Presentation "In and Out of Ethiopia: the Adventures of Cousins Enid and Mal Forsberg in the 1934-35 Italian Invasion"
by Robert A. Kraft, Gwynedd Estates Retirement Community, 23 April 2020

On my Mother's side of the genealogical chart, I come from a family of writers.
Her grandfather, Charles Somers Miller, wrote almost daily from 1887 until his death in 1943 in his Journal and her mother, Margaret Miller Northrop (Hall), submitted columns on area news to the local newspaper in central CT for many years. My mother Marian Augusta Northrop (Kraft) also was an avid Journalist and took correspondance courses on how to write for publication. She collected materials for a book to be entitled "These New Englanders" as well as for one on the letters she received from her first cousin and good friend Enid Hattersley Miller who became a missionary to Ethiopia and married Malcolm Forsberg there in 1935, just before the Italian invasion of that country. My mother never finished that book, although she had everything planned out and even paginated a draft long before she died in 2006. I inherited her efforts, along with her many journals and photo albums, and what follows is my attempt to introduce you to the Ethiopian materials which have been merged with "uncle" Mal Forsberg's published book on this period of their lives, and is available online.

The story begins as a complex romance of sorts: Enid and Mal met when each attended Wheaton College outside of Chicago (my alma mater also) in the late 1920s, fell in love, and each felt the call to do missionary work in Africa, where they traveled separately and were married in 1935. After they had set up their mission station home in the mountains of southwest-central Ethiopia, Mussolini's Italian troops invaded in late 1935 and a year later the missionaries were forced to flee under adverse conditions, including Enid's pregnancy; thus it became an adventure story as well. Their night-time trip down the treacherous mountain trail when Enid was 6 months pregnant is exciting reading. They successfully made it back to the United States, where their first child, Leigh Forsberg, was born in June of 1937. In the process, they discovered that their African marriage was not valid by current US standards, so they remarried here in 1938, with their 9 month old son in attendance. They did return to Africa later, to the Sudan, and their youngest child (Dorothy) is still active as a missionary in Benin. But all that is another story. For now, let's focus on the Letters from Ethiopia, which have been merged with Mal's first published book to produce my Mother's posthumous publication here.

LAND BEYOND THE NILE, Part 1: The Ethiopian Mission (or, Exodus from Ethiopia)
By Malcolm Forsberg, supplemented with correspondence collected by Marian Northrop Kraft [see = MNK], compiled and edited by Robert A. Kraft [= RAK; latest editing 20ap2020]

Warren: How do these materials relate to your own academic interests in archaeology and/or biblical studies
Although Ethiopia does have some intersting archaeological remains, they are not mentioned in these materials; nor the biblical reference to Moses marrying a "Cushite" woman, usually understood as Ethiopian -- an old Jewish narrative deals with that detail, or the claims that Emperor Haile Selassie was descended from King David and the Queen of Sheba/Ethiopia, and in the book of Acts we hear of an Ethiopian "eunuch" who seeks information.

Pastor James: What type(s) of Christianity is/are reflected?
Wheaton and the SIM Mission Board are conservative Protestant, "Evangelical" like Billy Graham -- ("fundamentalism" in its original sense)

Nancy: What other religions did they encounter in Ethiopia
Mainly Eastern Orthodox Coptic Christianity, and some Roman Catholic; Islam; native customs

Sally: What languages were common in Ethiopia then and there?
Amharic and/or Geez are Semitic languages in that region; a very complicated situation!
Geez

Sylvia: Did your Mother's authorial activities and ambitions bear fruit in publications?
One poem.

Ray: Why were the Italians interested in conquering Ethiopia?
Italy was defeated there in late 1800s (pay back), Empire building vis-a-vis Hitler's Reich

Ann: Do they say much about their living conditions, food, etc.?
Yes, a great deal

Don: How were travel conditions and communication technology for them?
Mostly by ship there and back; mostly foot, horse, donkey there (some Railroad around Addis Ababa); longhand & typewriter, some telephone and telegraph from Addis

Donna: What was the local authority situation?
-- the city of Addis Ababa was/is the capital; provincial leaders (e.g. Djazmatch Abeba) functioned under His Majesty Haile Selassie; Italian military took over in the occupation

Betsy: Are there any related books that could be consulted
If you google key terms (Ethiopia, Italian invasion, missions, etc.)