Kija újal romano szvito? / Romani World, Where are You?

Összefoglaló

“You don’t talk to me in Romani! Stop it, do you hear me?”, the woman yelled at her husband. “Oh, may God punish you when you say ‘Don’t talk in Romani’! Even if you pretend not to understand, everyone knows that you are a Rom!”

This book includes 38 semi-autobiographical stories written in the dialect known as Romungro, Carpathian or South Central Romani, which is a severely endangered Romani dialect in Hungary. The plot is situated in the past, mainly in the second half of the 20th century, and describes the everyday life of the Roma and the interethnic relations between the Roma and the Hungarian villagers. The author offers an inside perspective into traditional Romani cultural practices and values which have disappeared or changed in modern times, and reflects on the way Roma have dealt with the challenges posed by the rapid social, economic and cultural changes of the 20th century, such as the disappearance of their traditional professions, the growing discrimination against them, and the wish of some Roma to assimilate. While the texts are imbued with nostalgia for the past, they do not try to show the Romani world through rose-coloured glasses, as the stories allow us a glimpse into the lives of different Romani families, either harmonious or entirely dysfunctional ones. It is a unique book that offers interesting reading to anyone who wants to gain insight into the life of the Roma during the second half of the past century in the Hungarian countryside.