by Richard Pankhurst

Format: Paperback; 6” x 9”, 228pp, illustrations
ISBN: 0972317236

About the Book

Sylvia Pankhurst, the British Suffragette, devoted the last forty years of her life to fighting anti-fascism and supporting Ethiopia, for many centuries Africa's principal independent state.

She responded to Mussolini's invasion of the country in 1935 by founding a weekly newspaper called the New Times and Ethiopia News, which she edited for twenty years. Her paper condemned Britain's "appeasement" of the Axis Dictators, and supported the Republican Government in the Spanish Civil War. After Mussolini's entry into the European War, on the side of Nazi Germany, she agitated against the return to Italy of her African colonies. Ever against colonialism, she clashed with the British Government in demanding the full restoration of Ethiopian independence and advocated the "reunion" of the former Italian colony of Eritrea with Ethiopia.

She raised funds for Ethiopia's first teaching hospital and wrote extensively on Ethiopian art and culture. Having moved to Addis Ababa in 1956, with her son, the author of this book, she founded a monthly journal called the Ethiopia Observer, which focused on many aspects of Ethiopian life and development. She died in 1960 and was buried with the Ethiopian Patriots, in front of Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, in the presence of the Emperor.

. . . What People say about this book . . .

“Sylvia Pankhurst, perhaps best known for her role in the struggle for women's suffrage, was much, much, more: a formidable opponent of Fascism and Nazism, a passionate champion of the oppressed, and a prolific author and pamphleteer. For 25 years Ethiopia, where she finally went to live in 1956, was the centre of her attention. From Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1936, her New Times and Ethiopia News kept the cause of Ethiopia alive internationally and supported the restoration of Emperor Haile Selassie; after the war she was an equally outspoken critic of Britain's intentions to divide Ethiopia, and defender of Ethiopia's claims to Eritrea. Professor Richard Pankhurst has written a detailed and fascinating account of his mother's love affair with Ethiopia. One of Ethiopia's most distinguished scholars and historians, his own interest and knowledge illumine this memoir of a "great warrior and propagandist". And it is peculiarly apt that Sylvia's son should have written this, if rather belatedly as he notes, at the suggestion of Emperor Haile Selassie for whom Sylvia had done so much. She would have appreciated it.”

Patrick Gilkes, writer and BBC broadcaster on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa over the last thirty years.

“The Pankhurst love affair with Ethiopia is an extraordinary story. It started in the 1930s with the redoubtable Sylvia, from a notable family of feminists, and is being carried on by her grand-children. Sylvia was caught up in the Ethiopian struggle for independence against conquest by Fascist Italy, which she supported with her weekly newspaper, New Times and Ethiopia News, and with tirelessly organizing. On the recovery of Ethiopia’s independence in 1941, she continued her political lobbying, but expanded her activities to exploring Ethiopian culture (she published Ethiopia, A Cultural History in 1955) and to supporting the development of social services in the country. In 1956 she moved to Addis Ababa, where she died in 1960. Her son, Richard, tells the story of this remarkable life, drawing extensively on both published and unpublished materials. Sylvia Pankhurst is a figure who ought to be known by all Ethiopianists.”

Donald Crummey is Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Land and Society in the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia: From the Thirteenth to the Twentieth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000).

“Based on unpublished correspondence from the last 25 years of Sylvia Pankhurst's life, this fascinating work offers unique insights into the final campaign of a great campaigning journalist.”

Nicholas Rankin, author of Telegram from Guernica: the extraordinary life of George Steer, war correspondent.

“A truly extraordinary and remarkable individual, the story of Sylvia Pankhurst stands as a human monument to the ideals of freedom and justice and fearlessness.”

Robert A. Hill, Professor of History & Editor-in-Chief, The Marcus Garvey & UNIA Papers at UCLA

About the Author

Professor Richard Pankhurst, is Sylvia Pankhurst's only child, and was an adult throughout much of the period covered by this book. Using largely unpublished materials he traces his mother's opposition to Italian Fascism and advocacy of Ethiopian independence.

The author, who bore witness to his mother's political activities on behalf of Ethiopia, and other victims of Fascism, is a historian of the country, in which he resides with his wife Rita. He has written extensively on many aspects of Ethiopian history, and is the author of a biography of his mother's earlier life: Sylvia Pankhurst: Artist.