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"Captive" in exile for 155 years: the British royal family refused to return the remains of the Ethiopian prince!

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"Captive" in exile for 155 years: the British royal family refused to return the remains of the Ethiopian prince!

Left: Prince Alemayehu in 1868 on the Isle of Wight, England. On the right, staff of the Ethiopian Embassy in the UK presented flowers to Prince Alemayahu in 2019

"Prisoners" in exile for 155 years: The British royal family refused to return the remains of Ethiopian princes

"Alone, in a strange country... It is also impossible to return home after death. ”

Once a colonial empire with territories all over the world, countless artifacts from former colonies remain in the UK – including the remains of Prince Dejatch Alemayehu of Ethiopia. Alemayahu was brought to Britain by the British army in 1868 at the age of 7 and buried at Windsor Castle after his death at the age of 18, Ethiopia has repeatedly asked the British royal family to return his body and the artifacts looted by the British army for many years, but in May 2023 the royal family again refused, citing concerns that the exhumation of the remains could affect other tombs at Windsor Castle. The Ethiopian government expressed disappointment with Buckingham Palace's decision, noting that it would continue to work to facilitate the return of the prince's remains and artifacts to his home country – why was Alemayehu taken to Britain? And how can the cultural relics plundered by the colonial empires of the past be returned to the home country?

Alemayehu was born in 1861 to Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia (then known as Abyssinia), and Alemayehu was the heir to the throne. However , in 1867 , when Twodros II refused to petition the British to assist Ethiopia in its war against neighboring Muslim countries , Twodros II captured British consular officials and missionaries , leading to a British expedition of 13,000 men to Ethiopia , and finally Tewodros II committed suicide in defeat in 1868 , and Empress Tiruwork Wube and her son Alemayehu were captured.

Although the British army sent troops in the name of rescuing the hostages, after the overwhelming victory, the British army plundered local cultural relics and transported them back to Britain, most of which were sent to the British Museum, and Queen Uber, who was taken out of Ethiopia, died on the way to Britain, leaving the orphaned 7-year-old Alemayahu.

Upon his arrival in England, he was cared for by the British officer Tristam Speedy, who had accompanied Alemayahu on his way to India.

"Captive" in exile for 155 years: the British royal family refused to return the remains of the Ethiopian prince!

On the left is Alemayehu and Spidy, the British officer who took care of him; On the right is Alemayahu after coming to live in England.

"Captive" in exile for 155 years: the British royal family refused to return the remains of the Ethiopian prince!

In 1867-1868 , the British army used elephants from colonial India to carry guns

At that time, Queen Victoria liked and cared for Alemayahu after meeting him, sponsoring his education and living expenses, and then Alemayahu also attended the British aristocratic boarding school Rugby and Sandhurst Military Academy under the arrangement of the Queen, and he was also invited to Windsor Castle. Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Victoria, recalled playing with Alemayahu in the castle as a child. According to the British royal archives, the queen was extremely interested in Alemayehu because of his concern for him.

However , many historians have pointed out that despite his material affluence, Alemayahu was not happy in England , and in addition to being at a loss in boarding school, Alema Yehu was also subjected to racial discrimination , and the British ignored his request to return home.

In 1879, when Alemayehu died of pleurisy at the age of 18, the grieving Queen Victoria also wrote about his lonely situation in England when she wrote about Alemayehu's death:

"Receiving the telegram message, very sad and shocking, the well-behaved Alemayahu passed away this morning. It's so sad, alone, in a strange country, without any loved ones around ... Everyone feels sorry. ”

The diary also mentions what a kind boy Alemayehu was, and writes that he often felt uncomfortable when others were staring at him because of the color of his skin.

At the request of Queen Victoria, Alemayeju was buried in St. George's Chapel, which belonged to the royal family at Windsor Castle, with an epitaph inscribed: "I am a stranger, and you have taken me in." And in the eyes of Ethiopians, the prince was not "taken in", but "stolen".

"Captive" in exile for 155 years: the British royal family refused to return the remains of the Ethiopian prince!

On the left is the grown up Alemayahu, and on the right is Queen Victoria.

The Ethiopian government has repeatedly asked the British for years to return Alemayahhu's remains and looted artifacts, and Fasil Minas, a descendant of the royal family of Abinitia, said in an interview with the media:

"We want his body to be returned – as our family, as Ethiopians, because that is not the country where he was born, there is no point in him being buried there, that's not right."

However, the British Crown again rejected Ethiopia's request in May 2023, and Buckingham Palace said in a statement on May 23, 2023, that if Alemayehu's body were to be exhumed from the catacombs of St. George's Chapel, it would inevitably affect the graves of other predecessors buried here, and instead expressed its welcome to Ethiopian embassy personnel in the UK to visit Windsor Castle to pay tribute to Alemayahu's grave.

Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry, for its part, told The Washington Post on May 23 that Alemayahu was a "prisoner of war" and that "we believe that Prince Alemayahu deserves to be buried in his homeland, and the Ethiopian government is still redoubling its efforts to facilitate the return of the remains... There are also looted artifacts, which are of great historical, cultural and religious significance to Ethiopians. ”

Jeremiah Garsha, assistant professor of modern global history at University College Dublin, commented that Alemayahu was undoubtedly "stolen" out of Ethiopia, saying: "Yes, he was kidnapped... A minor who came to another country as an orphan after the death of his mother, and then died when he himself was 18 years old - this is very wrong, he was robbed, like all other stolen antiques and treasures. ”

"Captive" in exile for 155 years: the British royal family refused to return the remains of the Ethiopian prince!

In 1868, Prince Alemayehu, who was 7 years old at the time.

Gaza further pointed out that the British during the colonial era were very curious and even obsessed, thus creating a huge black market for the looted "spoils", from household goods, weapons, religious items, and even black Africans, to the "stolen goods" traded in the black market. Gaza also believes that Queen Victoria's care for Alemayehu also comes from this "curiosity" mentality, saying:

"You won't kidnap a white child, Queen Victoria won't pick a child from the suburbs of London – it's the race that makes this prince a 'foreigner in the palace'."

Today's British royal family sometimes talks about Britain's colonial empire history and condemns slavery – for example, in April 2023, King Charles III supported an academic project to study the links between the monarchy and transatlantic slavery, but the British royal family and members have yet to apologize for the role of the British monarch in colonial history and slavery.

In recent years, the issue of "decolonization" has become popular in European and American cultural circles, and museums in many countries - such as the Netherlands, Canada, France, etc. - have begun to return cultural relics that have been plundered and left their home countries, and the British Museum, which collects a large number of cultural relics brought back from the colonial empire, is also under discussion. In recent years, in addition to returning some of the Ethiopian royal relics looted by the Abinitian expedition, the British Museum has also negotiated back and forth with the Greek government on how to return the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon Temple to Athens - Greece wants to return it permanently, and Britain advocates loan, and the two sides have not yet reached an agreement.

"Captive" in exile for 155 years: the British royal family refused to return the remains of the Ethiopian prince!

In 2019, Ethiopian embassy personnel in the UK went to St. George's Church in Windsor Castle to present flowers to Prince Alemayahu.

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