Transitional Justice and Spaces of Memory. Case study: The Virtual Museum of Romani Culture

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Introduction

Ethnicity is the product of actions undertaken by ethnic groups as they shape and reshape their self-definition and culture; however, ethnicity is also constructed by external social, economic and political processes and actors as they shape and reshape ethnic categories and definitions.

Ethnicity is fundamentally associated with the shared identity of a group based on culture, religion, language, nationality, common ancestry and other elements identified as specific to that ethnic group.

Embodying a shared cultural history that has created similar worldviews, values and ideals, ethnic identity refers to how individuals perceive themselves and are perceived by others, influenced by self-concept and shaped by personal experiences, cultural context, societal attitudes and historical environments.

“History has fundamentally influenced the structuring of the Roma's self-image. Under this policy of cultural colonisation, based on the criterion of numbers and the inflexible autarchic "prototype", the majority holds all the levers of power and representative institutions, while the Roma cultural model, subject to stigmatising negative stereotypes, is perceived as deviant, so acculturation is implicitly recommended.”

The History and the Roma Ethnic Self-image

The Făgăraș Roma Gathering from 1934-1935 in Calbor (Făgăraș area). Photo credits:

The difference between self-identification and hetero-identification is highlighted by Selim Abou's (1981) distinction between cultural identity (the repertoire of practices and knowledge available to an individual or a community) and ethnic identity (a selection from the repertoire of cultural identity with which the ethnic community chooses to identify) (Mihăilescu & Matei 2014).

There are numerous ethnic groups or peoples who have been subjected to persecution, discrimination, marginalisation, social exclusion, racist attacks and even extermination for hundreds of years, including the Roma. Among the consequences of this treatment based on institutionalised racism is the ethnic self-stigma.

In 2007, as part of a research project by the Association “Amare Rromentza” Rroma Centre, co-funded by UNICEF, we conducted the first exploratory study on the self-esteem of Roma in Romania. The study used the following qualitative research methods: unstructured interviews, retrospective interviews and life story interviews.

The study was repeated and developed in 2017, with the same conclusions: Roma in Romania face a deep internalised identity stigma caused by a history of institutionalised racism, whether in the form of exclusionary racism, which began with 500 years of slavery and continued until the physical extermination during the Holocaust, or as internal colonisation or spiritual ethnocide, as was the policy of ethnic assimilation during the socialist regime.

History has fundamentally influenced the structuring of the Roma's self-image. Under this policy of cultural colonisation, based on the criterion of numbers and the inflexible autarchic "prototype", the majority holds all the levers of power and representative institutions, while the Roma cultural model, subject to stigmatising negative stereotypes, is perceived as deviant, so acculturation is implicitly recommended.

The great trauma comes from the fact that, even when Roma individuals accept the rejection of their own system of values and norms and try to erase their identity and become as "Romanian" as possible, abandoning their ethnicity is not rewarded with real inclusion, and they continue to be "Gypsies." As an apparent paradox of domination racism, disassociating oneself from the collective self and converting to the majority educational canon does not help much in the "social integration" of the Roma, who remain excluded.

Alienated from their own representations of the world and life, the Roma feel, even if often not consciously, but in the depths of their subconscious, that they are prisoners of a distorting society in which they do not recognise themselves and which, instead of protecting them, rejects them and deceives their already fragile expectations. This leads to an irreversible existential drift, a rupture between the projection of the individual self – resulting from the original self-image produced by the culture of origin and the perception of this projection as deviant by otherness – and coming from the stigmatising stereotype with which the axiological system of Romani spirituality is perceived.

The rupture of the collective Roma self, due to the internalisation of stigma and, through this, the inferiorisation of ethnic belonging, leads to the traumatisation of the individual self, to a profound state of dissociability and to an inevitable existential failure. Losing the spiritual ideal of their individual and collective/ethnic personality, the Roma end up denying themselves, euphemising their ethnicity to the point of complete rejection, the only alternative for accessing a higher status being the naturalisation or the individual social mobility, individual salvation through acculturation, cultural assimilation, abandoning the "Romanipen" (Romani unwritten law), thus dissolving their own identity. This way, the Roma individual, totally isolated, ends up living in the spirit of a fictitious self, getting rid of his authentic self, a situation that turns him into a true social suicide.

