wfn.org | Scottish priest to head campaign to return Ethiopian treasure

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

A Scottish priest is to head a new pressure group calling on UK museums and
libraries to return scores of sacred manuscripts and artefacts to Ethiopia.
The Rev John McLuckie has become chairman of AFROMET UK - the Association
for the Return of the Maqdala Ethiopian Treasures UK.
The move will step up pressure on the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert
Museum, the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and other organisations that are
still holding on to Ethiopian treasures stolen by British troops about 130
years ago.
Mr McLuckie got involved after finding a holy Ethiopian tablet hidden in a
cupboard in his own Scottish Episcopal church - St John's, Princes Street
Edinburgh - late last year.
He returned the tablet - a symbolic representation of the Ark of the
Covenant known as a Tabot - to Ethiopia amid great celebrations in January.
AFROMET UK is now calling on the British Museum and other institutions to
follow his lead.
Campaigners are planning to start by focussing on nine other Tabots,
currently hidden away in store cupboards at the British Museum.
Mr McLuckie said: "We have a very straight forward case to make. The Tabots
are items of religious significance to a living faith. They can not be
displayed and they are of very, very limited interest to scholars. They
should be returned."
Tabots are among the holiest objects in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity. The
simple carved wood or stone tablets represent the presence of God in a
church and can only be seen by senior priests.
AFROMET UK is hoping to rely on persuasion to win the day. Both the
Ethiopian Parliament and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church have now made
official requests for the return of the Tabots.
The group is also planning public meetings and, if all else fails, vigils
and protests.
In the past, the British Museum has pointed to a 1753 law, prohibiting it
from disposing of parts of its collection. Mr McLuckie said: "If this is a
real obstacle, not just a delaying tactic, then we will campaign to have the
law changed."
The Tabots, and the other treasures, were taken by British troops who
invaded Ethiopia in 1868 to free British subjects, imprisoned by Emperor
Theodore (or Tewodros) II.
Soldiers stormed the Emperor's mountain fort at Maqdala (or Magdala), and
loaded 200 mules and 15 elephants with gold crowns, crosses and other
plunder.
Emperor Theodore committed suicide, preferring death to surrender. British
troops stripped his body and cut off clumps of his hair as souvenirs. Some
of his hair is now owned by the National Army Museum in London. One Tabot
was bought and presented to St John's by a Scottish officer.
Anyone interested in joining can contact Mr McLuckie at St John's Church, or
AFROMET UK committee member Gail Warden (details below).
NOTE TO EDITORS
The Scottish Episcopal Church is a member of the Anglican family of
churches. It has hundreds of congregations across Scotland, from Burravoe on
the Isle of Yell in the north to Kirkcudbright in the south.
Find out more about the campaign at www.afromet.org.

Contact
Andrew Heavens
(press officer)
0131 225 6357 (tel)
07929 003809 (mob)
0131 346 7247 (fax)
press@scotland. anglican.org

The Rev John McLuckie
AFROMET UK Chairman, also
Associate Rector of St John the Evangelist
Princes Street, Edinburgh
0131 229 7565 (w)
0131 226 7757 (h)
07971 431168 (mob)

Gail Warden
AFROMET UK
committee member
51 Rattray Road
London SW2 1BA
020 7838 3880 (w)
020 7274 6533 (h)
gwarden@hotmail.com

Dr Richard Pankhurst
AFROMET
Addis Ababa
(251.1) 71.29.01 (251.1) 72.04.73
www.afromet.org