Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
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Chapter 5 • Giuseppe De Sario, Laura Corradi, Patricia Ruiz, Enrica Capussotti<br />
No, we don’t have many traditions, at least I was not interested in them<br />
so much… I used to work all day in a field, go home, watch a bit of TV<br />
and fall asleep… I don’t know what to say…<br />
On the other hand, the exposure to mass culture could also open new<br />
avenues of expression for the Romany. As J.P Liegois wrote: “[The<br />
Romany] are exploring art forms little used by them up to now, such as<br />
painting, small-scale distribution of recordings of original songs, collections<br />
of stories, autobiographical accounts” (Liégeois, 1994: 104). This is<br />
illustrated by the case of Tony Gatlif, well known as an exception, a Rom<br />
who was able to create and release as important a film as Gadjo Dilo.<br />
Another point concerning this “fragmented narration” would bring us back<br />
to the traumatic impacts of the conflict. The young people interviewed<br />
were those who were born and grew up in a society based on hatred and<br />
violence. They went to schools already separated into institutions for<br />
Albanians or for Serbs, they had increasingly fewer opportunities to meet<br />
people from outside their own cultural group, and their experiences were<br />
those of struggle and discrimination. This, perhaps, is what caused this<br />
fragmentation in their remembering and forgetting.<br />
Ylber, for instance, a 20-year-old Rom, only gave short answers to my<br />
questions and needed frequent stimulation in order to speak. The quoted<br />
declaration occurred at the end of the conversation, and the translator was<br />
trying to help me understand why Ylber looked so tired, and why he was<br />
having so much trouble relating his experience.<br />
For [me] it has been a trauma to talk about these things because [I] feel<br />
sick… just to think about the fear [I] felt, the things that happened [I]<br />
feels sick… and to talk is even worse… the past is a trauma… My head<br />
is tired…<br />
Rozafa, a 15-year-old Romany said:<br />
My memory has [to] be cancelled after what happened in my life… there<br />
have been nice and bad things but they have been cancelled… I remember<br />
most things related to my house… instead the memory of school has<br />
been cancelled because of what happened…<br />
Before this, Rozafa had explained that she had stopped going to her<br />
school, (which was managed by Kosovar Albanians), because her classmates<br />
were insulting her and suggesting she join the other Romany in a<br />
Serbian school. She later said that going to an Albanian school made her<br />
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