Zerai Deres

This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by his given name, Zerai, and not as Deres.
Zerai Deres
Born(1915-03-01)1 March 1915
Adihiyis, Serae, Italian Eritrea
Died6 July 1945(1945-07-06) (aged 30)
Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Sicily, Kingdom of Italy
Resting placeHazega, Central Region, Eritrea
MonumentsZerai Deres Square, Asmara, Eritrea

Zerai Deres (Ge'ez: ዘርኣይ ደረስ; 1 March 1915[1] – 6 July 1945) was an Eritrean revolutionary and translator. In 1938, he engaged in an act of public devotion to an important symbol of his native country, the Monument to the Lion of Judah, at the time kept in Rome. When interrupted, he violently protested against Italian colonialism while brandishing a scimitar, which led to his arrest and internment in a psychiatric hospital for seven years, until his death. However, contemporary Italian historians doubt the claim that he was mentally unstable. Zerai's protest, lionized after the end of the Second World War, is considered by Eritrean and Ethiopian historiography as part of the movement against Italian occupation. To this day, Zerai is considered a legend and a folk hero of anticolonialism and antifascism both in Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Biography

Early life and education

First Eritrean young Capuchin seminarists with their teachers in Segeneiti on November 6, 1934. During the seminar Zerai Deres (fourth from left on the top, with number 3) took the name of Francesco da Adiyeheys

Zerai Deres was born in the kebele of Adihiyis, in the province of Serae, in Italian Eritrea in 1915 (or 1908, according to the Ethiopian calendar). At the age of two, his father died and the family moved to Hazega, the village of his mother's origin.[2][better source needed]

Zerai was a member of the Tigrinya ethnic group. He converted to Catholicism and attended Italian colonial schools, including the seminary of the Capuchin friars in Segeneiti.[3] For this reason, he spoke the Italian language fluently.[4] Abandoning his studies in the seminary, Zerai became an interpreter in Rama, an Ethiopian town bordering present-day Eritrea.[3]

On October 6, 1936, Zerai Deres sent a letter to the editor of the Italian newspaper Corriere Eritreo who had written an editorial in which he had asked for the abolition of any form of promiscuity with the "natives". Signing himself Un indigeno (Italian for "A native"), Zerai wrote:[4][5]

The natives, whose presence causes so much disgust to you, often take pride in the fact that they are Italian subjects. In Libya, Somalia and in the recent war against their homeland, in foreign struggles, they have shielded you with their bodies, and sometimes paid with their lives. I can assure you that it is no exaggeration to say that the natives provided you the means with which you could overcome. The misinterpretation of so many merits and acts of heroism carried out for Italy can only be indicative of an essentially alien and imperial government.

Before departing to Italy, Zerai married in April 1937.[6]

Arrival in Rome

Monument to the Lion of Judah at the Rome memorial to the fallen of the Battle of Dogali, before its repatriation

On 19 February 1937, two Eritreans made a failed assassination attempt on Rodolfo Graziani, the Viceroy of Italian East Africa and appointed Governor-General of Shewa during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia. In return, under carte blanche permission from the Federal Secretary Guido Cortese, many Italian civilians, members of the military, and the paramilitary forces known as the Blackshirts conducted a three-day bloody reprisal in Addis Ababa. Known in Ethiopia as the Yekatit 12 massacre,[7][8] it resulted in the killing of thousands of people and arrests of many Amhara aristocratic noblemen, about 400 of whom were subsequently deported to Rome, Longobucco, Mercogliano, Ponza, Tivoli, and Asinara, Italy.[9][10][4][11]

In order to manage the deportation, the Italian Ministry of the Colonies hired many people, including Zerai Deres as a translator for Ethiopian nobles deported to Italy. At the age of 23, Zerai arrived in Rome in the summer of 1937 shortly after the arrival of the first Ethiopian deportees.[6][12][4] During his stay in the Italian capital, Zerai closely followed the events of the colonial war with a growing sense of anger and helplessness in the face of news coming from Ethiopia,[4] and translated for the Abyssinian Ras the news reported by the Italian press.[13]

