My Ethiopia

A strong international team is preparing to visit the Gursum Pearl cave, my best find so far with the feral horse pack above it, by December this year. The bowels of the cave, as well as those of more spring caves I have identified are by now filled or nearly filled by rain waters, in spite of nearly failed 'Belg' or small rain falls. Until well after the end of the great rains, no exploration of the best caves is now possible.

In the meanwhile, I was honoured to be elected a member of the Gruppo Speleologico Prealpino, during a special ceremony last week, and we have opened contacts to assure the next mission will be endowed with the best available specialists. So far a contact has been made with Dr. Asfawosen Asrat, who will presumably be our host, as the only scientific speleologist in Ethiopia at present. I am asking him to help us form a National Speleological School in Gursum with the help of different international speleo clubs.

After a series of contacts, Eng. Rivolta has visited prof. Forti in Bologna a few days ago. He is the past President of the International Speleological Union, and a top world scientist accredited with some of the most significant studies in the field, author of arguably the most qualified book on caves ever produced. He is presently in charge of a series of studies in the Naica cave, the amazing recent discovery in Mexico holding 12 metre long gypsum crystals.

He will most likely be in the next mission team with some of his close international collaborators. The original team, including five of Italy's best speleologist and a clever Frenchman, have confirmed their commitment, whilst more members of Italian groups the first team members came from have asked to participate.  

  Paolo Forti                             The Crystal Room at Naica

The Kundudo reminds me of the Mountain I was born under, Campo dei Fiori, Varese, nearing the Swiss border in Northern Italy. Kundudo is a lot higher and prominent, though Campo dei Fiori (the Flower Field) is also seen from most of the north central Po valley, as the first mountain before the alps chain.

I couple them because Campo dei Fiori is the mountain where we helped form our ecological practical instinct, and we put our basic action research to good practice, founding a Regional Park.

Similarly, the Kundudo is worth becoming a reserve or a Feral Horse animal Sanctuary for a number of reasons: unique wildlife, astounding panoramas, a now all but lost primary forest we think we could partially restore, at least one significant newly found archaeological area and... unexpected caves.

To be frank, I think I discovered nothing new. Campo dei Fiori is the best known mountain in the central and western Italian pre-alps for its hundreds of smaller and extremely long active caves: I mean limestone caves being slowly, daily shaped by water in a chemical process that produces beautiful rock formations. The Kundudo is constituted by layers of limestones topped by a good two hundred meters of an astounding basalt "icing", forming its magic flat top, the Feral Horses' haven. So I asked around, and heard rumours of unexplored caves.

Gian Paolo Rivolta, me and young Marco Furlan had the privilege to be the first to enter with proper gear a cave found in 2004 by locals trying to understand where their water source came from, as in times of rains a great flow came from a newly discovered mouth up above the spring. Two brave locals, we could not gather their names yet, have gone inside for possibly 600 metres, while we think we found its exit much further. We explored just over 200 metres. We found, inside the cave, the source of the local spring, most likely the one mentioned by Richard Burton in his extremely famous travel book of 1854. 

  Gian Paolo Rivolta beginning the first cave eploration, 'Hubat', Biyyu Negga, Kundudo

The right to name the cave, usually indicated with the locality and a name, should be onto us. I have proposed to name it 'Hubat', from the not yet fully identified fief of warlord and local hero Ahmed Gragn.  A friend has objected this may displease Somalis, who classify Ahmed definitely as a Somali. I say, convincedly, this should not be a problem to anyone, as borders were not like today's and one thing can be agreed by all: the area was in the middle ages under the Sultanate of Adal, sited in Zeila, Somalia's northernmost port, two hundred miles from Harar. Hubat was between Zeila and Harar, that is all we could retrace, though Gefra Guda, under Fugnan Hujuba on the eastern slopes of the Kundudo appears as a likely location for it. We hope, in fact, this may stimulate further research on the issue.

The cave is to the best of our knowledge the first of its kind to be explored in Ethiopia. Exploration and measurement requires technique and experience, as it is narrow and water filled.

So, this Sunday five of Italy's most renown speleologists, including Engineer Rivolta, a former National Speleologists' President, and Raschellá, his present successor and two Italian National speleology Instructors arrive in Addis for the feat. They will also map a noted lava cave in the Awash National Park, we presume, and open the first canyoning route in the Country, on the Immis stream falls on the awe-inspiring Kundudo North face. 

Marco, 5/02/2009

A startling find shocked a researcher from Turin University in 2004. Browsing through the millions of pages in the freshly opened Italian Military archives -fascist era- Dr. Matteo Dominioni came across a clear cut phrase: "800 passati per le armi": eight hundred executed by rifling.

It happened in April 1939 after the gassing of a special cave at Zeret, in Menz, just next to some of the most awe inspiring views in Ethiopia, in the magic of the Mahal Meda, next to amazing mountains populated by unique animals. 

The man who ordered the cold blooded killing of civilians after a siege was named General Ugo Cavallero. He was the chief of staff of the over 100,000 Italian soldiers in Ethiopia, by then part of a new Colonial Empire.

He was never and never will be tried for this, nor for the other crimes that brought to the gunning of women and kids in Zeret. Chief partisan Abebe Aregay, later a Prime Minister under Haile Selassie was the target of the repression, he was never caught.

The villagers who had taken refuge from the burning and pillaging of their homes were more than 1,500, probably 2,000. Few survived, as General Cavallero ordered the killing of all prisoners made.

We will open, explore and thoroughly map the cave for the first time since the battle and the atrocious indiscriminate killings. We know we will find bodies.

 The cave, many rooms, apparently a long inner unexplored extension. Water, air from within

One of Italy's top speleologist, Dr. Giampaolo Rivolta, former President of CAI Caves Group (Italian Alpine Club, over 400,000 members in hundreds of local sections) will be the scientific director, in charge of mapping the whole cave system and finding and exploring more caves in the area. We will also try to penetrate a cave on Mt Kundudo recently brought to light by Prof. Viganó.

I honestly hope this will bring some local and international acknowledgment of these sad facts, and bring some young Italians to learn from our awful mistakes. To grasp the meaning of the direct outlawing of any form of racism our Constitutional laws decree in article three.

We fight against rampant misunderstanding and racism outright, for the ending the criminal understatement and repeated violations by legislators themselves of article three of our fundamental law.

The Mancino laws, the present public order legislation deal with racism very mildly, after pressures by the racist Northern League. The provisions were designed to avoid prosecution of the likes of MP Mario Borghezio "the Italian Julius Streicher', under a law section dealing with free expression. Some right wing parties are systematically, in clear violation of article three, using racist attitudes and provoking fear of New Italians as an easy-go vote eliciting tool during all sort of election campaigns.

We hope our work will help future generations remember, be able to overcome hatred, dismiss electoral tricks that elicit racist crimes, as akin to Fascist race laws.

MUSIC: Ti saluto me ne vado in Abissinia an extremely popular farewell song of the Italian military leaving for Ethiopia. A real top of the charts selling a few hundred thousand 'Librettoes' from 1936 to the early forties.