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Making Ethiopia Matter: Women and Anti-Fascism in the Era of the League of Nations
In the mid-1930s Ethiopian women began a multipronged organizing campaign to withstand Italian Fascist expansionism in Africa. These women had forged ties with feminists from Europe and the US through connections with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Together they helped to build the anti-Fascist pro-Ethiopian movement that was based on women’s rights activism and strategy. Women worked through the Ethiopian Women’s Association, the Friends of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) League of Service, the Abyssinia Association, and the New Times and Ethiopia News to build support for the cause. Through these groups, women had a hand in framing the arguments for censure against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia at the League of Nations (LON). These political and social activists had high hopes for LON; and they believed that, through proper understanding of the League’s power, not only could war be avoided but also Ethiopian sovereignty would be ensured. Despite their efforts, the League failed to act on behalf of its only independent African member. Their work revealed the paradoxical logic of using internationalist organizing tactics to ensure the integrity of the nation state. How and why did patriarchal understandings of women’s power shape this failure? In what ways was the notion of Ethiopian sovereignty anathema to Europeans in control of the League? How did this fight, which started with Ethiopian women and anti-colonial nationalists, shape the future of women’s role in independence movements?