Lion of Judah incident

Lion of Judah incident in the news
Il Messaggero (June 17, 1938)
The Times (June 16, 1938)

On June 15, 1938,[14][15][16][17][18] shortly before his planned return to his homeland, Zerai went to Princess of Piedmont Boulevard[19] (now Luigi Einaudi Boulevard) during lunchtime and knelt at the foot of the Monument to the Lion of Judah, a symbol of the Ethiopian monarchy. The sculpture had been brought to Rome as spoils of war by the Italian fascist regime in 1935,[4] placed under the monument to the fallen of Battle of Dogali, and inaugurated on May 8, 1937, at the eve of celebrations for the first anniversary of the Italian Empire proclamation.[20][21]

As a small crowd gathered around Zerai, an Italian military officer tried to interrupt his devotions. Zerai pulled out a scimitar, struck the officer,[22] and shouted imprecations against Italy and the Duce, while praising the Negus (Ethiopian monarch). During the confrontation, Zerai injured Italian Railways private Vincenzo Veglia, State employee Ferdinando Peraldi, and Infantry Chief Marshal Mario Izzo, who reported very slight[23] wounds that healed within 12 days.[19] According to other reports, some passersby, including a butcher's boy who hurled his bicycle at the Eritrean,[22][24] were also injured.

Finally, two soldiers ended the attack with gunfire, shooting Zerai four times.[25] Zerai was wounded in the thigh.[19]

Reactions to the incident

For political reasons, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was planning to repatriate the Abyssinian aristocrats not welcome in Rome to Ethiopia. (By July 1939 only one out of ninety of the detainees remained in Rome).[26] That plan suddenly accelerated when on June 15, 1938, Mussolini was informed that Zerai, who worked as an interpreter for the Ras confined in Rome, had shouted imprecations against Italy and praised Haile Selassie in front of the monument to the fallen of Dogali. Informed that some people had been severely wounded in attempting to silence Zerai, Mussolini become furious and ordered the total repatriation of all Ethiopian noblemen.[26]

However, the repatriation effort was slowed by the need to evaluate each case individually, as some Ethiopian dignitaries (including Ras Seyoum Mengesha, Ras Kebede Mengesha, Ras Mulugeta Yeggazu, and Degiac Asrate Mulughietà[26]) were suspected of inspiring Zerai's protest, and it was preferable to exile them in Libya or the Dodecanese.[26][27]

Internment and death

The episode was considered by the Italian authorities as an action of mental illness. Zerai was arrested, hospitalized at the Umberto I Policlynic, and then taken to Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto (province of Messina, Sicily)[6][28] to the criminal asylum "Vittorio Madia".[4]

During his internment, Zerai repeatedly tried to prove his mental sanity, but he failed to convince the Italian doctors. He also wrote letters to his family: on December 3, 1938, Zerai stated he was in good health and asked his brother Tesfazien Deres to reject the honorary title that Tesfazien had received from the Italian government. He wrote, "I'm fine. Always have been, and still am, in full possession of my mental faculties. I am in the Asylum only on account of government policy." According to the Italian historian Alessandro Triulzi, "The few letters he left behind bear witness to his lucidity."[4]

After seven years[29] at Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto asylum, Zerai died at the age of 30, on July 6, 1945.[6][4]

Repatriation of remains

Tesfazion Deres wrote this letter to Emperor Selassie to get an airplane to bring home Zerai

Zerai's brother Tesfazien, founder of the Eritrea Independent Party, thinking that Zerai was still alive in an Italian prison in Italy, wrote a personal letter to the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie asking to provide an airplane to Italy in order to bring his brother home.[28] Tesfazien also approached the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambaye Wolde Mariam to present the case to the Imperial Palace, initially without success.[28]

Finally, Tesfazien reached Zerai in Sicily in July 1939, but he could do nothing to get his brother free from the asylum.[6]

