Photos and text by Nikola Barbutov for Southeast European Times in Belgrade – 28/02/11
Divided twice over the past one hundred years, the Gorani community now straddles three countries.
The massive slopes of Mount Sar Planina stretch along the southern part of Kosovo. The part of the mountain called Gora is inhabited by a people of the same name -- the Gorani. Some say they settled there more than 700 years ago.
The Gorani have their own language, albeit only in spoken form. They have their own unique tradition and culture. Their traditional woven costumes are detailed works of art, yet demand is dwindling as times change. Today there are only between 6,000 and 8,000 of them, whereas in the early 1990s their community was three times that big.
"I have no one to teach," sighs Vernesa Hajradini, 53, who has spent 35 years behind a loom. Something like that cannot be learned overnight: a person must dedicate their whole life to it. Hajradini has spent decades behind a loom, every day of the week.
She mainly uses it to weave traditional costumes. But although such clothing used to be in high demand, it no longer makes for a lucrative business. What Hajradini can make and sell now benefits the family, but not as it once did.
The fact that they are in no hurry to modernise has helped the Gorani maintain their culture and tradition.
The weave is extremely difficult and complex. Making the part of the Gorani costume that resembles an apron can alone take up to two weeks. Hajradini can sell it for 180 euros, provided she can find a buyer. Dressing head to toe in a Gorani costume would cost a person 400 euros, and would mean two months of difficult weaving for Hajradini.
Her younger daughter, Anita, is 31, and has spent the last ten years living and working in Austria. Her older sister left Gora more recently, heading to France last year. Hajradini's son Erkin, 26, and his wife Mebrulja have two young children, but Erkin plans to go abroad too, because there is no work for him in Gora.
"I don't have a degree, except for a nine-month hairdressing course and that's about it. It's difficult to find a job even with proper education," he tells SETimes.
Even though many work abroad, Gorani continue to nurture a strong link to their homes and land.
His father, Nehru Hajradini, is the local school teacher, but cannot help his son find a job. A few years ago, he spent his savings on some land in one of Belgrade's suburbs, hoping it would help keep his family closer together. Belgrade, he reasons, is not as far as France.
The Gorani are a hard-working people, with a strong sense of their own cultural heritage and of belonging to the territory in which they live. Despite converting to Islam during the Ottoman Empire, they remember their Christian past, and still gather to mark Christmas, St George's Day and St Mitar's Day.
Those who live and work abroad return to Gora only a few times per year. If even that is too much due to their obligations, they will at least find enough time to come back to Gora once a year – and that will certainly be in spring, on St George's Day. That is when Gora comes alive, bursting into a myriad of colors with crowds dressed in rich traditional clothing
Laughter, singing and dancing then erupt everywhere. The festivities last for three days and include the occasional Serbs and Albanians.
Vernesa Hajradini has woven traditional garb for 35 years.
Gora is not an easy place to live in. In winter, temperatures plummet well below zero and snow blankets entire valleys. The majority of Gorani villages nowadays have asphalt roads, electricity, telephone and internet access, but things were not always that way.
The fact that they are in no hurry to modernise has helped the Gorani maintain their culture and tradition. For many years they were a closed off and inaccessible community, due both to geography and their way of life.
Long ago, the Gorani were known as rifle makers and pelivans -- wrestlers who earned their way by fighting for money or food. They also had a reputation as skilled sheep herders. In fact, only sheep from Gora was served at the royal table at the time.
Over time, Gora was divided twice, first with the formation of the state of Albania in 1912, and decades later with the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, when parts of Gora became Macedonian territory. Now the Gorani live in three states. Out of their total 500 square kilometres, 310 are in Serbia, 150 in Albania and 40 square kilometres are in Macedonia.
Construction sites are common in Gora's villages. New and often incomprehensibly large houses are built alongside small, old rundown ones. These serve as anchors of sorts for a Gorani, tying them to memories of home. In fact, if a Gorani dies abroad, even after living and working away from Goran for decades, his or her body will be returned to the family home for a day or two before burial in the local cemetery.
Source: SETimes.com
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