An Italian Navy helicopter descends on the stadium of Tirana. Eleven people climb quickly. Among them, a 16 year old girl that everyone knows because she just won the Albanian Song Festival. Below, the echo of the shots fired. The vehicle gets up in flight and lands on San Marco vessel towards Bari. A bullet crawled through the tank, a few inches away, and it would have exploded.
After landing, everyone realizes that they are alive by a miracle. It was Albania was going through the most dramatic period of its recent history.
A civil war. Italy at the time really looked like the promised land. The Lila family managed to leave a country in flames thanks to Italian intervention. Elsa — like many Albanians — has known the noble face of Italy but also its dark side.
She is the historical memory of the relations between the two countries. The ransom started dancing for Maria De Filippi. Nothing exotic, really. Socialist Albania was a country without potatoes on the shelfs, but from a cultural point of view it was not a third world country. Music and dance were taught to children, theatres were inspired by the Russian dance school. The children watch Italian television, learn the language, dream of participating in their favorite programs.
But, for the Italian public opinion, they are a danger. In theory, "Gheg" is spoken in the north, and "Tosk" in the south, particularly in the plains. But the actual situation was probably more complex, with a number of other dialects neither clearly Tosk nor Gheg - for example, among the Liaps and the Chams, and perhaps the Pogoni.
The historical significance of any such division, in any case, has diminished over time with the effects of a national educational system. The eastern Adriatic coast was not rich in good harbors - or in harbors accessible to the hinterland Igpumenitsa was only developed after Greece lost access to Sarande ; and much of the coastal trade was dominated by the Adriatic islands, especially the island of Corfu.
Thus, the belt of mountainous territory, river valleys, and before drainage swampy plain that stretches between Montenegro and the Gulf of Arta and that now makes up Albania and the Greek province of Epiros was organized before the modern period into numerous, relatively small districts. These had strong regional identities, were centered on market towns, and were intermittently under some form of imperial control.
As for Northern Epiros, it can be imagined as a belt of land-perhaps 40 km wide at its narrowest, 90 at its broadest - stretching in a northeasterly direction from the coast north of Corfu to the lakes of Ochrid and Prespa which Albania shares with Greece and Yugoslavia.
It includes the port of Sarande, and the important towns of Gjirokaster, Korce, and Himare. In the southern Balkans, nationalist controversies tend to involve archaeology and ancient history. As if geography could speak for itself, they also involve arguments about the natural logic of mountains, rivers, and valleys.
Nothing about the territory is beyond controversy. The area we have just described has been called wholly or in part , "Illyria," "Epiros," "Macedonia," "Albania," and "Greece," to cite in their English versions a few of the names applied. These terms refer to aggregations of smaller districts with their own, locally relevant names. In antiquity, Greeks used the word "Illyrian" to refer to people in Albania and Montenegro. They used "Epirote" to describe the culturally non-Greek people on the mainland epiros being Freek for "mainland" across from Corfu where they first settled.
But etymologies, like genealogies, reflect political interest. Albanians describe themselves as the descendants of the Illyrians; Greeks claim the eventually hellenized Epirotes as Greek. There is a wonderful ambiguity to the prehistoric Epirotes that prefigures twentieth century controversies about Albanian and Greek national identity.
And neither in Greek antiquity nor after the Roman conquest were the borders of an "Epiros" clearly defined: twentieth century Albania occupies the two ancient Roman provinces of Old and New Epirus, but only a northern fragment of the Byzantine province called Epiros. Most contemporary scholars are reluctant to place the extremely various prehistoric peoples of the eastern Balkans and the Adriatic into the simple categories "Illyrian" or "Greek" see, for example, John Wilkes' The Illyrians.
It is probably more accurate to think of regional groups subject to homogenizing forces: urbanization, trade, conquest, empire and - eventually - nationalism. In understanding these larger processes of consolidation and separation in Albania and Epiros, it is helpful to remember that the dividing line between the Latin and Greek spheres of language and culture in the Balkans seems to follow the valley of the Shkumbin River.
It is south of this line that is, in southern Albania that Albanian and Greek language and culture mix to produce the complexities we are considering here. The key to understanding contemporary conflicts lies not in prehistory or ancient history but in that nursery of Balkan identities, the nineteenth century.
