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The following article includes the words "Rom, Roma, and Romany"
to describe the people also (inaccurately) known as "Gypsies." The
author has chosen the preferred terms in respect for Sani's and
Esma's request.
SANI RIFATI
My friend Sani Rifati is a self-described Rom Activist. He has appeared
recently on the History Channel's documentary, "Curse on
the Gypsies," and is becoming well known across the U.S.and elsewhere
for his work, not only for his people, the Roma, but for all people,
to help us overcome the barriers of ignorance and myth that has
held for too long bewteen gadje (non-Rom) and Roma alike.
Sani and his wife, Carol Bloom, also produce the annual
Herdeljes Celebration in Graton, California. Herdeljes means
"Summer Announcement," and it's the only festival of its kind in
the United States that is on any sizeable scale that we know of.
Sani and Carol's Herdeljes is open to the public and each year attendance
grows as people become aware of the event.
Sani was born in Kosovo (former Yugoslavia), the second of six children.
His situation growing up was a mixture of repressive Romany and
oppressive Muslim tenets, during a socialistic regime.
The good thing about this regime was that schooling was free, and
Sani earned his degree as a chemical engineer in Kosovo. The conflict
between the Albanian and Serbian people was heating up when he was
still in school, in the early 1980s. He found himself caught bewteen
the demonstrators and the police on more than one occasion.
This is because Roma try to remain nuetral during conflicts. Sani
says, "The most beautiful part of my culture is that we don't like
to fight. We have no country - not even a national hero. That is
not to say we don't have heros, we do - but they represent the country
where they live."
Sani was fortunate because his mother encouraged her children to
attend school. This was actually considered somewhat rebellious
as far as Roma go. Sani found early on that because he was an outsider,
a Rom, in a Serbian school, that he had to work several times harder
than the Serbian children. By the time he graduated, he spoke Romany,
Turkish, Albanian, Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian (Yugoslavian).
Along the way Sani became very active in semi-professional soccer.
But he found he could not get work in either his chemistry field
or in professional soccer because of discrimination against Roma.
It was heartbreaking when the Albanians took control, as they began
separatism and hired any Albanian - even 12 year old children -
to do the work, including adult jobs, because of their Albanian
nationality. Anyone not Albanian was out of luck.
In 1988 Sani moved to Croatia. He found work as a seasonal sales
clerk at a souvenir shop and diligently saved his earnings aside.
Soon he had enough to go to Florence, Italy, later that same year.
Sani said he chose Florence in part because of its lovely name,
even though he didn't yet speak Italian.
Once in Italy Sani found a cheap room. But not too much time had
passed before he was out of money, could not speak the language,
and had no job. He became homeless, sleeping on park benches and
under bridges, preferring that life to returning to Yugoslavia as
it was falling apart by then. Sani got busy and learned passing
Italian within 3 months, and very soon after found his first job
in Italy as an assistant plasterer and mason. His boss taught him
well during the ensuing apprenticeship, and included painting and
other related skills as well. It went so smoothly for Sani that
he later worked for his boss, then his good friend, only in the
winter, while in the summer he ran his own business and employed
four people of his own!
Sani began going to nursing school. He had been attending classes
for about a year and working at his masonry business part time.
But in '91 or '92 as the war broke out in Yugoslavia, three of his
brothers came to him in Italy for help. He found them housing and
work, quit school and went back to work full time.
About that same time, in '91, Sani met Carol at an outdoor concert
in Florence featuring a Romanian Romany band. Their violinist was
Taraf di Hajduk, perhaps familiar to readers of this article
as the violinist featured in the movie, "Latcho Drom," who
played the violin with one string. Sani was translating for the
Romany band members and Carol was visiting from her home in America.
When '92 rolled around, they became more involved. Carol had moved
on to Amsterdam then, but came to Florence fairly often to visit.
Sani also made it to Amsterdam to visit her, and she gave him his
first silk shirt! They became very close, and travelled extensively
throughout Europe for about five months together.
But before long, Carol was needing to leave and return to the U.S.A..
Sani asked her to stay and live with him, but she had to return
home, so the lovers contented themselves for a time by writing frequent
letters to one another. After many long-distance phone calls and
dozens of weekly letters four months had passed. While Sani was
visiting Munich, Carol telephoned and told him that if he wanted
to live with her, it would have to be in America. So he agreed,
and they married in Florence and returned to the United States together.
Sani told me how very lucky he feels he was to have found Carol,
as she was instrumental in aiding him and encouraging him to become
an activist and spokesperson for his people. Carol was a feminist
activist in the 1970s, and knew some ins and outs by then. Sani
had experienced so much predjudice and discrimination in Yugoslavia
that he was determined to do his part to help abolish it elsewhere.