After Zerai's death in 1945, Tesfazien was able after a long struggle to repatriate his brother's remains to Eritrea.[28][30] Zerai was buried in St. Mary's Church in Hazega, in front of which stands a monument depicting the patriot together with two lions.[31][32]

Lionization

The story of Zerai Deres was mythicized in the postwar era, turning him into a national folk hero

At the end of World War II, the story of Zerai Deres was rewritten, dramatized, and sung in Ethiopia to celebrate his anti-colonial resistance, especially by the pan-Ethiopian who opposed the separation of Eritrea from Ethiopia.[33][4] Zerai also became a hero of the antifascism movement.[34]

Due to the prevalence of oral tradition, numerous and even contradictory details went to enhance the character, until he became a national folk hero in both Ethiopia and Eritrea, a status he retains to this day.[35] Among the various reconstructions, there is one that sets the story during a celebratory event of the second anniversary of the announcement of the Italian empire (although the Italian empire's proclamation that made Ethiopia part of Italian East Africa was annually celebrated a month earlier, on May 9). The young Eritrean would have been chosen to take part in the military parade and carry a ceremonial sword that would have greeted the Italian king Vittorio Emanuele III, Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini (although, as evidenced by the historical sources, none of the three were in Rome in those days, and in each case there was not any parade on June 15 in the capital city). Coming to the Piazza dei Cinquecento[36] and recognizing the golden sculpture of the Lion of Judah to which his ancestors swore allegiance,[37] Zerai would have been struck by a sudden amok or impetus of anti-colonial patriotism, deciding to stop at the steps, kneel, and pray towards the statue-symbol;[38][39] or, with a sudden feeling of anger, he would hit with a sword the first Italian to cross his path.

According to other sources, Zerai killed at least five people, as well as wounded others, screaming words like "The Lion of Judah is avenged!" before being arrested or killed by the fascists on the spot in a hail of gunfire.[40][41]

In the 1950s various historical theatrical plays were written in Ethiopia about the Italian invasion. Among these works, Ateneh Alemu wrote a play about Zerai Deres in 1956–1957.[42][43]

In the 1970s, the story of the Eritrean patriot was rewritten by Ethiopian comedian Yilma Manaye in his work Zeraye Derese.[44] This character was interpreted by Wegayehu Nigatu (1944–1990), a popular actor at the Ethiopian National Theater in Addis Ababa at the time.[45] When the play was staged in Eritrea at Asmara's Opera, Wegayehu Nigatu's interpretation of Zerai was successfully received by the audience and his performance was so convincing that Tesfazien Deres wanted to host the actor for two weeks in order to have the opportunity to converse with him as with his dead brother.[46]

Ethiopian poet laureate Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin wrote an historical play about Zerai in the 1980s.[47]

In visual arts, the patriot was the subject of sculptures, including that of Tadesse Mamecha made in 1971.[48]

The Zerai Deres Band has been a popular Eritrean jazz and folk music band since the 1970s.[49]

Remembrance

Monument to the Lion of Judah, back in Addis Ababa since the 1960s
The Zerai Deres corvette of the Ethiopian Navy was transferred to Italy in 1959, then renamed Vedetta (F 597)
Zerai Deres Square in Asmara, Eritrea

In 1966, when the sculpture of the Lion of Judah was returned to Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie recalled Zerai's patriotic gesture during the re-appointment ceremony held in Addis Ababa.[50] After the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution, the Derg regime planned to remove the statue as a monarchic symbol. However, senior members of the war veterans association lobbied for the statue to remain as a symbol of Zerai Deres' sacrifice on behalf of antifascism. The Derg agreed to this request to save the statue, which stands in the Addis Ababa railway station square today.[51]

The Ethiopian Navy's first military ship, a former U.S. Navy PC-1604-class submarine chaser donated by the United States Army in 1956, was christened Zerai Deres.[52] A Soviet-made Petya-class frigate was also dedicated to the Eritrean patriot;[53] it was launched in 1968 and sank in February 1991 near the island of Nocra.[54]

The square where the Asmara's central post office and National Bank of Eritrea (former Palace of National Bank of Italy) are located was named Piazza Roma (Rome Square), but after independence it was dedicated to Zerai's memory.[55] A number of roads, schools,[56][57][58] hotels,[59][60] and restaurants are also named after Zerai.

