colonized cultureromani

Journal of Post-Colonial Cultures and Societies

„Colonized Culture: The Emergence of a Romani Postcolonialism.‟ Alan Ashton-Smith.

JPCS Vol.1. No.2, April. 2010. http://www.jpcs.in

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Colonized Culture: The Emergence of a Romani Postcolonialism

Alan Ashton-Smith

Introduction

The study of postcolonialism is now a global and all-consuming field,

encompassing almost all cultures and drawing on countless histories. Elleke Boehmer

notes that the subject of colonial and postcolonial literature “would on a superficial

reading seem to embrace the majority of the world‟s modern literatures” (1), and indeed,

the postcolonial lens is one of the major outlooks with which we have come to view the

contemporary world. However, some groups have not received in depth examination

according to postcolonial terms, including the group that I wish to address here, the

Roma1. Rather than attempting to rectify this omission by supplying an in-depth analysis

of the concerns of the Roma as postcolonial subjects, I provide an overview of the

approaches that might be used to study the postcolonial Roma. In an age of increasing

globalisation, in which national identity is more fluid than it has ever been, the

postcolonial subject can no longer be confined to the rigidly literal structure that it took in

its earliest incarnations. It is now an appropriate time to consider the Roma in a

postcolonial context, because such an investigation has the potential to broaden the areas

of both postcolonial studies and Romani studies.

Before commencing this survey, we should consider the reasons the Roma have

been overlooked by postcolonial studies. The most obvious reason is the Roma‟s lack of

a homeland. While Roma more often than not live in settled locations these days, they

are traditionally a nomadic, diasporic race. Their presence is not confined to any

particular country or region; although their most concentrated populations are in Eastern

Europe, they can be found in large numbers all over the world.2 However, these groups

1 Roma are often referred to as ‘gypsies’, and while there remains debate about the acceptability of this term, there are many who self-designate as gypsies. However, ‘Roma’ is considered to be the more empowering term, having been adopted by almost all Romani organisations, and therefore I feel this word is more appropriate than ‘gypsy’ in an essay on postcolonialism. 2 The large Romani population in Eastern Europe means that this region will receive particular consideration in this paper.




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do not function like most migrant populations. While Roma worldwide identify as a

single group, they have no home country. This means that they cannot be literally

postcolonial. Since they do not have a territory, they have always been exempt from

colonization, and are therefore in no position to react against colonialism in a typically

postcolonial fashion.

Another reason for their absence in postcolonial discourse is the lack of Roma

texts that might be considered postcolonial. The text is generally very important in

postcolonial studies, whether it be literary, cinematic, philosophical, or political. The

Roma have limited access to most of these media, being largely illiterate: their culture

places greater emphasis on the family unit than on formal education, so many young

Roma do not attend school. This is an even more pronounced situation in areas such as

Eastern Europe, where there is widespread discrimination, and those who seek education

are often denied it. One recent issue is the Slovakian practice of placing Romani children

in schools for the disabled, where the curricula give them fewer opportunities for

educational development. In addition, it has been suggested that the Roma are

unconcerned with their own histories (Barany 205, Stewart 28); this puts them in an

awkward position when they are considered from a postcolonial perspective, since to

become postcolonial would require them to engage with their collective past. “History

has been an alien concept in Romani culture,” says Barany, “where the dead are rarely

mentioned and seldom become the subjects of commemoration” (205). Derek Hawes and

Barbara Perez sum up the difficulties of engaging with the Roma as postcolonial subjects,

drawing an effective parallel with the Jews, to whom the Roma are frequently compared:

The very notion of Gypsydom is antipathetic to the creation of a

coherent programme of action or campaign for recognition and respect

for Gypsies in the modern world. There is no Zionist dream to act as the

central unifying nexus like that which sustained the Jews throughout a

2,000 year diaspora. No religious faith or body of literature unites,

through time and space, a Romany people; even the common language

is a poor fragmented thing, long since degenerated to a crude patois,

only of philological interest. (Hawes & Perez 144)

Although this passage describes a lack of unity, many Roma would refute the idea that

they are a disunited group. As I have pointed out, Roma generally identify as a single




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group no matter where they are based. Romani scholar and activist Ian Hancock has said

that “any sense of having once been a single people has long been lost, the common

factor now being an awareness not of what we are, but of what all of us are not.

