Faith and Revivalism in a Nordic Romani Community: Pentecostalism Amongst the Kaale Roma of Sweden and Finland 9780755692750, 9781848859289

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Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible if it had not been for the honesty, openness and generosity of the Pentecostal Kaale Roma, whom it is about. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the men and women who in this publication are referred to only by their pseudonyms, and especially to my main informants: Leif, Miranda, Sonja and Tino. Thank you for inviting me into your lives for a short while, and for trusting me with your stories. It is my sincere hope that I have managed to pass them on in a way that honours your trust. The present study is one outcome of a research project called ‘Enchanted identities: rituals, identities and feelings around the Baltic Sea’, which was funded by The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies. I want to express my gratitude to the other members of the project – Git Claesson Pipping, Christina Douglas, Madeleine Hurd and Tom Olsson – for our many discussions and for their scrutiny of my drafts. I am also grateful to the Publication committee at Södertörn University that has provided a grant to cover parts of the costs for the production of this book. At various stages of the process of writing this book, the following persons have been important assets to me. I want to thank them for their wisdom and for taking the time to scrutinise my drafts: Kai Åberg, Thomas Acton, Jan-Åke Alvarsson, David Gaunt, Göran Johansson, Marja-Liisa Keinänen, Gregor Kwiek, Adrian Marsh, Christina Rodell Olgaç, Panu Pulma and Elin Strand. vii

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I also want to express my appreciation and gratefulness to my honoured colleagues at the Department for the Study of Religions at Södertörn University – to Geir Aasmundsen, Jenny Berglund, Ann af Burén, Gunilla Gunner, Pieter Holtrop, Jessica Moberg, Staffan Nilsson, Susanne Olsson, Willy Pfändtner, Björn Skogar, Anne Ross Solberg, Simon Sorgenfrei, Göran Ståhle, Ingvar Svanberg, Anna Tessmann and Aysha Özkan. Special thanks go to Professor David Westerlund for his never-failing generosity and encouragement. Finally, my love and gratitude goes to my wife, Anna-Karin Brus, and to our children, Molly and Sten, without whom nothing would ever be complete. Uppsala, September 1, 2012 David Thurfjell

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1 Introduction

It is early summer. In a field not far from Stockholm a large tent has been erected. It is a classic circus tent, circular with a pointy roof and anchored to the green meadow by thick ropes and huge iron pegs. The walls are striped in blue and yellow. On one side, the field is bordered by a highway and the sinister profile of the large grey buildings that characterise Stockholm’s poorer suburbs. Behind the tent, on the other side, the edge of a forest is quite close. The field is located at the outskirts of a big recreational area and here a number of small paths await to lead stressed city people into the stillness under the foliage. There are a few kilometres of forest here, before the next streak of suburbs breaks through the landscape. The tent belongs to a congregation of Pentecostal Roma.1 On this day they have begun their summer tour. All summer, they will travel around Sweden and gather Roma to revivalist meetings. Today’s meeting is one of the first. Around the tent, people are standing in small groups talking and drinking coffee. Men and women stand separate from each other. The meeting is about to begin. A little further off a group of young men have gathered to smoke cigarettes. The vast majority of the people here belong to the Kaale community. They are easily recognised by their characteristic outfit. The women wear big black velvet skirts and beautifully embroidered lace blouses. Their long, dark hair is braided in a special fashion typical of this group. The men wear creased black trousers, shiny patent-leather shoes and short black jackets. Their hairdos 1