In 2016, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Addis Ababa from Italian domination, a group of six stamps depicting national heroes, including Zerai, was issued by the Ethiopian Postal Service.[61][62]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zerai Deres.

References

  1. ^ Tribunale speciale per la difesa dello Stato 1938 - Decisioni emesse nel 1938 (1994). Sentenza del 7.10.1938. Rome: Ministero della difesa - Stato maggiore dell'esercito - Ufficio Storico. p. 346-347.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Deqi-Arawit (2013-01-05). "Rare picture of Zerai Deres". Archived from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  3. ^ a b T. Mekonnen (2014-11-11). "ታሪኽ-ዘርኣይ-ደረስ". zaratbebat.com. Archived from the original on 2018-02-13. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Triulzi, Alessandro (2015). "Across the Mediterranean. Acknowledging Voices and Silences of (Post)Colonial Italy". In Paolo Bertella Farnetti; Cecilia Dau Novelli (eds.). Colonialism and National Identity. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 161–176. Archived from the original on 2021-07-04. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  5. ^ Hedat Berhane (1976). Zeray Deres, 1914–1945. IVth Year Essay. Asmara: Department of History, Haile Selassie University.
  6. ^ a b c d e Bureau, Jacques (1987). Ethiopie. Un drame impérial et rouge (in French). Paris: Ramsay. pp. 21–32. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2017-08-23. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  7. ^ "Italy and the Addis Ababa massacre". The Economist. July 20, 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-08-01. Retrieved 2017-08-20.
  8. ^ Campbell, Ian (2017). The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame. C. Hurst (Publishers) Limited. ISBN 9781849046923.
  9. ^ Giulia Barrera (2013). "Mussolini's colonial race laws and state-settler relations in Africa Orientale Italiana (1935–41)". Journal of Modern Italian Studies. 8 (3): 425–443. doi:10.1080/09585170320000113770. ISSN 1354-571X. S2CID 145516332.
  10. ^ Paolo Borruso, ed. (2003). L'Africa al confino: la deportazione etiopica in Italia, 1937-39. Vol. 27. Manduria-Bari-Roma: Piero Lacaita. ISBN 978-88-88546-26-1.
  11. ^ Marco Lenci (2004). All'inferno e ritorno: storie di deportati tra Italia ed Eritrea in epoca coloniale. Pisa: BFS. pp. 45–76. ISBN 9788886389952.
  12. ^ Berhane, Hedat (1976). "Zeray Deres, 1914–1945". IVth Year Essay. Asmara: Department of History, Haile Selassie University.
  13. ^ Addisalem Mulat (2016-09-19). "Ethiopia: The Surviving Nobleman – Prince Mengesha Seyoum". The Ethiopian Herald. Archived from the original on 2017-03-25. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
  14. ^ "Abyssinian Chieftain Runs Amok In Rome". The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser. 1938-06-16. Archived from the original on 2017-08-16. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
  15. ^ "Ethiopian Runs Amok in Rome Wounds Five Persons When Ordered Away From Monument". The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa. 1938-06-15. p. 23. Archived from the original on 2017-08-16. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
  16. ^ "Amok in Rome". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1938-06-19. p. 26. Archived from the original on 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
  17. ^ "Abyssinian chieftain amok in Rome". Morning Tribune. 1938-06-16. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
  18. ^ "Abyssinian amok in Rome". Malaya Tribune. 1938-06-16. p. 13. Archived from the original on 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
  19. ^ a b c "Tre persone ferite da un eritreo impazzito". Il Messaggero (in Italian). 1938-06-17. p. 4.
  20. ^ Il leone di Giuda (Cinegiornale Luce) on YouTube
