1.
Romani people
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The Romani are widely known among English-speaking people by the exonym Gypsies, which some people consider pejorative due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity. Romani are dispersed, with their populations in Europe – especially Central, Eastern and Southern Europe including Turkey, Spain. Since the 19th century, some Romani have also migrated to the Americas, there are an estimated one million Roma in the United States, and 800,000 in Brazil, most of whose ancestors emigrated in the nineteenth century from eastern Europe. Brazil also includes some Romani descended from people deported by the government of Portugal during the Inquisition in the colonial era, in migrations since the late nineteenth century, Romani have also moved to other countries in South America and to Canada. In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora, the Romani language is divided into several dialects, which add up to an estimated number of speakers larger than two million. The total number of Romani people is at least twice as large, many Romani are native speakers of the language current in their country of residence, or of mixed languages combining the two, those varieties are sometimes called Para-Romani. French bohème, bohémien, from the Kingdom of Bohemia, whence they came, Rom means man or husband in the Romani, it has the variants dom and lom, related with the Sanskrit words dam-pati, dama, lom, lomaka loman, roman. Another possible origin is from Sanskrit डोम doma, Sanskrit सिनधु is a river or stream of water in general. In particular, it denotes the river Indus and the country around it, in the Romani language, Rom is a masculine noun, meaning man of the Roma ethnic group or man, husband, with the plural Roma. The feminine of Rom in the Romani language is Romni, however, in most cases, in other languages Rom is now used for people of all genders. Romani is the adjective, while Romano is the masculine adjective. Some Romanies use Rom or Roma as a name, while others do not use this term as a self-ascription for the entire ethnic group. Sometimes, rom and romani are spelled with a r, i. e. rrom. In this case rr is used to represent the phoneme /ʀ/, the rr spelling is common in certain institutions, or used in certain countries, e. g. Romania, to distinguish from the endonym/homonym for Romanians. In the English language, Rom is a noun and an adjective, while Romani is also a noun, both Rom and Romani have been in use in English since the 19th century as an alternative for Gypsy. Romani was initially spelled Rommany, then Romany, while today the Romani spelling is the most popular spelling, occasionally, the double r spelling mentioned above is also encountered in English texts. The term Roma is increasingly encountered during recent decades, as a term for the Romani people
Romani people
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Romani wagon pictured in 2009 in
Grandborough (Grandborough Fields Road is a popular spot for travelling people)
Romani people
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Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted by the 1971
World Romani Congress
Romani people
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Romani Wagon in
Germany in 1935
Romani people
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Debret, Jean-Baptiste (c. 1820), Interior of a gipsy's house in
Brazil.
2.
Archaeology of the Romani people
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The Romani people has a long history, and most likely hails from the Indian subcontinent. Throughout said history, the highly diverse Roma population has faced significant persecution – antiziganism – in many parts of the world, in modern times, even when this issue gradually being resolved in some areas, the field of Romani archaeology remains virtually unexplored. This is especially the case in Sweden and Norway, where the Norwegian, two sites in particular have gone through several stages of excavation, with a third excavation project beginning in 2015. One is Snarsmon, a Romani village close to the Norwegian border in Tanum Municipality which was active as a sanctuary from the 1860s until the first years of the 20th century, surveys began in 2003, with yearly excavations between 2004 and 2007. The second Swedish site is Krämarstaden, likewise a Romani village, the village was established in the first years of the 20th century, and abandoned in the beginning of the 1920s. In August 2015, excavations began at a Romani campsite outside of Stockholm, the camp was built in 1959 by the Swedish state as a temporary solution, until apartments could be arranged for the Romani, who had just been given full civic rights. The camp soon became permanent as the process was dragged out, its inhabitants – about thirty people – living in tents, caravans. It will result in a book and a report, in addition to certain finds forming part of the Swedens History exhibition at the Swedish History Museum. One of these, Tattardalen in Kungälv Municipality, is a ruined farmstead dating back to the 1600s, another example of possibly Romani-related archaeology is a June 2010 excavation of the Caird’s Cave in Rosemarkie, Scotland, a site possibly inhabited by Scottish Gypsy and Traveller groups. In addition to archaeology directly relating to Romani sites, there have also some research done into the archaeogenetics. Contemporary archaeology Ethnoarchaeology Timeline of Romani history
Archaeology of the Romani people
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Excavated building foundations in Snarsmon, Sweden, 2009.
3.
Romani society and culture
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The Romani people have similar value systems and worldviews. Linguistic and phonological research has traced the Roma peoples first place of origin to places in the Indian subcontinent, many report in extracts from popular literature that Romani emerged from the North-west regions of India, rather than from Central India. Features of phonological developments which emerged during the transition stage from Old to Middle Indic prove that the history of Romani began in Central India. Other factors such as groups and unwritten customs also suggest Central Indian origins of the Roma. The Roma find issues with recalling their own exact origin due to a lack of records left by ancestors. Their history however is retold by clan family customs, such as singing and storytelling, the Romani people are today found in many countries. Typically, Romani adopt given names that are common in the country of their residence, seldom do modern Romani use traditional names from their own language, such as Papush, Luludi, Patrin, etc. Being the only Indo-Aryan language that has been spoken exclusively around Europe since the Middle Ages and they generally refer to their language as řomani čhib translated as ‘the Romani language’, or řomanes, ‘in a Rom way’. The English term, Romani, has been used by scholars since the 19th Century, the traditional Romanies place a high value on the extended family. Marriage in Romani society underscores the importance of family and demonstrates ties between different groups, often transnationally, traditionally an arranged marriage is the desired set up, with the parents of each family looking for an ideal partner for their child. Parents rarely force a particular spouse on their child, although being married by your mid twenties is generally regarded as the norm, school, other marriages, and events are also a popular environment for finding a prospective spouse, however they should be supervised by an adult. With the emergence of social media such as Facebook and mobile phones, in some Roma groups, for example the Finnish Roma, the idea of marriage is ignored altogether. Men and women often marry young, the Romani practice of child marriage has generated controversy in many countries. In 2003, one of the many self-styled Romani kings, Ilie Tortică, a Romani patriarch, Florin Cioabă, ran afoul of Romanian authorities in late 2003 when he married off his youngest daughter, Ana-Maria at the age of twelve, well below the legal marriageable age. Bride kidnapping is thought to be a traditional Romani practice, girls as young as twelve years old may be kidnapped for marriage to teenage boys. This practice has been reported in Ireland, England, the Czech Republic, kidnapping has been seen as a way to avoid a bride price or a way for a girl to marry a boy she wants but that her parents do not want. The traditions normalisation of kidnapping puts young women at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking. The practices of kidnapping and child marriage are not universally accepted throughout Romani culture
Romani society and culture
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A bridesmaid at a Romani wedding in
Brno, Czech Republic (2006 photograph)
Romani society and culture
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1552
woodcut of A Gipsy Family
Romani society and culture
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The cult of
Saint Sarah in the shrine of
Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Southern France is a devotion associated with Catholic Romanies.
Romani society and culture
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Romani musicians entertaining
4.
Romani language
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Romani is any of several languages of the Romani people belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. According to Ethnologue, seven varieties of Romani are divergent enough to be considered languages of their own, the largest of these are Vlax Romani, Balkan Romani, and Sinte Romani. The differences between various varieties can be as big as, for example, differences between various Slavic languages, speakers of the Romani language usually refer to the language as řomani čhib the Romani language or řomanes in a Rom way. This derives from the Romani word řom, meaning either a member of the group or husband and this is also where the term Roma derives in English, although some Roma groups refer to themselves using other demonyms. The English spelling Rromani language may also be found, reflecting a different transcription of the Romani phoneme ř, before the late nineteenth century, English-language texts usually referred to the language as the Gypsy language. In the USA, gypsy is still the term, as Romani is not in common use there. In the 18th century, it was shown by studies that Romani belongs to the Indo-European language family. Romani is an Indo-Aryan language that is part of the Balkan sprachbund and it is the only New Indo-Aryan spoken exclusively outside of the Indian subcontinent. Romani is sometimes classified in the Central Zone or Northwestern Zone Indo-Aryan languages, Romani shares a number of features with the Central Zone languages. The most significant isoglosses are the shift of Old Indo-Aryan r̥ to u or i, however, unlike other Central Zone languages, Romani preserves many dental clusters. This implies that Romani split from the Central Zone languages before the Middle Indo-Aryan period, however, Romani shows some features of New Indo-Aryan, such as erosion of the original nominal case system towards a nominative/oblique dichotomy, with new grammaticalized case suffixes added on. This means that the Romani exodus from India could not have happened until late in the first millennium CE, many words are similar to the Marwari and Lambadi languages spoken in large parts of India. However, Romani is nearer to the Marwari spoken in Rajasthan, Romani also shows some similarity to the Northwestern Zone languages. In particular, the grammaticalization of enclitic pronouns as person markers on verbs is also found in such as Kashmiri. This evidences a northwest migration during the split from the Central Zone languages consistent with a migration to Europe. Based on these data, Matras views Romani as kind of Indian hybrid, to r and ř, and shift of inflectional -a to -o. After exiting the Indian subcontinent, Romani was heavily affected by contact with European languages, the most significant of these was Medieval Greek, which contributed lexically, phonemically, and grammatically to Early Romani. This includes inflectional affixes for nouns, and verbs that are productive with borrowed vocabulary, the shift to VO word order
Romani language
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Map showing the migrations of Romani people through Europe and Asia minor.
