Amber Henshaw

Celebrations and jubilations

The third and final part of the Obelisk arrived back in Axum this morning - hurrah!

There were far more people at the airport today - perhaps 400 or so but I've never been particularly good at guessing crowd sizes.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, turned up on a specially chartered Fokker with his wife and a couple of his children.

Other special guests included Richard and Rita Pankhurst who have been long-time campaigners for the Obelisk's return. They both seemed quite choked by the event and the general atmosphere.

The atmopshere was fantastic. After the Antonov had landed there was a concert and speeches just outside the town. Thousands of people were there. It was broadcast live on Ethiopian TV.

And then there was excited mayhem as the three trucks carrying the separate pieces of the monument (had to be transported in chunks because of the weight and the high altitude of Axum) drove through the town to the stelae field where the Obelisk was stolen from.

I watched as they passed and nearly got bowled over as the crowds chased the lorries.

Comedy capers.....

There was such an element of comedy capers about yesterday. We (the small group of about 10 international journalists) had decided to share a mini-bus to the airport together at about 5am because the plane was due to land at 6am ish. A very flamboyant Italian journalist - who had the real McCoy look about him...press cards dangling round his neck and kits draped all over him - said he had organised it all.
We got to his hotel at 5am only to discover he would be down at 5.30am. The bus wasn't quite as organised as we thought but eventually it was sorted out. We got in and then he (flamboyant Italian journo man) came over and said he was going to take a taxi because it was too expensive and that the bus was only going one way anyway. At which point the five or so of us in the bus rushed out and jumped into a very beaten up yellow taxi that went at about 20 miles an hour. By now it was approaching 6am and as time ticked on I was getting quite worried that the Antanov might arrive before we did. On arrival at the airport - the two taxis in convoy - all of us squished into the back had to then show our papers and press cards etc etc blah blah blah......we hadn't been standing on the runway tarmac for more than a few minutes when the plane appeared in the skyline!!! Blimey! And there's two more where that one came from...

The Obelisk has landed....

The silhouette of the plane carrying the first part of the Obelisk appeared over the horizon just before dawn today. The sight of the Antanov 124 in the distance met with applause from the selected onlookers...government ministers, priests and some old soldiers who'd fought the Italians in the 1930s when they had tried to colonise Ethiopia. It was fairly chilly as the huge plane landed - it had to be under 15c for technical reasons. When the plane opened and you saw the Obelisk for the first time it looked like a tiny fish in the stomach of a whale. It took four hours to left it from the plane on to an HGV where it will be kept for the next few days until the other parts arrive. I was so chuffed to see it finally get here after so many days of delay and speculation....I wasn't the only one! Pics and sounds later.

Back in Addis

Back in Addis after a six day Obelisk stake-out. Just as we landed we had a call from a friend saying that it was arriving tonight!!! Marvelous. There are SO many rumours and no one seems to know a thing still - I would be surprised and pretty irritated if it did arrive tonight. More in the morning....

Wot no Obelisk???

The Obelisk's return has been delayed again - this time indefinitely. People here are extremely disappointed....we're sticking around for a day or so with our fingers crossed.

From Axum

Thought I'd better take write an update now that we are in Axum to say that the Obelisk IS now coming back again on Wednesday (April 13th). Just as well - when we told people here yesterday that there might be a 10-day delay they were absolutely crestfallen. But it's all fine so that's a relief. The celebrations to mark its return actually got underway last night when thousands of people paraded through the streets of the small town in northern Ethiopia holding candles and chanting. They walked, ran and some even jumped past the northern stelae field where the Obelisk was stolen from. The atmosphere was fantastic. Everyone does seem really chuffed that it is coming back after so long..it would have been terrible had there been a delay.

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Obstruction and the Obelisk.....

Over the last week or so we've been waiting for a final date for the return of the Obelisk stolen from Ethiopia by Italian invaders in the 1930s. It could be a massive event for Axum (where the stelae was stolen from) and for Ethiopia generally. After much faffing and date changing there was a press conference today held by the Ethiopian Culture Minister Toshoma Toga. Everything seemed totally set in stone...the Obelisk was definitely coming back next Wednesday (April 13th). A few hours later it seems that things aren't quite so sorted on the Italian side and the Obelisk may not come back next week after all. Talk about adding insult to injury.

Dancing donkey?

As scams go "Do you want to see a donkey dance?" isn't the most convincing. But  that's exactly what some guy tried on us a few days ago. Needless to say we didn't want to see a donkey dance but full marks for originality. It definitely beats the usual one that people try here - do you want to come to a traditional coffee ceremony for example.

Bad news for the BBC?

The last few days have been really odd. On the one hand we've had some friends arriving and that's been great but my mood has very much been affected by the BBC job cuts - particularly the cuts affecting my colleagues at BBC Scotland. Initially the news was scarey but scarey in a sort of void - management were talking numbers not people. Yesterday one of my friend's emailed me to tell me specific people had already lost their jobs. I'm not sure what my position is (at the moment I'm on a career break - due back at work in September).

The BBC says it's making the cuts to improve its output. I just hope this reverse logic works. It will take some time to see what the results are but from where I am sitting it's all pretty depressing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4374015.stm

Frank Gardner

I've just been reading Frank Gardner's (the BBC's Security Correspondent) account of the attack he and his cameraman endured in Saudi Arabia a few months ago. The cameraman Simon Cumbers was killed outright and Frank Gardner was shot several times. His description of what happened to him is incredibly moving. It was written in December. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4123145.stm