Romanies are not gadže or non-Romani people” (Hancock 2002, xx). So there is a

definite sense of the Roma as a unified group, even if what unites them is what they are

not rather than what they are.

Furthermore, there have been numerous recent attempts to overcome the lack of

knowledge that persists concerning what exactly it is that makes the Roma a single group.

There have been increasing instances of Romani activism, and the Roma Rights

movement in the past few decades seeks to raise awareness of the culture and issues

surrounding the Roma. Romani Organisations have been formed both globally and

specifically in Eastern Europe, and the number of these continues to grow (Barany 207).

The development of such groups has been slow; they remain in their infancy, and the

recent increase in Romani activism suggests that understanding of the Roma can only be

expected to develop. The Romany World Congress has met six times since 1971, and has

sought to promote the rights of Roma and their culture; the International Romani Union

was founded at the second congress, in 1978. Meanwhile, the European Roma Rights

Centre aims to combat racism and human rights abuse against the Roma and supports

activism. At present, we are halfway through the Decade of Roma Inclusion, an initiative

launched by European governments in 2005 with the aim of improving the status of

Roma. It emphasises the importance of Roma participation to its success, and strives to

engage with Romani organisations.

These activities can be taken as reactions against the centuries of

misrepresentation that the Roma have endured. The Roma have always fascinated

outside observers, who have been curious about their origins and way of life. Certain

aspects of their culture, particularly music, dress, and folklore have been adopted by the

inhabitants of every country that has a Roma population. However, other aspects, such as

notions of hygiene and attitudes to work and money, have been regarded with disdain.

This has resulted in a romanticised view of the Roma in which they are exoticized as




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mysterious strangers, but feared as thieves and magicians. A comparison can very easily

be made between this treatment and Said‟s concept of orientalism. Just as the orient in

Said‟s text is misrepresented in Western culture, resulting in a split between East and

West, the Roma have been made to seem alien due to the manner in which outsiders

perceive them.

Postcolonial Origins

Said‟s dichotomy of East and West is worth keeping in mind as we consider the

origins of the Roma. Although these are not entirely certain, the general consensus

among scholars today, based on linguistic and genetic evidence, is that they lie in

Rajasthan, northern India.3 This makes the Roma a people from the orient who have

migrated to the West. The motive for their initial migration from India is uncertain, but

numerous suggestions have been posited. Ian Hancock believes that the Roma were a

warrior caste, who were engaged in fighting the Muslim Ghaznavid Empire, which

repeatedly invaded India during the eleventh century (Hancock 1999). According to

Hancock, they began as an assembly of non-Aryans, who were considered by the Aryan

castes to be expendable in battle, and accordingly were sent to the front line. As this

army fought the invaders, they gradually took a westerly trajectory, and commenced their

migration in this way.

Ronald Lee goes a step further, although he dates the beginning of the diaspora to

the same period. His theory is that some of the Indian troops defeated by the Muslims

were incorporated into the Ghaznavid army, and then became involved in raids in regions

further east, such as Armenia. Displaced from India, this group of captive refugees

eventually began to take on an identity that differentiated them from both their

conquerors and their ancestors. This marks another possible origin for the Roma (Lee).

It is worth noting that if this theory is correct, then the Roma have foundations that can be

considered postcolonial. Although they might initially seem to be a rootless people, they

are in fact a historical example of a group that was threatened by imperialism. Having

3 For example, Ian Hancock (1991) claims that “there has been no real doubt about an Indian origin for the Romani people for over two centuries,” but Judith Okely (1993) is more sceptical.




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been colonized and conscripted by their invaders, this Indian group established

themselves as an entirely new race, in a move that can be thought of as radically

postcolonial. This would mean that we can view the subsequent migrations of the Roma

since their initial movement away from India as a protracted postcolonial reaction.

However, this is not the end of the postcolonial history of the Roma. Having

moved gradually west, many of them found a new homeland in the Balkans. Here, many

of them were enslaved. This seems to have begun almost as soon as they appeared in the

Balkans; Angus Fraser says that “the first mention of Gypsies in Rumanian archives

occurs in a document issued in 1385 [...that...] confirmed the grant of 40 families of

Gypsies” (58), while Barany tells us that such sources can be dated as far back as 1348

(85). Meanwhile David Crowe stresses that the widespread slavery of the Roma that

occurred for centuries in Romania set the precedent for that country‟s particularly poor

record of Roma integration, which persists to this day (61). In 1864, shortly after

Lincoln‟s Emancipation Proclamation in the United States, the Roma slaves in the

Balkans gained what Fraser describes as “complete legal freedom” (226). As we are

aware from responses to the Atlantic slave trade, slavery is very much associated with

colonialism, and any reactions to slavery, both those that occurred before and after its

abolition, can be taken to be postcolonial. This can also be applied to the Roma, and the

Roma Rights groups that we have discussed are reacting to a history of subjugation that

the Roma have endured.

