Roma Slavery: History, Legacy, Reparations, by Dr. Margareta Matache

When fast sailing ships boosted the European colonial project and the slave trade, within Europe, in the Principalities Wallachia and Moldova (territories of nowadays Romania), Romani people had already been coerced into a system of chattel enslavement since 1385 or perhaps earlier. Neither prisoners of war, nor victims of pirates, Roma were enslaved and exploited from one generation to another for five centuries. The State, boyars, and the Orthodox Church enslaved Roma for their distinctive and essential skills and justified exploitation through cultural and race prejudice. In this lecture, I describe the horrors of Roma slavery and the tactics used by enslavers to justify and legitimized oppression, economic exploitation, and brutal violence, including rape, murder, and family separation. I engage with the global scholarly literature on slavery and reparations through a Roma lens, suggesting possible ways to ensure reparations, a critical element in the quest for repair, healing, and accountability for state wrongs. Find more information about the Barvalipe Roma Online University and the coming lectures here: https://eriac.org/barvalipe-roma-onli...