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are reminiscent of the 1950s, shiny, slicked back with sideburns. To an outsider like me, coming here feels a bit like travelling a few decades back in time. When the meeting is about to begin, people gather in the tent and sit on the wooden benches placed there – women sit on one side, men on the other. It is about noon and the daylight is warm and yellow as it shines through the striped ceiling. It falls on the simple podium in the front. After a while, a man, who until now has been busy calling people into the tent, steps up to the podium. The man is one of the ministers in charge of the whole tour. Now, he adjusts the microphone and bids everyone welcome to the meeting in Swedish and Finnish as a small choir and a keyboard player find their seats behind him. The meeting goes on for the rest of the day. Sermons and Bible studies are intermingled with singing and prayer sessions. There are a few breaks in which people leave the tent to talk, smoke, drink coffee and stretch their legs outside for a few minutes before continuing. During the meeting, people come and go more or less as they like; there are always a couple of people outside who seem to have come here more to meet friends and family than to listen to sermons. Indeed, much of what is proclaimed from the podium seems to pass without any reaction at all from the crowd. People are chatting in the benches and on a few occasions the preachers have to beg people explicitly for their attention. However, as the day passes, the engagement in the meeting becomes more and more focused. New people join continuously, and by the time the sun sets behind the suburban tower blocks the tent is packed with people and the emotional intensity is high. A new preacher is called to the podium. Lengthy applause fills the tent as he walks up and grabs the microphone. He is quite young and very handsome. Earlier on he sang a song and he has already been complimented several times for his beautiful voice. But this time he is not about to sing but to preach. He has a strong calling to that too, he later explains. The crowd that welcomes him is well warmed up by the previous speakers. Now, as he stands there before them, his eyes are closed. He shakes his head gently. It is clear that he is praying silently to himself. He is in an exalted state of mind, preparing himself for the

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sermon that he is about to deliver. Suddenly he raises his right hand, stretches it upwards as if to draw power from heaven. Then he speaks: ‘alabara-kishegore-ar-ar-adorisen arabara-kishegore hallelujah hallelujah.’ By the time of the second ‘hallelujah’ he opens his eyes and looks at the congregation. Many of the congregation have raised their arms, a few are standing and some, at the back of the tent, are still just watching with their arms crossed, not yet sure whether to surrender to the exalted mood that is growing in the tent or to remain aloof. The young preacher looks at them and begins his sermon: ‘I sat there and thought “when will they let me preach?” Because if I do not preach what I have in my heart right now I am going to explode.’ The other preachers, who now sit on the front row, nod in recognition and approval. The sermon continues: When you turn to the face of God and seek for his presence, he will talk to you, he will say a lot. So much that the sermon that you were planning to give will begin to change.

The young preacher smiles rhetorically at this point, then he looks straight at the crowd. ‘I ask you now: do you want to hear the sermon that I had written, or,’ and now he raises his voice so that he almost screams, ‘do you want to hear the sermon that was given to me by God?’2 As he delivers the final question he raises his hand and points to heaven. His query is answered with a round of applause and scattered hallelujahs. The young preacher’s sermon lasts for more than one hour. Blending Bible quotes with apologetic reflections, he speaks about the necessity to give up one’s own agendas in order to let God into one’s life. He tells the story of how God has led him in his own life and about the necessity of a congregation that is awake and filled with the Holy Spirit. He explains the importance of having an open heart so that one will be among those who will be received by Jesus when he returns. As the sermon continues, the atmosphere in the tent is getting increasingly emotionally charged. More and more people stand up, raise their hands or join in the improvised prayer sessions that are mixed into the sermon. However, some people, it seems, remain unaffected by the exaltation. It appears as if the preacher notices this and works hard to find a way to their hearts as well. Quite some time into the sermon he says

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that he can sense a ‘spirit of unbelief ’ in the tent. ‘It comes to you now,’ he says and directs his attention to the less exalted at the back of the tent. ‘But do not listen to it, because I tell you, it is the Devil that speaks!’ Thereafter he asks those who are 100 per cent sure that they would be allowed to go with Jesus if he was to return tonight to raise their hands. About half the congregation hold up their hands. Having thus identified the enemy and the people in need of salvation he goes on to teach people how they should defend themselves. What follows is a very down-to-earth ritual instruction, a step-by-step tutorial on how to give one’s heart to Jesus. First, everyone is asked to stand up, and they all comply. The few that perhaps were not prepared to do that seem to have left the meeting by this time. Then the preacher asks everyone to raise their hands, a request they also agree to. Next step is not to look at the other people in the tent but to close one’s eyes, focus on oneself and open one’s heart to God. When everyone stands with hands raised and eyes closed, the preacher asks the keyboardist to play something and a slow beat accompanied by soft strings fills the tent like a perfect background soundtrack to the emotional act of submission that is about to happen. Then the preacher starts to pray, and soon his supplication is accompanied by the noise of hundreds of scattered voices praying and shouting: Orasshalomieh-orasshalomieh-orashalomie-hastai. We, the people that you have called, are here tonight, O Lord! Bring down your fire upon us, Lord! Send your fire! Send the fire to this tent meeting! Come down with your anointment! In the name of Jesus remove everything that is of the Devil!

