If you’re telling someone a story for which you have no tangible evidence and want to assure them it’s true, how do you do it? Do you say “Trust me”? “I swear this happened”? “I swear to God”?
One of the biggest racial stereotypes against the Romani is that they’re compulsive liars. They’re used to people not believing them when they share their truth. So when it’s important for them to be believed, they say something that to an outsider might seem horrible and outright insane. They’d swear on their children. “And then this happened, my son may drop dead,” they’d say in a single breath, meaning: “If what I’m saying isn’t true, then may my child die.” In a culture where the biggest blessing, the biggest wealth, is the child, these words may come off as casual but there is not a single shred of casualness about them.
And then there is another common saying. One that Pepi, co-author of this publication and a person of Roma ethnicity, uses very often when he talks about his childhood, or curious events, or feelings. “God knows it and the Earth knows it.” In this saying, there’s no effort to convince. What is true will always be true. What matters is that it was witnessed by the sky and the earth, and nothing more is needed to make it true.
The Romani have a powerful connection to the sky and the earth. Ever since they left Ancient India over a thousand years ago and entered West Asia and then Europe as nomads, they’ve been scapegoated and treated as inferior by the surrounding cultures who were obsessed with identity, superiority, and building glorious civilizations. They have witnessed the “civilized” world rise and then stumble in its overconsumption, pollution, greed for territory, and deep animosity. The Romani have never once tried to invade anyone, claim any land as “their own”, plant a flag anywhere, or force their culture and faith on anyone. Their culture and identity have remained intact for 10+ centuries, despite relentless persecution, genocide, attempts at assimilation, forced sterilizations, enslavement, and more - in fact, their sense of identity is so strong that they never had any need to force it onto anyone else. Quite the opposite, they joyfully celebrate other cultures and religions even in the face of hatred.
In the 1970s, the Romani adopted an official flag, representing the heavens, the earth, and a 16-spoked mandala that symbolizes both their Indian origins and a caravan wheel. They don’t believe God belongs to them or that the land belongs to them. However, they do feel that they belong to the Sky and the Earth, as equals to any other living being.
The authors of this publication are from Bulgaria, a Balkan country that shares the label “largest Roma minority” with its neighbor Romania. Romani tribes already lived in the territories that would become part of Bulgaria before the country of Bulgaria was even created in the 7th century. Before nomadism was outlawed across Europe, the Bulgarian city Sliven was where all nomadic Roma tribes from all over Europe would meet annually to plan travel routes for the upcoming year. Bulgarian and Balkan culture, art, music, and customs have been strongly shaped by the Romani. Yet, here they are despised more than anywhere else. It’s a point of shame for Bulgarians to even be associated with the “Gypsy” minority. Even in the Balkans, commonly called the second home of the Romani after India, they are outsiders - profoundly and willfully misunderstood.
With this publication, we have a simple mission: to share stories about the real-life and culture of the Romani. Contrary to common belief, the Romani are not a homogenous group - they encompass many different tribes, traditions, ancestral trades and crafts, dialects, and customs. We will share one true story at a time, not in an effort to make an exhaustive encyclopedia but in an effort to bring some truth to balance out the outdated and ignorant stereotypes that have been boiling for over a thousand years. This is not universal, rigid truth but simple, human truth - as the sky and earth have witnessed it.
Since we are from Bulgaria, The Sky and Earth Know will focus mostly on the Bulgarian Romani - but we hope to also start publishing pieces by Roma writers from all over the world.
Who are we?
We are Martina and Pepi, a couple from Bulgaria. We run the publication and author all of its content but our hope and vision is to eventually also publish pieces by Roma contributors from all over the world.
Martina Petkova is a writer who grew up right next to the largest Roma ghetto in Sofia, Bulgaria, without ever meeting a single person there. Having been raised to keep her distance, never get off the “Gypsy bus stop”, and only expect to be mugged or worse if she comes near a Roma person, it became a reflex for her to stay away and avoid eye contact. Still, this artificial fear never grew into the hatred that most people end up nurturing. Instead, Martina has always harbored disdain for racism and self-proclaimed superiority and - with next to zero success - kept trying to call out and fight the bigotry around her, including writing and publishing anti-racism pieces in defense of Roma rights in the National Youth newspaper at age 14.