In the twentieth century, direct persecution of the Roma continued. One major

manifestations of this, which is often overlooked, is the Holocaust perpetrated by the

Nazis, which arguably marked the nadir of the Roma persecution that had already gone

on for centuries. Although a number of historians and gypsiologists have begun to

comment on the lack of attention that the Holocaust‟s Romani victims have received, and

attempts to rectify this deficiency have lately been made, the loss of Romani life that

occurred is still generally treated as a footnote to the mass extermination of the Jews.

This is in part due to literacy levels, and the fact that the Roma give little attention to

their history. This means that survivors have been less likely to record their ordeal in




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writing, and their descendants have allowed it to remain in the past. As a result, the

Roma Holocaust has been widely misrepresented and marginalised, and this may well be

the opening to another chapter in the history of their oppression.

This kind of systematic extermination is undoubtedly as severe as persecution of

any race or group can be, but the end of the Second World War nonetheless brought a

fresh form of oppression for the Roma. With most of Eastern Europe under Communist

rule, the Roma who lived there were expected to conform to the expectations of this

system. Accordingly, they were required to integrate, and any outward display of their

particular culture was generally forbidden. Many East European Roma now pine for the

greater stability that they were afforded during the socialist era, and while many were

better off, it was at the expense of their distinct identity. Perhaps the most significant

aspect of their identity that was revoked was their mobility; the communist policy

concerning the Roma‟s nomadism means that the fixed abodes of East European Roma

have now become an established fact.

This is in fact just one of many programmes of assimilation that have been

enforced for centuries. Almost since their first arrival in Eastern Europe the Roma have

been encouraged to settle, often in order that they could be taxed or enslaved. Angus

Fraser notes that Maria Theresa, ruler of the Habsburg Empire from 1740-1780, passed a

number of decrees aimed at removing the ethnic identity of gypsies so that they might be

incorporated into the Hungarian race (157). Although these were not fully enforced –

Fraser remarks that, “Had all the anti-Gypsy laws which sprang up been enforced

uncompromisingly, even for a few months, the Gypsies would have been eradicated from

most of Christian Europe well before the middle of the sixteenth century” (131) – they

will have contributed towards bringing the roaming of the Roma to a halt. This drive

towards forcing gypsies into settlement was finalised under communism. Attempts were

made throughout the communist controlled countries of Eastern Europe to assimilate

gypsies as far as possible. Zoltan Barany states that “Initially, at least, the communist

regimes‟ notion of assimilation appeared to be as simple as the application of the

formula: (Gypsy) + (socialist wage-labor) + housing = (socialist worker) + (Gypsy




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folklore).” Active initiatives towards assimilation began soon after the end of World War

II: in Romania “by the early 1950s the majority of nomadic Roma were settled” (120),

and most other Soviet controlled countries were not far behind. The techniques used to

produce this situation varied from offers of accommodation and employment to outright

bans on movement.

The situation of the East European Roma today is a product of these efforts. The

majority are sedentary and live in ghettoized camps in poor conditions. Poverty is

ubiquitous and unemployment levels are extremely high. Integration with the wider

community is minimal and persecution is rife. In many countries there is no support from

governments, and discrimination from the authorities is also widespread. In Italy, for

example, all Roma were fingerprinted in an initiative said to be an attempt to reduce

crime; evidently, the same stereotypes about the Roma persist. Meanwhile, the growth of

violent attacks carried by right-wing groups in Hungary continues with little to impede it.

Even if postcolonial voices from the Roma community have thus far been few, this is

surely a situation that invites consideration in the postcolonial context.