In the midst of the elated commotion that now spreads in the tent, the preacher includes an instruction to speak in tongues: ‘Praise the Lord with your voice! Use your voice! Open your voices!’ he shouts and then falls himself into loud glossolalia. The final thing that the preacher gets through before the sermon turns into uncontrollable turmoil is a promise of change: If you give your life to Jesus, and if you do it with all of your heart, I promise you that you will change. You will transform completely. You will be an entirely different person. Because you are giving yourself up to a living God

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and if you do so your life will change. All the curses that have followed you, all that what the Devil has brought upon you, all that he has ruined will be rebuilt, all that has been dark will be filled with light. God will come into your life. His anointment will fill you.

With this promise lingering, people leave their seats and go up to the podium to be prayed for individually as the choir lets the background music grow to a powerful hymn of praise. So many people go up there. Old women tilt their way across the uneven grass floor, young girls and boys run up to the podium. Men and women, with dignified expressions on their faces, step forward to be prayed for. The young preacher now gets assistance from other preachers and senior male members of the congregation. Together they lay their hands on the people who have come to surrender their lives to Jesus. They speak in tongues and pray loudly for Jesus to come, for him to bring change and anointment into the lives of people. The reactions of the people prayed for varies. Some just stand and cry silently with downcast eyes. Others start to tremble violently. A few collapse entirely and are caught and dragged away by men who have been placed behind them in anticipation of this. The exalted mood lasts for the rest of the evening. Outside the tent, the sounds of music, prayer and glossolalia reach far into the calm summer night. A Romani revival A Pentecostal3 revival is sweeping through Romani communities all around the world. The Pentecostal revival among the Roma is part of the general resurgence of Pentecostalism during the twentieth century. During this period this form of Christianity started to attract great numbers of people from many different groups. The Roma community was only one of many fields towards which Charismatic missionaries turned their attention. However, it may be appropriate to make a distinction between Romani people who have become Pentecostals and the specifically Romani Pentecostalism. Individual Roma have been attracted to Pentecostalism since the movement started in the early 1900s. Many prominent preachers have been Roma. The most famous example is probably Rodney ‘Gypsy’ Smith (1860–1947), whose transformation

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from a poor orphaned British Romani boy to a remarkably successful revivalist preacher has been the topic of many publications.4 When the neo-Pentecostal Charismatic revival began in North America and Europe in the 1960s it also attracted many individual Roma who became members of the new congregations together with other people.5 The specifically Romani revival, although strongly related to these movements, is something slightly different. This is a part of the revivalist movement which is exclusively directed towards the Roma and which contains aspects that are specific to this group. The beginning of this movement is often traced back to the 1950s in France and the very determined mission work carried out by the gaje (non-Roma) preacher Clément Le Cossec. Since then it has spread throughout Europe and to other continents as well. Today millions of Roma all over the world have converted to Pentecostalism and have been baptised in the Holy Spirit. This is a book about Romani Pentecostal revivalism as it appears among the Kaale Roma community in the Nordic countries. For four years, between 2006 and 2009, I participated in religious gatherings and interviewed Romani Pentecostals in Sweden and, to some extent, Finland. I have sought to understand the reasons behind the religious engagement in this group and to grasp what being a Pentecostal Christian can entail for Nordic Roma in the early twenty-first century. Besides earning me a number of new acquaintances and some good friends, my enquiries have given me new insights into the complex functions and meanings that may lie within strong religious engagement. The situation of Romani peoples all over Europe is difficult. There is a widespread marginalisation and sense of outsidership among many Roma. The last couple of years also bear witness to an increase of antiZiganist sentiments in many European countries. The situation is so bad that some researchers predict that we are about to enter what they call a genocidal phase in Roma-gaje relations.6 According to Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg from the Council of Europe, ‘today’s rhetoric against the Roma is very similar to the one used by Nazis and fascists before the mass killings started in the thirties and forties’. Pogroms against Romani neighbourhoods have taken place in Hungary and in Italy there have been attempts by politicians to expel

