Central Europe Germany Italy Spain (Spanish Civil War) Albania Austria Baltic states Belgium Bulgaria Burma China Czechia Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Japan Jewish Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Slovakia Spain Soviet Union Yugoslavia Germany Italy Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States The Black Lions were an anti-fascist resistance movement[1] formed to fight against Fascist Italy during the occupation of the Ethiopian Empire in World War II.
[2][3] As Bahru Zewde notes, in spite of its "marginal impact on the Resistance" the Black Lions made "eloquent attempts to give the struggle coherent ideological and political direction.
The organization had a constitution consisting of ten points, which included: asserting the supremacy of the political sphere over the military, injunctions against mistreating peasants and prisoners of war, forbidding its members from seeking exile and urging them to prefer death to capture by the enemy.
The Black Lions convinced Ras Imru Haile Selassie to join them in the armed struggle since he was part of the dynamics that created the movement.
On 19 December 1936, after the Italians pinned him down on the north bank of the Gojeb River, Ras Imru surrendered.