5.
History of the Romani people
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The Romani people, also referred to depending on the sub-group as Roma, Sinti or Sindhi, or Kale are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, who live primarily in Europe. They originated in northwest regions of the Indian subcontinent and left sometime between the 6th and 11th century to work in Middle Eastern courts of their own volition, or as slaves. A small number of groups were cut off from their return to the subcontinent by conflicts and moved west, eventually settling in Europe, Turkey. The absence of traditional stories and of a written history has meant that the origin. Indian origin was suggested on linguistic grounds as early as the late 18th century, the genetic evidence identified an Indian origin for Roma. One theory suggests that the name derives from a form ḍōmba- man of low caste living by singing and music. An alternative view is that the ancestors of the Romani were part of the military in Northern India, when there were invasions by Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi and these soldiers were defeated, they were moved west with their families into the Byzantine Empire between AD1000 and 1030. Genetic evidence connects the Romani people to the descendants of groups which emigrated from South Asia towards Central Asia during the medieval period, until the mid-to-late 18th century, theories of the origin of the Romani were mostly speculative. In 1782, Johann Christian Christoph Rüdiger published his research that pointed out the relationship between the Romani language and Hindustani. Subsequent work supported the hypothesis that Romani shared a common origin with the Indo-Aryan languages of Northern India, the Dom and the Rom are therefore likely to be descendants of two different migration waves from the Indian subcontinent, separated by several centuries. Numerals in the Romani, Domari and Lomavren languages, with Hindi, note that Romani 7–9 are borrowed from Greek. Further evidence for the South Asian origin of the Romanies came in the late 1990s, researchers doing DNA analysis discovered that Romani populations carried large frequencies of particular Y chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA that otherwise exist only in populations from South Asia. 47. 3% of Romani men carry Y chromosomes of haplogroup H-M82 which is rare outside South Asia, mitochondrial haplogroup M, most common in Indian subjects and rare outside Southern Asia, accounts for nearly 30% of Romani people. A more detailed study of Polish Roma shows this to be of the M5 lineage, moreover, a form of the inherited disorder congenital myasthenia is found in Romani subjects. This form of the disorder, caused by the 1267delG mutation, is known only in subjects of Indian ancestry. This is considered to be the best evidence of the Indian ancestry of the Romanis, the Romanis have been described as a conglomerate of genetically isolated founder populations. The number of common Mendelian disorders found among Romanis from all over Europe indicates a common origin and founder effect. See also this table, A study from 2001 by Gresham et al. suggests a number of related founders
History of the Romani people
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The initial arrival of Romani outside
Bern in the 15th century, described by the chronicler as getoufte heiden "baptized heathens" and drawn wearing
Saracene style clothes and weapons (
Spiezer Schilling, p. 749).
History of the Romani people
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The migration of the Romani people through the
Middle East and
Northern Africa to Europe. The key shows the century of arrival in that area, e.g. S.XII is the 12th century
6.
Erromintxela
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Erromintxela is the distinctive language of a group of Romani living in the Basque Country, who also go by the name Erromintxela. It is sometimes called Basque Caló or Errumantxela in English, caló vasco, romaní vasco, or errominchela in Spanish, although detailed accounts of the language date to the end of the 19th century, linguistic research only began in the 1990s. The development of mixed language was facilitated by the unusually deep integration of the Erromintxela people into Basque society. The language is in decline, most of the one thousand remaining speakers live on the coast of Labourd and in the mountainous regions of Soule, Navarre, Gipuzkoa. The Erromintxela are the descendants of a 15th-century wave of Kalderash Roma who entered the Basque Country via France, both ethnically and linguistically, they are distinct from the Caló-speaking Romani people in Spain and the Cascarot Romani people of the Northern Basque Country. Romanichel is in turn a French rendering of the Romani phrase Romani čel Romani person, early attestations of the name in Basque include Errama-itçéla, Erroumancel, later errumanzel and erremaitzela. The initial E- is the Basque prosthetic vowel, added because no Basque word may begin with an R-, if this etymology is correct, it is a rare case of a native Romani name for themselves being borrowed by another language. The people identify themselves as ijitoak, Basque for gypsies, but more specifically as Erromintxela, in contrast to the Caló Romani, whom they refer to as the xango-gorriak, Basque for red-legs. There are currently an estimated 500 speakers in the Southern Basque Country in Spain, approximately 2% of a population of 21,000 Romanis, and another estimated 500 in France. In Spain the remaining fluent speakers are elderly people mostly over the age of 80, some are fluent in Spanish, Basque. Middle-aged Erromintxela are mostly passive bilinguals, and the youngest speak only Basque or Spanish, in the Northern Basque Country, however, the language is still being passed on to children. To date, there has been little literary production in the language, the Erromintxela arrived in the Basque Country in the 15th century speaking Kalderash Romani. They integrated much more deeply into Basque society than other Romani groups, in the process, they acquired the Basque language and adopted aspects of Basque culture such as increased rights of women and important traditions such as bertsolaritza and pelota. Muñoz and Lopez de Mungia suspect that the morphological and phonological similarities between Romani and Basque facilitated the adoption of Basque grammar by the bilingual Romanis and it appears that many Romanis chose to stay in the Basque Country to escape persecution elsewhere in Europe. Nonetheless, even here they were not safe from persecution, for example, the Royal Council of Navarre in 1602 passed an edict to round up all vagabonds, who were to be condemned to 6 years of galley duty. By the 18th century however attitudes had changed, and the emphasis shifted towards integration, in 1780–1781 the Courts of Navarre passed Law 23, which called for the authorities to take care of them, find them locations for settlement and honest occupations and ways of living. The oldest account of the dates to 1855, when the French ethnographer Justin Cenac-Moncaut located the Erromintxela primarily in the Northern Basque Country. The oldest coherent Erromintxela text, a poem entitled Kama-goli, published by Basque writer Jon Mirande in a collection of Basque poetry and he worked with two female informants, a mother and her daughter from the Uhart-Mixe area near Saint-Palais, whom he describes as highly fluent
Erromintxela
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The migration of Romani people through the
Middle East and
Northern Africa to Europe
7.
Roma in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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According to the 1991 census, there were 8,864 Romani in Bosnia and Herzegovina or 0.2 percent of the population. Yet, the number was much higher. The BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees conducted in 2010 a process of registration, recording a number of 17,000 Roma. The MHRR estimates that there are at least 25,000 to 30,000 Roma resident in BiH, according to the Ministry, around 42 percent of the Romani population in BiH is below 19 years old. The OSCE estimates the whole Romani population in Bosnia and Herzegovina at 40, estimates for the whole Roma population living in Bosnia and Herzegovina range between 65,000 and 70,000. Kali Sara and other local Roma NGOs put the number of Roma in BiH at between 80,000 and 100,000, the Romani people originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan and Punjab. More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi and it shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, in February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora, there have been Romani people in Bosnia and Herzegovina for more than 600 years. Roma are deemed to have arrived in the territory of todays Bosnia and Herzegovina by the 14th–15th centuries, already then, Roma were stigmatised and had to live in settlements outside city boundaries. Rousseau, the French consul in Bosnia and Herzegovina, estimated in 1866 a number of 9,965 or 1.1 percent of the population were Romani. Johann Roskiewicz estimated in 1867 the number of the Gypsies in Bosnia at 9,000 and in Herzegovina at 2,500, attitudes towards Roma in Bosnia and Herzegovina hardened during the Austro-Hungarian forty-years rule, also due to rumours that Roma lived off immoral earnings. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica mentions 18,000 Romani in Bosnia, the worst period for Bosnian Roma came with World War Two, when Bosnia and Herzegovina was included in the Nazi-aligned Independent State of Croatia. It is estimated that 28,000 Roma perished in the conflict, in Socialist Jugoslavia, the situation of Roma improved considerable, as they became officially recognised as a “national minority”, and came to enjoy a large degree of security and welfare. During the war in Bosnia of 1992–1995, the Roma suffered mistreatment by all parties, being often considered as agents of the enemy. Over 30,000 Bosnian Roma were expelled based on ethnic cleansing, Roma were subject to inhumane conditions in concentration camps and entire communities were destroyed. Important communities are living in Brčko, Bijeljina, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Mostar, Tuzla, Kakanj, Prijedor, Zenica and Teslić. The largest number of Roma in Bosnia and Herzegovina live in the Tuzla Canton, of which a sizeable proportion in the municipality of Tuzla, as well as in Živinice, the Sarajevo Canton hosts around 7,000 Roma families, mostly in the municipality of Novi Grad
Roma in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Muslim Roma in
Bosnia (around 1900)
8.
