality is.

15/25