As I sat and viewed Haile Gerima’s latest film, Black Lions, Roman Wolves both at home via streaming and at its North American premiere in Philadelphia in August at the Black Star Film Festival, I could not help but notice the absence of the voices of Italian historians or witnesses in the production. However, I did understand Gerima’s decision.

Gerima, the Ethiopian American filmmaker of some of the best anti-colonial films over the last 40 years, was making a point. He was doing what the Nobel laureate Toni Morrison did throughout her writings and what Chinua Achebe did as well. As Achebe once noted, “until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” Black Lions, Roman Wolves is about the lions, and in the case, the “Black Lions” of Ethiopia who fought a courageous anti-colonial war in 1935-1941 in their country to half the march of colonialism and fascism across Africa.

Black Lions, Roman Wolves is one of the most complete anti-colonial statements any of us can ever view via cinema. It is an epic for one, and two, it is very personal on multiple levels for Gerima. Of course, his wife and filmmaker partner, Shirikiana Gerima helped produce and create the film, and his children and former students from Howard University also pitched in to assist. It also is rooted in the legacy of Gerima’s father and Haile Gerima’s previous film on this topic, Adwa from 1999.

It is a five part documentary, over 10 hours in length (623 minutes) and it took over 30 years to complete. It is a story that represents the continuation of decolonization in the world today and the production of art that exudes that reality. This film had to be made and that is not hyperbole. The world is in a period of decolonization as represented by the diminished influence of the West on the world stage, the rapid rise of economies of Asia, and more importantly, the imminent increase in educated populations in those countries and across the African continent by 2050.

Haile Gerima, the award winning filmmaker, was born in Africa, Gondar, Ethiopia. While he is a product of America’s art and film schools, he’s the son of Tafeka Gerima, an anti-colonial and anti-fascist playwright who wrote an extensive history of the conflict his son presents in the film. The elder Gerima was an unofficial caretaker of this struggle as he was alive when it happened.

The story of Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 to avenge its loss to Ethiopia in 1899 at the Battle of Adwa was well known in Ethiopia but no one talked about it much according to Gerima. Tafeka Gerima, Haile Gerima’s father, is one person who did talk about it and wrote about it. It simmered in the heart and mind of his son who has stated many times, he was miseducated about the history of his country by its own leaders. The making of the documentary, according to the son, Gerima, was a chance to decolonize his own mind and learn the real history. That history challenges accounts perpetuated by Italy over the years. Gerima’s history and this film comes directly from the voices of the Ethiopian people who fought the war and survived it.

One of Gerima’s trademarks in all his films is his storytelling skills and his careful and clever use of sound to tell a story. In Black Lions, Gerima pushes both talents to the forefront. The documentary, in its depth and detail, is like Ali Mazrui’s famous doc, The Africans, but Gerima’s tale is specific and is deeply rooted in dignity, respect, and freedom. Over 200 persons were interviewed for the film, most of whom are deceased, but Gerima has brought them and their story back to life for the sake of memory. Gerima’s uses sound to create an incessant life to film. The sound is a mixture of music, signing, drums, bombs, bullets, poetry, and emotion.

Black Lions is an anti-fascist, anti-colonial work of art that steers clear of Italian propaganda regarding its colonial aspirations during the fascist period. While the complaints regarding the lack of those voices is inevitable, there is no sense in pretending. Fascism, as many are witnessing today, and have witnessed, has no other side to it. It is a discredited dogma that relies on fear, repression, violence, and chaos.

There are also the facts. Italy, during the war from 1935-1941, used poison gas, mustard gas, concentration camps, rape, executions, torture, and illegal imprisonment to try to win an immoral conflict. Italy used conquered regions of the Horn of Africa to fight a war where Africans were fighting to withhold freedom and self-determination from other Africans. Gerima presents the facts; everyone can decide easily what happened by watching the film and reading the books and news accounts from back then.

This is why the voices of the Italians are mostly absent from the film except for occasional soundbites from Emperor Benito Mussolini seeking to speak to the Italian faithful from his famous perch. The perpetuation of that kind of misinformation regarding the Ethiopian Italian conflict over the decades is well known.

While Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has recently described Italy’s relationship with Ethiopia as “special,” her statements never offer any apology or atonement for Italy’s imperial evil in the entire “Horn of Africa” for nearly 60 years. The Institute for Security Studies, in November 2025, called for an apology from Italy which, to my knowledge, has not yet come.

The institute also described the period of 1882-1941 as “a brutal campaign of conquest and occupation across the Horn” by Italy that involved not just Ethiopia but the colonization of Eritrea, Libya, and Somalia. According to the institute in November 2025, Italy’s “fascist regime” included “entrenched racial hierarchies and economic exploitation through land expropriation, forced labour and cultural suppression.” Gerima’s film, while focused on Ethiopia, also contains allusions to this narrative.

The film presents itself in five parts, each running about two hours: “The Scar of Adwa,” “Invasion,” “Occupation and Terrorism,” “Guerilla Warfare,” and “Victory.” The film also focuses on the rise of fascism in Europe in general. In Germany, it would be Adolph Hitler but in Italy, well before Hitler’s rise, it is Benito Mussolini, a historical figure who resembles Donald Trump and his appeal to white supremacy and nationalism.

Gerima does not mince words or images here to explain how ugly, and evil was the invasion by Italy. He goes into detail about the use of poison gas during the conflict and the execution of thousands of innocents. The images of those displaced, killed, and/or injured are graphic but they are from official government sources.

The invasion was not only contrary to human decency, but also a violation of international law at the time. The British, the French, and the United States controlled the world with an iron hand, and all of Africa mostly at the time, except for Ethiopia. For these reasons, and others, Ethiopia is handed over to the Italians by the West with little qualms.

Britain does accept Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, into its country but in exile as the invasion commences. The French are even dirtier. According to Black Lions, weapons sent to the country for Ethiopia, are intercepted by the French and given to Italy. It is another example of colonial cooperation in pursuit of total domination of the African continent.

Gerima also makes another point clear in the film worth pointing out. The invasion of Ethiopia by the “fascist Italians” (Gerima’s term throughout the film) is the beginning of World War II. In the Q&A after the film, Gerima makes this point again as he has in the past. World War II was a race war and a war against fascism, so it is impossible to leave out Ethiopia’s place in the conflict. The racist motivations by Italy are apparent in Part I – “The Scar of Adwa.” It is also impossible to not discuss the war in relation to World War II because Ethiopia refused to be colonized and eventually the British must enter the conflict.

The film itself is mostly the voices of Ethiopians who witnesses the war, the men and women who fought in the war, and historians from Ethiopia. The film is almost completely in Ethiopia’s main language – Amharic. Gerima and his partner, Shirikiana make a few comments in English during the film but mostly they are in the background to drive the story’s tension.

Gerima fills up the production with newsreels and archival footage from a variety of countries (Germany, Russia, France, Great Britain, the United States) and despite some challenges that remain, from Italy. Italy’s famous government archives, Luce, is a point of contention in the production of the film and the film itself. Gerima even incorporates the challenging access to Italy’s archives into the film as a minor plot line with himself talking. You can even see watermarks spelling out “LUCE,” the name of Italy’s archives, on some of the film used by Gerima.

Some of this is where Italy does speak in the film, but it is usually one of Mussolini’s emotional appeals to white supremacy, war, and national pride. Mussolini’s appeals to racism, and open hysteria, is one of the hallmarks of his time in power and in the early parts of the film. This does not mean every Italian citizen was in favor of the invasion. Yet, as many Americans likely understand, manufacturing approval for illegal invasions of other nations, is not difficult. It is going on right now with the most recent attacks by the U.S. on Iran and Venezuela.

This is yet another reason why the arrival of Black Lions, Roman Wolves is important. As the world reorganizes itself and faces existential issues of human survival, some nations are resistant to the reality of the end of western colonization in the world. The United States is pivoting back to a terrible past that much of the world, even some European nations, reject currently. The lion speaks at last in this film and it is a truth that much of the world needs to hear.

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