ETHIOPIA - Its History, Stamps, Overprints and Postmarks
Ethiopia's annexation of Eritrea (3)
These two First Day Covers are the sort of thing many 'serious' collectors might dismiss as unimportant. This is because so many FDCs are never posted and simply cancelled for philatelic effect. In this case, only one of the covers appears to have been mailed. It has been addressed with a handstamp which gives it a slightly tacky and diminishing look. But it too has a tale to tell!
1962. First Day Cover. Unposted. (Cancelled to Order.) ADDIS ABABA '14 1 62..
Five values make up the Sports Issue celebrating the 3rd African Football Cup.
The first cover bearing the head of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is the country's Sports Issue of 14th January 1962 which celebrates the Third African Football Cup. This set was issued after Ethiopia dissolved the UN-implemented federation with Eritreea and annexed its Red Sea neighbour in 1961. The various sportsare not what interests me. What is of greater interests in terms of the historic Ethiopian annexation of Eritrea is the blue illustration in a rectangle on the left of the cover. This shows Ethiopia marked in black and extending all the way to the Red Sea, ie. it is announcing to the world that the land of what was once Eritrea is now part of Ethiopia.
Its postmark is also of interest. The stamps have been cancelled with a bilingual Amharic / English datestamp that has Amharic above ETHIOPIA PHILATELIC DEPT. A.A. Presumably 'A.A.' is 'Addis Ababa', the capital of Ethiopia. Sadly, this cover is unaddressed. However, the next has an address which has been applied with a small handstamp. It is addressed to Dr Aurelio "Aurel" Balamaci, a prominent mid-20th-century philatelist, stamp dealer, and expert based in Torino (Turin), Italy, who specialised in the stamps and postal history of Ethiopia. It must be said that if FDCs like this were collected by him, who am I to dispute itsr worth?
1962. First Day Cover. MASSAWA '8 5 1969' to TURIN, ITALY.
Three values make up the 50th Anniversary League of Red Cross Societies.
Dr Balamaci operated primarily from his address at Via XX Settembre, Torino, as shown by the handstamp. He was an active figure in the Torino Philatelic Group during the early-to-mid 20th Century. In the period immediately following World War II, he was part of a tight-knit elite circle of Torinese Italian philatelic experts, such as Emilio Filiberto Sacerdote, Michele Bocchino, and Cesare Corrado Rattone,. They would meet in the gardens of Villa Siccardi in Turin to trade, examine, and authenticate rare stamps. (How very civilised!) He is widely cited in classic international philatelic directories and exchange publications as Italy's key specialist for the stamps of Ethiopia.
It is worth noting that if you find the "Balamaci" Backstamp/Expert Mark on the reverse of an early overprinted Ethiopian stamp it has been 'authenticated', ie. the overprint is genuine. These, as has been pointed out, suffer from a plague of contemporary counterfeits.
I am not sure what a philatelic expert like Dr Balamaci would have made of my social history comments about the historical importance of these covers. Suffice to say, this FDC showing a set of three 'League of Red Cross Societies 50th Anniversay' serves in this context to highlight the consequences of the coming war, slaughter, famine and disease that would visit the Horn of Africa and kill over 2m people, mostly children, much of which was caused in some part a result of Selassie's hanghty colonial-style annexation of Eritrea.
Wonders will never cease, nor will fortuitous philatelic coincidences stop happening to me.
Below is a cover from Russia. It is one of their propaganda 'Friendship' covers that are so very common. Amazingly, I fould this in a box of third rate covers while clearing some 'stuff' in my garage the day after making the post above - which was the first time I had ever heard of Dr A (Aurol) Balamaci! Despite the fact that this post is on the stamps of Ethiopia I thought this Russian cover was worth posting here. It comes from the time of the Cold War between East and West when Ethiopia was maintaining a Non-Aligned position.
1959. Cover. MOSCOW, USSR, '7 5 59' to TURIN, ITALY '11 6 59'.
Soviet "Friendship covers" like this were posted internationally during the Cold War. They were official and semi-official pieces of mail utilised by the USSR as soft-power propaganda tools to project an image of global peace, inter-ethnic harmony, and socialist solidarity. These personalised covers often featured specific combinations of commemorative stamps, illustrated postmarks, or official cachets.
Haile Selassie was overthrown by the Derg, (a Marxist military government), led by Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1974. The frail empereor, the longest surviving monarch in the world by the time he was arrested, was ignominiously taken away in a Volswagen Beetle, kept under house arrest and later stangled in 1975 by order of the Derg. The USSR became an ally of Ethiopia during this time, from 1974 to 1991. Moscow armed the Derg with roughly $1 billion in military equipment and thousands of advisors. including Cubans. This helped the Derg secure its regime against domestic rebellions and a Somali invasion of its vulnerable south-eastern provinces. The Ethiopia / USSR alliance was formalised in 1978 with the signing of a euphemistically named 'Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation'. The reality is that between 1974 - 1991, an estimated 0ne million people died violently as victims of the Derg's "Red Terror," state-sanctioned massacres, the Ethiopian Civil War and the Ogaden War.
Dr Balamaci was probably on the Russian Friendship mailing list because he was also a collector of Russian stamps. Importantly, he had some philatelic credibility and influence at a time when postage stamps were widely used by many nations as vital propaganda tools during the Cold War. The address shown here presumably preceded the previous one shown. He is recorded at both addresses.