He calls our people here in America "cynically gullible" because
we don't believe much of what we are told by educators, yet believe
too much about what we read or hear in the media. However, he loves
the United States because we allow free speech. Many of us here
do not realize what a privilege this is; so many folks the world
over consider it a luxury as it is not available to them elsewhere.
Sani described some eye-opening statistics regarding the genocide
of his people throughout Europe, and mentioned that it is still
going on in some places. Skinheads and other groups are killing
Roma for no other reason than that they are Roma, even today as
I write. He mentioned protesting at the Czeck Republic embassy a
few years ago because a group of skinheads savagely beat and threw
off a bridge a Romni (a Rom woman) because they could. (This occurred
in the Czech Republic). Finally the leader of the skinhead group
received an eight year sentence for the murder. Eight years, only!
It is things like this that keep Sani going on his quest to bring
to light this kind of horror so it can be stopped.
"Sometimes what I am trying to do seems impossible," Sani tells
me. "How can I get through to this society here in the U.S., when
people have so little time? In conjunction with the corporate world,
working 12 to 14 hours a day with the commute, and coming home so
tired at night they cannot give their time and attention to this
plight. People cannot get the information, they sit in front of
the T.V. because they are so tired from their day. This makes me
ask myself, 'what am I doing?' Then I remember that if I don't speak
up for my people, then who is going to? It takes someone to start.
I am who I am, and I am honored to be a Rom."
I asked Sani how he first became involved as a speaker for his people,
and much to my delight, he replied, "It started with your event
in Berkeley two years ago." (In 1997 I sponsored Elizabeth Artemis
Mourat and Laurel Victoria Gray in their two-day "Gypsy
Fire" workshop, and asked Sani to come and speak during the evening
show. Again in 1998 he did the same, and also taught traditional
Romany line dances with Carol for the audience during intermission.)
"So one of my first speeches was at your event. Since then I have
been going to schools and Universities for lectures, speaking on
the radio and becoming more well known." When asked how he has been
received, Sani replied, "Well, the students were very surprised
- shocked - at how much I criticized American society. As I said
before, I am very angry at our media and at narrow-minded people
here. They do not represent the entire picture. What you hear, for
example, about the situation in Kosovo is all about Serbs, Croatians,
Bosnians and Albanians.
You hear nothing about the Roma caught up in the conflict, and there
are over one million in former Yugoslavia. In Kosovo alone there
are between 200,000 and 250,000 Roma. It's just as you heard nothing
about their genocide during the Holocaust of WWII until very recently,
and that is due to some Rom activists and scholars who have finally
spoken out, and the work of Ian Hancock, or you would still not
be aware of the one million Roma that perished then. I also get
angry, and see correlations in that when I asked a student at Sonoma
State University how many units one needs to graduate on Native
American culture and he replied they need two. Two units! How much
can you learn in two units about the people your ancestors killed
and stole from? We put up our asphalt over their ashes and still
we know nothing. It is also true for understanding African Americans.
We spend basically no time in this society, for college students,
on getting to understand one another."
I asked Sani how he became involved in the History Channel's documentary,
"Curse on the Gypsies." He belongs to the Romany Union, "and the
president of the union is Ian Hancock. (Who also appears
on the same documentary.) The History Channel contacted him, and
he gave them my phone number. Ian Hancock is a very incredible fighter,
very politically involved. It took him twelve years to gain one
Romany seat on the Holocaust Council in Washington, DC, but
he did it, with help from some politically active Americans. It
is now known that the genocide during WWII on the Roma began much
earlier than suspected, before the Jewish genocide. In 1932 Hitler's
regime conducted the first experiments on two hundred and fifty
Romany children, all of whom were killed in the gas chambers then."
Sani was very willing to describe his Herdeljes Celebration when
I asked. "This past summer we had our second annual summer festival.
This May 8, 1999 will be our third year. In my culture we have only
two seasons, winter and summer. In the winter we are obliged to
stay in one place because of the weather, but in the summer we can
return to our travels. So the return of summer is of course a big
celebration, a wonderful thing! The weather is warmer and the food
is more plentiful. We are no longer cooped up indoors. We celebrate
the moon, the movement, the light, the sun and the fire. With movement
things can happen, things can grow and change. Traditionally, in
Yugoslavia, we would go with our families and have a big picnic.