But why was this particular zone so extremely socially diverse? What was its character when Greece beginning in and Albania in took shape as states? The diversity of the Greek-Albanian border zone was a consequence of two millennian of human traffic. In the generation and politics of this diversity, Roman - and later Italian - interests played a role of more than passing importance.
These interests were motivated by the desire to control overland routes from Italy to the East. According to historian Stavro Skendi, before Islam came to Albania, Albanian feudal lords "led an amphibious life between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. However, Albania's connection with Italy has been a perennial source of friction with Greece. The Romans devastated - and colonized - Epiros following their conquest of the Macedons in B.
The Slavs reached the Adriatic in ; they seem to have taken over the existing fabric of towns until well after the end of the Ottoman period, village in Epiros kept their Slavic names.
Albania was not without its holy wars: the national hero Scanderbeg, raised as a Muslim by a religiously "amphibious" father, fought for Albanian independence as a converted Christian against the Turks and Albanian Muslims.
Gradually, however, conversions and inter-marriage resulted in a linguistically mixed population with religious affiliation to two forms of Christianity Catholicism and Orthodoxy as well as Islam and Judaism.
Bektashism, a pantheistic form of Islam with close ties to Christianity, thrived in Albania. As an eclectic sect, it may have suited Albania's heterogeneous population.
During the Ottoman period, and especially during the later nineteenth century, the administrative divisions of Albania and Epiros were repeatedly re-drawn with an eye to preventing the formation of homogeneous ethnolinguistic blocks that might compete with the central Ottoman administration. The Ottomans played one local lord against the other; there was no clear line between an Albanian and a Greek territory.
Consider, for example, J. Hobhouse's record of his first impressions of the Adriatic coast of the southern Balkan mainland. Hobhouse the poet Byron's traveling companion describes his first glimpse of the town of Preveza.
Celebrating the moment as his "first view of Greece," he identifies the town as being "on the coast of Albania As Hobhouse implies, the terms overlapped. The southern parts of the same district - its Adriatic face in particular - might be called "Epirus," but the separation between northern and southern Albania was vague: Hobhouse laconically noted - in one of the great understatements of political geography - that he had "never seen a map in which the line of separation is distinctly marked.
Regarding the inhabitants, there existed the same complications. In fact, according to Ottoman historian Melek Delibasi, Epiros was unique among Ottoman provinces in being scarcely subjected to Turkish coloni-zation or deportation policies; most Muslims were local Christians converted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
As for the Christians, they called themselves without national distinction, "Romans," meaning Chris-tians of the "Greek Church. Formal education existed in Greek and Turkish, which were also the languages of commercial relations. The domestic language of the majority in a number of districts was Albanian, but education in Albanian was forbidden. There were, as well, domestically Greek-speaking communities. Albanian speakers were Orthodox as well as Muslim in the south, and Muslim and Catholic in the north towards Montenegro.
There were Albanian speakers in Elbassan who called themselves Greeks and professed loyalty to the Sultan who ensured their independence from the Slavs. The social hierarchy was more complex that a simple religious division might indicate. Not all "miserable laborers" were Christians, not all lords were Muslim.
However, the Muslims constituted without exception the political class and the great majority of large landowners. At the same time, marriage practices linked Muslim and Christian Albanians as well as Albanians and Greeks. Eighteenth and nineteenth century travelers marvel at the intermarriage of Muslims and Christians and the preservation of two confessions in one household.
In part as a result of the conflicting agendas of the separate Powers, the question of "Northern Epiros" quickly became the most volatile issue in European politics. Albanians, following the example of their "liberated" neighbors, had begun to agitate for autonomy or independence at the end of the nineteenth century, but their position in the Balkan struggles was at first ambivalent. In initially supporting Albanian autonomy, the Turks had tried to play the Albanians against both Greeks and Slavs.
Yet the Greeks had also lobbied in the s for an alliance with the Albanians, on the grounds that Albanians, like themselves, were "native," and to a considerable extent religiously and educationally hellenized.
Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Italy all had interests and intentions in claiming territory with Albanian populations. On the southern border, however, the contest was ultimately between Albanian and Greece. In a sense, the issue was clear enough: while there were some Muslim Albanians in Northern Epiros, and some Christian Greeks, the Christian majority was both Orthodox and domestically Albanian-speaking.
Thus their "national" could be given a number of conflicting readings, and there was substantive disagreement about what constituted nationality in Epiros. During the Ottoman period, individuals often bore two names, Muslim and Christian. Since Christians also bore Muslim names for state identification, the name was no guide to "national" identity. The Albanians and the Greeks, and their respective international lobbyists, embraced opposing criteria of national identity.
For the Greeks, the only legitimate criteria were political "consciousness" and "civilization" educational culture, commercial language, religion, and the public domain. The Albanians and their allies contended that domestic language and "racial" belonging as indicated by domestic language should be taken as criterion. They argued that what united Albanians across confessional divisions Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox was an enduring identity based on kinship and common origins.
The Great Power, perhaps fearing a bloody struggle like that in Macedonia for the hearts and minds of the population, declined to hold a referendum. Instead, a series of commissions with representatives from the various Powers visited Northern Epiros between and to determine the identity of the inhabitants. Since the members of the commissions employed two competing notions of national identity, there was no consensus. With the failure of the Great Powers' commissions to reach a reasoned conclusion in the field, a British compromise line was drawn up.
From: East European Quarterly Vol. Publisher: University of Colorado at Boulder. Document Type: Article. Length: 6, words. Lexile Measure: L. Translate Article. Set Interface Language. Decrease font size. Increase font size. Albanian weddings are impressive festivities. They are virtually the only popular celebrations observed today and thus are taken very seriously. Whole villages and, in towns, hundreds of people may be invited to take part in a wedding banquet.
The celebrations can last several days. Traditionally, weddings take place during the full moon to ensure offspring. Monogamy was always the rule in Albania, but polygamous marriages existed up to the beginning of the twentieth century in some areas, particularly if the first wife was not able to bear a son. Live-in concubines were not uncommon in the mountains up to World War II. Albanian women were as a rule faithful to their husbands. Since a wife was considered the property of her husband, adultery amounted to theft.
Thus, cases of adultery were punished severely under traditional law. Premarital and extramarital sex was more prevalent in the northern highlands, the part of the country with the most rigid moral code. Divorce is now a common phenomenon. In Albania's patriarchal society, women are generally placed in subordinate roles.
Child Rearing and Education. Albanians have always lived in a world of extreme hardship and deprivation. Underdevelopment and a high incidence of infant mortality have been compounded by warring and blood feuding that at times decimated the male population. Reproduction, as the key to survival, therefore took on a more elementary significance among Albanians than it did among neighboring peoples.
Even today, Albanian birthrates are significantly higher than those anywhere else in Europe. As in other third world cultures, it is believed that the more children, especially male children, one raises, the more security one will have in one's old age.
A childless marriage is considered a great misfortune, and a woman living without a husband and children is inconceivable.
Given the extremely patriarchal nature of Albanian society, greater importance is attributed to the birth of sons than to that of daughters. It was often the custom in the north of Albania for a woman to be wed officially only after she had given birth to her first son. In Berat, the main beam of a house was painted black at the birth of a girl as a token of the family's disappointment. Male children generally were better treated, for instance, by being better protected against the "evil eye.
Religious Beliefs. According to the last reliable statistics on religion , among a population of 1,,, there were , 69 percent Muslims, including the Bektashi; , 21 percent Orthodox; and , 10 percent Catholics. One can estimate today that approximately 70 percent of Albanians in the republic are of Muslim, including Bektashi, background; about 20 percent, mostly in the south, are Orthodox; and about 10 percent, mostly in the north, are Catholic.
In , all religious communities were dissolved when a communist government edict banned the public practice of religion. The law was rescinded only in December during the collapse of the regime. Despite the return of religious freedom, there seems to be more interest in the revival of Christianity and Islam among foreign missionaries and groups than there is among Albanians. Albanians have never had a national religion with which to identify as a people.
