Ethiopia’s musicians fled the country after the 1974 revolution – how their culture lives on

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.

The book traces their struggles and what happened to their rich and diverse music traditions when they settled in the US. Ethnomusicologist Kay Kaufman Shelemay talks about her book.

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. They fled due to the overthrow of the government, fear of the revolutionary Marxist military regime, and extreme violence across the country – as well as a civil war with Eritrea.

Many refugees were