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Romani people from the cities based on their ethnicity.7 Although the situation in the northern countries is not as alarming as it is elsewhere, there are problems there also. Despite significant efforts to improve the status of the Roma on an official level, the situation for many individuals appears to be getting worse. As I have worked on this study, this paradoxical insight made me understand that a study of Romani Pentecostalism also has to address the profound complexity of the Roma’s general situation. Furthermore, it also led my attention away from an explicit focus on the Roma themselves, making this study also an analysis of the majority culture in which they live. My investigation of Romani revivalism has become by necessity an enquiry into the invisible structures of exclusion that are upheld by the majority culture in the countries focused on here. So, although this book aims to discuss a movement of Pentecostal religious awakening, it is also a book that illustrates what can happen when a well-meaning, yet strongly homogeneous and exclusive, society collides with a group that seeks to uphold its cultural integrity at whatever cost. It is a book about how religion may provide a stage upon which the dream of a possible solution to problems caused by cultural incommensurability can be performed and experienced; a book about the way beliefs and ritual practices sometimes provide means of meaningmaking and aesthetic expression to individuals; and a book about how the same beliefs and practices at times may lose their relevance entirely. Informants In the following chapters I will introduce some of the Kaale Roma that I have got to know during the scope of this study. In total the study is based on interviews with 45 different informants. Among these there are 25 Romani Pentecostal or ex-Pentecostal adherents, ten Romani Pentecostal ministers, five gaje8 ministers and five social workers. Twelve of the informants are women and the rest are men. Their ages vary between 18 and 60. Through the voices of these Pentecostal adherents, then, and especially through those of my main informants – Sonja, Tino, Miranda and Leif – I hope to convey a picture of what this revivalist movement is about for those who are a part of it. Needless to say,

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the experiences of different persons vary greatly and it is as impossible to give a generalised image of the Kaale Pentecostals as it is to give one of any loosely ordered religious organisation. Nevertheless, it is my hope that this presentation shall convey an understanding of the complexity of the Roma’s social situation and thereby also elucidate the role that their foremost religious expression plays in their lives. The perspective of this study is, however, not only emic. In the various analytical sections, I have also attempted to construe the situation of the group in question from a few different etic perspectives. Hence, in addition to conveying the voices of the informants as I have understood them, I also approach my material from points of view inspired by subaltern studies, emotion theory and performance theory. Structure The idea behind the disposition and ordering of this book is to lead the reader through some different stages that often appear in the life stories and testimonies of the informants. Although their stories are of course very different, there are certain religious phases that most Pentecostal Christians seem to feel that they have gone through when they look back at their lives – the old life as a sinner, the overwhelming experience of salvation, the struggle to uphold the faith and, at times, the necessity to drop out of it, seem to recur time and again. I have considered it appropriate to let my study follow this narrative logic of the informants. Including this introduction and the concluding remarks, this book consists of seven chapters. In Chapter 2, The Finnish Kaale and their Religion, the scene is set. In this descriptive chapter the Kaale Roma and their religious history is presented and the background of the informants’ Pentecostal movement is sketched. Having thus given the general background, Chapters 3 to 5, which are the most important chapters of the book, go on to present the aforementioned characteristic phases. In Chapter 3, Caught in a Deadlock, the marginalisation of the Romani communities in Swedish ­society is discussed. The chapter shows how the Roma are systematically excluded from all spheres of society and describes the many social problems that

