Book review The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire. By Raymond Jonas. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

Abstract

Menelik II is the best known African ruler, a distinction earned out of his sparkling victory over invading Italian forces at Adwa in 1896. The battle of Adwa was the first hitch on European colonial aspirations and the severest blow on the ‘scramble for Africa’. Raymond Jonas, Professor of History at University of Washington in his 2011 book ‘The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the age of empire’ recasts the story of Adwa; in his words: ‘the story of a world turned upside down’. At the outset [from the cover-blurbs to the author’s promotional YouTube interviews] the book purports the impression of an African story told in African perspective and thus strives to distinguish itself from the regular genre of European historical constructs on Africa. The author employs critical and laudatory measures to meet this objective. However a careful reading reveals efforts towards a well-balanced rendering designed to keep the European reader (even the racially inclined one) comfortable.

Menelik II is the best known African ruler, a distinction earned out of his sparkling victory over invading Italian forces at Adwa in 1896. The battle of Adwa was the first hitch on European colonial aspirations and the severest blow on the ‘scramble for Africa’. Raymond Jonas, Professor of History at University of Washington in his 2011 book ‘The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the age of empire’ recasts the story of Adwa; in his words: ‘the story of a world turned upside down’. At the outset [from the cover-blurbs to the author’s promotional YouTube interviews] the book purports the impression of an African story told in African perspective and thus strives to distinguish itself from the regular genre of European historical constructs on Africa. The author employs critical and laudatory measures to meet this objective. However a careful reading reveals efforts towards a well-balanced rendering designed to keep the European reader (even the racially inclined one) comfortable.