Travellers Through Time- A Gypsy History by Jeremy Harte -2022- 320 Pages

Travellers Through Time- A Gypsy History by Jeremy Harte -2022- 320 Pages - published by Reaktion Books.

Reaktion Books is a great source for books on history, biography and more.

I have been interested in Romi history for over 20 years. Travellers Through Time- A Gypsy History by Jeremy Harte is the only work that focuses on the history of the Gypsies in England. It is a very valuable addition to Romi literature.

Harte begins with an account of how he was motivated to write a history of the Romi in England. He details his research methods and personal contacts. The Romi first arrived on British shores about 1525. Initially men came as traders, then as they developed contacts with earlier residents.

"Romany Gypsies have been variously portrayed as exotic strangers or as crude, violent delinquents; this book is the first real history of the Romany people, from the inside. Jeremy Harte vividly portrays the hardships of the travelling life, the skills of woodland crafts, the colourful artistic traditions, the mysteries of a lost language and the flamboyant displays of weddings and funerals, which are all still present in this secretive culture.

Travellers through Time tells the dramatic story of life on the margin of society from Tudor times to today, offering vivid insights into the hidden world of England’s large Gypsy population. It will appeal to those who are curious about other cultures, as well as those who want to understand the reality behind the facade" - From the Publisher 

Harte tracks the movements of Romi people from India to the Persian Empire, Eastern Europe to France and then England through linguistics and older histories and government records.

Upon arrival in England many distrusted and feared the darker skinned differently dressed Romi. Harte's account details their involvement in English history up to the current day.

Harte gives us a vivid picture of the life styles of the Romi, their caravans, customs and clan structures. Romi initially did not marry outsiders. Many Romi men were well known boxers. Horses, betting and clan gatherings are very important. Harte shows us how some English communities were accepting of Travellers and others banned them. Their children did not for a long time attend school and few adults were literate. Harte tells us how Romi men fought for England in both world wars.

Harte takes us up to the 20th century. Many Romi are in settled communities, children learn English, there are now Romis in Parliament.

The traditional dress is worn more by women then men. Social roles are defined still by gender, though with a good bit of flexibility, age and wealth.

The Romi are still subjected to prejudices based on their skin tones and heritage. 

Jeremy Harte is curator of the Bourne Hall Museum at Epsom and Ewell. He is secretary of the Romany & Traveller Family History Society and created the Surrey Gypsy Archive. His previous books include Cloven Country: The Devil in the English Landscape, also published by Reaktion Books.

 

I highly reccomend this beautifully rendered addition to Romi and English History. Harte has included many photographs.

Mel Ulm

 

Bury Me Standing The Gypsies and Their Journey by Isabel Fonseca

Out Annual Observation of Roma Holocaust Day

International Roma Holocaust Rembrance Day

Today is Roma Genocide Remembrance Day. #OnThisDay in 1944, the 'Gypsy Family Camp' at Auschwitz-Birkenau was liquidated.

75 years ago today, German authorities murdered up to 5,000 Roma and Sinti imprisoned in the so-called “Gypsy Family Camp” in Auschwitz-Birkenau by gassing them in a single night. The liquidation of the camp marked a closing chapter in Nazi Germany’s deadly persecution of Roma—whom they deemed to be “racially inferior”—which began shortly after the Nazi Party assumed power in 1933. The marginalization, persecution, and eventual mass murder of Roma often relied on the support or acquiescence of Germans who did not hold pro-Nazi views, as anti-Roma prejudice was widespread. From The Florida Holocaust Museum 

“some secrets were given to the Gypsies to preserve against centrifugal History, and some to the Kabbalists, the Templars, the Rosicrucians” - Gravity’s Rainbow

"Bury me standing. I've been on my knees all my life." - Roma proverb

An autodidactic corner selection

On November 26, 1937 the Neurnburg Laws of Germany were amended to classify the Roma as "enemies of the race based state", the same status given to Jews.  Estimates of death vary quite a bit from a low of 250,000 to 1.5 million. In part this disperity arose as many Gypsies (I will alternate terms but as of now "Roma" is the politically correct term) were listed by their killers as idolers, mentally ill, or habitual criminals.  More Gypsies were killed in Romania than elsewhere.  There was strong support for eradication of Roma throughout The portions of Europe controlled by the Germans.  They were seen as vermin, thieves, prostitutes, con artists.  The history of discrimination, as detailed by Fonesca goes back at least a 1000 years.

There are now an estimated 14 million people of Roma ancestory world wide, eleven million are in Europe, with the largest numbers in Romania.  The USA has around one million Roma people.

The term "gypsy" originated in the 1600s based on the false idea they originated in Egypt. DNA and linguistic research has established that the ancestors of the Roma left Northern India around 550 C. E.  Bury me standing : the Gypsies and their journey talks about various theories about why they left and traces their migration.  

About twenty years ago I read Bury me standing : the Gypsies and Their Journey  by Isabel Fonseca .  From this I went on to read as many books on the Gypsies as I could find.  In Poland in 2011 August 2 was designated as Roma Holocaust Memotial Day.  Since then the European Union has adapted this day.

I recently reread Bury me standing : the Gypsies and their journey by Isabel Fonseca.  I have since the first read increased my knowledge of the history of the Gypsies but the reread brought a lot of things back and helped me see the Roma as even more an outsider community than were European Jews.  

The author spent four years with Roma people, travelling from Albania to Poland.  Mostly through contacts with other women,she learns their customs, their taboos and saw the discrimination they Face. She learned their marriage and funeral rites.  Mensurating women are considered impure.

Foneseca goes into what we can learn about Roma history from linguistics.

 With no King of The Gypsies they live in clan structures, rarely marrying outsiders.  Fonseca tells us what is accepted as true about the history of the Roma.  They never have had a homeland, they have no Torah.  She tells us what knowledge they have of their past comes from stories of their elders.  They do not trust government schools and there Is a high rate of illiteracy.  

Watch The series on Netflix Peaky Blinders makes extensive use of Roma characters, called gypsies.  

Elord

An account of Cher's greatest hit, Gypsys, Tramps and thieves, from 1971

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7801038/cher-gypsys-tramps-thieves-greatest-song

If you are at all interested in Roma culture and history I suggest you start with Bury me standing : the Gypsies and Their Journey  by Isabel Fonseca .

Isabel Fonseca grew up on New York City. She went to Barnard College and Oxford University before settling in London, where she worked as an editor at the Times Literary Supplement. She has written for the Times, The Guardian, The Economist, Harper’s Bazaar, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and The American Scholar, among other publications. Since its appearance in 1995, the national bestseller Bury Me Standing has been published in twenty-two countries. Fonseca is also the author of a novel, Attachment. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, Martin Amis..  from Random House.

I highly recommend her interview with Charlie Rose 

https://charlierose.com/video/player/19923?autoplay=true

In my opinion a knowledge of the history of the Roma should be on all serious autodidactics list. 

Mel u