The stigmatisation of Roma identity, amplified by the systematic use of racially prejudiced and stereotypical language, which cultivates and amplifies racist attitudes and behaviours among the general public, is due not only to a legacy of exclusion and institutionalised racism, but also to the absence of institutions that promote and represent Roma culture.

After 1990, although the Roma were finally recognised as a national minority by the Romanian state after centuries of cruel exploitation, they do not truly enjoy the cultural rights that derive from this status, precisely because of the stigmatisation of their ethnic affiliation and the persistence of racism in society and among public authorities, the latter often choosing to exclude Roma from the implementation of both civil and ethnic rights. Although a recognised national minority, Roma continue to be victims of social exclusion, often ignored as a national minority and considered primarily as a vulnerable or disadvantaged social group.

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Mahala household. Photo credits:

Transitional Justice and Rectificative/Retributive Law

The solution comes from corrective/retributive law and transitional justice¹ through reparative and compensatory measures. Transitional justice is a process that responds to human rights violations through judicial redress, political reforms and cultural healing efforts in a region or country, and other measures to prevent the recurrence of human rights abuses. Transitional justice consists of judicial and non-judicial measures implemented to remedy the legacy of human rights abuses. Such mechanisms "include prosecutions, truth commissions, reparations programmes and various types of institutional reforms, as well as memorials, apologies and various forms of art."

In this regard, it is the responsibility of the Romanian state, which, for hundreds of years, has pursued a policy marked by anti-Roma racism, from the first attestation of Roma as slaves in medieval Romanian countries to contemporary racism, to adopt and implement the reparatory measures provided for by transitional justice. These measures include the creation of modern institutional frameworks to be made available to the Roma national minority with a view to rebuilding its identity.

A fundamental element of this type of justice is the creation of spaces of memory designed to reconstruct the identity of a people that has been ostracised throughout history. The museum, as a space of memory, is thus one of the cornerstones of transitional justice, being an important form of moral reparation for the tragic past of the Roma people.

Roma coppersmiths. Photo credits:

Case study: The Virtual Museum of Romani Culture

After a history of institutionalised racism, it was only 35 years ago that the Roma were recognised, for the first time in Romania, as a national minority with all the cultural rights associated with this status. However, they still do not fully enjoy these rights in social practice. Among other deprivations of cultural rights is the absence of a museum of Roma culture and history, a fundamental reparatory institution for the preservation and development of Roma cultural memory, part of transitional justice.

In the absence of a physical public museum, we considered it very important to create a virtual museum of Romani culture, which can be visited by both Roma and non-Roma in Romania, as well as by Roma and non-Roma from anywhere in the world, which makes it, at least in terms of accessibility, even more important than a physical museum. We achieved this between 2021 and 2022, as part of the "We Can Do More Together" project, in which our association, „Amare Rromentza” Roma Centre, was the partner responsible for creating this virtual museum of Romani culture.

The museum reflects both the values of traditional and modern Romani culture and the tragic history of the Romani in Romania (slavery, Holocaust, cultural ethnocide during the socialist regime, contemporary anti-Romani racism), both the ancestral Romani ethnotype and its modernisation process, both the Romanipen in absolute terms and the culture of internalised stigma, both the historical process of civic and cultural emancipation of the Roma after their liberation from slavery and up to the present day, and the projection of the Roma into the future or the process of building a non-territorial and cross-border Romani nation.

All components of the museum are presented through a soundscape, including voices reading historical documents and music, through minimalist graphics representing symbols from Roma history and culture that induce empathy in the visitor, through the emotion associated with each virtual space, as well as through images of historical documents, period photographs and contemporary photographs/films that reconstruct the moment or the element being explored, with a view to providing a deep understanding of Roma history and culture. Navigating the virtual museum space allows visitors to enjoy an immersive emotional experience.

