roma music and resistance…

I found a beautiful book, published by University of Hertfordshire Press, The Roads of the Roma, a PEN anthology of Gypsy writers, edited by Ian Hancock, Siobhan Dowd, Rajko Djuric,1998.

The format of the book creates a challenging panorama of Roma history by compiling poetry alongside a tabular account of historical movement and events. This visualization creates an extremely palpable sense of movement, of constant flux, as the borders of one country after another would deny them residence, and suppress their way of life.

In the introduction by Ian Hancock, he traces the history of the Roma through linguistic trails that lead back to turn of the century India. The idea or image of the “gypsy” written into characters of plays, novels, operas was developed upon themes and ideas from outside of Roma culture and self identity. This imposition of identity by the oppressive majority, upon the oppressed minority raises many questions about Roma cultural discourse and the need to see this discourse emerging from within, and the creation of identity growing from the Roma community itself.

He addresses the idea that Romani history has been obscured in part, to the Roma themselves,

“It has been suggested that centuries of oppression, documented in the chronology of this book, have obliterated any desire to look back. Nostalgia, they say, is for those with happier histories. Roma who know any history at all have acquired it from books written by gadjé (non-Roma) or else from folk memory…” (page 13)

The tension of oppression as obscuring even the desire to remember, seems tangibly present, and yet there is this vibrant memory contained in song. I will have to trace that somehow.

In this little introduction it is the gypsy image that is discussed, as it emerged in literature, and its “desire to mystify and otherize” (page 10). Many different tales of origin were prevalent throughout the years, one tracing their origin to Egypt, therefore the derivative name “Gypsy” from Egyptian, or ‘Gyptians (page 13). In the second half of the 18th century scholars began to realize the linguistic link between Romani and Indian languages which lead to the study of various cues in the language that might indicate time and place of migration, and concurrent historical events that lead to these movements. Essentially the questions of when and where, which could be traced on a path from Northern India through the Hindu Kush.

Questions of why and who remained. Intimations emerge through words such as gadjo, the term most commonly used for non-Roma, “comes from an old Indian word gajjha, meaning ‘civilian’ or ‘non-military person’” (page 15). Other linguistic details are traced to a time when at the turn of last century, around AD 1000, India was under attack by a Muslim general. The book tells the history of an army being formed that maintained the rules of the caste system, and was composed of various ethnic groups to make up a group called th Kshattriya warriors. In the ensuing battles and raids these armies seem to have moved westward into the Hindu Kush (page 16). Piecing together these elements of linguistic history along with the stories told over centuries is a complex process where

“[t]hose involved in unravelling Romani history are not only examining the linguistic and historical material they do have, but are also looking at earlier hypotheses in an attempt to validate or dismiss them by process of elimination.” (page 16)

Amidst this process of unearthing and elucidation, they must contend with the notions that have been established over the years through academic and cultural notions from the outside. This book is challenging the dominant discourse which has imposed images of otherness from outside. It is a compilation of poetry, translated into English, from Romani, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, written by Roma writers from countries as diverse as Latvia, Croatia, Yugoslav Republic, England, Australia, Belarus. It spans continents, and I have only mentioned a few. It is the lyrical component that fascinates me, as it is flanked by the stark factual time lines of history. I want to discern some connection between these written poetic accounts and the lyrical elements of music, as it has been expressed for centuries in song.

There are too many fascinating poems and excerpts in this anthology, but here is one for now:

Justice

by Alexian Spinelli (Italy)

Distant Indian blood

that irrigates Italic veins

never fed by the word

that regulates people

peoples and peoples that you,

you mixed together,

you dumped into the rivers

of our fathers from time

past,

and furrows and streams

you filled with tears

of honest women.

Winding through the highest minds

the Romani sentiment grew

murmuring the best words

to your young sons

and reaching the heart of eternity.

Inhuman indifference annuls

and cries out loud

the simple word

that the fanatic mob kept hidden

and that you,

blood of my blood,

never knew!         Translated from Italian by Minna Proctor

(page 67)