The History of the Gypsies (Roma)

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✏️Description: Known across the world by many names such as: "Gypsies", "Roma", "Romani", "Sinti", etc... ; the Gypsies played a crucial role in the development of the Balkans & the history of many of the countries that inhabit the region today such as: Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, and many others outside of the region. Yet, when talking about history, very rarely are the Roma mentioned or talked about. In this video we go over the origin of the Roma in India, their migration across the Silk Road and into the Balkans, their life in the Balkans & under the Ottoman Empire, the 20th century, their life under communism & finally modern times.

On the word "Gypsy":
"Gypsy" comes from the word "Egyptian", because prior to the late 18th century, Europeans & Gypsies themselves believed they came from Egypt. The word "Roma" means "man/person" in the Gypsy language, and prior to basically the 1950s the Gypsies didn't even think of themselves as a coherent group, but different clans and families.

If we're talking about the more colloquial word for Gypsies in Eastern Europe, "cigan, cigány, țigan", it comes from the Greek "antsigan" which means untouchable. However, outside of Greece, most didn't know the meaning of the word (surprise surprise medieval peasants were monolingual). Later in the 16th century due to Gypsies becoming the majority of the slave population in the Ottoman empire & the Balkans, the versions of "antsigan" became synonymous with slave. However, the words "Slav/Sclav" also meant slave as Ottomans had laws of considering non-Muslims their property.

In modern times the meaning of the word was lost, and many associated the negative qualities to the word because of association and negative context. The push for not using the word and using "Roma" is relatively new and came about in the 90s. However, within the Gypsy community in the Balkans there has been a counter movement against the use of the word "Roma". From a standpoint of several reasons.

1. Being the retaking of a word & meaning
2. In traditional Gypsy circles, it is not acceptable for foreigners aka "gadje" to speak Gypsy as it was kept a secret language from them due to oppression.

If you ask a Gypsy in the Balkans how they prefer to be called, the majority of the time they will say "Gypsy". I haven't really seen anyone but westerners and western raised Gypsies make a fuss over this word. Hell, I have a Gypsy aunt inlaw who is adamant on the term "Gypsy" over "Roma". If someone does ask me from the community to not refer that way, I will. But overall in both Serbia, Romania, and Hungary the term amongst the Gypsy population is not seen as a slur.

Many Romanians & Romanian gypsies actually are pushing against the use of the word "Roma" due to being too similar to "Romanian". From the Gypsy perspective the case being they don't want their cultural identity to be erased and taken as Romanians, while Romanians don't want to be mistaken for Gypsies (which is a whole other story in itself)

📖Sources:
⚫Fonseca Isabel - Bury Me Standing
⚫Hancock Ian - We Are The Romani People

#romania #balkans #serbia

[razvangrelus]

One of my best friends from middle school was a gipsy. He disliked being called roma. Was a really nice guy, smart, well-mannered and now he is a physics professor at a university in the UK. His brother on the other hand is in jail for stealing cars in Germany.

[FedeTL]

I have a Gypsy friend, he's a really cool and fun guy, but my biggest mistake was i accidentally mentioned him once infront of my Romanian classmates, now they greet me with a "O Tsigan" every morning 😭😭😭

[marinsimeonov]

Growing up in Bulgaria, my parents used to tell me that if I don't finish my plate, the gypsy kid would be stronger than me in a fight. I find this inspiring.

[slavicemperor]

Being someone born and raised in Montenegro the first time I had actual experience with Gypsies was when 11 years old me and my ten or so friends about my age went to play football behind our school. First we were playing between ourselves, then about ten Gypsy kids came and asked to play against us. We agreed and both parties enjoyed a fun time until the eldest from the Gypsy group said he wants to keep the ball we were playing with, which was actually decent quality and belonged to my friend. He obviously refused to give it to him, which made the Gypsy crazy mad. He punched one guy who was telling him to go away, but eventually they ran away and we continued playing football between ourselves like we did before Gypsies came.

Then after maybe half an hour, love and behold, an actual horde of 20-25 Gypsies, armed with wooden planks and metal pipes approaching our football field. We ran for dear lives, hid in a supermarket for 20 minutes until police came to disperse their crowd and let us go home.