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spring from this situation. Often, the difficult situation of the Roma is described as being caused either solely by discrimination or solely by their own ‘culture’. Attempting to avoid falling into either of these extreme positions, the chapter analyses the situation with the help of certain concepts developed in post-colonial theory. Departing from this discussion, Chapter 4, Inducing the Pious Mood, then moves on to present the central role of emotional expressions in Pentecostal rituals. It presents the emotional rituals that the Roma engage in and describes the way the Roma speak about their meaning. The rituals are then analysed on a social level as performances of certain repertoires that help in inducing emotional atmospheres. On an individual level the rituals are analysed as methods of self-suggestion. The overall hypothesis is that the emotional rituals provide a method to change the direction of people’s lives. They hence respond directly to the difficult situation described in the previous chapter. Chapter 5, Staying on the Path, discusses the struggle of implementing Pentecostal ideals in everyday life. It explores the promises of change provided by Pentecostal leaders and portrays the way these ideals sometimes collide with the difficulties of life. In Chapter 6, Ethnogenesis and Eschatology, Pentecostalism is connected to the ongoing process of ethnogenesis among Romani peoples worldwide. A discussion about the strong emphasis on eschatology in Romani Pentecostalism is also presented and connected to the discussion of ethnogenesis. Note on method This study is mainly based on interviews and participant observation. Between the spring of 2006 and the autumn of 2009 I attended Pentecostal meetings and interviewed people whose experience I felt to be relevant to the study. Most of my informants have been more or less active Pentecostal adherents from the Kaale group. But I have also interviewed a number of ministers from the Kaale and other Romani groups as well as some gaje ministers and people who have dropped out of the movement. I have also interviewed Kaale individuals who are

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not Pentecostal, plus some gaje social workers and teachers who have experience of working with Roma. The vast majority of my interviews have been semi-structured or spontaneous but there have also been a number of structured interviews in which a recorder has been used. The informants were chosen by means of the so-called snowball method. The interviews were conducted in Swedish, which is the first or second language of all informants except one who was interviewed in English. All informants who I have interviewed about their personal views or religious lives have been treated anonymously in this text. Their names have been changed and certain information about their personal situation and stories have been altered. For someone who belongs to the Kaale community it is nevertheless a possibility that some voices may be recognised. For this reason I have chosen not to focus my discussions on details in the life situations of individual informants that they would not want to be made public. For instance, I will not linger on stories of yet unresolved personal conflicts. When I discuss questions related to such conflicts I will do this on a general and depersonalised level only. In addition to the data gathered through interviews and participant observation, the study is based on scholarly literature, governmental reports and internet material. Although these latter source categories have been important for the study, it must be stressed that it is predominantly based on oral sources. Romani cultures are largely oral. Information about the past and present is passed on by word of mouth and what I have learnt about the life and history of this community I have largely learnt through the stories that my informants have had the generosity to share with me. This is a fact that is important to be aware of, especially when it comes to the presentation of the history of the Pentecostal movement in Chapter 2. It should be remembered that the Pentecostal discourse is full of expressions that are unfamiliar to secular historians. The events of the past, as those of the present, are, for instance, often spoken of as being initiated and controlled by the hand of God. By sticking to these expressions in my own presentation, I want to emphasise that what I present is the movement’s historiography of its own past, rather than a scrutinised and objective historical report.

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Ethics As I will expand upon in the next chapter, Romani Studies is a discipline with a history that is heavily burdened by essentialism, racism and orientalism. Hidden behind the impenetrable mask of alleged scientific objectivity and the status that representing the scholarly community undoubtedly confers, many scholars have portrayed and discussed Roma in ways which have perpetuated stereotypical perceptions of them and, as a consequence, endorsed feelings of superiority among their gaje readers. There exists, among at least some Roma, a justified suspicion towards scholarly enquiries about their history and culture. Now, being a gaje scholar myself, it is of the utmost importance to be aware of this background and to take measures not to repeat the mistakes of previous researchers. As I have worked on this study, I have endeavoured to strictly follow the ethical principles incumbent upon those who conduct interview-based research within the humanities. These principles include being as open and inclusive as possible towards the informants about the purposes of my investigation; allowing the informants to also play an active role in the formulation of the major research questions; ensuring anonymity for all informants and letting the results of my investigation, to the extent that it is possible, benefit the members of the studied community. In addition to these measures, I deem it appropriate to say something brief about my own motivations for engaging in this field of study. I am not a Rom, neither am I a Pentecostal, although I come from a Christian family and have some first-hand experience of Charismatic Christianity before this study. I am trained as an historian of religion and previous to this study the main focus of my research was the ritual life of Iranian Muslims.9 I am interested in the way religion in general and rituals in particular are used as a method to express and come to terms with individual problems. In my previous research I have discussed how this happens within an Islamic framework. In this book I attempt to show how it does within a Christian one. I am also interested in and drawn to the notion of outsidership. Most of what I have written concerns individuals or groups that somehow feel that they are marginalised. My studies have focused upon religiosity, but

