BBC NEWS | Africa | Ethiopia seeks prince's remains

BBC NEWS | Africa | Ethiopia seeks prince's remains

Ethiopia seeks prince's remains
By Elizabeth Blunt
BBC News, Addis Ababa

Ethiopia's president has sent Queen Elizabeth II a formal request for the remains of a prince who died in Britain more than a century ago.

The royal household at Windsor Castle, where Prince Alemayehu was buried, is said to be considering the request.

President Woldegiorgis Girma hopes the prince's bones can be reburied for millennium celebrations in September.

Ethiopia has been waging a lively campaign to get back historic treasures looted during the last two centuries.

Father's suicide

Its most striking success has been in recovering a massive stone obelisk from Axum, carried off to Rome by Mussolini's army.

But the campaign now has a new impetus.

Ethiopia's calendar is more than seven years behind that of the rest of the world - here, it is still 1999 and Ethiopians are planning to mark what they believe is the 2000 anniversary of the birth of Christ with big celebrations in September.

[Prince Alemayehu] was buried at Windsor Castle, with Queen Victoria describing as "too sad" his short life and early death

Now the Ethiopian president has put in a formal request for the return of the remains of Prince Alemayehu.

His father, the Emperor Tewodros II, committed suicide after his defeat by the British at the Battle of Magdala in 1868.

The young boy was taken to Britain and sent to boarding school and officers' training school at Sandhurst, but died at the age of 18.

He was buried at Windsor Castle, with Queen Victoria describing as "too sad" his short life and early death.

The Ethiopian embassy in London says Windsor is now considering their request.

The young prince was not the only thing the British took from Magdala - they reportedly needed 15 elephants and nearly 200 mules to carry away the treasures that Tewodros had accumulated.

Many of them are still in Britain and the Queen has some of them - notably six of the very finest illuminated manuscripts, which are part of the royal collection in Windsor Castle.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6716921.stm

Published: 2007/06/03 15:40:26 GMT

© BBC MMVII