[skootzkadoodles]

I think the biggest challenge is school. I have seen really bright little Roma kids who don't even try to listen because nobody at home cares. And if they do try to do well they get put down a peg by the community. Had a 6 year old kid who said she wanted to be a nurse but knew she couldn't because she wasn't allowed.

[thehun]

In the 60s I had a gypsy classmate at the university in Budapest. He came from the eastern part of Hungary, near the Soviet (today Ukrainian) border. He said that his biggest problems were not with Hungarians but with other gypsies. Every time he visited his parents in their village during holidays other gypsies beat him up because "he wanted to be white". One year he ended up in hospital for several weeks because of this beating. Of course, no witnesses were prepared to testify. After that, he never returned to his village. He worked real hard and managed to graduate.

[znalniaskas]

Never ask:
-A woman about her age
-A man about his salary
-A European about what he thinks of Gypsies

[dulogmaz]

I can't tell you how many times my schedule was messed up because the gypsies kept stealing copper wires from the railway my train was on...

[sarmgoblin]

Used to play football with a Gypsy when I was younger, used to be a real chill guy but now he’s a hard criminal

[cathcartjames]

Wow man, this might be your opus. So much history here I was unaware of, presented as entertainingly as ever. Excellent work.

[miklosz]

In my Polish town not so long ago we had a self-proclaimed "king of the gypsies", he was an extremely respected and was de facto the head of the local gypsy community.

[oceanman]

The balkan kids have heard two things growing up, either"if you misbehave the gypsies will take you"or "we got you from the gypsies for X amount of grain, rice, flour etc" My price was apparently 1kg of flower.What was yalls price?

[ernomakra]

A gypsy friend of mine literally been thrown out the window as a baby, he's adopted and has great parents, he was abusing drugs for a while. Now he has been off drugs and he's been working a lot, both on himself and financially, he's been going to the gym and he's a very good friend

[andersbjrnsen]

Its amazing how you have gone from mainly a "balkan comedy" channel to a channel!

[health]

As a Bulgarian, I can confirm that a share my village on the outskirts of Pleven with several Romani that casually make me play Yu Gi O cards with them . Every night we all cast a curse on the North Macedonians as well.

[juliavashkevich]

During my childhood my family had to live in a neighborhood with Gypsies. God forbid that any of you reading this comment have such an experience. We couldn’t leave anything outside of our house, and sometimes they would even break into our house to steal. We had a garden and they would also steal every fruit and berry from there. Once my dad bought me a bike and the next day it was gone. The neighbors Gypsy boy was riding it. My father went after it, they swore and spat at him, even threw rocks and him but he returned the bike. Their family was just very sad, the father didn’t work and the mother made money by stealing wallets. Once they finally bought a car they rode around on it like it was a royal carriage and tried to flex it as much as possible. Then they started selling drugs. And then we moved :)

[Pipsonite]

As a Slovenian gypsy (or half gypsy to be precise), I can say that the mentality of people as well as the overall picture has changed a lot since my childhood. I live in a gypsy village that resembles a typical local village with all the needed modern infrastructure (electricity, water, internet, proper housing...) and is considered one of the most advanced and organised romani settlements in the world. Also most people now have jobs and are getting educated. I myself have a college degree and work at a reputable company. The stigma is partially still there, but it is also easy to see that it can slowly but surely be erased if the correct steps are taken by society, both the gypsies and the rest.

[Weeboslav]

Funniest(and saddest) part is that politicians use Romani people as cheep voters in Serbia and Montenegro. In Serbia, few years ago, Romani managed to get Hungarian party a lot of seats in a place where Hungarians make less than ~3% of population due to wrong advertisement. In Montenegro, politicians buy Romani votes for 20 euros while Romani themselfs live in slums. Few days ago, a slum in Bar(coastal city in Montenegro)burned down, killing 4 people(2 or 3 were underage). There was also Karton City(cardboard city)in Belgrade that was, as it names implies, made out of cardboard and nearly 1000 people lived there.

[Sheikh-XX]

Borat’s home village was not in Kazakhstan, it was in Romania. Sasha Baron Cohen lied to the Gypsy villagers saying he is filming a documentary to show the struggles of the Roma community. They didn’t know anything about Borat and he didn’t give them a penny.

[Argonautica]

"Tepes the famous shish-kabob maker" lolol. So many of your jokes pass by so quickly, I think many if not most people miss them. Smeshan ludak. Great video!