Roma in Bulgaria
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Romani people in Bulgaria constitute one of the countrys largest ethnic minorities. The Romani are the third or second largest ethnic group, depending on the data, the 2011 census recorded a lower figure than that in 2001. While Romani have the highest birth rate in Europe and are considered the fastest growing group, and they also tend to have high death and immigration rates. The Romani people in Bulgaria speak Bulgarian, Turkish or Romani, depending on the region, the Romani people have darker pigmentation than most of Bulgarias ethnic groups as a result of their Indian descent. They are not concentrated in regions, but are rather spread throughout the country in similar frequencies. However, there are villages with Romani majority, in Bulgaria, Romani are most commonly referred to as Tsigani, an exonym that some Romani resent and others embrace. The form of the endonym Roma in Bulgarian is romi, in Bulgaria Roma are discriminated, 59% to 80% of non-Roma have negative feelings towards Roma. They are emancipated social group, having higher crime, unemployment, birth, death and poverty rates, though most live in poverty, the Romani are represented in Bulgarian mafia and rich Romani crime bosses deal with drug trade and prostitution. Though most of them are unemployed, they have a high rate of child sex workers. Roma constitute the majority of population according to self-identification of inmates. According to 2002 data, the poverty rate among Romani is 61. 8%, in 1997, 84% of Bulgarian Romani lived under the poverty line, compared with 32% of ethnic Bulgarians. In 1994, the poverty rate of Romani was estimated at 71. 4%, however, they enjoy more financial aid than other citizens, especially for children, which may have prompt the higher birth rates of the Romani. Many live with humanitarian aid without working, in 2011 the share of Romani with university degree reached 0. 3%, while 6. 9% have secondary education, the same share was 22. 8%/47. 6% for Bulgarians. The Turks are more negative towards the Romani than the Bulgarians, with 30-50% rejecting various interactions and friendship with Romani. Although only 25% of Romani parents object to their children to be married with a Bulgarian, Romani are avoided by the majority traditionally, especially for marriage, however, there are ethnically mixed people with Gypsy and Bulgarian parents who are called жоревци zhorevtsi. The rights of the Romani people in the country are also represented by political parties and cultural organizations, the Romani people originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan and Punjab. More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi and it shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, in February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India
Roma in Bulgaria
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Romani wedding in Sofia, 1936
Roma in Bulgaria
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Roma people in Sliven
Roma in Bulgaria
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A Romani in wagon (
Dolna Banya)
Roma in Bulgaria
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The Romani ghetto in Filipovtsi,
Sofia
9.
Roma of Croatia
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There have been Romani people in Croatia for more than 600 years and they are concentrated mostly in the northern regions of the country. The 2011 Croatian census found 16,675 Romani in Croatia or 0. 4% of the population, in 2001, more than half of the Romani population was located in the Međimurje County and the City of Zagreb. Various estimates place the actual Romani population at 30, 000-40,000, a considerable number of Romani refugees in Croatia from the ethnic conflict in Bosnia. In the 2011 census, the largest religious groups among the Romani were Catholics, Muslims, there are more than 120 Romani minority NGOs in Croatia. One of the most prominent is Croatian Roma Union, the Romani people originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan and Punjab. More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi and it shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, in February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora, Romani people were first time mentioned in Republic of Ragusa in 1362 in some commercial records. Ten years later, Romani are mentioned in Zagreb, where they were merchants, various Romani groups have lived in Croatia since the 14th century. In the Middle Ages Romani were part of population and they lived together with rest of population. According to litteras promotorias, nomad Romani groups also get privilege to resolve independently all intragroup conflicts, large groups of Romani arrived in Croatia in the 19th century from Romania after abolition of Romani slavery in 1855. Many Croatian Romani, as well as members of minority groups like Serbs. Three groups of dialects of Romani language present in wider region are Carpathian Romani, Balkan Romani, in the 2011 census, the largest religious groups among the Romani were Catholics, Muslims and Eastern Orthodoxy. According to a survey conducted in 1998, 70% of surveyed families at the time did not have permanently employed family member, 21% had one member, and 6% had two permanently employed members. An additional risk is poor housing conditions, inadequate water supply and electricity infrastructure in Romani settlements, poor health care, the Romani elect a special representative to the Croatian Parliament shared with members of eleven other national minorities. The first such member of parliament was elected in the 2007 parliamentary election, memedi also became the first ever Romani to be elected to the Croatian Parliament. In 2010, Romani were added to the preamble of the Croatian Constitution, since 2012 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb introduced for the first time courses Romani language I and Literature and culture of Roma. According to Census 2011,2,887 people declared themselves as Romani, difference between Census and the actual situation can be explained by avoidance of Romani to declare their minority affiliation due to stigmatization
Roma of Croatia
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Romani women wearing traditional dresses and their children near Zagreb in 1941
Roma of Croatia
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Romani people in Croatia
Roma of Croatia
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Romani by municipality, according to the 2011 Croatian census
10.
Roma in the Czech Republic
–
Romani people in the Czech Republic constitute a minority. According to the last census from 2011, the Romani nationality was reported by the total of 13,150 inhabitants, only a small part of them filled in only the Romani nationality. Most of them stated the Romani nationality in combination with one, for example, the Romani and Czech, the Romani and Moravian. In the 2001 Census,11,746 people reported the Romani nationality – at that time it was 0. 1% of those claiming some nationality, in 2011, the result 13,150 is 0. 2% of those, who reported some nationality. However, at the census,40370 inhabitants reported Romani language as their language. The Romani people originate from the Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan, more exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, in February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora, Romani were exterminated by Nazi German mobile killing units and in camps such as the ones at Lety, Hodonín and Auschwitz. 90% of native Romani died, the Romani there now are mostly immigrants from Slovakia or Hungary. During the communist years unsuccessful attempts to change the living style of Romani were undertaken by the government. Many Romani people were settled in houses that theyve, however, sooner or later utterly demolished. After 1989, some Romani women started to accuse the state of forced sterilizations arguing that they were not properly informed of what the sterilization meant, according to Czech ombudsman Otakar Motejl, at least 50 Romani women were unlawfully sterilized. However, Czech representative at UN protested against such accusations, claiming that the accusation was false and Romani women exaggerate in all cases. A hospital in Vitkovice recently apologized to a Romani woman, who was sterilized after her second caesarean, according to a recent opinion poll, 68% Czechs have less or higher antipathy towards Romani and 82% Czechs refuse any form of a special care of Roma rights. According to a 2010 survey, 83% of Czechs consider Romani asocial, police statistics from the early 90s show that the crime rate of the Romani population in Czechoslovakia was highly disproportional, especially among burglaries. According to Říčan, Romani make up more than 60% of Czech prisoners, many Romani fled after the independence of the Czech Republic claiming that they felt insecure due to a surge in right wing activity. Countries such as Ireland, the UK, Norway and Sweden took in large numbers and their immigration to Great Britain suddenly dropped, after financial support for refugees started to be paid out in the forms of food-tickets in summer 2000
Roma in the Czech Republic
–
Czech Gypsies "stealing" clothes from garbage container.
11.