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it is a religiosity that circles around and expresses a sense of living on the fringe, a sense of not belonging here, a sense of exile. I can by no means claim to be marginalised myself, but nevertheless this theme draws my interest like nothing else. This is the major explanation of my interest and engagement with the Roma population in Sweden. Some of the individuals that I have got to know, while working on this study, express such a sense of exile in a way that is stronger than anything I have ever met before. I have felt it to be a great privilege to get to know them. On a personal level I believe my interest in the phenomenon of outsidership springs from my very personal discontent with certain aspects of the society in which I live. In my experience there is a strong but elusive pressure towards homogeneity that I dislike. For various reasons I have felt that the position of the Roma in some sense reflects my own position in this regard, although of course in a very different form. My discussions about the situation of the Roma hence, in an indirect way, also concern others who lead their lives and shape their thoughts within the framework of this society. I have thought that if I am able to describe and understand the mechanisms of the extreme exclusion that the Roma have had to go through, I may also be able to shed some light on the mechanisms of homogenisation that also affect people outside of the Romani communities. It is my hope that this book in some way may become a small contribution to the struggle for an improved situation for Romani people in Sweden and elsewhere. But it is important to stress that I do not, and indeed cannot, speak on behalf of my informants. Attempting to do so would be preposterous and untrue. Having now stated this, I will begin my enquiry.

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2 The Finnish Kaale and their Religion

In this chapter I will briefly present the general and religious history of the Finnish-speaking Kaale Roma in Sweden and, to some extent, Finland. Before doing so, however, it is appropriate to say a few words about the Roma in general. It is a Herculean task to define who the Roma are. There are vivid discussions about this question on many different levels. Scholars of Romani Studies discuss the historical origins and development of the Roma and thereby seek to find ways of describing what it is that constitutes the historical and cultural core of this community. On an organisational level, different international Romani associations endeavour to define who is and who is not a Rom in order to clarify their own legitimacy and to gain political strength; and administratively, various governmental institutions try to establish clear juridical demarcations and fixed definitions in order to be able to implement political policies concerning, for instance, minority rights. The issue is so problematic because the word Roma is an umbrella term that is used for a variety of groups with different languages, religions, citizenships and self-identities.1 Some groups have an obvious and distinct ethnicity that differs from that of the majority culture. Others are much less distinct and are sometimes more defined by their societal marginalisation than by any specific cultural traits. In the International Romani Union (IRU), the Roma, Sinti and Kaale groups are members.2 But then there is a discussion whether the Romanichal group, which consists