We'd bring mastika to drink and lots of food. On the way
home we'd pick up some herbs for good health, good luck, prosperity,
the good season and warm weather. We buy lambs and we sacrifice
the lambs for a good year. The lamb is sacrificed to make sure bad
things cannot happen. The lamb is shared, eaten by the families
and given to charities, to people who have nothing to eat. The next
morning we get up very early, before the dawn. Some people get up
at midnight! We meet in front of the home and start a big fire where
the lambs are roasted and everyone listens to or plays music, dances,
drinks, feasts and celebrates the coming of summer together. It
goes on for four more days, the whole celebration being eight days
long."
I asked Sani about the custom of leaping the bonfire. "The fire
is our source. To our ancestors fire was life. With fire we could
boil the water, cook the food, wash the clothes and all the things
you need. Also, people dress up for this event traditionally, and
clean out their closets and wear something new. This is for good
health and prosperity."
The celebration in Graton, California is not exactly the same. Last
year there were two hundred and sixty people in attendance, mostly
non-Rom. "We start preparing seven days before the event. We cook
our traditional food and prepare everything. My mother will be here
for this year's celebration and she will make the best baklava from
scratch that you have ever tasted! People hear about it from listening
to KPFA (a radio station in the Bay Area that focuses on ethnic
music and events) and from seeing flyers I put up. The rest hear
word-of-mouth."
We spoke about other Romany celebrations and traditions, and I learned
that these can vary from place to place. Sani explained that the
Roma pick up culture from the host cultures of the countries or
regions they have settled in, and often adopt some aspects themselves.
Sani told me a bit about the tradition of celebrating the Day of
the Dead, which in Kosovo they do at the end of summer, in the fall.
The Roma go from place to place and leave offerings and commune
with the spirits of the dead, much like Los Dias de Los Muertos
is celebrated in Mexico and in the southwest of the U.S., similar
also to Hallowe'en or Samhain. Also religion plays a part, for if
one is a Christian Rom they may celebrate more Christian things,
like an Orthodox Christmas. "Their New Year's Eve is on the 7th
of January. In my culture we celebrate the first day of the year
as you do here. Or if they are Muslim, they will honor those traditions.
Male circumcision is a big event for Roma as well. But the one celebration
that all Roma have in common is Herdeljes."
I asked Sani how his people perceive movies such as "Latcho Drom"
or "Gadjo Dillo." He replied that he liked both of them very
much. "The Romany website, RomNet, had much positive response to
Latcho Drom. But for Gadjo Dillo they did not have as much. It generated
a lot of controversy between the Roma themselves. Some were very
offended. I listened to both sides and I realized some of my people's
scholars here are not familiar with some of the customs of our people
in Europe. They are more into 'political correctness' and do not
always represent the true picture of our culture. Tony Gatliff
(the writer and director of both films, who is Rom) did not make
anything up! All that he shows in the movie is true. For me, that
is good enough. But some of my people are afraid that the depiction
of some of the less savory elements of our culture will make people
who are trying to learn about us more afraid or more separate. That
it will only serve to reinforce more of the stereotypes we are fighting
against."
I mentioned to Sani that I personally enjoyed Gadjo Dillo even more
than Latcho Drom because it seemed more truthful. To me, Latcho
Drom had a lot of staged scenes that one would not encounter under
normal conditions. It was - well, prettier, and cleaner, and easier
to look at. Yes, and more politically correct. As Sani said, it
was romanticized. The last film was grittier and more real. As Sani
says, "The truth hurts sometimes. I was very impressed with the
movie. I didn't see anything wrong with it, as that is who we are.
Sometimes I ask myself, with my credit cards and my going to work
everyday, 'what kind of Rom am I?' Rom scholars, and activists,
we are now separate from our people, we have our computers and what
do we know about suffering?"
But Sani has a unique perspective on these matters, as he has had
both the suffering and now the more comfortable life, in which he
can try to do something positive for his people and all people worldwide
by initiating change. This could not happen if he were still suffering.
He would need to attend to daily life and would have no time or
energy left for helping the world. Sani is also unique in that he
is willing to speak to non-Rom (he personally does not use or like
the term gadje, as he feels it serves to keep us separate) about
his people. The majority of Roma are very unwilling to communicate
with outsiders. As he pointed out, however, it is with good reason
that they are reluctant to speak - centuries of good reasons, actually.
He says some of his own people see him as an outsider because of
his work with gadje. They see him as someone who is different from
them. I was very disturbed to hear that, but I understand as he
does. The wheels of change turn slowly on all corners of the wagon.