The Roma as Perpetual Migrants

As we observed previously, there have been various attempts to settle the Roma,

some of which have been partially successful. Deleuze and Guattari describe such

attempts as it might be applied to any nomadic group:

We know of the problems States have always had with journeyman‟s

associations, or compagnonnages, the nomadic or itinerant bodies of the

type formed by masons, carpenters, smiths etc. Settling, sedentarizing

labor power, regulating the movements of the flow of labor, assigning it

channels and conduits [...] – this has always been one of the principal

affairs of the State, which undertook to conquer both a band

vagabondage and a body nomadism. (406) This passage applies nicely to postcolonial discussion. The „State‟ is the dominant power

that exercises control over its subjects and organizes them into a workforce. The

imperial power will need to apply this principle to any territories it conquers, and any

existing inhabitants of those territories. We can see this in Lee‟s theory of the init ial

diasporic roots of the Roma; having been conquered by the invading Ghaznavid Empire,

they were conscripted into the army.




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The situation in Eastern Europe is less simple. Although the enslavement of the

Roma follows the same basic trend, most important here is the idea of sedentarization.

With the traditionally wandering Roma settled, they could be controlled more easily. In

addition, animosity towards them means that there has often been a desire to present them

as being fewer in number than they actually are. Since the ethnic origins of the Roma

have been diluted over the centuries, it is their nomadism more than anything else that

marks them out as Roma, so when this is rescinded their racial identity is removed and

they are incorporated into the dominant group. However, to themselves they remain

Roma, even though they have been displaced from any native land they had, and inducted

into an imperial power.

It is tempting to think of the Roma as perpetual migrants, who continually settle

in new places, before moving on again and resettling. However, this is not the case, as

we shall see if we consider Deleuze and Guattari’s distinction between migrant and

nomad:

The nomad is not at all the same as the migrant; for the migrant goes

principally from one point to another, even if the second point is

uncertain, unforeseen or not well localized. But the nomad goes from

point to point only as a consequence and as a factual necessity; in

principle, points for him are relays along a trajectory. (419) The Roma might seem to occupy a place between migrant and nomad. They are often

thought of as nomadic, even if this is no longer a common attribute; however, they may

not always have been nomadic, since a starting point for their movement has been

ascertained. But by using the above distinction, we can deduce that the continuous

movement of the Roma clearly marks them out as nomads. This deduction finds support

in aspects of their culture that seem intended as nomadic tools, notably the traditional

caravan, a home which can easily be transported from one place to another. Deleuze and

Guattari conclude that, “the nomad can be called the Deterritorialized par excellence”

(421); whereas, the migrant moves from territory to territory, the nomad is completely

detached from this pattern of movement, having no territory that they can claim as a

starting or finishing point. This means that the travelling Roma is unmistakably nomadic.

However, the Roma who has been sedentarized has been assigned a territory, and




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therefore any further movement that he makes may be migration rather than nomadism.

If he were to continue to move around, this subject would be re-entering the realm of the

nomadic. But in order to leave the country that they have been assigned, contemporary

Roma need to have passports and, consequently, nationalities. Rather than being nomads,

these Roma are perpetual migrants, people who have been associated with a particular

territory, but who choose to disassociate themselves from all territories.

However, there have been suggestions that the Roma should have a fixed

homeland, and early activists put forward the idea of a “Romanestan.” This is a utopian

state intended as a territory that the Roma might inhabit and call their own. As I have

mentioned, the Roma have often been compared to the Jews, and Romanestan would

certainly merit comparison with Israel. This idea of Romanestan was most prominent in

the 1930s, and was associated with the figure of the “gypsy king,” a construct intended to

give the Roma greater credence among non-Roma. Elena Marushiakova and

Vesselin Popov describe how:

Initiatives were taken in search for territory for the state. In 1934 the

newly elected Gypsy king Jozef Kwiek sent a delegation to the United

Nations to ask for land in Southern Africa (namely Namibia) so the

Gypsies could have their own state there. At the same time the

“alternative” king Michal II Kwiek traveled to India in order to specify

the location of the future Gypsy state (somewhere along the shores of

the river Ganges). After his trip he began to support the idea that the

state should be in Africa (namely Uganda) and traveled to

Czechoslovakia and England to seek support for his idea. In 1936 the

next king, heir to Joseph, Janusz Kwiek, sent a delegation to Mussolini

asking for some land in Abyssinia (at that time occupied by Italy) where

the Gypsies could have their own state. (438) Clearly, the proposal of Romanestan was doomed to failure. The inherently nomadic

nature of the Roma means that containing them within a fixed homeland, even if it was

one in which they had greater autonomy, would be akin to the ghettoization that they are

already subjected to. However, Romanestan has not been a complete failure, as it does

mark an early instance of Romani activism that sets a precedent for the organisations of

the present day.

