Images of Roma Through the Language of Bulgarian State Archives
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Social Inclusion (ISSN: 2183–2803) 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2, Pages 296–304 DOI: 10.17645/si.v8i2.2787 Article Images of Roma through the Language of Bulgarian State Archives Aleksandar G. Marinov School of History, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9BA, UK; E-Mail: [email protected] Submitted: 14 January 2020 | Accepted: 24 March 2020 | Published: 4 June 2020 Abstract This research has been carried out as part of the RomaInterbellum Project which studies the Roma civic emancipation between World War I and World War II. Trawling through the Bulgarian archival documents on Roma in this time period, a reader cannot help but begin to form a certain image about the Tsigani, the term with which Roma have been popularly referred to in the archives. Unsurprisingly, this image does not seem to differ much from the one of today—that of the uneducated, dirty, foreign, and that pose a threat not only to the prosperity and well-being of the Bulgarian population and culture at large but also to the state and the economy. The research is based on archived files, letters of complaints from Bulgarian citizens and other documents sourced from Bulgarian state archives. The article analyses the words and language employed in the archived documents, the connotations they bear and the images they build. It also tries to show how, in the interwar period, this dominant language was utilised by Roma individuals and leaders in order to react, counter and protect their image and future. More importantly, they sought ways to build a better integrated Roma society through the establishment of own organisations and associations. Understanding this historical narrative from the interwar period is essential in advancing knowledge of many major issues surrounding the Roma today, such as housing, health and their social inclusion. Keywords Bulgaria; emancipation; Gypsy; inclusion; language; Roma; state archives Issue This article is part of the issue “Gypsy Policy and Roma Activism: From the Interwar Period to Current Policies and Challenges” edited by Elena Marushiakova (University of St Andrews, UK) and Vesselin Popov (University of St Andrews, UK). © 2020 by the author; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction grant several rights to its various ethnic minorities such as to preserve their cultures, languages and religions. With the end of World War I, newly formed European However, the Empire would be reluctant to give them po- states began to re-structure, re-organise and revisit their litical rights as its major concerns were to maintain politi- own visions for state and society. The interwar period cal stability, keep or extend its territory, and collect taxes. marked the end of major empires, such as the Ottoman, For that reason, it is correct to assume that the treatment Austro-Hungarian and the Russian and the redrawing of of Romani people in the Ottoman Empire has been char- European borders. With that, all new states included acterised with relative negligence and tolerance which in their borders substantial ethnic minorities including gave them freedom to preserve their culture and lan- Roma, or Tsigani—as they have been popularly referred guage and exercise their professions. This could be in to at the time in Bulgaria—a term commonly translated opposition to other regimes which soughed to rid them- as Gypsies. selves, in various ways, of their Gypsies, or to assimilate What ought to be highlighted in the outset of this them (Barany, 2002; Macfie, 1943; Margalit, 1999; Yates, work is the geographical context and the history of the 1966). In the Ottoman Empire, Gypsies enjoyed consid- new Bulgarian state and its historical link to the Ottoman erably better lives compared to other European regions. Empire. As Barany (2002) argues, imperial states would Nevertheless, Roma were relegated to the lowest level normally seek to be moderate and restrained towards of the social scale together with those who could not their marginal groups. The Ottoman Empire would thus have been identified as having a profession. In fact, the Social Inclusion, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2, Pages 296–304 296 Romani people in the Ottoman Empire appear to have and descriptions of the Gypsies which made the greatest been treated and taxed as a distinct ethnic group, re- impression on the author and, as a result of that, the im- gardless of their religious affiliations—a practice which ages that were formed by reading these records. For the has been atypical for the Ottoman rulers (Marushiakova purposes of this work, the author defines the term ‘image’ & Popov, 2001). The dislike of Gypsies in the Ottoman as the written descriptions of Roma in the Bulgarian state Empire has also been based on their view as less reliable archives. Even though the state offers some photographic and trustworthy than other peoples, with the wandering images of Roma from the