After spending her 20s building a corporate career (and being miserable in it), fighting depression, and doing a lot of volunteer and charity work with orphanages and refugees, Martina walked away from her previous life and embraced the path of a writer. At a writer’s workshop, she made a new friend who introduced her to a group that organized games for the children in one of Sofia’s Roma ghettos. This was Martina’s first encounter with members of the Roma ethnos who had not been assimilated into mainstream society but had retained their community, culture, and language. As a person with almost a decade of experience with depression and extensive work in Jungian psychology, Martina was amazed to see people who were fighting daily with poverty, violence, and discrimination, not show a single sign of depression, anxiety, or the neuroses that plague mainstream society. What’s more, people who are normally seen as illiterate, uncivilized, and inferior instinctively knew things that “civilized” people need books, years of therapy, and guidance to learn. The strength, wisdom, and humor in the Roma community were unparalleled to anything Martina had ever seen. She was drawn to the community more and more, started making friends, and eventually - to the dismay and disapproval of most (white) people around her - fell happily in love.
Petar “Pepi” Mustafov was born the youngest of 13 children in one of the largest Roma communities in Sofia, Bulgaria. He was given up for adoption at 6 months old and grew up in various orphanages far away until, at age 16, he traveled back to Sofia to look for his parents. He tracked down their address and - oblivious of his Roma ethnicity - found himself in a large Roma ghetto. Having been raised to fear the “Gypsies” he had his defenses up but also felt a powerful pull to the Romanes language and the spirit of everyone around him. His initial apprehension slowly started melting as he realized that the crowd that gathered around him consisted almost entirely of his sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, and nieces. He joined his family and fully embraced his Roma identity and culture, along with all the good and the bad that comes with being a Romani in Bulgaria.
Today, 25 years later, Pepi is a father and a beloved member of the Roma community. He’s respected as a hard worker and - thanks to the better education he received in his childhood - a leader, defender, and spokesperson for his community. His life has been very hard and full with struggles due to poverty, discrimination, police brutality, labor exploitation, and many other small and big forms of violence that the Roma minority is subjected to in Bulgaria. All of these experiences only motivate Pepi to fight harder for the rights of his community.
He wholeheartedly believes that racism against the Romani can be healed if people see the “reality” of Roma life. “Don’t judge us from afar, but come join us at our table,” is something he says often.
Martina and Pepi met in late 2020 during Martina’s weekly visits in the Roma community as part of a volunteer group that organized games for the children. They grew closer as they joined forces in a fight against the Sofia Municipality when over 30 families from the community were about to be left homeless after their houses in the ghetto were demolished. Now, as a couple, they are both navigating new waters as they face all kinds of reactions from white Bulgarians - ranging from bewildered looks to outright hostility. The Roma community, on the other hand, has welcomed Martina with open arms. They still refer to her as irakli in Romanes (meaning “the girl” and used to describe Bulgarian/ Non-Roma females) and they also refer to her as “sister,” snaha (“sister-in-law” in Bulgarian), and - by the elderly members of the community - as “daughter.”
In this in-between space across the Roma minority and the Bulgarian mainstream society, both Martina and Pepi feel that the Roma soul and culture are profoundly misunderstood and contorted by outsiders. With this publication, they want to share everything they know about the most joyful, free, and creative - but also the most persecuted and despised - minority in European history, with the hope that this will help a little bit with bridging the chasm between the Romani and the rest of the world.
Contact us
We welcome any and all messages! Here are some reasons you might want to write to us.
To people of Roma origins: You might want to write a piece for The Sky and Earth Know. It can be a story about a personal experience, it can be an article about a historical event, about culture and rituals - it can be anything. We would LOVE to publish it! If you’re held back by a belief that you’re not a good writer, don’t worry - we can support you in editing and crafting your piece so that your voice and your message are heard. You can just write to us with just your idea and we can develop it together.
To people of non-Roma origins: You might have a question or many questions. You might be very curious about something relating to the Roma minority but be too afraid to ask. You might really like the Roma minority or feel neutral about them but despise the racism they face - and yet, there’s this one thing you’re confused by, this one thing you can’t understand or even accept. Ask us about it! Pepi, a person of Roma origins and identity, encourages people to ask anything they want to know and is passionate about giving truthful, honest answers.
To racists: Slurs, insults, stereotypes, and threats against people of color tend to be very repetitive. Trust us, we’ve heard it all. If you’re still determined to write to us, we beg of you, make it original - or we’ll just scan through your words while watching a movie and forget about you right away. Get creative, dig deep, stand out. We might even use your letter as inspiration for one of our pieces!
You might want to give us feedback or just say “hi.” Go for it!
You can reach us at theskyandearthknow@gmail.com - we look forward to hearing from you!
