Reading the Present Through the Past

The Roma in Postwar Kosovo

Bibliographic Data

ID11048290
AuthorsEnkelejda Sula-Raxhimi (0000-0003-0370-3054, Saint Paul University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume47
Issue2
Pages217-231
Publication date2019-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNationalities Papers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/nps.2018.23
OpenAlexW2941217320
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited35

This article explores the relationship between memory, political violence, and identity among the Roma minorities in Kosovo. In the aftermath of the 1998–1999 conflict in Kosovo, countless Roma were forced to escape Albanian retaliation, accused of being Serb collaborators. Many had to resettle in enclaves near Fushë Kosovë on the outskirts of Kosovo’s capital Prishtina, others left for Serbian-controlled northern Kosovo or to neighboring countries or to Western Europe. Through an ethnographic investigation with displaced Roma families around Prishtina and in Prizren, the article examines how the communities mobilize collective memories of the violent past to adapt to a new political situation, find their place, and navigate their present within Kosovo’s social, economic, and political landscape. It shows that the past is a constant reminder of compromised loyalties toward the majority group, which in turn dictates their (non)relations. Roma voices and narratives about the violent past are not part of the dominant and official discourse; they are counter-memories, telling a story that is silenced and unrecognized by the majority

Aesthetics · Criminology · Ethnography · Identity (music · Narrative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Reading (process · Serbian · Sociology · Anthropology · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Gender Studies · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Romani and Gypsy Studies

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub