All change! : Romani studies through Romani eyes

96 Pages·2010·1.171 MB·English

by  Damian Le Bas, T A Acton

All Change!

All Change!
Romani Studies through Romani eyes
Edited by Damian Le Bas and Thomas Acton

University of Hertfordshire Press
First published in Great Britain in 2010 by
University of Hertfordshire Press
College Lane
Hatfield
Hertfordshire
AL10 9AB

© Copyright the individual contributors 2010.
The right of Damian Le Bas and Thomas Acton to be
identified as the editors of this work has been asserted
by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library

ISBN 978-1-905313-78-5
Design by Heavens and Earth Art
Printed in Great Britain by MPG Books Group,
Bodmin and King’s Lynn
I am the common Rom
Gregory Dufunia Kwiek
Hello, I’m the common Rom.
When us Rom are organized and live in one area, that place is a lageri1
Hello, I’m the common Rom.
Some fool told me to reveal to gadjé that I’m a Rom, and stand up –
(I don’t think this guy was a Rom).
Hello, I’m the common Rom.
What do you mean, we are trash, the lowest of the low?
Then we probably deserve the way gadjé treat us.
Hello, I’m the common Rom.
How dare you say my vitsa2 were once slaves?
Maybe yours were, but certainly not mine.
Maybe those slaves were the really trashy Gypsies.
Hello, I’m the common Rom.
Who’s from India, you mad man?
Hello, I’m the common Rom.
Education? Are you joking?
We can’t change – it’s in our blood.
We will always be stupid Rom.
Hello, I’m the common Rom.
What do you mean, “listen to the magerdo3 gadjo”?
Get out of my face!
Hello, I’m the common Rom.
Bow your head when the gadjo passes,
don’t get him angry,
don’t speak Romanes or he will recognise us.

Hello, I’m the common Rom.
What do you mean sue?
I just want to get out of this mess.
I’ll leave this town without looking back.
Hello, I’m the common Rom.
Again they recognised us as Rom!
I told you kids not to speak Romanes in front of the gadjé.
Now it’s time to move again.
And why did you go and wear a long skirt, girl?
The gadjo knew right away we were Rom;
now we’ll never get an apartment.
1 concentration camp 2 clan 3 unclean

Contents
Editor’s preface 1
Damian Le Bas
Introduction: a new turning point in the debates over
the history and origins of Roma/Gypsies/Travellers 3
Professor Thomas Acton
1 Mind The Doors! The contribution of linguistics 5
Professor Ian Hancock
2 The Gypsies in Turkey: history, ethnicity and
identity — an action research strategy in practice 27
Dr Adrian Marsh
3 Knowing Gypsies 39
Dr Brian Belton
4 The construction of the history of the Roma in the
‘Great Land’ (Russia): notions of Roma history and
identity in Imperial, Soviet and post-Soviet Russia 49
Valdemar Kalinin
5 The possible implications of diasporic consciousness
for Romani identity 61
Damian Le Bas

6 The importance of the Romany and Traveller Family
History Society (RTFHS) 71
Janet Keet-Black
7 The RTFHS: a special family history society 75
Michael Wayne Jones
Afterword: Rom, Roma, Romani, Kale, Gypsies, Travellers,
and Sinti … pick a name and stick with it, already! 79
Gregor Dufunia Kwiek

Editor’s preface
Damian Le Bas
When Thomas Acton and Jane Housham of the University of Hertfordshire
Press invited me to edit this volume, I was sure the task would be insurmountable:
as difficult as providing accurate figures for the number of Romanies resident
in the UK.
I was right. Without Jane’s Olympian patience and the sterling editorial help
given to me by Thomas, whose hand-drawn Romani books I read and was
inspired by as a boy, this volume would never have seen the light of day.
I would like to extend my thanks to my fellow contributors: Ian, Adrian,
Brian, Valdemar, Janet and Wayne; and also to those who attended the seminar
at the University of Greenwich that gave birth to this book and who asked very
thought-provoking questions. Without them this book would not have been
possible. It has been a privilege to have remained in touch with them since.
My final thanks go to Professor Acton for organising the seminar in the first
place, to Dufunia Kwiek for chairing proceedings in good spirit, and to Jane
Housham for believing in this book from its inception.
Final responsibility for any errors to be found in the text below lands, of
course, at the door of my trailer. I cannot, however, guarantee that I will be
there, should you come knocking.

Damian Le Bas
London, August 2009
1