We agreed we are both very lucky to have each other, us non-Rom
who would like to learn more about the Roma, and he as an individual
for the shared experiences we have because of his willingness to
speak. He says it is good because people are listening. They are
seeing, albeit slowly, that Rom are not baby-snatching chicken thieves
but rather people just like you and I.
This is because of work of people like Sani who care about the future
of all people.
Sani and Carol are working on a project together to further this
understanding. Carol is a professional mediator and they have just
returned from Kosovo where they began work on the Kosovar Romany
Conflict Resolution Project. It offers education and training in
internal and inter-ethnic conflict resolution for the Romany community
in Pristina, Kosovo. The overall goal is to improve living conditions
for Kosovar Roma by providing an understanding of conflict and conflict
resolution methods congruent with Romany culture and assisting Roma
to establish and strengthen their collective voice within the larger,
ethnically diverse community of Kosovo. A special emphasis will
be placed on providing access to and encouraging the participation
of Romany women in all aspects of the project.
Also while in Kosovo this past December 1998, Sani and Carol brought
$6,000 they raised through various fund-raising projects, including
Herdeljes (from which all proceeds go to this end) lectures, donations,
sales of T-shirts Sani has made, and various other projects. I am
very pleased to be involved in some of these by dancing in performance
at these events. The money raised went to buy firewood and dried
goods that they personally distributed among needy families, both
Rom and non-Rom alike.
Through Sani I was very honored to meet his cousin, Esma Redzepova,
the undisputed Queen of Romany Song. She is best known for her work
with the Ansambl Teodosievski, with whom she has toured for decades.
Together with her late husband, Stevo Teodosievski, they have recorded
over one hundred singles, twenty albums, and twenty cassettes, including
several gold records. "How do you describe a woman who sings with
the power of lightning, the wisdom of a sage, the voice of an angel
and the tenderness of a loving mother? She is Esma, a world class
artist and cultural icon who carries the torch for her people wherever
she goes. She has sung for presidents and peasants, always with
the dedication and intensity of a woman who gives from every cell.
This dynamo barely brushes five feet tall but has moved pavillions
of thousands and has introduced them to the magic of Romany music."
(from an article by Elizabeth Artemis Mourat, reprinted with permission.)
Following is an interview I conducted with Esma that was translated
by Sani earlier in the fall of 1998. Esma is another Romni who is
also working tirelessly to help her people, and has been doing so
for a lifetime.
ESMA REDZEPOVA
KD: How did you become known as the Queen of Romany Music?
E: In 1976 in Chandigarh, India twenty-three representatives of
the Roma from many countries gathered for the First World Festival
of Romany Songs and Music. (India was chosen in part because the
Rom people recognize it as their place of origin.) They wanted to
see who had the most traditional Romany way of singing. From the
twenty-three representatives, I won first place! I was crowned and
awarded this honor by none other than Prime Minister Indira Ghandi
and India's President.
KD: What was it like to perform for Indira Ghandi?
E: Just like all performances when you sing in front of important
people, like presidents and heads of state. It gives you more incentive
and motivation to do your best. In 1961 Yugoslavia hosted the Summit
Conference for eighty-nine international countries. Eighty-nine
presidents were there, and I sang in front of all of them.
KD: You began performing at age thirteen. So young! How, and why?
E: Correction! From the twelfth year. In 1997 I had a celebration
of forty years of singing in Skopje, Macedonia. That was always
my dream - to become a singer. I always had a talent for the music
and for singing. I lived and trained with my late husband, Stevo.
At age twelve he virtually adopted me and began my formal training.
I took all classes in school and music until age twenty- three with
him. Throughout the years we fell in love and married after that
time.
KD: What inspired you to adopt over forty-four children over twenty-five
years?
E: Another correction. It is now forty-seven! Because I was adopted
as a poor little girl, I later on wanted to continue this by helping
other kids who's families couldn't afford for them to go to school
or to take care of them. That's how our famous school got started,
the School of Music by Esma and Stevo Teodosievski.
We like to help people.
KD: Why did you choose to adopt only boys?
E: The children were adopted around age thirteen, right when their
puberty starts. Stevo and I realized that it would be asking for
trouble to put boys and girls together at that age. If I could have
had babies of my own, but unfortunately I couldn't, then I would
have boys and girls together, and I would treat them the same, because
then they would be siblings. But all my boys we adopted call me
Mama. I have been able to help more kids through adoption than if
I had been able to have children of my own. All of the proceeds
from the tour of the Ensemble Teodosievski go to help fund
and run the School of Music in Macedonia, and to help the children.
Both Rom and non-Rom children benefit. I am also involved with a
women's organization there that I helped get started. It's called
the Romany Organization of Women (ESMA). Now that organization
is fighting the fact that there are no women in the Parliment. They
want women politicians to help represent them. They also help the
women however they can, with whatever is needed.