  21. ^ Scoperto il Leone di Giuda portato da Addis Abeba (Cinegiornale Luce) on YouTube
  22. ^ a b "Abyssinian shot in Rome: An interrupted prayer". The Times. 1938-06-16. p. 16. Archived from the original on 2017-08-11. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  23. ^ Article 583 of the Italian Criminal Code defines as "very slight" (lievissime) personal injuries that healed within 20 days
  24. ^ "Ethiopian runs amok in Rome; hacks four persons with sword". Chicago Daily Tribune. 1938-06-16. Archived from the original on 2017-08-16. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
  25. ^ "Amok with sword: Abyssinian Shot In Rome". The Northern Miner. 1938-06-17. Archived from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  26. ^ a b c d Del Boca, Angelo (2014). Gli italiani in Africa Orientale – 3. La caduta dell'Impero (in Italian). Milan: Mondadori. p. 273. ISBN 9788852054969. Archived from the original on 2021-07-04. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  27. ^ Abbink, Gerrit Jan; De Bruijn, Mirjam; Van Walraven, Klaas (2003). Rethinking Resistance: Revolt and Violence in African History. Mondadori. p. 106. ISBN 9789004126244. Archived from the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  28. ^ a b c d "Facts about Dr. Ambaye Wolde Mariam". Ambaye Wolde Mariam. Archived from the original on 2017-08-12. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  29. ^ Lonely Planet, ed. (2013). "Lion of Judah Monument". Ethiopia, Djibouti & Somaliland. Lonely Planet Publications. p. 63. ISBN 9781743216477.
  30. ^ Lucchetti, Nicholas (2013). Dallo scandalo Livraghi ai fratelli Derres. Saggi sul colonialismo italiano (in Italian). Tricase: Youcanprint. ISBN 978-88-911-1701-4.
  31. ^ "ታሪኽ ዘርአይ ደረስ ፡ ፍርቁ ጽንጽዋይ". Tesfanews (in Amharic). 2014-12-27. Archived from the original on 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
  32. ^ "Replies to article "ታሪኽ ዘርአይ ደረስ ፡ ፍርቁ ጽንጽዋይ"". Archived from the original on 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
  33. ^ Ficquet, Éloi (2004). "La stèle éthiopienne de Rome: Objet d'un conflit de mémoires" (PDF). Cahiers d'Études Africaines (in French) (XLIV): 375–376. doi:10.4000/etudesafricaines.4648. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  34. ^ Sbacchi, Alberto (1985). Ethiopia under Mussolini: Fascism and the Colonial Experience. London. p. 138.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link), cited in Cliffe, Lionel; Davidson, Basil (1988). The Long Struggle of Eritrea for Independence and Constructive Peace. The Red Sea Press. p. 71. ISBN 9780932415370. Archived from the original on 2021-07-04. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  35. ^ "The Global Security Architecture, Human Rights Violations and the UN in the 21st Century Part I". Ministry of information of Eritrea. 2015-10-07. Archived from the original on 2017-08-11. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  36. ^ In reality, since 1925 the obelisk of the fallen Dogali had been moved from piazza dei Cinquecento (in front of the Roma Termini railway station) to the nearby viale Principessa di Piemonte (now viale Luigi Einaudi)
  37. ^ In reality, that Lion of Judah sculpture was a recent bronze made in 1930 by French sculptor Georges Gardet (1863–1939)
  38. ^ "The Lion of Judah, Aslan and the Pride of Abyssinia". The Disease Detective. 27 March 2016. Archived from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  39. ^ "Lion of Judah Monument". Afrotourism. 2014-11-20. Archived from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  40. ^ Pateman, Roy (1998). Eritrea: Even the stones are burning. The Red Sea Press. p. 59.
  41. ^ "Imperial Monuments of Ethiopia". Archived from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  42. ^ Ateneh Alemu (1955–1956). Zerai Deress. Addis Abeba: Berhanena Selam Printing Enterprise.
