Roma children in MacedoniaI've been called gypsy so many times I might as well come up with some fabulous bohemian story of where I'm from. I know it has a lot to do with all the colorful linen I wear in the summer heat; and matched with my dark skin, I suppose I sort-of-can-almost get away with the name Esmeralda or Carmen--though just the thought of it makes me cringe. I also happen to know a little more about real life, modern day, "gypsies"; and how far from the romanticized ideal (puffed trousers, fortune telling and caravans) they truly are in today's world.
When I lived in Macedonia, I worked closely with the Romani people of the Balkans, a.k.a. gypsies. They are a remarkable people--by no means a homogeneous group across Europe--with exceptional survival skills honed in through years (generations) of persecution and discrimination. In Macedonia, a majority of them are refugees from the war in Kosovo.
The Roma are the underdogs of Europe, and treated like invisible citizenry. We don't ever hear about them in the media, despite the fact that they are ever present (have you heard of Charlie Chaplin?) and have been an influential cultural force (Gogol Bordello and others have popularized their musical genre). In fact, many of the Romani are stateless, with no formal documentation or legal status in their country of residence--which I suppose fits with the idea of traveling gypsies with no real home or settlement. But if you were to ask a Roma person whether they have chosen to live a life at the periphery as pariahs and outcasts, they will tell you that they've never really been given much of a choice.
When we think gypsy, we're really thinking more along the lines of Bohemian lifestyle and fashion--never the Romani people. The word "bohémien" was the common term in France for the Romani (who traveled to Western Europe through Bohemia), which was then extended to artists, writers, musicians and actors who lived "unconventional lifestyles" regardless of ethnicity and origin. The history of the Romani people itself, however, really does capture the imagination as it covers the great distance from India to Western Europe. There are several theories for the migration of the Romani from India, which has kept an aura of mystery to their story and cultural identity.
When I lived in Macedonia, I worked closely with the Romani people of the Balkans, a.k.a. gypsies. They are a remarkable people--by no means a homogeneous group across Europe--with exceptional survival skills honed in through years (generations) of persecution and discrimination. In Macedonia, a majority of them are refugees from the war in Kosovo.
The Roma are the underdogs of Europe, and treated like invisible citizenry. We don't ever hear about them in the media, despite the fact that they are ever present (have you heard of Charlie Chaplin?) and have been an influential cultural force (Gogol Bordello and others have popularized their musical genre). In fact, many of the Romani are stateless, with no formal documentation or legal status in their country of residence--which I suppose fits with the idea of traveling gypsies with no real home or settlement. But if you were to ask a Roma person whether they have chosen to live a life at the periphery as pariahs and outcasts, they will tell you that they've never really been given much of a choice.
When we think gypsy, we're really thinking more along the lines of Bohemian lifestyle and fashion--never the Romani people. The word "bohémien" was the common term in France for the Romani (who traveled to Western Europe through Bohemia), which was then extended to artists, writers, musicians and actors who lived "unconventional lifestyles" regardless of ethnicity and origin. The history of the Romani people itself, however, really does capture the imagination as it covers the great distance from India to Western Europe. There are several theories for the migration of the Romani from India, which has kept an aura of mystery to their story and cultural identity.
Me and my colleagues (left) posing with the Roma refugee band "Roma Talents" (right) in Skopje
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