Emigration

• The overthrow of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 led to violent conflict that had a particularly heavy impact on musicians.
• Sing and Sing On: Sentinel Musicians and the Making of the Ethiopian American Diaspora is the first study of the forced migration of musicians out of the Horn of Africa dating from the revolution.

What happened to cause musicians to leave Ethiopia?

• Musicians were part of a mass outflow of people from the Horn of Africa that began as a direct outcome of the Ethiopian revolution.
• Many refugees were Ethiopian Orthodox Christians from the Amhara ethnic group that had historically been close to circles of power.
• Waves of refugees crossed into Sudan and Kenya, from where many eventually made their way to destinations around the world.
• The highly trained musicians of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church experienced a great loss of prestige along with severe economic pressures.

How did you go about researching their stories?

• As outlined in my memoir, I was able to remain in Addis Ababa during the first two years of the revolution.
• While I had gone to Ethiopia to study its musical life, by 1977, these musicians were now settling in all around me.
• I began to visit newly founded Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox churches as well as new Ethiopian restaurants and shops.

What role did musicians play in Ethiopia?

• The powerful role of Ethiopian musicians both at home and abroad has led me to term these individuals “sentinel musicians”.
• I coined this phrase after repeatedly witnessing the way in which these musicians, past and present, both guarded and guided the communities they were a part of.

How was this role continued in the diaspora?

• In Ethiopian languages, there is the practice of employing double meanings in songs, masking the true intent of a text.
• This practice, termed “wax and gold”, is found in Ethiopian religious and secular poetry, in everyday speech, and in many song lyrics.
• The wax is the obvious outer meaning of the words while the gold is the meaning hidden within.
• In the diaspora, some sentinel musicians have continued to employ wax and gold, but musicians’ roles have also expanded to incorporate new and different significances.

Why do their stories matter?

• Read more:
  Hachalu Hundessa: charismatic musician who wasn't afraid to champion Ethiopia's Oromo

  Musicians use music and its performance to bring people together and to establish and sustain community values and moral standards.

• Through their stories and lived experiences, we can appreciate the impact of musical creativity, and the ways it is often deployed against formidable odds.