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Gorani (ethnic group)

The Goran, or Gorani, are a Balkan Ethnic group characterised by their adherence to Islam and by their dwelling in the border region between Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The region is generically referred to as Gora (meaning "mountain" in Slavic), now known as Gora-Dragaš. In turn, the people are called Gorani, meaning Mountain People or Highlanders.

The origination of the Goran is disupted. Many Gorani scholars believe the Goran are a pre-Slavic Balkan people who nevertheless mingled with the Slavic tribes who migrated to the Balkan peninsula in the 6th and 7th centuries. Others believe that the Goran are a Slavic people outright, with no distinguishing pre-Slavic traits to speak of: ethnic, linguistic, religious or otherwise. The Slavs seem to have gradually assimilated with the various original tribes (Illyrians) which inhabited the western Balkans, along with the Goran whose origins are still clouded in speculation. Although broadly referred to as Illyrians, the various tribes seem to have had a consistent language, customs, and by all accounts genetic origins. Some historians theorize that mountainous regions, such as Gora and Dragas, were often preferentially settled by these original Balkan inhabitants as they fought or fled (or as with the Goran, remained) from the various 'barbarian raids' during late classical and early medieval times. Nevertheless, assimilation with the Slavs did occur, producing a symbiosis of cultural traits that is thus not surprisingly demonstrated by Goran today.

During the Ottoman occupation of Europe from the 15th century, some communities accepted Islam. This was especially so in Albania and parts of Bosnia. The Kosova region was initially a frontier region which offered European resistance to Turkish dominion, this mostly translating to the sustained efforts of both Slavic and Albanian peoples with little foreign assistance. With the numerous battles, much of the Slavic Orthodox population either emigrated north or were killed by Turkish reprisals. Greater numbers of Albanians returned to lands they wer epreviously driven from (during the Slavic sweep into the Balkans) and thus came to form a majority in the region. Reductive assessments hold that many accepted Islam in order to avoid the jizya, or poll tax (a modern comparison is the average sales tax paid on goods in most western countries) to suffer less discrimiation, pand to enjoy the benefits in being a Muslim in what was at that time arguably the world's most powerful Empire. An often neglected point is that many Goran, like many Bosnians and Albanians, accepted the Islamic call to faith for purely spiritual considerations. After the defeat of the Turkish empire in WWI, most Gorani remain true to their Islamic beliefs, with a flourishing student exchange (to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt for religious studies) and an increase in mosque construction in many villages.

The Gorani homeland comprises the following countries and districts:

Serbia: southern Kosovo, just south of Prizren.

Republic of Macedonia: north-western Macedonia, especially the Šar Planina region near Tetovo.

Albania: north-eastern Albania, most notably in Shishtavec (or:Local Slavic: Шиштејец, Šištejec) in Kukës County.

Etymology

The word Gora, the name of the region in the south-west Balkans, means simply: 'the Mountains' or 'the Highlands', and so the word the Gorantsi (Goranci, Cyrillic: Горанци) - more usually rendered as the Gorani in English, or sometimes as the Gorans - for the name of its people: 'Mountain People' or 'Highlanders.'

History

The Gora is the region inhabited by the Goran, and also that which Slavic peoples and many Albanians (including Goran themselves) use to identify the native people (Goran). The region, Gora, is mentioned in 1348 at the edict of Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan, along with seven other Goran-populated villages that were subsumed by the Monastery of Saint Archangel at Prizren at that time. The area called Gora was subsequently overrun during the Slavic hordes that began en masse in the 6th-7th centuries, compounded by the related Bulgarian invasions of the Balkans - many of which extended deep into what is now southern Albania) which soon followed. These invasions, lasting hundreds of years, seem to explain the appropriation of the Slavic language by the Goran which allowed them to maintain their distinct culture and remain as stewards of their lands.

In 1455, Gora was conquered from the Serbian Despotate by the Ottoman Turks and became a part of the Beylerbeyluk of Rumelia, or specifically, the Sanjak of Prizren. The process of natural assimilation into Ottoman society henceforth began, mostly at the end of the 16th century. And following the trend of Balkan peoples, the conversion from Serbian Orthodoxy through the process of Islamization was rapid, with dozens of mosques springing up across the Gora region (many have had to be rebuilt, due to the devastating Serb invasions of the late 19th century, which destroyed many of the area's mosques, and also the oppressive conditions of Albania during Hoxha's regime). The Goran continue to maintain a religious hybridity of sorts - while steadfast Muslims, they continue to maintain and observe a number of Christian traditions and holidays, blended in a manner quite common in Albanian culture (see Rose Wilder Lane, Edith Durham, and Miranda Vickers), with observance of certain Saint's days and their acknowledging of the Bogomil.