The virtual spaces are not classic museum halls, but are located outdoors, in different landscapes, adapted to the content of each topic addressed, and have the name/message of each written on a gate adapted to the content of that virtual space. In each of these spaces, visitors participate in the virtual reality created through thematic animations and view 3D, 2D or 360-degree images with objects and documentary films related to the period and/or theme of that virtual space. Visitors are accompanied by the voice of the museum guide, who provides information on the topics covered in each virtual space. The museum guide is available in three languages: Romanian, Romani and English, and visitors can choose their preferred language.

Each virtual space contains the following sections: Virtual Reality, Photographs, Video and "Secret Room", which visitors can access by answering a simple question about Roma culture and/or history. In this room, visitors will find several historical documents, photographs, films about the Roma, books and useful links.

The virtual museum is accessible on any computer and includes – in the Public area – visiting the rooms of the virtual museum, accessing content (images, films, audio files from each space) and viewing parts of the content using virtual reality headsets. In the Private area, the museum offers: ability to edit content (continuous updating, adding information); organisation of online Roma cultural events (exhibitions, conferences, scientific sessions, concerts, theatre performances, film screenings, courses, talk shows etc.).

Slave's head from the well at Cozia Monastery. Photo credits:

From Ancestry to Dehumanisation and Slavery

The museum opens with an introduction narrated by the museum guide.

Who are the Roma? What is Romani culture? These are questions that, for many centuries, humanity has not known how to answer and, instead of seeking, analysing and understanding, it has preferred to replace scientific research and respect for otherness with prejudices and stereotypes based on ignorance and racial hatred towards the Roma.

Moreover, even when research on the Roma began, it was not only not emic, but it was not even ethical, often violating both professional ethics and the moral values of Romani culture. It has only been a century since the enlightened minds of the Romani people initiated self-analysis or emic research into Romani identity. Only in this way could the truth about the Roma be told: by the Roma themselves.

The museum is structured into eight rooms or virtual spaces, each with its own story, told by the museum guide as the content of each room unfolds:

Ancestry: Journeys into the Romano archetype – presents the roots of Romani identity in Indian, Persian and Byzantine spaces, as well as the archaic foundations of traditional Romani culture.

Romani culture is one of the oldest cultures of humanity, with ancestral Indo-Aryan and Byzantine-Phrygian roots, without forgetting the important contribution of Persian culture to the ethnogenesis of the Romani people. As for the inherited culture, it includes practices, customs, values, beliefs, types of relationships and roles belonging to the ancestral Roma memory, in other words the archetypal Roma ethnotype, but also its mutations resulting both from the evolution of its own paradigm and from the contact with the syntagms of otherness.

Dehumanisation: Half a millennium of slavery of the Roma in the Romanian Principalities – presents the most terrible form of exploitation and personal dependence of the dehumanised man on his earthly master.

Slavery represents the lowest status a person can have in society, a state of absolute personal, social and economic dependence in which a person is held by his/her master, a human condition in which the slave works for his/her master without pay, carries out all his/her master's orders from birth to death and has no rights over his/her own person. The slave is not recognised as a human being, is outside the hierarchy of society and is considered an inferior species to humans.

Such was the case with the enslavement of the Roma, documented since the first mention of the Roma on Romanian territory in the 14th century, which lasted for more than half a millennium. Called "social leprosy" by abolitionists, slavery not only placed the Roma outside of society, but also excluded them from their status as human beings, as they were considered movable property, sold, donated, and inherited like any other object, land, or domestic animal. Slaves could be owned by boyars, monasteries, rulers, but also by wealthier peasants.

Slaves were subjected to cruel exploitation, abuse and violence, which went as far as torture and murder. Slavery, as a form of absolute personal dependence of the slave on his/her master, was totally different from other forms of servitude or dependence known at the time, such as serfdom or „rumânia”, the latter binding the peasant to the estate as a form of economic dependence, without however making the boyar the absolute master of the peasant.

The Orthodox Church, through its monasteries, was the largest owner and trader of Roma slaves. And when the rulers donated slave communities to the monasteries, they did so as alms or offerings to God for the forgiveness of sins and in the hope of ensuring eternal life in heaven.

Deportation of Roma to Transnistria. Photo credits:

From Reorganisation to Extermination and Assimilation

Reorganisation: The emancipation of the Roma in the interwar period – presents the beginnings of the first Roma movement in Romania and the crystallisation of the Roma's ethnic self-awareness.

