Forsbergs in Ethiopia

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, kept an almost daily 
<a> href="<http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak/gen/miller/journals.htm>" Journal</a>
from 1887 unti his death in 1943, and her mother, Margaret Miller Northrop (Hall), submitted columns on area news to the local newspaper 
in central CT for a number of 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 
<a>href="<http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak/gen/Index-MNK.htm>">journals and photo albums</a>, 
and what follows is my attempt to introduce you to the Ethiopian materials which have been joined
with "uncle" Mal Forsberg's published book on this period of their lives, and is 
available online <a>href= "<http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak/gen/miller/ForsbergsEthiopia.htm>"> here</a>

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 went separately after graduation in 1932 and were married there in 1935. 
Ater 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 <a>href= "<http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak/gen/miller/ForsbergsEthiopia.htm>"> here.</a>

I will entertain questions from the corona virus control depleted nearly empty room at the end!
Warren: How did these materials relate to your own academic interests in archaeology or biblical studies
Although Ethiopia does have some intersting archaeological remains, they are not mentioned; 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/Ethiopa
Pastor James: What type of Christianity is reflected? Wheaton and thee SIM Mission Board are conservative Protestant like
Billy Graham -- "evangelical" ("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

Sylvia: did my Mother's authorial activities and ambitions bear fruit in publications?
One poem.
Ray: why were the Italians interested in Ethiopia?
Italy 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.?
Don: How were travel conditions and communication technology?
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? 
-- 
provincial leaders under His Majesty Haile Selassie, Djazmatch Abeba, Italian military
Betsy: Any related books that could be consulted
If you google key terms (Ethiopia, Italian invasion, missions, etc.)

-----

LaAND 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 <http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak/temp/memorial/mnkmemorial.html>], compiled and edited 
by Robert A. Kraft [= RAK; latest editing 16ap2020]

TIMELINE (reconstructed)
12/14/1908 Mal born (Tacoma WA)
02/25/1912 Enid born (Waterbury CT)
03/19/1912 MNK born (Waterbury CT)
09/--/1928 Mal enters Wheaton College, IL
09/--/1929 Enid enters Wheaton College, IL
11/02/1930 Haile Salassie (Tafari Makonnan) named Emperor of Ethiopia
--/--/1931 Enid and Mal get engaged 
06/--/1932 Mal graduates from Wheaton College

06/--/1933 Enid graduates from Wheaton College
--/--/1933 they each are approved by Sudan Interior Mission board, to go to Ethiopia
12/10/1933 Mal sails for Africa
12/25/1933 Enid visits MNK & others in Waterbury CT area before sailing
01/--/1934 they land separately in Mediterranean port(s) or Red Sea (Djibouti)
01/18/1934 Enid writes MNK from Marseille-Gare (postmark)
01/--/1934 Mal takes train from Djibouti to Addis Ababa [capitol of Ethiopia]
02/--/1934 Enid arrives in Addis Ababa by train
03/--/1934 Enid remains in Addas learning language; Mal leaves for Gamo via Soddu
05/04/1934 Mal arrives in Gamo
12/05/1934 Italian hostilities against Ethiopia begin
03/14/1935 wedding in Gamo, Ethiopia
10/03/1935 Haile Selassie issues war mobilization order to Ethiopians
11/--/1935 Italian troops menace Ethiopia, but no bombs yet
12/--/1935 Italian aircraft deploy poison gas mists on areas of Ethiopia
05/02/1936 Haile Selassie leaves Addis Ababa to appeal to League of Nations
05/06/1936 Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa
06/30/1936 Haile Selassie addresses League of Nations
09/--/1936 Leigh Forsberg [their first child] conceived?
02/--/1937 Night trip down the mountain to Soddu
02/19/1937 Ethiopian resistance overcome, massacre by Italians in Addis
03/31/1937 Italian airplane to Addis 
04/09/1937 they leave Addis for port of Djibouti (arrive 04/10)
04/13/1937 sail from Djibouti for Naples (arrive 04/24)
04/28/1937 sail from Naples for NY on S.S.Rex
05/07/1937 ship arrived in NY
05/--/1937 travelled to Enid's parental home in Milwaukee
06/05/1937 Leigh born in Milwaukee
03/14/1938 US wedding (Leigh 9 mos old)
--/--/1939 they are appointed to Chali station in Sudan