Failed Integration, Failed Emancipation
Failed Integration, Failed Emancipation

The Case of Roma Civic Activism in Communist Romania

Summary/Abstract: The article delves into the origins of Roma activism during the communist era in Romania. The author focuses on the collaborative endeavours of Ion Cioabă (1935–1997), the leader (bulibasha) of the Kalderash Roma in Sibiu, and the sociologist Nicolae Gheorghe (1946–2013), who worked together to secure official recognition of the Roma as a national minority during the late 1970s and early 1980s. This recognition equalled emancipation, and the two Roma activists considered it the first step in fostering the Romani people’s integration and acceptance into Romanian society. The article is divided into three main parts. First, the author analyses the Romanian communist state’s policies for dealing with the “Gypsy problem”, concluding that the authorities saw its solution in the assimilation of the Roma. This part is followed by short biographies of the two Roma leaders and how they came to work together on the issue of Romani emancipation. Special attention is paid to their relationship with the Romanian secret police, the Securitate, and how Ion Cioabă’s position as an informer allowed him and Nicolae Gheorghe to petition the Romanian authorities on the problems of the Roma people. Finally, the author examines the content of their proposals and actions to ensure the official recognition of Roma as a national minority. Based on extensive archival research, this part of the article points to the intervention of the Securitate. It not only monitored the activities of the two Roma leaders and activists but it also undermined their activities by provoking a split between the two Roma leaders. The Securitate’s intervention put an end to Gheorghe and Cioabă’s efforts for the Roma people to be granted anequal judicial status with other ethnic groups in Romania.

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