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of 250,000 people on three continents, should also be seen as a specific sub-community. The word Kaalo (Kaale in plural) literally means ‘black’ in Romani. The word, or variations of it, is used to denote a collection of West European Romani peoples. The Spanish Gitanos, sometimes referred to as Calé, the Welsh Valshanange or Kalá, and the Finnish Kaale, are the most prominent groups among these. Variations of the word Kaalo are also used to denote the Romani dialects spoken by these respective groups. These dialects have been influenced by the surrounding majority languages. Hence, the Caló of the Gitanos exhibits as many strong influences from Spanish grammar as the Kååle of the Welsh Roma shows of Welsh and English. The Finnish Kaale Romani is sometimes referred to as Finnish Romani and belongs to the north-western group among the northern Romani dialects. There are many Germanic and Scandinavian elements in its vocabulary, and its grammatical structure bears witness to some influences from Finnish.3 It is disputed to what extent these particular groups and languages share cultural and historical traits other than their name. I will not enter into this discussion here. Suffice to say that many of the Kaale Roma themselves are certain of such a connection. Many are also strongly convinced that the various Kaale dialects constitute particularly pure forms of the Romani language.4 There are many speculations why a word meaning black is used to denote the Kaale group. An oft-repeated explanation is that the word simply refers to the dark complexion and hair colour among its members. This would correspond to the Finnish derogatory word mustalainen, meaning literally ‘blacksters’, which until recently was the most common word for the group and which, in certain layers of the Kaale community, is still the most frequently used. Others, however, have speculated that the word Kaale rather refers to the black or dark clothes that members of the group traditionally wear, or that it refers to a deity, possibly Kali, or the place in India from where the group originates.5 It is illegal in Finland to keep a record of a citizen’s ethnicity and therefore there are no reliable statistics about the number of Kaale Roma. According to the estimates of my most knowledgeable informants, however, there are all in all about 13,000 Finnish-speaking Kaale

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in the world. About 3,000 of these live in Sweden and the rest, with a few exceptions, live in Finland.6 Many travel regularly between the two nations. The group hence constitutes a rather small community of some 0.3 per cent of the population in the two countries.7 Today most of them live as more or less permanent residents in suburbs in and around the bigger cities in the south of Finland and in Sweden. In the vicinity of Stockholm, where most of the material for this study is gathered, there live approximately 550 Kaale Roma. This makes the Kaale one of the biggest Romani communities in the region.8 The Kaale are easily recognisable because of their very characteristic outfit. Unlike most other Romani groups in the region, they have not adjusted their clothing to the style of the majority population. On the contrary, throughout the twentieth century they have accentuated their distinctiveness by developing a very special outfit characterised by its dark colours and special style.9 When it comes to language, most Finnish Kaale speak Finnish as their everyday family language. A restrictive and anti-Ziganist language policy from the mainstream society in the early twentieth century, combined with the dissolution of inter-generational relations brought about by urbanisation, has probably caused Finnish to take the place of Romani as the first language for an overwhelming majority within the community.10 However, Romani is not completely forgotten among the Kaale. In Finland, studies have shown that more people than expected still have skills in the language. Nevertheless, the number of Roma who command the language is deteriorating. An enquiry carried out in 1954 showed that 60 per cent of the Kaale in Finland claimed to have perfect or good mastery of the language and as much as 89 per cent claimed to master it fairly. Today, these figures have decreased to 10 per cent and 60 per cent respectively.11 These figures are confirmed by the estimates of the knowledgeable informants of the present study.12 The history of the Finnish-speaking Kaale In the year 1512 a group of travellers calling themselves ‘Count Gagino’s company’13 arrived in Stockholm. They came from Copenhagen but had

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earlier travelled from the British Isles. Perhaps they were the first Roma to arrive in Scandinavia and the ancestors of the present-day Kaale Roma. From Stockholm they travelled in smaller companies to different places in the Swedish kingdom, in which present-day Finland was included at the time. Historical evidence indicates that some groups had already travelled to the eastern borders of Finland in the sixteenth century.14 Although initial reactions seem to have been somewhat positive, the authorities soon turned hostile to the Roma, or the tattare as they were commonly called.15 They were considered a threat to society, and only a couple of decades after Count Gagino’s company had first arrived they were expelled from the kingdom. The church was particularly hostile to the Roma who from the beginning were denied access to the congregations and the sacraments. In 1560, the archbishop Laurentius Petri declared them to be ‘a completely unchristian people that doesn’t even want to be Christian’.16 The Protestant Reformation that was happening in the country at that time also brought with it increased communal feelings that proved negative for the relations between the majority population and the Roma. In 1594, a church meeting in Linköping decided that the Roma were to be kept outside the Christian community in the future.17 The anti-Ziganist currents continued and got worse in the seventeenth century. In 1637 the king declared a law that is often referred to as tattarplakatet (the tattare-declaration).18 It was announced that all Roma had one year to leave the kingdom and if they failed to do so they would be executed without trial. The law was never implemented since it diverged so thoroughly from the general juridical principles that were prevalent in the country at that time. It was also difficult for the authorities to execute the expulsion since they rarely had jurisdiction to act outside their own county. Nevertheless, the law illustrates how strong resentment of the Roma was in some layers of society at this time. Paradoxical as it may seem, it was Sweden’s expansionist political ambitions and military mobilisation that became the salvation of the Roma. The army needed soldiers and Romani men proved to be successful in this field. Many were recruited to fight for the Swedish king and although there were, of course, big risks connected to joining the army,