Romanichal
–
The Romanichals are a Romani sub-group in the United Kingdom and other parts of the English-speaking world. Romanichals are thought to have arrived in England in the 16th century and they are closely related to the Welsh Kale and to other Romani groups in the United Kingdom and continental Europe. The word Romanichal is derived from Romani chal, where chal is Angloromani for fellow, Romanichal are found across the United Kingdom, particularly England, Lowland Scotland and Wales. The Romanichal diaspora emigrated from the British Isles to other parts of the English-speaking world, based on some estimates, there are now more people of Romanichal descent in the United States than in Britain. They are also found in numbers in South Africa, Australia, Canada. Many Angloromani words have been incorporated into English, particularly in the form of British slang, many, but not all, Romanichals are noted for a fairer phenotype than that of other Romani groups in Europe. Lighter-skinned Romani are not uncommon, and a light phenotype, including individuals with blond hair and blue eyes, can also be seen in established Eastern European Roma communities. The French writer Felix Colson, writing in 1839 about his visits to slave holdings in Romania, remarked of some of the Romani slaves, Their skins are hardly brown but blond and beautiful. Lighter-skinned Romani girls in Slovakia, noted for their beauty, were given the nickname Papin or Papinori in the Romani language to indicate their light skin tone, stereotypically, darker skin is seen as a racial characteristic among the Romani. Blond hair, fair skin and blue eyes are not uncommon features among both the Roma and British Romani groups. Examples include lighter-skinned Roma who were conscripted into fighting units during WWII and he didn’t look like a gypsy—He was white. As with the varying phenotypes in continental Romani groups, the British Romanichal are a subgroup of the Romani people. They display genetic markers distinct from those of people of the British Isles. These markers show them to be most closely related to continental Romani groups like the Sinti from Germany, Austria, the Finnish Kale, a further sub-group of the Romani people, allege that they are descendants of Romani people from the UK. The Romani people have origins in India, specifically Rajasthan and began migrating westwards from the 11th century, the first groups of Romani people arrived in Great Britain by the end of the 15th century, escaping conflicts in Southeastern Europe. In 1506 there are recorded Romani persons in Scotland, arrived from Spain, soon the leadership passed laws aimed at stopping the Romani immigration and at the assimilation of those already present. During the reign of Henry VIII, the Egyptians Act banned Romanies from entering the country, failure to do so could result in confiscation of property, imprisonment and deportation. In 1562 a new law offered Romanies born in England and Wales the possibility of becoming English subjects, in 1596,106 men and women were condemned to death at York just for being Romani, and nine were executed
Romanichal
–
Notable Romanichal:
Charlie Chaplin •
Bob Hoskins Tracy Emin •
James Carver •
Cher Lloyd Ian Hancock •
Adam Ant •
Robert Plant
Romanichal
Romanichal
Romanichal
12.
Finnish Kale
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The Finnish Kale are a group of the Romani people who live primarily in Finland and Sweden. Their main languages are Finnish and Finnish Romani, the original Finnish Kale were Romani groups who came to Finland via Sweden in the 16th century, leaving the kingdoms of Scotland and England. In 1637, all Romani groups were declared outlaws who could be hanged without trial, when Finland declared independence in 1917, all Kales received full citizenship and rights. During the Winter War and Continuation War, about a thousand Kales served in the Finnish military, Finnish Kale commonly follow their traditions in both male and female dress. Finnish Kale women choose personally whether to don the traditional dress or not at around the age of 15 to 20, in case of nontraditional wear, modesty customs are still followed. Back in the 19th century, Finnish Kale men dressed nearly identical to the ethnic Finn farmers, in a coat, slacks, high boots, in the early 20th century, many Kale men adopted the clothing style associated with the highly regarded profession of horse cab driver. This dress featured a shirt, a jacket, a peaked cap, tall black boots. The use of jodhpurs was very specific for the Finnish Kale, as Romani in other areas would have associated them with the aggressive military. During the 1960s and 70s, the peaked cap fell out of use, jackets are still worn as traditional Kale modesty disallows appearing in only a shirt. Light-colored slacks or jeans are rarely seen, the driver-style dress is used only by some of the older men, or by younger men for special occasions. The traditional female Finnish Kale dress stems from the dress worn by the ethnic Finn women. Until the turn of the 20th century, Kale and Finn women dressed much alike in blouses, long skirts, over time and with increased wealth, the female Kale dress has become continually more decorated. Young children wear similar clothing to other ethnicities, girls approaching maturity, but still below the age to don the traditional dress, often wear long, narrow, dark skirts. Music is a part of Finnish Kale culture, everyday entertainment. In Finland, the Kale are known especially for their contribution to the Finnish tango, Kale men have been a vital part of Schlager singers since the start of the genres popularity in Finland following World War II. At first Kale singers faced direct discrimination, and for instance were banned from performing at certain establishments either on principle or following Kale audience misbehavior. Taisto Tammi and Markus Allan were the two most important earlier Kale performers, both adopted artistic aliases to reduce attention at their ethnic background, since then, discrimination has lessened and Kale singers have no need to mask their birth names in order to succeed in the career. Numerous Kale have participated in the Tangomarkkinat, a national tango-singing contest, winners include Anneli Sari, the Kale have traditionally held positions as craftsmen, but the occupation has lost importance in modern times, leading to a significant rise in unemployment within the group
Finnish Kale
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Remu Aaltonen • Rainer Friman
Finnish Kale
Finnish Kale
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Taisto Tammi in 1960.
13.
Romani people in France
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Romani people in France, generally known in spoken French as gitans, tsiganes or manouches, are an ethnic group which originated in Northern India. The exact numbers of Romani people in France are not known, at least 12,000 Romani are estimated to live in unofficial urban camps throughout the country, with French authorities often attempting to close down these encampments. In 2009, the French government sent more than 10,000 Romani back to Romania and Bulgaria, the Romani people originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan and Punjab. More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi and it shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, the term Romanichel is considered pejorative, and Bohémien is outdated. The French National Gendarmerie tends to refer to MENS, a term meaning Travelling Ethnic Minorities. This term is not considered neutral or correct, because broadly a majority of French Romani have homes like other minorities, the exact numbers of Romani people in France are not known, with estimates varying from 20,000 to 400,000. The French Romani rights group FNASAT reports that at least 12,000 Romani, French authorities often attempt to close down these encampments. In 2009, the government sent more than 10,000 Romani back to Romania and Bulgaria, in 2009, the European Committee of Social Rights found France had violated the European Social Charter in respect to Romani population from foreign countries. In 2010 and 2011, the French government organized repatriation flights to send Romani back to Romania, on 12 April a chartered flight carrying 160 Romani left northern France for Timisoara. As in the 2010 deportations, the French government gave those Romani leaving France €300 each, the Romani on the 12 April flight had each signed declarations that they would never return to France. On 9 August, the city of Marseille in southern France forcibly evicted 100 Romani people from their camp near Porte dAix. A chartered flight carrying approximately 150 Romani to Romania left the Lyon area on 20 September, france’s goal for 2011 was to deport 30,000 Romani to their home country. As of 2012, France sent about 8,000 Romani back to Romania and Bulgaria in 2011, the actions prompted controversy and calls for greater inclusion of Romani people. Cascarots, a group of Romani in the Basque Country, erromintxela, a group of Romani in the Basque Country with their own language
Romani people in France
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Django Reinhardt
Romani people in France
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Biréli Lagrène
Romani people in France
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Tchavolo Schmitt
Romani people in France
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Ritual bath in
Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a shrine associated with Romani people.
14.