Because of Gora's highly isolated location in and around Albania's mountainous northern region, the difficult terrain aided the Goran in resisting first the Slavic and later the Ottoman invasions. Migrations to escape the Ottoman invasion did occur, as they did in Albania in the 14th century, when many Albanians fled to Italy, Egypt, Syria and the Ukraine. These migrations were repeated several centuries thenceforth when many Goran, hemmed in by both Yugoslav and Albanian authoritarian regimes, fled the region. Many surfaced in America, where a significant diaspora has emerged (primarily in California). Migrations from Gora during the Ottoman era resulted in two significant waves: the first towards Prizren and Sirinić, and the other towards Tetovo. The latter populated the Macedonian settlements of Dolno, Palčište and Tearce. Their descendants still populate that part of the Republic of Macedonia. Gorani colonists have migrated and populated on the eastern side of the Shar mountain the colonies of Urvič and Jelovjane.

In the First Balkan War in 1912 the Serbian Army seized Gora. A minor part of the Gorani population migrated to the Ottoman Empire as a result. In the 1916-1918 First World War the Gora was conquered by the Central Powers and assigned to a Greater Bulgaria. After 1918 they were integrated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The troubles during First World War, as well as the difficult period between 1919-20 were characterized by drought, causing famine and much poverty for the Gorans. This paradigm also incited migrations to Kosova's larger city, Prizren and Tetovo in Macedonia. Disease and hunger in the post-communist era in Albania have caused a general downfall of the Gorani population, mostly due to in-migration out of villages for urban centers like Shkodra and Tirana.

By the decision of the League of Nations however, in 1925, the final border towards Albania was established. In it, over 15,000 Gorans remained in Albania's borders in their 9 villages: Borje, Zapod, Košarište, Novo Selo, Orgosta, Orešek, Pakiša, Crneljevo and Šištevac on demand of Fascist Italy, despite the local Gorani community's desire to remain together undivided.

In 1999 after the NATO bombing campaign on FRY, the UNMIK took over international administration of the Serbian province of Kosova. Their own municipality was redrawn and Dragaš established, in which now Albanians are in majority. The Gora has received migrations of Albanians from Albania, and reports of killings and mistreatment of the Gorani by Albanian paramilitaries were subsequently recorded, though never verified. In 2007 the Kosovar provisional institutions opened a school in Gora to teach the Bosnian language, which sparked minor consternation amongst the Gorani population, added by the fact that the Principal declares as an Albanian. Many Gorans refuse to send their children to school for threats of assimilation and self-initially founded home schools for their young. In 1999 and over the years altogether, over 6,500 Gorans have fled to Serbia proper along with many Serb and Romani refugees.

Language

The Gorani spoken dialect is called "Nasinske", which means "Ours" (Нашински). It is a blended linguistic form with ample signs of language attrition. Some influences noted in today's spoken Nasinske include the Torlak, a dialectic blend of Serbian, and even some Turkish, Arabic, Albanian, and Bulgarian etymological traces. Most Goran in the region of Gora now speak Albanian as their mother tongue, though statistics on exactly how many is still unknown. According to the last 1991 Yugoslav census, 54.8% of the inhabitants of the Gora municipality said that they spoke the Gorani language, while little less than half the inhabitants of Gora declared that their native tongue is Serbian The UN administration in Kosova, UNMIK, has redrawn internal boundaries in the province in such a way that a Gorani-majority municipality no longer exists. The Gora was combined with the neighbouring Albanian-populated region of Opolje (some 20,000 people) into a new subdivision named Dragaš, which again has an Albanian majority.

The Gorani have a strong national patriotic feeling for themselves, but after centuries of assimilation they are divided among a minority who consider themselves Slavic, and the majority that promote a distinct Albanian-Gorani ethnic identity owing in the latter case to the previously noted historical contention on a shared Illyrian pedigree.

In Albania, the Goran occupy eleven villages centered around Shishtavec in the Kukës region.

Gorani diaspora

The Gora is an underdeveloped region and for almost two centuries, its male inhabitants would go off to more distant regions in order to find work. Due to this, a true Gorani diaspora has come to life with many living in parts of Central Serbia (particularly Belgrade: 3,340), Vojvodina (606), Republic of Macedonia (particularly the Western parts), Italy and Turkey, and following escape from communist Albania and socialist Yugoslavia in the late-1940s, America (particularly New York and Los Angeles).

Culture & Religion

Like many Balkan peoples prior to the invasion of the Romans and the forced conversions to Christianity, the existence of many pantheistic sects and worship of the sun god existed. Following the forced conversion to the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith, which followed the schism in 1054, the Goran embraced Islam under the Ottoman Empire and remain today exclusive followers of the Islamic faith. However, the Goran still tangentially observe the Orthodox tradition, the slava, in specific Saint George's Day (Djurdjevdan).

Traditional Goran folk music includes a two-beat dance called "kolo" ('circle'), which is a circle dance focused on the foot movements: it always starts on the right foot and moves in an anti-clockwise direction. Kolo is usually accompanied by instrumental music made often with a Zurle or Kaval and Tapan or Davul, kolos are less frequently accompanied by singing as they are in neighboring ethnic groups such as the Albanians and Serbians.