  43. ^ Jane Plastow (1996). "The Italian occupation and after". African Theatre and Politics: The Evolution of Theatre in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. A Comparative Study. Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi. p. 58. ISBN 9789042000384.
  44. ^ Yilma Manaye (1971). Zeraye Derese. St. George Publishers. p. 222. Archived from the original on 2021-07-04. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  45. ^ "Wegayehu Negatu – The late senior performer: Biography in Brief". Wegayehu Negatu Art Center. Washington. Archived from the original on 2017-08-18. Retrieved 2017-08-18.
  46. ^ Brook Abdu (2005). "The legacy of Wegayehu Nigatu – The making of a legend". Blen Skunderism Magazine. Archived from the original on 2013-01-18.
  47. ^ Negussay Ayele (2012). "Poet laureate Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin of Ethiopia: A Short Walk Through His Literary Park" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-01-08.
  48. ^ "A Chronology of 20th Century Ethiopian Art". Ethiopian Art. Archived from the original on 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  49. ^ Oehrle, Elizabeth; Akombo, David; Weldegebriel, Elias (2013). "Community Music in Africa: Perspectives from South Africa, Kenya, and Eritrea". In Veblen, Kari K.; et al. (eds.). Community Music Today. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 67. ISBN 9781607093190.
  50. ^ Waldman, Maurício (2013). "A história de Zerai Deres: heroísmo africano & memória de África" (PDF). Brasil Angola Magazine (in Portuguese) (11). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  51. ^ Sanda, Michaela (2014-04-17). "Ethiopia1, Addis Ababa". Archived from the original on 2014-04-26. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  52. ^ Mulat, Addisalem (2016-12-11). "Ethiopia's Navy Founder". The Ethiopian Herald. Archived from the original on 2017-08-11. Retrieved 2017-08-13. cited in Allafrica.com
  53. ^ "Ship FF 1616 Zerai Deres". World Warship. Archived from the original on 10 August 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  54. ^ "Guard Ships Project 159". Russianship.info. Archived from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  55. ^ "Public buildings in Asmara". asmera.nl. Archived from the original on 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
  56. ^ Abubeker Oumer. "Anthropometric forniture design for 1st cycle elementary schools in Addis Ababa" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2018-01-08.
  57. ^ "Zeray Deress Premier School since 1956 E.c". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2020-11-02. Retrieved 2018-01-08.
  58. ^ "Dj. Zeray Deres school". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2018-02-13. Retrieved 2018-01-08.
  59. ^ "The trip to Assab - May 15th 2003". 2003-05-15. Archived from the original on 2017-08-05. Retrieved 2018-01-08.
  60. ^ Edward Denison; Edward Paice (2007). Eritrea: The Bradt Travel Guide. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 184. ISBN 9781841621715. Archived from the original on 2021-07-04. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
  61. ^ Yohanes Jemaneh (2016-07-10). "Ethiopian Patriots 75th Diamond Jubilee celebrations wrapped up colorfully". The Ethiopian Herald. Archived from the original on 2017-08-18. Retrieved 2017-08-19.
  62. ^ "75th Anniversary of Ethiopian Patriots Victory". Universal Postal Union. Archived from the original on 2017-08-18. Retrieved 2017-08-19.

Bibliography

  • Ateneh Alemu (1955–1956). Zerai Deress. Addis Abeba: Berhanena Selam Printing Enterprise.
  • Hedat Berhane (1976). Zeray Deres, 1914–1945. IVth Year Essay. Asmara: Department of History, Haile Selassie University.
  • Nicholas Lucchetti (2013). Dallo scandalo Livraghi ai fratelli Derres. Saggi sul colonialismo italiano (in Italian). Tricase: Youcanprint. ISBN 978-88-911-1701-4.
  • Yelmā Mānāyé (1971). Gamorāw: Zarʻāy Daras (in Amharic).