Inspiring Older Readers

posted on 04 Feb 2017

The Roma Journeys  Photographs by Joakim Eskildsen and text by Cia Rinne

Has there been a more persecuted minority culture than the Roma? Across the centuries they have found themselves constantly modelled as the dangerous or undesirable ‘other’ and their search for territory they can call home has been marked out by hardship, poverty and blood. Between 2000 and 2006 Eskilden and Rinne travelled to seven different countries to document and record the conditions faced by the Roma in the 21st century.

This collection of photographs and essays is organised in a fairly straightforward way – each country has its own section – but I think any reader would struggle to distinguish a significant difference in the circumstances in which these different Roma communities live.

This is a book that needs very little text because the photographs speak eloquently enough. A mix of black and white and colour plates tell us about the essential humanity of the subjects, their personal moments, their public identities and the binding qualities of community.

There is also a short introductory foreword here from Gunter Grass and I think he captures the plight the Roma community has faced:

The Roma people exist somewhere beyond all provident care, only seldom does anybody speak up for them, and they cannot think of any nation that would be prepared to give them a voice that everybody would listen to.

Europe and its governments have much to learn from the plight of the Roma people – they have been our constant refugees, challenging the way we organise our borders and raising questions about what the nature of the sovereign State should look like. As Grass again articulates this so well:

As born Europeans, they are, from their centuries of experience, in a position to teach us how to cross borders, indeed, to abolish the borders in and around us and to create the kind of Europe without borders that is not only the subject of empty oratory but an actual state of affairs.

This is a beautiful and weighty book produced in a landscape format and it also contains a cd with what the authors describe as a ‘sound collage’ – spoken word and music from each of the seven countries.

Although the book was remaindered a while ago (which is when we picked up a copy), it’s now quite a difficult title to find. There seem to be very few available on the internet and I’m afraid you’ll have to pay three figures to get one. So your best bet is to keep your eyes open in second hand or charity shops or go and borrow one from your library ( if the vandals haven’t closed yours down).

 

Terry Potter

February 2017.