For the last century and a half, national ethnic identity has predominated over religious identity, and this is unlikely to change in the coming years in a small and struggling nation surrounded by hostile neighbors. Organized religion still plays only a marginal role in public life. Religious fervor is extremely rare, and religious extremism is virtually unknown. The foundations of a national literature were laid in the second half of the nineteenth century with the rise of a nationalist movement striving for Albania's independence from a decaying Ottoman Empire.
The literature of this so-called Rilindja period of national awakening was characterized by romantic nationalism and provides a key to an understanding of the Albanian mentality today. The culmination of Albanian literature before World War II appears in the works of the Franciscan priest Gjergj Fishta — , once lauded as the national poet.
From to , for primarily political reasons, Fishta was ostracized from the Albanian literary world and the mention of his name was forbidden. Virtually all prewar Albanian literature was swept away by the political revolution that took place during and after World War II. Most prewar writers and intellectuals who had not left the country by regretted their decision to stay. The persecution of intellectuals and the break with virtually all cultural traditions created a literary and cultural vacuum that lasted until the s and whose results can still be felt.
With Albania's integration into the Soviet bloc during the s, Soviet literary models were introduced and slavishly imitated. Writers were encouraged to concentrate their creative energies on specific themes, such as the partisan struggle of the "national liberation war" and the building of socialism.
Despite the constraints of socialist realism and Stalinist dictatorship, Albanian literature made much progress in the s and s. One of the best examples of creativity and originality in Albanian letters then and now is Ismail Kadare b.
Kadare's talents both as a poet and as a prose writer have lost none of their innovative force over the last three decades. His influence is still felt among the young postcommunist writers of the s, the first generation to be able to express itself freely. Carver, Robert. The Accursed Mountains: Journeys in Albania , Durham, Edith. High Albania , reprint , Elsie, Robert.
Studies in Modern Albanian Literature and Culture , Jacques, Edwin E. Kadare, Ismail. The General of the Dead Army , Newmark, Leonard. Albanian-English Dictionary , Pettifer, James. Blue Guide Albania , 2nd ed. Pipa, Arshi. The Politics of Language in Socialist Albania , Albanian Stalinism: Ideo-Political Aspects , Studies on Kosova , Between Serbs and Albanians: a History of Kosovo , Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan Identity , Toggle navigation.
Culture Name Albanian. Alternative Names. Orientation Identification. The central Macedonian towns of Albania. History and Ethnic Relations Emergence of the Nation.
Urbanism, Architecture, and the Use of Space The traditional architecture of Albania almost disappeared during the Stalinist dictatorship of — Food and Economy Food in Daily Life. Social Stratification Classes and Castes. Political Life Government. Marriage, Family, and Kinship Marriage. Socialization Child Rearing and Education. Religion Religious Beliefs. The Arts and Humanities Literature. Bibliography Carver, Robert. Albanian Folktales and Legends , History of Albanian Literature , Kosovo: In the Heart of the Powder Keg , Chronicle in Stone , Doruntine , Broken April , The Palace of Dreams , Albanian Spring: The Anatomy of Tyranny , The Concert , The Pyramid , The File on H , The Three-Arched Bridge , Malcolm, Noel.
Kosovo: A Short History , Contemporary Albanian Literature , Prifti, Peter. Socialist Albania since , Skendi, Stavro.
Albania , Vickers, Miranda. Albania: A Modern History , Zymberi, Isa. Colloquial Albanian , Also read article about Albania from Wikipedia. User Contributions: 1. Ilir Doci. I am proud to read a true story that is inherited generation by generation and not distorted by politics. The people in earth need to know the truth where they come from.
Identity is the bread that gives power and hope to be what you are. Tami Merriam. Thank-you for the informative information. It was well written and gave a realistic insight into what is Albania today.
I have relatives who are from Albania and frequenty visit there, this is a very accurate depiction of albanian life. Thank-you for your hard work in bring us this important information. I ame one of three sons of him.
My email[ nrepishty ymail. More and more the Albanian history is being distorted by fanatics then on truth. This piece is being spoken by a outsider who put all that nonsence aside and based it on FACT! This makes me even prouder to be Albanian! My many thanks to the Author. Labinot Shala.
Well said , brilliant narrative history of Albanians. Would be very helpful start for individuals who want to know about Albanians. I would not agree completely when it comes to rights of women. Female factor always played great role in Albanian society.
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