After their liberation from slavery, although this was exclusively legal and did not provide for any measures for the socio-economic integration of former slaves, known as "emancipated", the Roma began to participate in Romanian society: they brought to Romania and developed metalworking crafts, fought in the War of Independence of 1877-1878, fought in the First World War, were the second ethnic group to recognise the Union of the Romanian Principalities with Transylvania on 1st of December 1918, and gave the country numerous cultural figures, intellectuals, artists, and statesmen, as Mihail Kogălniceanu said in his speech on 1st of April 1891, at the solemn meeting of the Romanian Academy organised on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its founding: "Although it has not yet been 50 years since the proclamation of emancipation, the Gypsies have given us industrialists, artists, distinguished officers, good administrators, doctors and even parliamentary orators."

The Great Union of 1st of December 1918 provided an opportunity for the Roma to organise themselves, declare their allegiance and demonstrate their loyalty to the new-formed Romanian state, to think about and structure their visions and desires in relation to the Romanian state, to write and publish political and cultural periodicals and, based on all these or bringing all these together, to found what, from a modern perspective, we call the Roma movement. The first large gatherings of Roma and the first Roma organisations were initiated in Transylvania, where the enslavement of the Roma did not have the same scale, duration or legislative force as in Wallachia and Moldavia.

Extermination: The Holocaust against the Roma in Romania – presents Romanian eugenics, the ideological basis for the extermination of the Roma under the Antonescu regime, and the history of the Holocaust against the Roma.

The Holocaust against the Roma: The forgotten Holocaust – forgotten by society, hidden from it by the racist state, forgotten by the state so as not to take responsibility for the extermination of the Roma, hidden in the deep and unhealed wounds of the traumatised souls of the Roma survivors, for whom Roma ethnic identity has become an internalised stigma and has shattered their self-image. What remains is the fear of being Roma: "Don't say you're Roma! If they come again to take us away to Bug, what will we do?!?"

The Holocaust against the Roma in Romania was not imported from Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, nor from anywhere else, it was a local phenomenon, born and bred in the Romanian collective consciousness, marked by hatred and contempt for the Roma since ancient times, since the days of Roma slavery, and built on the basis of Romanian eugenics conceived and supported by the Romanian elite of the time.

For the Roma in Romania, the Holocaust represented EXTERMINATION, it was the culmination of a history of institutionalised racism, a state of affairs that chronologically overlapped with the very existence of the Roma in the Romanian space.

Assimilation: Roma during the socialist period – presents the cultural ethnocide caused by the policy of assimilation of the Roma, but also their socio-economic integration into a society that claimed equality among its citizens.

Racism of domination or internal colonisation culminated, as far as the Roma are concerned, in the policy of ethnic assimilation during the nationalist socialist regime in Romania, a policy of egalitarianism that was much touted, but little applied, which aimed to create a new, non-ethnic human being, amorphous from the point of view of minority cultures.

While socialism is, by definition, cosmopolitan, internationalist and may even encourage equality, at least culturally, between the majority and minorities, as was the case in Tito's Yugoslavia, where minority cultures, including Romani literature, enjoyed a policy of development and promotion, Romanian socialism was nationalist, ethnocentric and monocultural, its policy being one of cultural assimilation of national minorities, with the exception of the Hungarian and German minorities, and of promoting, almost exclusively, the national majority culture, Romanian values and personalities from the past and present, as well as the heroization of Romanian historical figures, even if they were medieval despots who, as expected, flagrantly contravened the much-vaunted egalitarian principles and values of socialism. Consequently, only those national minorities that were successors to empires – Hungarian and German – for which Romania had signed, in 1919, the Treaty on Minorities, a political gesture that conditioned the recognition of the union with Transylvania – and which enjoyed the protection and support of their mother countries, the latter being, at the time, members of the socialist bloc (the Hungarian People's Republic and the German Democratic Republic).

