The Brass Band of the King

"How and why were 40 Armenian children, survivors of the genocide, adopted in Jerusalem in 1924 by the Crown Prince of Ethiopia Ras Tèafèari Mèakonnen? In answering this question, Boris Adjemian here tells the fascinating story of the history and significance of the Armenian presence in Ethiopia. Beginning with the case study of the orphans, the author traces the history of other Armenians who, he shows, adopted Ethiopia as a homeland of substitution. Considered as coreligionists, they were not regarded as foreign by their hosts. The book analyses this extraordinary episode and its legacy, and the profound questions it raises about the making of national and collective identities and diaspora"--