Beyond Borders: The beauty and wisdom of the Romani flag
Beyond Borders: The beauty and wisdom of the Romani flag
Let's dive into some symbolism on International Romani Day
In the 1970s, the Romani adopted an official flag, representing the heavens, the earth, and a 16-spoked mandala. 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 Sky and the earth and us
Flags are not just a symbol of national identity. Throughout history, they have been used to mark territory. You set foot on a piece of land, you pitch a flag, and now this piece of land is yours. The next person who sets foot there is now an invader.
When the Romani traveled as Nomads throughout West Asia, the Balkans, and Europe, the lands were already carved out and claimed. The Romani would often set up temporary camps, which usually meant hostile visits by the local police, before they set out on the road again; either by force or by their own free will. The Romani were usually seen as foreign, “exotic,” unpredictable, loud, and dangerous by the settled communities they brushed against.
But were they invaders?
They never tried to claim any land as their own. They never attempted to carve out their own territory. They never, ever attempted to chase anyone out of their home. They did sometimes steal, but only in extreme situations and only when they believed they didn’t cause permanent harm. They would steal a couple of chickens from farms that had many chickens, where the theft would be seen as a great annoyance but not as a verdict of starvation. They would let their horses graze on other people’s land; knowing that it is the earth itself that would take care of the grass growing again. They would take things that are easily restored, like picking a few apples from a tree. But they would never cut the tree.
British Romani Patrick Jasper Lee wrote a book about Roma culture and titled it: “We Borrow the Earth: An Intimate Portrait of the Gypsy Folk Tradition and Culture.” What better way to describe our relationship with Mother Earth? We borrow. We do not own.
A saying, often attributed as a Native American proverb, goes: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
It is easy to imagine that it is a profound drive in human nature to claim things as “my own” and try to possess them. The history of claiming land and fighting over it (and the resources it gives) is centuries long. But the history of humankind roaming the lands of continents is much, much longer. The Romani, like many indigenous cultures, have retained the wisdom from these times and the connection with the land and all living beings. No exploitation and frantic gripping, but taking only what can be easily restored; and giving back.
This is why the symbolism of the sky and earth in the Romani flag is so powerful. They do not claim the sky and earth as their possessions, but as their Gods, their mother and father, that from which they come, to which they will return, to which they belong.
To this day, in Roma culture, weddings take place under the open sky. There are no priests in a Roma wedding, no officiants who proclaim the bride and groom to now be “a husband and wife.” The marriage is made official by virtue of it being witnessed by the tribe, the sky, and the earth.
In her book, “Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey,” Isabel Fonseca recounts a conversation with a Romani woman from a Nomadic tribe.
“I asked her where she had traveled. “Oh, through thousands of fields in every direction: the Carpatian Mountains, the sea, the ocean to the west” - the Adriatic. She never mentioned countries by name.”
To our glorious civilizations’ great annoyance, the Romani don’t take borders very seriously. They see them as big obstacles when traveling, as “scars on the Earth” as a Romani proverb goes, as artificial, unnatural structures. But when they cross, they do it peacefully. Their goal has always been to travel, trade, practice their crafts, to meet up with related clans and tribes. And then to move on.
How many wars have been waged in the name of our flags?
The Romani, whose flag links them to the entire planet, have never waged a single war in their history.
The 16-spoked wheel
The layers of the 16-spoked mandala on the Romani flag are several. It symbolizes, most obviously, a caravan wheel.
This is not only a reference to the Nomadic lifestyle of the Romani, but also to their relationship to the earth. It reinforces the sentiment that they are here not to claim the land but to travel it.
In his book, “The Gypsies,” Jan Yoors writes about his impressions when he first joined a Nomadic Roma tribe as a 12-year-old boy.
“On a few occasions I was distressed when we left a particularly pleasant or convenient camping spot. These regrets were due to the conservative streak of a nature basically more sedentary than that of the Rom. Rupa chided me for this, in her gruff way; she said I would, by losing it, cherish the memory of this place even more, with the tenderness reserved for incompletely satisfied longings. She said in time I too would learn to possess the single passing moment more passionately, more fully, without regrets.”
The Romani recognize a simple truth that, in mainstream society, we still struggle to accept and re-learn. Life is not a permanent fixture but a flowing river. Change is the only constant. Knowing how to let go is how you truly love and cherish. And gripping things only suffocates them.
The wheel is also a callback to India, the motherland of the Romani. In Sanskrit (from which the Romanes language originates,) the 16-spoked wheel was called “chakra”, meaning “destiny.” The symbolism of the wheel in India is the everlasting cycle of death and rebirth, of constant renewal: something that is deeply infused in Roma culture, touching its relationship with material possessions, animals, and loved ones.
The red color of the wheel was chosen to represent blood, commemorating the Roma lives taken during the Holocaust.
It also represents fire, a staple of Nomadism. Stopping at a camping spot, tending a fire, cooking together, sitting down to eat, singing and dancing: this true happiness. For the Romani, this has been what life is all about, for the last thousand years to this very day: not hoarding, taking, claiming, or owning; but cherishing.