GREETINGS FROM THE FORGE: Naive painting by Zuzana Veresky
The Days of Minority Culture, which are held in Belgrade during August, are a continuation of the activities of the Multicultural Center established in March at the Federal Ministry of National and Ethnic Communities. Apart from the Center, this event is also held in the Rex cinema, the Cultural Decontamination Center and outdoors. The program started with a film screening Nada Vladimir Božović about refugees of different ethnic origins united, apart from fate, and the will to engage in art. Residents of the refugee camp in Rača near Kragujevac presented themselves with comedy Dr Branislav Nušić, a dictionary is presented Da li you know Roma?, a literary evening was held on the occasion of the first publication of the collected works of academician Julian Tamaš, while in the second half of the program Slovak and Ruthenian theater performances, a photo exhibition about the daily life of minorities and, finally, an evening of ethnic music and a film screening were planned Tolerance made in the production of B92.
LANGUAGES THEY CONNECT: "The performance of the refugees from Rača proves the possibility of realizing our intention: Roma, Albanians and Turks, therefore, people between whom there is a language barrier did a performance in Serbian in order to achieve communication", explains Jelena Marković, Assistant Minister of the Federal Ministry of National and Ethnic minority. "In those circumstances, the artistic value of their work is not important, the human dimension and message is important." The play is a form of psychosocial therapy, however, the refugees in Rača continued to engage in theater even after that action. So far, they have already performed four shows with which they tour other cities."
Dictionary author Da li you know Roma? (Independent edition of Slobodan Mašić) is Zoran Jovanović, a thirty-year-old Roma native of Novi Karlovac who collects the oral literature of the Srem Roma. The dictionary, which he calls the interlocutor, is trilingual: Serbian-Romani-English. Apart from the words, he recorded the customs and beliefs of his people in it. "Zoran Jovanović's dictionary is an example of the effort of the Multicultural Center to avoid the stereotypical presentation of the minority ethnic community, which often happens in many countries, that is, to reduce its presentation to exoticism and folklore, as if the only things in the culture of these people are costumes, dance and music worth mentioning", says Jelena Marković. "Of course, we try to show its tradition, but we still highlight their top artistic achievements. They are almost unknown to the public. Last year, during the Roma Culture Week in Belgrade, thanks to the help of Jovan Ćirilov, a program without stereotypes was realized: there were no trumpeters and dances, top avant-garde theaters from Cologne and Budapest, talented writers, serious music concerts were held. We tried to show how there are top creators within the Roma minority. That's why we supported the creation of Zoran Jovanović's dictionary, and that's why we support the literary workshops organized by Mr. Ćirilov with Roma authors."
The theme of the photo exhibition (group of authors) is the daily life of minority communities, and its goal is obvious. "We want to get to know each other." I think that the Belgrade audience does not know how to live in Sandžak, how to live in Kovačica. There is an unwillingness of a part of public opinion to communicate with certain communities, to live in a more tolerant environment, and in central Serbia public opinion is not aware of the existence of minorities." Jelena Marković explains that ordinary life situations were chosen for the exhibition: traditional crafts, street market, kitchen, places of worship , customs... "On Pešter, for example, they still wear ducats strung in quite a number of strings, there are preserved wedding rituals that no longer exist anywhere, and fairs are still the most important form of social gathering."
STEREOTYPES I PREJUDICES: Public opinion surveys have shown that ethnic tolerance is the lowest in Belgrade. "I think the reason is ignorance, there is no exchange." The citizens of Belgrade were not offered content that would break their stereotypes about minorities. The youngest have the biggest ethnic stereotypes because they have never had live contact with Croats, Bosniaks, but only a picture from TV news, from movies. The same applies to central Serbian municipalities. In Vojvodina and Sandžak, in multi-ethnic communities, this is not the case. I worked as a teacher and I saw that young people believe that Muslims stink because, they explain, they eat tallow! They believe that Eid and Ramadan are sectarian rituals where people stab themselves with knives, they have no idea that they are holidays like Christmas or Easter. They claim that women in Sandzak are not allowed in a cafe and that they walk six steps behind a man! A Serbian child in Sandzak does not have that stereotype!"