interwar period, this work chose lifestyle of part of the Gypsies to appear troublesome. to analyse only the written documents and the stories Other images that have been popular in the Ottoman they present. Thus, these stories—predominantly offi- Empire included those of the Gypsy as useless parasites cial state documents, memos, notes, petitions, internal and, towards the end of 17th century, as pimps and communications—have been referred to here as ‘master prostitutes which, in return, has resulted in increasing narratives’ so much so that they have been sourced by of the collected taxes (Malcolm, 1996; Todorova, 2009). the official Bulgarian state. If for a second we imagine the As Bulgaria gained independence in 1878 from Ottoman reader had no prior knowledge or information about the rule, the social position of Gypsies declined further. This Gypsies, and reading these archival documents were their could be partly because most of them were followers sole point of departure, they would have most certainly of Islam which now became associated with the former been able to form a complete image of who the Gypsies oppressors and in opposition to Orthodox Christianity. in Bulgaria were—thanks to the presentation and the por- After the end of World War I, Roma began to pursue a trayal found in the documents. That image is so complete, better future through a mixture of independence and as argued by this work, that it does not differ much from adaptation to societies they lived with (Marushiakova & the mainstream image of the Roma in the present day and Popov, 1993). That option included the adoption of the age. For contemporary images see the works of Ivasiuc new religious (Protestant) identities and churches, and (2019) and van Baar, Ivasiuc, and Kreide (2019). This arti- the foundation of associations, organisations and their cle should be considered as a snapshot as it focuses on own press (Marinov, 2019; Marushiakova & Popov, 2015; the presentation of a specific, yet important, timeframe Slavkova, 2007). in the history of Bulgaria and the civic and social emanci- This article seeks to show that the civil emancipa- pation of their Roma. tion of the Roma is rooted in a critical interplay between This research supports the argument of certain schol- the predominant narrative of the state and its institu- ars such as Lucassen and Willems (2003), Lucassen, tions and the Roma themselves who sought to balance Willems, and Cottaar (1998), and Willems (1998) that that portrayal with their own narratives. It will show that the identity of Gypsies is a social construct. The scholars despite the largely negative portrayal of Roma by the have come to their conclusion based on their research Bulgarian state, they managed to establish their own or- in Prussia, the German state after its unification in 1871, ganisations and associations based on their own visions and the Netherlands. In their work, the authors found for their place in the society, furthering and protecting that vagrants, vagabonds, travellers, Gypsies and other their own interests and seeking to secure a better future unwanted ‘social ills’ were all seen as equally bad and in Bulgaria. This article is composed of two parts: First, threatening to the ‘well-ordered societies’ of the West. we will present the ‘master narrative’ of the Bulgarian As they have put it, the concept of a “well-ordered soci- state from the interwar period; second, we will deal with ety” is largely a Western one (Lucassen & Willems, 2003, the ideas, imagery, narratives and proposals from Roma p. 307). The Gypsies, (poor) travellers and vagrants have themselves based on the Bulgarian archival records from been threatening to the state because of their lack of per- the interwar period. manent residences, the inability to be monitored, and ultimately with their posing need to be supported by 2. Seeing and Learning about Roma through the Eyes the state. of Bulgarian State Archives In the context of Bulgaria, at least as the Bulgarian state archives have demonstrated, nothing suggests that The access to archival documents offers the potential of the term ‘Gypsy’ is being conflated with other groups verifying already existing information but also the discov- and there is no doubt who is a Tsiganin (a Gypsy) and ery of a new previously undiscovered information. This al- who is not. This research also reinforces the statement lows to certify the veracity of widely cited archival materi- of Marushiakova and Popov (2017) who have argued als and re-analyse these same materials through the inter- that in Eastern Europe there is no doubt about who pretation of the researchers themselves. Sadly, Romani the Gypsies are and who exactly belongs to that group. studies has been viewed as a field where scholars would The documents are able to discern those Roma who repeat previous information ad infinitum without verify- are sedentary, nomadic, those who come from abroad, ing it and thus perpetuating erroneous knowledge (Clark, and even those who may have preferred to hide their 2004; Hancock, 2004; K.