“Gypsies”, “Kale”, “Gitanos”, “Manouches”, “Zingari”, “Romani”: those are some of the numerous names given to the Romani community across Europe. Except for the last one, which means “accomplished man”, these different names reveal an important feature of this nation: they are usually named and defined by the others. This led to a lot of misconceptions and prejudices: considered as thieves, smugglers or bandits across history, the Romani people assumed the role of the bad guys and paid the price for it. As an example, the beliefs that they are mostly living in a nomadic lifestyle is false, as the representation of a homogeneous nation frozen in Middle Age: Roma communities actually have spread in many various places and countries, and adopted their specific local features that makes them part of the history. Not only Macedonia and Balkan history, but Europe and the World as well.

XI century: The earliest written records of Romani presence in Europe date back to the XI century in Anatolia, which belonged to the Byzantine Empire at the time. They started their migration from Northern India a few centuries before, but there is no consensus about their precise starting point or the conditions of the movement: some argue that it was because of the rise of the Ghaznavid dynasty in the area. They would slowly spread in the Empire, and some settlements are recorded on Greek islands such as Creta of Corfou, but some others headed to North Africa.

XIV-XV century: Romani people reach the Balkans and Central Europe first, before migrating westward. As they would migrate from one place to another, they would be called according to their previous place of stay: that’s why they would be referred to as “Bohemians” (current Czech Republic) or “Gypsies” (from Egypt). In their early migration, they are quite well received by the local population. A lot of rumors started to surround them as magic performers, also because of their palm-reading or fortune-teller skills. They were also performing in trade shows, selling boilers or horses; such activities that met a lot of curiosity and enthusiasm in the place they visited. But on the other hand, they were easy prey for local lords or bandits and a lot of them were enslaved, regarding the country they settled in.

XVI century: With the diffusion of printing, the formation of advanced states made the control over population more effective, and the religious war era started across Europe. As Jews, Romani were seen as foreigners everywhere, and therefore designated as cause for any trouble. The western European states started passing laws to expel them, or in some cases, hunting them down or hanging them. But as for the Jews, a lot of them fled to the Ottoman Empire or to the recently discovered New World: in the Ottoman Empire, the state was more concerned about their religion than their language or cultural practices. Except for Romania, where they were enslaved until the mid-XIX century, the Balkan Romani people lived more peacefully compared to Western Europe.

XIX century: Following the process of European conquest of the world, the Romani people were present on every continent. Their persecution started to decrease in some countries, but their nomadic ways of life were more and more difficult in European space, shattered by heavily guarded borders, with countrysides conquered by the ongoing industrialization. The rise of nationalism would also marginalize them: as a non-territorial nation, they weren’t included in the construction of national states; but on the other hand, they let their print in the art and the national literature: Carmen or Esmeralda’s characters, written respectively by Prosper Mérimée and Victor Hugo, became famous figures of the French literature, and by extent, from the whole French culture.

XX century: Being kept away from most of the economic activities didn’t prevent them to start organizing themselves: the first international Romani congress took place in 1879, and the first newspapers in Romani languages were published in Eastern Europe in the 20’s and 30’s. But this cultural awakening was abruptly stopped by the Second World War: national-socialism discourse considered the Romani people, as the Jews, as parasites that must be erased from the surface of the earth. The Porajmos, or Samudaripen in Balkan Romani, was organized by the Nazi regime and its allies, and led half a million Romani to death. Instead of being massively helped in recovering from the loss of 25% of its population, the European Romani community stayed out of sight of the international concerns: denial of their culture and basic human rights, sometimes sterilized or deported, and continued to suffer from persecution until nowadays.

XXI: The state of Romani people evolved a bit after the 90’s. After the founding of some international institutions, they found some recognition in the European Union: considering themselves as a “non-territorial nation”, which mean a nation not aiming for a state, the hope of the Roma activist is focused on a European Treaty to include them in this international cooperation, that could secure their traditions and culture as well as their rights in the future.

Youen Le Bris

Sources:

Coquio, Catherine, et Jean-Luc Poueyto. Roms, Tsiganes, Nomades. Un malentendu européen. Karthala, 2014

Marushia kova, Elena, et Vesselin Popov. « Les Tsiganes dans l’Empire ottoman », Études Tsiganes, vol. 31-32, no. 3-4, 2007, pp. 10-25.

Sutre, Adèle. Géopolitique des tsiganes. Des façons d’être au monde entre circulations et ancrages. Le Cavalier Bleu, 2021 

Les Chemins De L’histoire | ORTF | 03/12/1971

Philippe Rekacewicz, «Les Roms, un peuple européen», Le Monde Diplomatique, 2008.