Ion Cioaba
WHEN Ion Cioaba proclaimed himself King of all the Gypsies Everywhere he found himself short of loyal subjects. About 5,000 followers turned up for his coronation in Romania in 1992 at a monastery he had borrowed for the occasion. They cheered as a solid gold crown, made in Switzerland, was lowered on to his head. But many other gypsies “everywhere”--some 10m in 40 countries--felt that the notion of kingship contradicted their scattered existence.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Ion Cioaba”
Obituary March 8th 1997
From the March 8th 1997 edition
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