The Multicultural Center was founded with the intention of shifting the focus of the story of minorities from politics to culture, in order to show the advantages of a multinational society due to the diversity of its cultures. "All our cultures are the product of mixing and permeation, so it is difficult to talk about, for example, Slovakian naive art because it is similar to Hungarian art." It is more accurate to talk about the naive painting of Vojvodina, because the art there is more suited to geographical than to ethnic determinants." Since its foundation, the center has held about fifty cultural events. "The center also has a library stocked with books about minorities in different languages, and with the internet center we are trying to get closer to Belgrade, especially the younger population." There is a permanent exhibition of works of art from all communities, so just visiting the center introduces the visitor to a multicultural world. We wanted to take the young world out of the limited cultural space in which they live."
FIDDLE I STRUDLES: The center organizes at least one event every week, such as "Minorities for children in Tiršova": each minority auctioned items and works from its cultural treasures, thus expressing the spirit of common interest. The emancipation of the Roma female population and its economic independence were presented at the extremely well-attended exhibition "Roma women."
The programs that were successful in Belgrade were also presented in central Serbia. As part of the "Tolerance" campaign, the action "Taste the taste of tolerance" was carried out. Saher cakes, baklavas, vasina cakes, kadaifi were distributed in the cities of Serbia, so that one nation would accept another through the kitchen. The attempt to make a CD "The Sound of Tolerance" together with RTS failed. "Since RTS has the largest sound library, we asked it for a selection of songs that represent each national minority." As a representative of the majority, he offered us Orange Kraljevica Brand with the fiddle. Is it possible that the Serbs have no other sound than the gusal and a song more humane than the one in which Marko plows the Turkish roads. So they fight because of that. We refused, that's anything but the sound of tolerance!", says Jelena Marković, and continues: "The most difficult thing is to break the established opinion that Serbs only have fiddles, and Slovaks only have wide skirts and strudels! That association with peoples lasts countless years, we are taught that it is so! And few people know, and what's worst, they don't feel the need to know anything about the religion of minorities, about poetry, about heritage, about anything, except fiddles and skirts!" An evening of the culture of minorities in Croatia was recently organized in Zagreb. "The representatives of the Czech minority, which has an incredible culture, were presented with instruments that produce inarticulate sounds, the Slovaks in a similar way, and the Serbs were represented by a pop from Knin in a knitted gun over a mantle playing the fiddle. I left the meeting. I know that Serbs have to show something other than gusal, other than what the majority wants to see!"
From the Serbian-Romani-English conversation book Da li you know Roma? We have selected a few sentences by Zoran Jovanović with which you can start learning the language of your fellow citizens.
(Below the version in Serbian is the translation in Romani)
Abstract concepts
Everything in life has its good and bad
Like life and death, happiness and unhappiness
Like jealousy and the thought of wealth in poverty
Like sleep and sleep
Like a selfish lie, beauty and fear
Like honesty and honor
Everything in life is with us.
Gnat
Sa nado trajo si lačhipe tho bilačhipe
Sar trajo tho meripe, bibah the bah
Sar corrovano gndo po barvalipe ando chorrpe
Sar suno thaj soipe
Sar handzvalipe hohaipe, shuk the dar
The peace and quiet
With ando trajo mende si.
On i ona
i love you Do you want to be my wife?
We barely know each other.
We will meet.
I would like to ask my parents.
I have to ask mine too. I will beg you. These are our customs.
May I kiss you?
Don't ask too much. But I would like to remain a virgin.
You are outdated.
Let. I wish so.
Vo thaj voj
I'm here. Kames te aves munrri rromnji?
Chi pinjaramen sar trubul.
Kam pinjaramen.
Kamav te puchav munrre da the dade.
You trumpeted me and you blew me away. Me ava te mangav tu.
Are you lazy and staring at me?
You will be shot on the thigh. Kamav te achhav pachyvali.
Tu san sar purani.
Soft devil. Me gajda kamav.
color
First man: My horse is white, red, blue and yellow during the day and black, green and gray at night. Whenever I look at him, he is beaming.
Second man: Don't lie!
First man: I'm sorry, my colorful horse, if I'm lying!
Colorua
Angluno manuš: Munrro grra si jeseja parno, lolo, woolen thaj galbeno, pal raća kako green thaj gray kana dikhavle, pal vo sa straftil.
Dujto the monk: Don't be shy!
Angluno manuš: Te dol o dol te merol munrro kotoralo gra.
