“Déjatch Alámayou, King Theodore's Son” by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79)

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Déjatch Alámayou, King Theodore's Son

Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79)

1868

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Image: 29.2 x 23.3 cm (11 1/2 x 9 3/16 in.)

The Met

Accession Number: 2005.100.239

Credit line: Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005

This glum-looking child holding a little white doll makes a miserable comment on the displacement of native princes in colonial territories. [Commentary continues below. Mouse over the text for links.]

Image download, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee, with thanks to the Met. The photograph is identified as being in the public domain. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

According to the museum's note on the photograph, the boy had been brought to England "after the British defeat of the Ethiopians at the battle of Magdala and the suicide of his father, Tewodros (Theodore) II, emperor of Ethiopia, in April 1868." Although the Queen took steps to ensure the welfare of the child, whose guardian had a house on the Isle of Wight near Cameron's, he looks lost and forlorn. The museum note concludes, "His name, Alámayou, means 'I have seen the world.'” Indeed, he had.

Other "Protégés" of Queen Victoria

Bibliography

Déjatch Alámayou, King Theodore's Son. The Met. 10 September 2024

Rosen, Jeff. Julia Margaret Cameron. The Colonial Shadows of Victorian Photography. . London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2024. [Review by Pamela Gerrish Nunn]

Created 10 September 2024