Colonizing Culture




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Whereas traditional postcolonial subjects have had their land settled, the Romani

postcolonial subject is an inversion of this – they are obliged to settle on the land of the

colonial subject. The colonist of the rootless race does not have to travel in order to carry

out their mission – they force the people to settle on the land they already possess. So

this is a colonization of people, rather than land. This can be related to postcolonial

discourses concerning slavery, and such discourses can certainly be applied to the Roma.

However, the form of colonialism that the Roma have been victims of is not only a

conquest of physical individuals and their capacity for labour, but also an occupation of

their culture.

As we have seen, Roma culture has long been a source of fascination for many,

and the Roma have been orientalised in a very particular way; the romance of a

wandering lifestyle in a natural setting is at the heart of this. In her book Imagining the

Balkans, Maria Todorova introduces the term „balkanism‟, which she compares with the

more established orientalism. “Orientalism has had a tumultuous existence,” she says,

“and while it still excites passions, it has been superseded as a whole. This is not the case

in the Balkans” (7). She goes on to argue that “balkanism is not merely a subspecies of

orientalism” (8), partly because of “the historical and geographical concreteness of the

Balkans as opposed to the intangible nature of the Orient” (11), and also because the

Balkans have generally not been romanticised in the same way that the orient has: “The

Balkans, […] with their unimaginative concreteness, and almost total lack of wealth,

induced a straightforward attitude, usually negative, but rarely nuanced” (14). This is

relevant here not only because of the substantial Roma populations that can be found in

the Balkan region, but also because this perception of the Balkans as a less civilized

place, which has something of the exotic about it but less of an appeal than the orient,

sums up how we also perceive the Roma. Indeed, the large numbers of Roma who have

inhabited the Balkans for centuries may have contributed to the way that the area is

perceived.




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It is a balkanist view of the Roma that has resulted in the colonization of their

culture: since the Roma, like the Balkans, are thought to be inhospitable and uncivilized,

then it is only their more desirable cultural qualities that are adopted. These aspects have

been romanticised for many years, as we can see in George Borrow‟s writings on the

Roma, which date from the mid-nineteenth century. His autobiographical novel

Lavengro (1851) is an account of Borrow‟s youth that devotes a considerable portion of

its narrative to his interest in the Roma. This is linked to his interest in language (Borrow

is reported to have learned many languages, and „Lavengro‟ is the Romani word for

„linguist‟), and his ability to communicate with them in their own tongue is presented as

an important part of his good relations with them. It is likely that the adoption of an

itinerant lifestyle that he describes was a very deliberate move by Borrow, but he presents

it as though it was a state he fell into very naturally. Having struggled to earn a living in

London by writing, he leaves the city as soon as he has managed to sell a book;

subsequently he travels indiscriminately from place to place. After some time, he buys a

wagon from a disheartened tinker and takes to the road. When he describes his attempts

at taking up the tinker‟s trade, he writes in a mixture of English and Romani, and draws

particular attention to this, saying that “whilst I am making a horse-shoe the reader need

not be surprised if I speak in the language of the lord of the horse-shoe – Mr Petulengro”

(445).4

His adopted gypsyness is something he continues to emphasise when conversing

with a Catholic priest who takes to visiting him in the wooded depression where he

has set up camp. When the priest asks who he is, Borrow says:

“Do you know the name of this place?”

“I was told it was Mumpers’ or Gypsies’ Dingle,” said the man in

black.

“Good,” said I; “and this forge and tent, what do they look like?”

4 ‘Petulengro’ is the Romany word for ‘Smith’.




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“Like the forge and tent of a wandering Zigan; I have seen the like

in Italy.”

“Good,” said I; “they belong to me.”

“Are you, then, a gypsy?” said the man in black.

“What else should I be?” (485)

However, the priest is unconvinced by Borrow, citing his literacy and knowledge of

Armenian as the reason he presumes him not to be Roma, but rather “a philologist, who,

for some purpose, has taken up a Gypsy life” (486). Borrow is reluctant to admit that he

is not Roma, as this would de-mythologize his way of life. While it is considered

acceptable, and even romantic, for a Romani to be without fixed home or occupation, a

non-Roma who lives in this way is a figure of disdain. In this we can observe the dual

perception of the Roma – there is disdain in this perception, but it is partially, though not

fully, excused by romance. As such, it may be expected that itinerants who do not follow

a conventional way of life might present themselves as Roma, in order to gain the excuse

of romance.

