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The Gorani or Goranci (Cyrillic: Горани or Горанци, meaning Highlanders) are a South Slavic ethnic group inhabiting the Gora region of the Balkans, located at the triangle between Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia. Another autonym of this people is "Našinci"[1], which literally means "our people". Gorani speak the Gora dialect, which belongs to the Torlak group of South Slavic languages.
The Gora region comprises Dragaš municipality in Kosovo and Shishtavec village in Albania. They are adherents to Islam and have a rich and varied folk culture. They have been claimed by Bulgarians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Albanians, and Macedonians but the general view is that they should be treated as a distinct minority group, which is indeed their own view of themselves.[2][3] Part of these people are already albanised.[4] By the last censuses at the end of 20th century in Yugoslavia they have declared themselves to be Muslims by nationality.[5] In Republic of Macedonia their identity is also based mainly on their religion.[6]
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Gora is the region inhabited by the Gorani people. The area was populated by Slavs during their migration in the 6th–7th centuries. Тhe region is mentioned in 1348 in the edict of Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan, along with seven other Gorani-populated villages that were subsumed by the Monastery of Saint Archangel at Prizren at that time. In 1455, Gora was conquered from the Serbian Despotate by the Ottoman Turks and became a part of the beylerbeylik of Rumelia, or specifically, the Sanjak of Prizren. The process of natural assimilation into Ottoman society henceforth began, after the end of the 16th century. The Ottoman defter from 1591 registers Gora as inhabited exclusively by Serbs while Opolje to the north is Albanian populated.[7] The Ottoman abolishment of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1766 is thought to have prompted the Islamization of Gora as was the trend of many Balkan communities.[8]
The Gorani continue to maintain a religious hybridity of sorts — while steadfast Muslims, they observe a number of Orthodox Christian traditions and holidays, 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 Gorani 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 Gorani from Albania fled to Italy, Egypt, Syria and the Ukraine, they were later absorbed into the Albanian populations of Italy, losing their own language in the process. These migrations were repeated several centuries thenceforth when many Gorani, 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 the colonies of Urvič and Jelovjane on the eastern side of the Šar Mountains.
In the First Balkan War in 1912 the Serbian Army seized Gora. A minor part of the Gorani population migrated to Turkey as a result. In the 1916–1918 First World War the Gora was conquered by the Central Powers and assigned to the Bulgarian (until May 1916)[9] and to the Austro-Hungarian (until October 1918) zone. 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 Gorani., This paradigm also incited migrations to Kosovo's larger city, Prizren and Tetovo in Republic of 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 Gorani remained in Albania's borders in their 9 villages: Borje, Zapod, kosharisht, novosoj, Orgjost, Oreshke, pakisht, cernaleve and shishtavec on demand of Fascist Italy, despite the local Gorani community's desire to remain together undivided.
In the 1939 census of Yugoslavia, the Gora Gorani were in the category of "non-Slavs" shared by Albanians and Turks. Since the World War I and Albanian dominance, the Gorani underwent a major cultural change, attested by the Albanian loan words and changing of names into the Albanian language (e.g. Hasanović - Hasani).
In the 1971-1981 censuses, the majority of Gorani declared themselves as "Muslims by nationality" a classification by time transformed into Bosniak.
In 1999 after the NATO bombing campaign on Yugoslavia, the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) took over international administration of the Serbian province of Kosovo. Their own municipality was redrawn and Dragash established, in which now Albanians are in majority. 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 Gorani 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 Gorani have fled to Serbia proper along with many Serb and Romani refugees.
They are also known among the neighbouring Albanians with several exonyms as "Bulgareci", i.e. Bulgarians,[10][11] as well as "Torbeshë" and "Poturë".[12]
The Gorani people speak a local dialect known as "Našinski" or "Goranski", which is part of a wider Torlakian dialect, spoken in Western Bulgaria, Southern Serbia and part of Macedonia. The Torlakian dialect is a transitional dialect of Bulgarian and Serbian whilst also sharing features with Macedonian. While still remaining a Slavic based language it has numerous loan words, the Gora dialect has been greatly influenced by Turkish, Albanian and Arabic due to its speakers being Muslims and is similar to the Bosnian language because of the numerous Turkish loanwords.
Goranian has also been classified sometimes as part of the Bulgarian dialect area, as by Bulgarian,[13] as well as by foreign anthropologists. The Gorani language is classified as an Old štokavian dialect of Serbian (Old Serbian) classified Prizren-Timok dialect.
According to the last 1991 Yugoslav census, 54.8% of the inhabitants of the Gora municipality said that they spoke the Gorani language, while the remainder had called it Serbian.[14] Some Gorani scholars define their language as Bulgarian, similar to the Bulgarian dialects spoken in Northwest Macedonia.[15] Some linguists, including Vidoeski, Brozovic and Ivic, identify the Slavic-dialect of the Gora region as Macedonian.[16] There are assertions that Macedonian is spoken in 50 to 75 villages in the Gora region (Albania and Kosovo),[17]. According to some unverified sources in 2003 the Kosovo government acquired Macedonian language and grammar books for Gorani school.[18]
The following is a traditional Gorani song:
Gorani scholar Nazif Dokle compiled the first Gorani–Albanian dictionary (with 43,000 words and phrases) in 2007, sponsored and printed by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.[15] In 2008 the first issue of a Macedonian language newspaper, Гороцвет (Gorocvet) was published.[19]
The Gorani population numbered some 16,000, in the Gora administrative division, according to the 1991 census. Of these, 50% declared themselves Muslims by nationality, 30% Serbs and 20% Albanians. Gorani leaders today estimate that fewer than 10,000 are left in Gora, after large migrations to Albania's capital, Tirana. Most Gorani state that the unstable situation and the economic issue drives them to leave Kosovo. There is also some mention of threats and discrimination by the ethnic Albanians.[20] The UN administration in Kosovo, 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 neighboring Albanian-populated region of Opolje (some 20,000 people) into a new subdivision named Dragaš, which again has an Albanian majority.
Below is a list of the traditional Gorani settlements in the Shar Mountains region.[21]
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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), Albania (primarily in Durres), the Republic of Macedonia (particularly the Western parts); Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Greece, Turkey; and following escape from communist Albania and socialist Yugoslavia in the late-1940s, the United States of America (particularly New York and Los Angeles) and the United Kingdom (particularly Haringey, London).
The Slavs of Gora were Christianized in 870 following the Byzantine Empire's baptism of the Serbs and Bulgarians. The Ottomans conquered the region in the 14th century, which started the process of Islamization of the Gorani and neighbouring Albanians. However, the Gorani still tangentially observe some Orthodox Christian traditions, such as Slavas and Saint George's Day (Djurdjevdan).
Traditional Gorani 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 Curlje or Kaval and Tapan, kolos are less frequently accompanied by singing as they are in neighboring ethnic groups such as the Albanians and Serbs. The cifteliit is Albanian but the goran people can play as well , also the added to their culture.
The "national" sport of oil wrestling called "Pelivan" is popular amongst Gorani with regular tournaments being held in the outdoors to the accompaniment of Curlje and Tapan with associated rituals, with origins in the Middle East through the Ottoman Empire's conquest of Balkans.
The "national" drink of the Gorani is Rakija which is commonly distilled at home by elderly people. Another popular drink is Turkish Coffee which is drunk in small cups accompanied by a glass of water. Future divination is popular amongst all Gorani using the residue of Turkish Coffee.
Notes:
| a. | ^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, while Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory. Its independence is recognised by 86 UN member states. |
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