KD: How would you describe the style of music you sing?
E: It's Classic Romany music. It's all traditional. I think that
it's really worth keeping the style pure, so I don't mix cultural
influences while singing with the Ensemble Teodosievski. It is a
very demanding style vocally, with many ornaments. The musicians
have to follow me in order to perform it. There are not many who
can do this. In a future solo project I may allow for more creative
freedom, however.
KD: I understand you sing in sixteen different languages. How many
do you speak conversationally?
E: You don't need to know the language but you can sing. I just
got done teaching a workshop at Balkan Camp at Mendocino Woodlands
in California. After just one week two hundred and fifty people
can now sing in Romany and Macedonian! They don't know the languages,
but they sing! At Mendocino Balkan Camp people sing and speak at
least twelve languages. They're all representing different Balkan
countries like Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Albania and all of them.
They are all different flavors. I can sing in all of them, but my
mothertongue is Romany. I can also speak Macedonian, Serbian, Turkish.
Lots more.
KD: One very important accomplishment you have been instrumental
in achieving has been to help break down the barriers between the
Roma and Slavic peoples. How did you achieve this and how can others
work towards a similar goal throughout the world?
E: One of the secrets of why this door was opened is because my
teacher, my husband, was not Rom. Stevo was Macedonian. If a door
was open, it is because Stevo opened it. If a door wasn't opened,
he would try to open it. A Rom would not have been as successful.
In some ways that shows the sickness of a society, but you have
to start somewhere. If they are refusing me because I am Romni,
then they won't be refusing him because he is different from Roma.
KD: Do you have any advice how people elsewhere can help achieve
the goal of breaking through barriers and opening doors? And increase
the cultural understanding between Rom and non-Rom?
E: I would welcome all of that. We can in this world. Nobody ever
knows when they will be accepted or rejected. It's not our fault
if we are one of the world's human races on the earth. I don't like
that there are borders around countries. I prefer that the borders
be open to everyone. I came free into this world and I don't care
if there is Germany or Greece or Turkey. I feel I am a World Citizen.
I cannot help it if I am Rom, it is not my fault. If I want to be
in America, I am in America. If I want to be in Australia, then
I'm in Australia. I have never liked the fact that people are fighting
for centuries. Why do we have to kill for the race? Why do we have
to kill for the country? Or the territory? Or for this or that?
I don't understand. We live for a very short time. We don't live
to one hundred years. Maybe if we did, we'd fight one hundred years.
If we lived to two hundred years and fought for a hundred, at least
we'd have another hundred years of peace! But we don't, and we don't
learn from our mistakes. We are still fighting. Why? We are born
naked and we die naked and we don't carry anything with us to the
next world. So fighting doesn't make sense. The greatest barrier
to all people is war.
KD: Would you say that the prejudice and problems experienced by
Roma in Macedonia are similar to those experienced by Rom worldwide,
and do you think those are similar to the problems of any oppressed
group?
E: Macedonia is least oppressive. Partly because I sang for so many
years the Romany music there! It was one of the first countries
in the world that gave a radio show in the Romany language, with
singing and music. One of the first Rom as a leader (mayor) is of
the town of Skopje. They have Romski as members of the Parliment
in Macedonia, they have two private Roma channels on TV and four
radio stations in the Romany language now, and on national TV, there
are two shows and all of Macedonia can watch us. So Macedonia is
definitely one of the most democratic and accepting of Rom people.
If in this earth there is a country that doesn't have any Roma,
then that means it is not a democratic system. And that is why I
think the Roma are one of the greatest people, because we don't
have a country or own a land. We just want to have peace and live
our lives. Where we settle, in which country, we are patriots to
that country. We are committed to it if we adopt it as our own.
KD: What would you like to talk about for our readers to know?
E: My message is to love and respect one another, it doesn't matter
the race, skin color or gender. The person who has a little more
should help the one who has nothing. One of the most important messages
is to help the children.
This concludes my interviews with Sani Rifati and Esma Redzepova.
Please feel free to contact Sani for information regarding how you
can help, or donate contributions, how you can sponsor him separately
or with his wife Carol in your town, and about Herdeljes. Sani will
travel for lectures and he and Carol make a great teaching team
for the line dances!
~end~
Other websites with information regarding the Roma are:
Roma Home Page
European Roma Rights Center
Open Society Institute
Roma (Gypsy) Origins
& History
Bury Me Standing-The
Gypsies and Their Journey
Rromani People
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