Another figure who „became‟ Roma in this way was the artist Augustus John. His

fascination with the Roma was life long, and in common with Borrow, he had an interest

in the Romani language – a product of his friendship with John Sampson, who was

writing a book on the subject, entitled The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales (Holroyd 103).

Eventually, John was to become so immersed in the image of the gypsy that he fabricated

a heritage for himself, saying that, “As for Gypsies, I have not encountered a sounder

„Gypsy‟ than myself. My mother‟s name was Petulengro, remember, and we descend

from Tubal-Cain via Paracelsus” (Holroyd 27). His biographer, Michael Holroyd,

summarises the impression that the Roma he encountered made on him:

The tents, the wagons, the gaily painted carts and great shining flanks of

the horses, the sight of the women with their children, stirred Augustus

in a way he could not explain. [...] their extraordinary names, and the

mystery and antiquity of their origins conjured up a world, remote yet

sympathetic, to which he felt he should have belonged.‟ (104)




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This colourful portrayal is clearly an exoticized view on the part of Holroyd, and John‟s

interest certainly seems to conform to such a perspective.

The postcolonial reaction to this form of cultural colonialism has yet to occur.

While some Roma Rights activists have attempted to de-mythologize the Roma and

reclaim their culture, setting out the elements that are correct and placing them within

their correct context, the low level of literacy amongst the Roma means that at present we

are unlikely to see much postcolonial Romani literature. However, some non-Roma

writers have attempted to provide the postcolonial voice for the Roma. Isabel Fonseca‟s

book Bury Me Standing (1996) is an account of life in a Romani community in Romania,

and rather than focussing on music and magic, includes the harsher realities. Garth

Cartwright‟s Princes Amongst Men (2007) functions in a similar manner: although this

book is specifically concerned with music, the romanticism of the traditional gypsy

musician is kept to a minimum. However, the fact that these texts have been produced by

non-Roma means that they risk being associated with less objective accounts. It seems

that a truly postcolonial Romani literature cannot be produced by anyone other than the

Roma themselves.

Music as Postcolonial Text

Although some manifestations of postcolonialism are closed to the Roma due to

their lack of literacy, this does not mean that they are left with no outlet for their

collective postcolonial voice. The area traditionally regarded as one of their strengths is

music, and it is here that we can observe opportunities for Romani postcolonial discourse.

Music is their primary form of cultural expression – while there is little Romani writing,

there is much music. Before we can consider this fully, however, we should note that

even the music of the Roma, which was thought of as in innate part of their identity, has

been the subject of colonialism. Amongst the Roma who were enslaved in the Balkans

were musicians, who were made to play by their owners. Centuries later, Romani

musicians were made to play in concentration camps, before being killed themselves.

And in the last twenty years, producers from the West have exported gypsy music from

the Balkans and treated it as a marketable commodity.




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Reacting against the appropriation of their music are a growing number of

Romani musicians who are at the centre of Romani postcolonialism. One good example

is the Serbian band Kal, who “not only continue the tradition of making music and

entertaining people but also can act as a platform to highlight Gypsy issues” (Cartwright

2009). Their music can be classified as part of the recent emerging Gypsy Punk genre,

which uses elements from Romani music in a style that is indebted to Western punk.

When Roma musicians adopt Gypsy Punk, we see a form of musical postcolonialism, in

which the music of the dominant colonial power is subverted. Indeed, it is in new

manifestations of Romani music, such as Kal‟s Gypsy Punk, that we are most likely to

find a postcolonial voice for the Roma.