Sinti
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The Sinti are a Romani people of Central Europe. They were traditionally itinerant, but today only a percentage of the group remains unsettled. In earlier times, they lived on the outskirts of communities. The Sinti of Central Europe are closely related to the known as Manouche in France. They speak the Sinti-Manouche variety of Romani, which exhibits strong German influence, the Sinti arrived in Germany and Austria in the Late Middle Ages along with Romani from India, eventually splitting into two groups, Eftavagarja and Estraxarja. They arrived in Germany at least before 1540, in Italy they are present mainly in Piedmont region, with some communities in Veneto and Emilia Romagna as well. Sinti and Roma had migrated to Germany in the late 15th century, nonetheless, they were still generally accused of being beggars and thieves, and by 1899, the police kept a central register on Gypsies. Adolf Eichmann recommended that the Gypsy Question be solved simultaneously with the Jewish Question, some were sent to Poland, or elsewhere, others were confined to designated areas, and many were eventually gassed. In concentration camps, the Sinti were forced to either a black triangle, indicating their classification as asocial, or a brown triangle. Django Reinhardt was a guitarist who fused traditional dance hall musettes with American jazz in 1930s and 1940s, along with Stéphane Grappelli and the other members of the Quintette du Hot Club de France, founded the style of music known as Gypsy Jazz. Other notable Sinti musicians include Drafi Deutscher and the jazz guitarists Jimmy Rosenberg, the Sinto Hänsche Weis produced a record in Germany in the 1970s in which he sang about the Poraimos in his own language. Many younger Germans first learned about this part of Holocaust history as a result of this recording, titi Winterstein and several members of Reinhardts clan still play traditional and modern Gypsy jazz. The jazz keyboardist Joe Zawinul was also of Sinti descent, marianne Rosenberg, a very popular Sinti/Roma-German singer, is considered the Cher of Germany. She sings mainly in German but has sung in English, French, Italian and she came 10th in the German preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest 1975 with Er gehört zu mir. Her biography book Kokolores is a best seller in Europe, oto Pestner is a notable Slovenian Sinti singer. He is known for his involvement with the New Swing Quartet, Pestner also sings gospel and Slovenian folk music. Sintis notable for their sporting achievements include Johann Trollmann, the 1933 boxing champion of Germany, history of the Romani people Romani people by country Sindhi diaspora
Sinti
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Sinti and Roma people, 1941
Sinti
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Sinti and Roma architecture in Harsova
Sinti
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Deportation of Sinti and Roma in
Asperg, 22 May 1940
Sinti
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Memorial for murdered Sinti in
Düsseldorf-Lierenfeld
15.
Roma in Hungary
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Romani people in Hungary are Hungarian citizens of Romani descent. According to the 2011 census, they compose 3, the Romani people originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan and Punjab. More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi and it shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, in February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora, the date of the arrival of the first Romani groups in Hungary cannot exactly be determined. Sporadic references to persons named Cigan, Cygan or Chygan or to villages named Zygan can be found in charters from the 13th–14th centuries, however, persons bearing these names were not Romani, and Zygan was not inhabited by Romani people in the 14th century. Accordingly, these seem to have derived from an Old Turkic word for plain hair. The charter makes mention of 17 tent-dwelling Gypsies who were held by a local boyar Costea, lord of Alsó- and Felsővist, next, the financial accounts of the town of Brassó recorded a grant of food to Lord Emaus the Egyptian and his 120 followers in 1416. Since Romani people were mentioned as either Egyptians or the Pharaohs People in this period, Lord Emaus. In the mid-18th century, Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Joseph II dealt with the Romani question by the methods of enlightened absolutism. Maria Theresa enacted a decree prohibiting the use of the name Cigány or Zigeuner and requiring the terms new peasant and she later placed restrictions on Romani marriages, and ordered children to be taken away from Romani parents to be raised in bourgeois or peasant families. Joseph II prohibited use of the Romani language in 1783, the forced assimilation essentially proved successful. During World War II,28,000 Romani perished in Hungary, although they traditionally lived in the countryside, under general urbanization trends from the second half of the 20th century many of them moved into the cities. There is a sizable Romani minority living in Budapest, the real number of Romani in Hungary is a disputed question. In the 2001 census 205,720 people called themselves Romani, studies from the 1990s show that the majority of Romani in Hungary grow up with Hungarian as their mother tongue. Only about 5% spoke Romani and another 5% spoke Boyash as their mother tongue, Boyash is a language related to Romanian and apart from loan words not related to Romani. During World War II, about 28,000 Romani were killed in Hungary, since then, the size of the Romani population has increased rapidly. Today every fifth or sixth newborn Hungarian child belongs to the Romani minority, based on current demographic trends, a 2006 estimate by Central European Management Intelligence claims that the proportion of the Romani population will double by 2050
Roma in Hungary
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János Bihari
Roma in Hungary
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Roby Lakatos
Roma in Hungary
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Kálmán Balogh
Roma in Hungary
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Romani orchestra in the 1890s,
Kolozsvár (Cluj, Klausenburg)
16.
Roma in Kosovo
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Romani people in Kosovo living usually in Mahalas are part of the biggest minority in Europe. Mainly there are historical differences claimed, Roma speak Roma language in most cases. However also the language/s that surrounds them such as Serbian and Albanian, many Romani were targeted by Kosovo Albanians with the Serbs during the Kosovo War as being considered to be allied with Serbs and Serbian national interests. Romani in Kosovo are much depleted from their former numbers, and have been in both stationary and nomadic residence there since the 15th century. Kosovo Liberation Army expelled 50,000 Romani from Kosovo, forcing them to refuge in central Serbia. In 2011 there were 36,694 Romani, Ashkali and Egyptians living in Kosovo, as in other parts of the Balkans, the denomination of Romani has always been subject to outside pressure. In the official census, the labels Romani and Egyptians were used, after the war and encouraged by the international community, the label Romani, Ashkali and Kosovo Egyptians and its abbreviation RAE became more common. Whereas the Ashkali and Kosovo Egyptians maintain their distinct origin, this is contested by Kosovo Romani who claim that all three groups are actually Romani subgroups. While all the three groups claim ethnic differences between them, they frequently intermarry, Romani weddings to non-Romani is extremely rare. Egyptians, Romani and Ashkalija however do not classify one another as Gadje and they have been subject to nativisation and assimilation, with many having Albanian names depending on the power profile of the day. Most also have their own naming system for use among their own people, Romani in Kosovo, like Serbs and other minorities, today live in constant fear of further ethnic unrest. Romani unhoused in North Kosovo are today housed in lead-infested camps in North Kosovska Mitrovca, there is ongoing campaign for rehousing and proper health provisions for the families affected, and a fatality estimate ranges from 27 to 81. Serbianising and Albanianising also lead to the Romani sliding from the educational mainstream, third level is not attained by the majority of Rom, and of those who do, they are mostly only half Romani, with there being Serb, Turk or Albanian heritage too. Returning IDPs were housed by NATO / UNMIK in North Kosovska Mitrovica in a mine site. They were helped by NGO the KRRF, led by Paul Polansky, Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians Romani people in Albania Who we Were, Who we Are, Kosovo Roma Oral History Collection. The most comprehensive collection of information on Kosovos Roma in existence
Roma in Kosovo
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Romani girl in
Prizren
Roma in Kosovo
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Refugee camp of Kosovar Romani in southern
Central Serbia, close to Kosovo
17.
Romani people in Mexico
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There is a significant Roma population in Mexico, most being the descendants of past migrants. According to data collected by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, they numbered 15,850, however, in Mexico, they are commonly known as gitanos or rom. The first gypsy group in Mexico were the Spanish gitanos that arrived during the Colonial era, some of the mid-19th century migrants may have arrived to Mexico via Argentina. In the late 19th and early 20th century migrants from Hungary, Poland, in 1931, after a substantial colony of these latter gypsies had settled, and following complaints of delinquency, the law was changed to prohibit further settlement in Mexico. According to the Joshua Project, there are 51,000 Romani/Vlax in Mexico, in the mid 1900s, Romani caravans were known for showing movies in rural towns. Today, their economic activities revolve around the sale of textiles, cars, trucks and jewelry. Alfonso Mejia-Arias - musician, writer and politician La Lagunilla Market - popular with Romani merchants D. W. Pickett, The Gypsies of Mexico, Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society,1966
Romani people in Mexico
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Alfonso Mejia-Arias, Mexican musician, writer and politician of Romani descent.
18.
