Priests passing the time at the Debre Birhan Selassie Church, Gondar.

BACK IN LONDON England—(Weekly Hubris)—1/23/12—Fraser was writing about Ethiopia in 1868, when Britain sent an expeditionary force to rescue hostages held by mad, brilliant Emperor Theodore (Teeodros), who took his own life when the Brits were closing in on his amba (flat-topped fortress with vertical sides, like the leg of an up-turned table) at Magdala.

At the Addis Museum, I bought a T-shirt depicting this extraordinary man, an inspired general who united briefly the warlord-ridden tribes of Abyssinia, but a latter-day Caligula for insane cruelty. He was a kingly man of immense presence, his hair set in the cane-rows now so popular with young Afro-Caribbean males. The story goes that he wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, which the buffoons at The Foreign Office failed to answer, so Theodore seized and tortured British citizens living in the country. Magdala is now a center for the weaving of handsome, undyed flatweave rugs of brown, grey and black sheep’s wool, with striking geometric designs, one of which now sits in my London hallway. But I digress. (Click to read post . . . )