At the forefront of the Gypsy Punk scene is a band called Gogol Bordello, which

is comprised of nine immigrants who came together in New York. Although none of

them is strictly Roma, their lead singer Eugene Hütz is part Roma, and is outspoken

about their issues. Like Kal‟s music, their music combines punk rock with traditional

gypsy music, but it is not their music that is of most interest when they are considered in

a postcolonial context. Hütz has created a mythologized back-story for the band, which

includes an imaginary homeland called Hützovina that can be treated as a mythical

manifestation of Romanestan. The earliest references to Hützovina can be found in

Gogol Bordello’s first album, Voi-La Intruder, which is explained in a New York Times

article:

Some songs on the album are based on a novella in broken-English

verse that [Hütz] wrote – and lost on a computer, he said – called

''Whispering of the Blood.'' Inspired by Bulgakov's classic of political

paranoia, ''The Master and Margarita,'' Mr. Hütz's work is the story of a

man on the run in Hützovina, an imaginary Slavic country where the

cruelly feudal 17th century merges with the cruelly chaotic 21st. (Sisario 25)

This is an example of balkanism in action. Todorova‟s point that the Balkans offer an

escape to a more primitive, almost medieval, culture is borne out in the mingling of the

seventeenth century and the present day. Hützovina is a place where presumptions about

the Balkans and the Roma are realized; the fictionality of the location draws attention to

the falseness of such perceptions.




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Inside the cover of Voi-La Intruder is a map of Hützovina, surrounded by images

that supposedly illustrate events taking place there. These are all portrayals of hedonism

taken from photographs of Gogol Bordello‟s performances, and each is linked to the map

by a line joined to a burning flame drawn somewhere upon it. At the centre of map,

marked by a blazing log, is the capital city, Pizdetz. The image linked to this site is one

of Hütz, standing arms held aloft, wearing the mask of a goat. Another burning log is

superimposed over his crotch. The word „Pizdetz‟ is a derivative of „пизда‟, the Russian

word for „cunt‟ and Hütz has said that it can be “literally translated as cunt-kaput, but

with a mystical overtone to it” („Origins‟, Gogol Bordello Website). The idea that

Hützovina is a vulgar, obscene place is thus reinforced, as is its mythical nature. But

Pizdetz was also the name of a Lower East Side bar where Gogol Bordello played a

number of gigs and began to gain fame. In common with so many fictional locations,

Hützovina has elements that are strongly rooted in reality; in this case, however, the

reality that provides the foundations is not exclusively Balkan or Roma. So a location in

multicultural New York is relocated in a mythological Balkan state; the West is imported

into the fictional East, but since Pizdetz is the actual, real place, the East is

simultaneously imported into the West. This is an almost postcolonial appropriation; it is

balkanism working in reverse, in which the fictionalised Roma territory is shaped by a

West that is informed by genuine Roma culture.

It is arguable that the Roma and East European culture that immigrants have

brought with them to the West has been diluted by Gypsy Punk, and parallels can be

drawn here with colonialism and Orientalism. The cultures of immigrants are in a sense

colonized by Western culture. In the case of Gypsy Punk music for example, the music of

the Roma and Eastern Europe is modified so that it is marketable to a Western audience.

However, the fact that those doing the colonizing are immigrants themselves, who are in

many cases colonizing their own cultures, means that postcolonialism is taken in

interesting new directions. The image and function of the colonizer are both broadened,

with immigrants adopting and adapting the colonialist role in a postmodern echo of

colonialism. Therefore, even if Gypsy Punk is considered to be a postcolonial




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movement, a reaction to the persecution or oppression of certain cultures, it is a

movement that functions in a colonialist manner, extracting the elements that it needs

from other cultures in order to further its own cause. Gogol Bordello‟s prominent use of

Romani music and culture can be taken as an attempt to undermine the pattern of

imperialism; their work foregrounds the culture of the traditionally marginalised race.

Conclusion

The postcolonial voice of the Roma remains quiet, but the mobilization of the

Romani people is increasing. Although their history is not often considered, when it is,

we find much that calls for a postcolonial response. This is evidently starting to emerge,

as the recent expansion of the area of Romani rights reveals. Although the textual outlets

for Romani postcolonialism are limited, the growth of engagement with Romani issues

means that these are likely to become more widespread. In the meantime, we can

observe that the form popularly associated with the Roma, music, provides one

opportunity to raise a postcolonial voice through experimentation with new forms.

Biography

Alan Ashton-Smith is a PhD candidate in the London Consortium‟s multi-disciplinary

programme in Humanities and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck, University of London.

Before arriving in London he gained a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Studies

in Fiction from the University of East Anglia. The subject of his Ph.D. thesis is the

increasingly popular musical genre and cultural movement, Gypsy Punk, and its

relationship with such diverse fields as music, immigration, language, mythology and

Romani studies. Other research interests include Eastern European and Balkan studies,

and many aspects of popular music and culture.

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