Polska Roma
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Polska Roma are the largest and one of the oldest ethnolinguistic sub group of Romani people living in Poland. Some Polska Roma also live in North America, Switzerland, Sweden, Great Britain, the term Polska Roma is both an ethnonym of the group and a term used in the academic literature. As such it is distinct from the terms Polish Roma or Roma in Poland which better denote the broader Roma population in Poland. Polish ethnographer Jerzy Ficowski, writing in the 1950s and 1960s used the term Polish Lowlander Gypsies to refer to the same group, Polska Roma were nomadic until the twentieth century. They have not assimilated into broader Polish society, or the non-Romani cultures of countries where they live. They are in one of the most traditional Romani groups. One exception to this is that the most common surnames among Polska Roma are characteristically Polish, Polska Roma generally have had a very strict interpretation of Romanipen cultural laws and practices. They are closely related to Xaladitka Roma, or Ruska Roma who emigrated to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth together with the Polska Roma, because the Xaladitka settled in regions of present-day Belarus, they became more affected by Ruthenian, rather than Polish, culture. The migration was a result of a wave of pogroms, persecutions and anti-Romani laws in German territories and their version of the Roma dialect has also incorporated many German words and idioms. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, like other European states, however, unlike in most of European countries, these laws were rarely enforced in large measure because the Roma found powerful protectors among the szlachta and benign neglect. They were free to continue the nomadic lifestyle during most of the year, in that respect the Polska Roma occupied a social strata above that of the Polish peasants as well as that of other Roma populations, such as the Carpathian Roma. In many large magnate latifundia the communities of Polska Roma were also given the right to have a king, additional anti-Roma laws were passed in Poland and Lithuania when Augustus the Strong, the Elector of Saxony, was elected king of Poland in 1697. Saxony, like most German states of the time had very strong anti-Roma legislation and upon Augustus inauguration some of these laws were transferred to the Commonwealth. Shortly before the Partitions of Poland, Polska Roma, like other classes, were granted full citizenship by the Constitution of 3rd May. However, these privileges were lost with the partitions and the Polska Roma were forced back into servile status by the foreign powers, after the partitions of Poland, persecution of Polska Roma became more severe, particularly in the Russian partition. As a result, the size of the population declined. Finally, the 19th century saw an influx of other Romani into the territories of former Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, in particular the Kalderash and these groups competed economically against the Polska Roma within their traditional crafts and in many places successfully displaced them in terms of employment. After Poland regained its independence, Polish authorities tended to recognize the Kalderash as the representatives of the Roma population in the country
Polska Roma
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A portrait of Polska Roma poet
Papusza (Bronislawa Wajs) by Krystyna Gierlinska.
Polska Roma
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Edward Dębicki with the Roma musical group Terno in
Gorzów Wielkopolski in 2007.
19.
Roma in the Republic of Macedonia
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According to the last census from 2002, there were 53879 people counted as Romani in the Republic of Macedonia, or 2. 66% of the population. Another 3843 people have been counted as Egyptians, altogether,2. 85% Romani and Egyptians have been registered in Macedonia. Other sources claim the number to be between 80000 and 260000 Roma in Macedonia or approximately 4 to 12% of the total population. The municipality of Šuto Orizari is the municipality in the world with a Romani majority. Due to the demographics, both Romani and Macedonian are official in Šuto Orizari, the municipality being officially bilingual, the mayor of the municipality, Elvis Bajram, is an ethnic Roma. In 2009, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia took measures to enlarge inclusion of Romani in the education process, the Republic of Macedonia is the regions leader in respecting the rights of the Romani people. It is the first country in the region with a minister of Romani ethnicity, however, there is still a lot to be done concerning the education and integration of the Romani. The Romani people originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan, more exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, in February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora, Romani language in Macedonia in the Third Millennium, Progress and Problems, Victor Friedman. The Romani Language in the Republic of Macedonia, Status, Usage and Sociolinguistic Perspectives, Victor Friedman
Roma in the Republic of Macedonia
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Macedonian Romani children (around 1900)
20.
Roma in Romania
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Romani people in Romania, Gypsy, constitute one of the countrys largest minorities. According to the 2011 census, they number 621,573 people or 3. 08% of the total population, the Romani people originate from the northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan and Punjab. More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi and it shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, in February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora, in Romani, the native language of the Romani, the word for people is pronounced or depending on dialect. Starting from the 1990s, the word has also officially used in the Romanian language. There are two spellings of the word in Romanian, rom, and rrom, the first spelling is preferred by the majority of Romani NGOs and it is the only spelling accepted in Romanian Academys Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române. The two forms reflect the fact that for some speakers of Romani there are two rhotic phonemes, /r/ and /ʀ/, in the government-sponsored writing system /ʀ/ is spelt rr. The final i in rromi is the Romanian plural, the traditional and colloquial Romanian name for Romani, is țigani. The Romanian government supported the move on the grounds that many countries in the European Union use a variation of the word Țigan to refer to their Gypsy populations, the Romanian upper house, Senate, rejected the proposal. In combination with the Mongol invasion of Europe the first Romani had reached the territory of present-day Romania around the year 1241, at the beginning of the 14th century, when the Mongols withdrew from Eastern Europe, the Romani who were left were taken as prisoners and slaves. According to documents signed by Prince Dan I the first captured Romani in Wallachia dates back to year 1385, in fact, the Romani people, and the Romani language, have their origin in northern India. The presence of the Roms within the territory of present-day Romania dates back to the 14th century, the population of Roms fluctuated depending on diverse historical and political events. Until their liberation on February 20,1856, most Roms lived in slavery and they could not leave the property of their owners. Around the year 1850, about 102,000 Romani lived in the Danubian Principalities, after their liberation in 1856, a significant number of Roms left Wallachia and Moldavia. In 1886 the number of Roms was estimated at around 200,000, the 1899 census counted around 210,806 others, of whom roughly half were Romani. In Bessarabia, annexed by the Russian Empire in 1812, the Roms were liberated in 1861, many of them migrated to other regions of the Empire, while important communities remained in Soroca, Otaci and the surroundings of Cetatea Albă, Chișinău, and Bălți. The 1918 union with Transylvania, Banat, Bukovina and Bessarabia increased the number of ethnic Romani in Romania, the first census in interwar Romania took place in 1930,242,656 persons were registered as Gypsies
Roma in Romania
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Grigoraș Dinicu
Roma in Romania
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A șatră or village peopled by members of the Romani community of Romania
Roma in Romania
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Purported bulibașa (head of a Romani community)
Roma in Romania
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Romanian president
Traian Băsescu (left) at a meeting with the representats of the Romani minority organizations (right)
21.
Ruska Roma
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The Ruska Roma, also known as Russian Gypsies or as Xaladitka Roma, are the largest subgroup of Romani people in Russia. Initially known as Ruska Roma, they live mostly in Russia and Belarus, but also in Eastern and Central Ukraine, France, Canada, and the United States. The Ruska Romani language contains some German, Polish, and Russian words, most Ruska Roma are Orthodox Christians, while those living in predominantly Muslim areas tend to be Muslim. Their traditional professions include horse trading, music, dancing, as of 2016 most Romani singers, actors, dancers, and musicians in Russia are of the Ruska Roma. Their musical culture is considered to be the leading Romani culture in Russia, the Ruska Roma traditional clothing is based on Russian and Kalderash traditional clothing, and is used actively by singers and dancers. Modern Ruska Roma are one of the most educated Romani groups in Russia, at the beginning of the 19th century there already existed several Romani choruses consisting of Ruska Roma who were servants. They were considered to be so talented that their owners emancipated them, Romani choruses of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg were very popular during the 19th century. Russian noblemen sometimes married Romani chorus girls, in Russia, Ruska Roma were mostly nomadic horse traders and singers. They traveled during the summer and stayed in cottages of Russian peasants during the winter and they paid for their lodging with money or with work on the horses. Ruska Roma were very popular among peasants who liked their music and dances, in 1812, when Napoleon I invaded Russia, the Romani diaspora of Moscow and Saint Petersburg gave large sums of money and good horses for the Russian army. Many young Romani men took part in the war as uhlans, at the end of the 19th century Rusko Rom Nikolai Shishkin created a Romani theater troupe. One of its plays was in the Romani language, after the October Revolution, some Romani families left Russia. Some young Romani men took part in the civil war, in the 1920s and 30s, Roma of the Soviet Union produced a literary norm of the Romani language that was based on a dialect of Ruska Roma. Romani literature and press appeared, most of the poets, writers, in the 1930s the Roma of the U. S. S. R. were subjected to mass repressions. Romani press and literature were forbidden, during World War II some of the Ruska Roma entered the army, by conscription and as volunteers. They took part in the war as soldiers, officers, infantrymen, tankmen, artillerymen, aviators, drivers, paramedics, some teenagers, old men and adult men were also partisans. Romani actors, singers, musicians, dancers performed for soldiers in the front line, a huge number of Roma, including many of the Ruska Roma, died or were murdered in territories occupied by the enemy, in battles, and in the siege of Leningrad. After World War II Ruska Romas music became very popular, romen Theatre, Romani singers and ensembles prospered
Ruska Roma
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Romani children in Astrakhan
Ruska Roma
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The Romani theater
22.
