A Cruel Destiny: The Armenian Stranger in Twentieth-Century Ethiopia

Abstract

The article explores the life, personal career and family history of Elias Djerrahian against the backdrop of the shifting definitions of subject, community and citizen using his biography to trace the fortunes of the Armenian diaspora of 20th-century Ethiopia. It looks at the country's nationality laws and the African strangerhood. It also examines the development and disintegration of a South-South diasporic collectivity and the changing politico-legal contexts that led to this process.