Under the Romanian socialist regime, Roma were not recognised as a national minority, their ethnic identity being systematically denied through a policy of assimilation, in a society where everyone was Romanian, where the ideal was to be Romanian, where Roma were honoured to be assimilated into Romanian society, and where the only chance for social mobility was naturalisation as ethnic Romanians by concealing or rejecting their ethnic identity. Those Roma who denied their ethnic affiliation and made efforts towards total acculturation integrated into that socialist society. The results of such a policy were marginal social integration and cultural ethnocide.

Roma emancipation document. Photo credits:

From Reconstruction to Anti-Roma Racism

Reconstruction: Roma as a national minority – presents the efforts, dilemmas and controversies surrounding the development and promotion of Roma identity, recognised for the first time in Romania as a national minority.

Immediately after the political regime change in 1990, after centuries of cruel exploitation and total ignorance, racism, exclusion and domination, physical extermination and forced assimilation or cultural ethnocide, the Roma were recognised as a national minority by the Romanian state for the first time in their history in these territories. However, Roma do not truly enjoy the cultural rights that derive from this status, precisely because of the stigmatisation of their ethnic affiliation and the persistence of anti-Roma racism both in society and among public authorities, the latter often choosing to exclude Roma from the implementation of both their civil and ethnic rights. Although they are a recognised national minority, Roma continue to be victims of social exclusion, often ignored as a national minority and considered only as a vulnerable or disadvantaged social group. As a result, public policies targeting Roma over the last 30 years, including government strategies for Roma inclusion, starting with the first such strategy in 2001, have focused primarily on the social integration of Roma and combating poverty, treating the prevention and combating of anti-Roma racism and the issue of Roma ethnic identity superficially or marginally, and almost ignoring the fact that Roma are a recognised national minority with cultural rights deriving from this status.

Thus, while other national minorities have fundamental public institutions such as museums, theatres, public monuments, periodicals and other publications in the minority's mother tongue, schools, high schools and universities teaching in the minority's mother tongue, the Roma have only the National Centre for Roma Culture - Romano Kher, a marginalised public institution that is institutionally limited in all respects: in terms of staff size, budget, responsibilities and scope for action.

The only chance for Roma to be not only de jure, but also de facto a national minority is for both the Romanian state and Roma organisations to understand that full citizenship means, in the case of a national minority, including the exercise of cultural rights, and to work together to achieve this goal.

Stigmatisation: Anti-Roma racism – presents manifestations of racism against Roma in contemporary society, from inter-ethnic conflicts to police abuse, forced evictions and political and journalistic discourse of racial hatred.

The history of the Roma in Romania is a history of institutionalised anti-Roma racism, which began with half a millennium of slavery and continued with extermination during the Holocaust – both representing exclusionary racism, followed by the socialist regime's policy of forced assimilation – representing domination racism and the explosion of direct and indirect racism after 1990 – returning, in full, but not complete democracy, to exclusionary racism.

After 1990, although the Roma were finally recognised as a national minority by the Romanian state after centuries of cruel exploitation, anti-Roma racism exploded in forced evictions, systematic police abuse in Roma communities, anti-Roma racial hate speech in the media and extremist political discourse, anti-Roma racial bullying in schools, chronic residential and school segregation, and various attempts at pogroms in the form of collective punishments of extreme violence resulting in the killing of some Roma and the burning of their homes.

Ursar (Bear leader). Photo credits:

Visionary Thinking

Visionary thinking: Roma in the future – presents the prospects for the construction of a modern Roma identity in a society that recognises, respects, promotes and supports the new Rromanipen.

The Roma people, numbering approximately 12 million, live scattered throughout the world, on all continents and in almost all countries on our planet. Current citizens of their countries of residence, due to a tragic history of institutional racism, extermination and cultural ethnocide, the Roma have not managed to establish their own state. In this context, it can be said without fear of contradiction that the Roma are a cross-border, non-territorial or non-state ethnic group or ethnic minority.

Roma in Europe are recognised as a national minority with all the cultural rights, including linguistic rights, that derive from this status, in 14 Member States of the European Union and in several other countries such as Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro and the Republic of Moldova.