Roma in Serbia
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Romani people in Serbia, are the third largest ethnic group in Serbia, numbering 147,604 according to the 2011 census. Another name used for Roma in Serbia, often with a connotation, is Cigani. Several migration waves of Romani to Serbia are recorded from Hungary, Romania, Turkey and Bosnia, the Romani people are divided into numerous subgroups, with different, although related, Romani dialects and history. The community has produced several notable musicians, adding to a very large indigenous Roma population in Serbia which counts among the largest in the Balkans, anywhere between 46,000 to 97,000 Roma are internally displaced from Kosovo after 1999. Main sub-groups include Turkish Gypsies, White Gypsies, Wallachian Gypsies and Hungarian Gypsies and they have converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and mostly speak Serbian fluently. They are assumed to be the largest Romani group in the country and they are related to the Turkish Roma. Turkish Roma, also known as Arlia, at the beginning of the 19th century the Turkish Roma lived mainly in southeastern Serbia, in what was the Sanjak of Niš. The Serbian government attempted to force Orthodoxy on them after the conquest of the sanjak, T. Đorđević noted them as living in Podrinje and Mačva, being Muslim, and that they had lost their language. Romani, or gypsies, arrived in Serbia in several waves, the first reference to gypsies in Serbia is found in a 1348 document, by which Serbian emperor Stefan Dušan donated some gypsy slaves to a monastery in Prizren. In the 15th century, Romani migrations from Hungary are mentioned, in 1927, a Serbian-Romani humanitarian organization was founded. In 1928, a Romani singing society was founded in Niš, in 1932, a Romani football club was founded. In 1935, a Belgrade student established the first Romani magazine, Romani Lil, in 1938, an educational organization of Yugoslav Romani was founded. The Romani people in Central Serbia are predominantly Serbian Orthodox but a minority of Muslim Roma exists, Romani people in multi-ethnic Vojvodina are integrated with other ethnic groups, especially with Serbs, Romanians and Hungarians. For this reason, depending of the group with which they are integrated, Romani are usually referred to as Serbian Romani, Romanian Romani, Hungarian Romani, the majority of Romani people are Christian and a minority are Muslim. Đurđevdan or Ederlezi is a festivity of Roma in Serbia. They speak mainly Romani and Serbian, some also speak the language of other people they have been influenced by, Romanian, Hungarian or Albanian. In October 2005 the first text on the grammar of the Romani language in Serbia was published by linguist Rajko Đurić, a large number of Serbian Roma people live in slums, and so-called cardboard cities. Many Roma children never go to school, instead they are often used as beggars, occasionally even mutilated in order to earn more money
Roma in Serbia
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Janika Balaž
Roma in Serbia
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Šaban Bajramović
Roma in Serbia
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Roma family in Serbia, 1905
23.
Roma in Slovakia
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According to the last census from 2011, there were 105,738 persons counted as Romani people in Slovakia, or 2. 0% of the population. The Romani are the second-largest ethnic minority in Slovakia after Hungarians, other sources claim that 7. 5% of inhabitants of Slovakia may be Romani. The Romani people originate from the Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan, more exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, in February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora. The first record of sightings of groups of Romani within the area of present-day Slovakia are from 1322 AD. Major waves of Romani nomads were recorded from 1417 onwards, in 1423 they received a decree from the Hungarian king Sigismund of Luxemburg at Szepes Castle, granting them Europe-wide right of passage and the right to settle. They proved to be useful metal workers for the armies fighting the Turks. In the 18th century, Joseph II of the house of Habsburg attempted to civilize the Romani, for example by prohibiting their dress and customs, the nomadic way of life was banned in 1958. Parts of the Romani population were transferred from Slovakia into the countrys Czech regions. Though these policies were successful, after the 1989 Velvet Revolution. On the one hand, there is a social system. Roma people suffer discrimination in Slovakia. Roma children are segregated in school and do not receive the level of education as other Slovakian children, some are sent to schools for children with mild mental disabilities. As a result, their attainment level is far below average, according to a 2012 United Nations Development Programme survey, around 43 per cent of Roma in mainstream schools attended ethnically segregated classes. Roma are the cause of ethnically driven violence and crime in Slovakia, the ERRC considers the situation in Slovakia to be one of the worst in Europe
Roma in Slovakia
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Roma children in Eastern Slovakia
Roma in Slovakia
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Panel house in the Luník IX. ghetto
24.
Romani people in Spain
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The Romani people in Spain, generally known as gitanos, belong to the Iberian Kale group, with smaller populations in Portugal and in southern France. They tend to speak Caló, which encompasses a range of regional dialects of Spanish with numerous Romani loan words. Nevertheless, to varying degrees, they identify with Andalusian culture and music due to the large, data on ethnicity is not collected in Spain, although the Governments statistical agency CIS estimated in 2007 that the number of Gitanos present in Spain is probably around one million. The term gitano comes from egipcio, a Spanish term for Egyptian as the English word Gypsy comes from Egyptian, both terms are due to Romanis claiming to be from Egypt during their first arrivals to Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. Gitano identity is complex in Spain for a variety of reasons which are examined below. A confusing element is the hybridization of Andalusian and Roma culture at a popular level. This has occurred to the point where Spaniards from other regions of Spain can commonly mistake elements of one for the other. Few Spaniards are aware, for example, that Andalusian singer and gitano popular icon Lola Flores was, in fact, not of gitano ethnicity, in this, one can be Gitano by degree according to how much one fits into pre-conceived stereotypes or social stigmas. On the other hand, the exaltation of Roma culture and heritage is an element of wider Andalusian folklore. The Romani people originate from the Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan, more exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, the gitanos emigrated from Northern India possibly as early as 600 A. D. The music and culture of the gitanos highly influenced the cultures they had reached in Al-Andalus through North Africa, many sources attribute the difference between Romani culture and music in Spain to other parts of Europe to an alleged arrival of this community from North Africa. Nevertheless, historical records show that Spanish Gitanos arrived in Spain through Europe concentrating in Andalusia, Gitanos were recorded in Barcelona and Zaragoza by 1447. At first they were received and were even accorded official protection by many local authorities. By 1492, a time of increased persecution of minorities, the first anti-Romani law was passed in Spain, in 1749 A major effort to get rid of the gypsy population in Spain was carried out through a raid organized by the government. It arrested all gypsies in the realm, and imprisoned them in jails, during the Spanish Civil War, gitanos were not persecuted for their ethnicity by either side. Under Franco, Gitanos were often harassed or simply ignored, although their children were educated, sometimes forcibly, on the other hand, Andalusian and gitano culture was instrumentalized in the countrys tourist promotion strategy which focused on the south to exalt the uniqueness of Spanish culture
Romani people in Spain
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Isabel Pantoja
Romani people in Spain
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The migration of the Romani people through the
Middle East and
North Africa to Europe
Romani people in Spain
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Spanish Romani people. Yevgraf Sorokin, 1853.
Romani people in Spain
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A Gypsy dance in the gardens of the
Alcázar of Seville.
25.
Roma in Turkey
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The Romani people in Turkey are an ethnic minority. There are officially about 500,000 Romani in Turkey, by different Turkish and Non-Turkish estimates the number of Romani is up to 4 or 5 million while according to a Turkish source, they are only 0. 05% of Turkeys population. The Romani people originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan, more exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, in February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora, the records about Romani people presence in 9th century Asia Minor exist, where they arrived from Persia. With the expanse of the Ottoman Empire Romani settled also in Rumelia under the Ottoman rule, sulukule is the oldest Romani settlement in Europe. The descendants of the Ottoman Romani today are known as Xoraxane Romani and are generally of the Islamic faith and this goes as far back as the Treaty of Lausanne, in which Section III Protection of Minorities put an emphasis on non-Muslim minorities. A group of Turkish Romani appears in the 16th century Ottoman Constantinople of the video game Assassins Creed, Minorities in Turkey Abdal of Turkey Council of Europe, report about the Roma in Turkey
Roma in Turkey
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Hüsnü Şenlendirici
Roma in Turkey
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Roma in
Izmir (1904)
Roma in Turkey
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Roma in
Istanbul
26.
