In 1897, Italian explorer Vittorio Bottego and his retinue were killed by Oromo warriors near Gidami, in western Ethiopia. This was less than one year after the Italians had been routed in the battle of Adwa - the first time that a modern colonial power was completely defeated by an African army. Two blows to the Italian colonial dream.
When the Italian fascists managed to conquer the country in 1936, they went to Gidami and erected a monument to the memory of Bottego. The ziggurat-like structure was surmounted by a high steel structure, visible from very far away. A revenge of history.
The Italians, however, were expelled from Ethiopia in 1941 and Bottego's monument was blown up.
According to the local Oromo, Vittorio Bottego was killed because he refused the local hospitality three times: he turned down a cow, a sheep, and a hen. This is the remembrance of the past that survives in Gidami. Not the colonial history of heroic monuments and brave, white explorers. A revenge of history of a revenge of history.
 by Alfredo Gonzalez Ruibal
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Gefford McShaw said on May 15, 2010 5:06 AM
Italian monumentalism wreaks concrete results. Possible many people did this but only one was attributed as the causative agent. Many times this happens and infrequently it is activated using remote sensing archaeology.
Q: How many pig farmers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: As many as it takes!