On 1st of January 2001, the president of the International Romani Union, Emil Scuka, declared that the Roma are a cross-border and non-territorial cultural-political nation: "Individuals belonging to the Roma Nation demand representation for their Nation, which does not wish to become a state. We demand to be recognised as a Nation, for the good of Roma and non-Roma alike, who share the need to face new contemporary challenges. We, a nation of which half a million people were exterminated in the forgotten Holocaust, a nation whose individuals have too often been discriminated against, marginalised, victims of intolerance and persecution, have a dream, and we are committed to fulfilling it. We are one nation, we share the same tradition, the same culture, the same origin, the same language; we are one nation. We have never sought to establish a Romani state. Nor do we want a state today, now that the new society and the new economy are concretely and progressively surpassing the importance and adequacy of the state as a means of organising individuals themselves.”

The Roma have an international Roma flag, an international Roma anthem, an international day – 8 April, which celebrates the First International Roma Congress of 1971 – and a common language, Romani, with its standardised writing and its harmonized literary language – as its most refined form.

Unfortunately, however, because of the anti-Roma racism of different states, but also because of the weakness and lack of unity of the Roma movement, marked, again because of historical racism, by ethnic self-stigma, there are very few Roma museums, very few Roma theatres, very few Roma libraries, very few Roma philharmonic orchestras, very few public Roma cultural centres, very few Roma television stations, radio stations or programmes, very few Roma publications, very few schools or classes teaching in the Romani language, there are no arts and crafts schools specialising in Roma crafts, Roma cultural production is minimal or non-existent, and political representation is minimal or non-existent at the level of local, national, European or international public decision-making authorities (local councils, governments, parliaments).

In Romania, there is no museum of Romani culture, no Romani theatre, there is no Roma library, there is no Roma philharmonic orchestra, there are no local or county public Roma cultural centres, there are no public Roma television or radio stations, there are very few schools or classes teaching in the Romani language, and there are no arts and crafts schools specialising in Roma crafts. There is only the National Centre for Roma Culture - Romano Kher, the only national public institution in Romania that aims to develop and promote Roma culture.

The vision for the future of the international Roma movement is the recognition of the non-territorial, cross-border cultural-political Roma nation through the creation and development of Roma cultural institutions and institutions representing Roma decision-making, as well as through a massive and extensive Roma cultural production in the fields of art and research.

Roma student theater. Photo credits:

Conclusion

In conclusion, the creation of a physical museum of Romani culture by the Romanian state is a fundamental reparatory measure, part of transitional justice, intended to contribute, essentially, to the reconstruction of Romani cultural memory in society, so that the establishment of this physical museum, which will join the virtual one and develop it from a different perspective, becomes a priority, especially since the experts contracted by the National Agency for Roma have developed a detailed concept for the physical museum of Roma history and culture since December 2022, and the Romanian Parliament adopted Law 238/2023 on the establishment of the National Museum of Roma History and Culture in Romania.

However, the museum of Roma history and culture is still awaited.

Transitional justice refers to how societies respond to the legacies of massive and serious human rights violations. It asks some of the most difficult questions in law, politics, and the social sciences and grapples with innumerable dilemmas. Above all, transitional justice is about victims.↩︎

Transitional Justice and Spaces of Memory. Case study: The Virtual Museum of Romani Culture

Written by:

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Introduction

The History and the Roma Ethnic Self-image

Transitional Justice and Rectificative/Retributive Law

Case study: The Virtual Museum of Romani Culture

From Ancestry to Dehumanisation and Slavery

From Reorganisation to Extermination and Assimilation

From Reconstruction to Anti-Roma Racism

Visionary Thinking

Conclusion

Further Reading:

About the Author

Delia Grigore

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THE ATTIC

Transitional Justice and Spaces of Memory. Case study: The Virtual Museum of Romani Culture

Written by:

Share article:

Introduction

The History and the Roma Ethnic Self-image

The Attic Newsletter

Follow @theatticmag on Twitter

Transitional Justice and Rectificative/Retributive Law

Follow @theatticmag on Twitter

Case study: The Virtual Museum of Romani Culture

From Ancestry to Dehumanisation and Slavery

From Reorganisation to Extermination and Assimilation

From Reconstruction to Anti-Roma Racism

Visionary Thinking

Conclusion

Further Reading:

About the Author

Delia Grigore

Share this Article

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