Roma in Ukraine
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The presence of a Romani minority in Ukraine was first documented in the early 14th century. Romani maintained their social organizations and folkways, shunning non-Romani contacts, education and values, often as a reaction to anti-Romani attitudes and persecution. They adopted the language and faith of the dominant society being Orthodox in most of Ukraine, Catholic in Western Ukraine and Transcarpathia, during World War II the Nazis and their allies implemented their policies of the extermination of the Romani people in Ukraine. By July 1943 the Romanian authorities transported 25,000 nomad Romani from Romania to Transnistria, along the Bug river, in Ukraine it is estimated that 12,000 were killed by the Nazis in Babi Yar in Kiev. Other World War II massacres took place in Crimea, Podilia, Galicia and Volhynia. Census 1887,12,000 Romani in Russian Ukraine Census 1922,60,000 Romani in Ukrainian SSR Census 1959,28,000 Romani in Ukrainian SSR Census 1970,30,100 Romani in Ukrainian SSR. Census 1979,34,500 Romani in Ukrainian SSR Census 2001,47,600 Romani in Ukraine, the estimate of the World Romani Union and the Council of Europe is considerably higher. The Romani organizations estimate the number at over 400,000 persons, Romani are scattered throughout Ukraine, but their largest concentration is in Transcarpathia. 35% consider Romani their mother tongue, material culture has not differed from the dominant society except in dress. They have a folk tradition. Romani themes can be found in Ukrainian literature, the term Rom/Roma is not generally used, accepted or understood in Ukraine, even by the Romani themselves. They are referred to by the generic term Tsyhany Krimi, or Crimean Romani, migrated from the Balkans to Crimea, further sub-groups include Audzhi, Gurbety and others. During World War II Nazis killed 800 Crymy Roma in Simferopol, stalin evicted Tatars and Romani to Central Asia in 1944. Gurbeti, The gypsy communities in Crimea in the 19th century were divided by locals, the Gurbeti, lived mainly in the towns and steppe regions. They traded horses and products out of horse meat. The Krimurja in Crimea incorporated small numbers of Gurbeti through marriage and their small number likely prevented them from an own community. Their Romani language and nomadic lifestyle determined their separation to the Daifa, in spite of intermarriage between the Gurbeti and Krimurja, a distinct origin is remembered, and an internal separation to some extent has been preserved. In modern times, local Crimeans claim that the chingene deny their gypsy origin, servitka Roma Romani people Encyclopedia of Ukraine Vol.2 Toronto,1988 УКРАЇНСЬКІ ЦИГАНИ
Roma in Ukraine
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Romani people in
Lviv
Roma in Ukraine
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Romani children in
Transcarpathia
27.
Crymy
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The presence of a Romani minority in Ukraine was first documented in the early 14th century. Romani maintained their social organizations and folkways, shunning non-Romani contacts, education and values, often as a reaction to anti-Romani attitudes and persecution. They adopted the language and faith of the dominant society being Orthodox in most of Ukraine, Catholic in Western Ukraine and Transcarpathia, during World War II the Nazis and their allies implemented their policies of the extermination of the Romani people in Ukraine. By July 1943 the Romanian authorities transported 25,000 nomad Romani from Romania to Transnistria, along the Bug river, in Ukraine it is estimated that 12,000 were killed by the Nazis in Babi Yar in Kiev. Other World War II massacres took place in Crimea, Podilia, Galicia and Volhynia. Census 1887,12,000 Romani in Russian Ukraine Census 1922,60,000 Romani in Ukrainian SSR Census 1959,28,000 Romani in Ukrainian SSR Census 1970,30,100 Romani in Ukrainian SSR. Census 1979,34,500 Romani in Ukrainian SSR Census 2001,47,600 Romani in Ukraine, the estimate of the World Romani Union and the Council of Europe is considerably higher. The Romani organizations estimate the number at over 400,000 persons, Romani are scattered throughout Ukraine, but their largest concentration is in Transcarpathia. 35% consider Romani their mother tongue, material culture has not differed from the dominant society except in dress. They have a folk tradition. Romani themes can be found in Ukrainian literature, the term Rom/Roma is not generally used, accepted or understood in Ukraine, even by the Romani themselves. They are referred to by the generic term Tsyhany Krimi, or Crimean Romani, migrated from the Balkans to Crimea, further sub-groups include Audzhi, Gurbety and others. During World War II Nazis killed 800 Crymy Roma in Simferopol, stalin evicted Tatars and Romani to Central Asia in 1944. Gurbeti, The gypsy communities in Crimea in the 19th century were divided by locals, the Gurbeti, lived mainly in the towns and steppe regions. They traded horses and products out of horse meat. The Krimurja in Crimea incorporated small numbers of Gurbeti through marriage and their small number likely prevented them from an own community. Their Romani language and nomadic lifestyle determined their separation to the Daifa, in spite of intermarriage between the Gurbeti and Krimurja, a distinct origin is remembered, and an internal separation to some extent has been preserved. In modern times, local Crimeans claim that the chingene deny their gypsy origin, servitka Roma Romani people Encyclopedia of Ukraine Vol.2 Toronto,1988 УКРАЇНСЬКІ ЦИГАНИ
Crymy
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Romani people in
Lviv
Crymy
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Romani children in
Transcarpathia
28.
Ursari
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The Ursari or Richinara are the traditionally nomadic occupational group of animal trainers among the Romani people. The Ursari form an important part of the Roma community in Romania and they also form a sizable part of the Roma present in Serbia and Western European countries such as the Netherlands and Italy. The word Ursari may also refer to a dialect of Balkan Romani, as spoken in Romania and Moldova, although it is estimated that most Ursari, like the Boyash, speak Romanian as their native language. There is no consensus on whether Ursari belong to the Sinti subgroup of the Roma people or to the other half of the Roma population. A Romanian poll conducted in 2004 among 347 Roma found that 150 referred to themselves as Ursari, the Coşniţari group, present on both sides of the Danube, is believed to be a segment of the Ursari. In later decades, they were probably among the people referred to as Egyptians. The Ursari formed part of the population in the Danubian Principalities before the abolitions of the 1840s and 1850s. With the Boyash, the Kalderash, and groups of Roma smiths, Ursari formed the category of lăieşi, by the early decades of the 19th century, most of the state-owned Roma were lăieşi, as opposed to private-owned ones. Ursari people and the Boyash-proper traditionally accompanied the Kalderash on their travels to Rumelia, also according to Thouvenel, Ursari were known for veterinary skills, which, he argued, the superstition of people in the countryside attributes to the possession of a magic art. In addition to handling, the community would occasionally trade in wild animals. Female members of the community were known for their practice of fortune-telling, as early as the rule of Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza, they formed a staple of such spectacles, alongside the music-playing Lăutari, the Căluşari, and freak shows. At around the time, they included a section of zavragii. Also during the late 19th century, the Ursari came to be attested in Imperial Russian-ruled Bessarabia, a similar move originated in Serbia, around Kragujevac, with Boyash and Ursari moving into northern and central Italy. In time, a significant number of Ursari joined circuses, while others began manufacturing and trading bone objects and leather. The bears were taught to make dancing moves to a tambourine, or trained to walk upright and perform such as leaning on canes. It has been reported that bear training involved burning the paws of cubs to the rhythm of music, the official explanation for the measure was that such patterns of movement were helping to spread typhus. Over the following years, under Ion Antonescus regime, members of the Ursari community were among the Roma people deported to Transnistria, interdictions on performing with bears were legislated throughout the Eastern Bloc. In April–June 1991, following the Revolution of 1989, Ursari in several localities of Romanias Giurgiu County — Bolintin Deal, Ogrezeni, Ursari people were chased away, and many of their lodgings were burned to the ground
Ursari
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The Ursar, drawing by
Theodor Aman
Ursari
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Print showing of a dancing bear and its handlers in
Hesse, ca. 1810
Ursari
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Ursari in
Transylvania, 1869 engraving
Ursari
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Photograph of a boy in a bear costume,
Budapest
29.
Roma in the United States
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It is estimated that there are one million Romani people in the United States. The Romani, ethnically and genealogically different from other Europeans, began settling in America in the mid-19th century, the largest wave of Romani immigrants came after the abolition of Romani slavery in Romania in 1864. The terms lack of significance within the United States prevents many Romani from using the term around non-Romani, the U. S. Census does not distinguish Romani as a group since it is neither a nationality nor a religion. The Romani people originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan, more exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India, in February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora. The Romanichal, the first Romani group to arrive in North America in large numbers, hungarian-Slovak Romani, The Romani of Northern Hungary largely settled in industrial cities of the Northern United States near the turn of the century. Among Romani from these areas were Olah, Romungre, and Bashalde immigrants and they were noted for their musical traditions and popularized Romani music in the United States by performing in cafes, night clubs and restaurants. Keep a Low Profile, Time, October 13,2010 Gypsy Americans, everyculture. com Roma, Texas State Historical Association
Roma in the United States
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