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their involvement in the military organisation also gave Romani families a status and protection that they had not enjoyed before. It was during this period of military engagement that the Kaale Roma developed many of the features that are still pertinent to their group. The connection to Finland is maybe the most important trait that their military engagement brought about. Of special importance here is a Swedish duke by the name of Per Brahe who was appointed governor of Finland in 1637. He had a large number of Romani soldiers in his guard, whom he brought with him as he settled down in Pielisjärvi at the eastern border of Finland in the 1660s.19 Although the Kaale Roma are predominantly Finnish-speaking today, they mostly have Swedish surnames. These names were given to soldiers during the seventeenth century. Names such as Lindros, Swarts, Lindström, Grönros, Grönfors, Nyman and Borg are all typical Swedish soldier-names that are common among the Kaale Roma.20 Possibly as a result of the changed status that their military engagement had brought about, the church also changed its attitude towards the Roma towards the end of the seventeenth century. In 1686 a new church law was passed which stated that it was the responsibility of the clergy to care for the integration and teaching of the indigenous tattare. The exclusivist attitude established in Linköping a hundred years earlier was, hence, changed to its opposite. This new law has often been interpreted as an expression of acceptance of the Roma. By making them a legal part of the congregation the law constitutes the first acknowledgement of the Roma’s status as citizens. It is also important that a clear distinction between indigenous and foreign tattare was hereby established.21 Therefore, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the situation of the Roma was somewhat better than it had been previously. Although the Roma were still strongly marginalised in society, the persecution was not as bad as it had been. Most men made their living as handicraftsmen or traders; horse trading became particularly important. Among women, begging and fortune-telling were common sources of income. Although some members of the community were crofters and settled, most lived ambulatory lives. In 1748, a royal ordinance was established by the king, concerning the ‘restraining of so-called Tartares and Zigeuners

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as well as other idle people and mendicants’,22 an effort to come to terms with the problems that were felt to be caused by travelling populations. Many of the ancestors of the present-day Finnish-speaking Kaale had at this time settled in the eastern Finnish-speaking parts of the Swedish realm. One significant difference between this part of the kingdom and the rest was that there were no other ambulatory population groups here. In Finland, therefore, the Finnish Roma, from this time clearly identifiable with present-day Kaale, became the only traveller group, at least the only one in which full families travelled together.23 This arguably gave the people a unique role that may have encouraged them further to settle in the eastern parts of the kingdom. At this time they also picked up the Finnish language. In 1809, the Grand Duchy of Finland was separated from the Kingdom of Sweden and was incorporated in the Russian Empire. Finland was granted juridical independence in all fields apart from the military. Therefore, this separation was the beginning of an independent Finnish state and, indeed, the beginning of contemporary Sweden. For the Roma the change brought about some important differences. Most significantly, they could no longer enjoy the protection that their participation in the Swedish military organisation had provided them with for quite some time. In the realm of the Russian Tsar, influential citizens aimed to assimilate the Roma. There were rules that gave the authorities the right to make vagrants work by means of coercion and, for a period of time (1843–1861), the Russian army also forced the children of Romani captives to join the army. All in all, the Roma lived insecure and risky lives under Russian jurisdiction and their situation caused them to distance themselves from the authorities even more. The Russian connection was not only negative, however. Many Roma travelled back and forth to Russia on business. The province of Karelia, at the border between Russia and Finland, now became a place where many Finnish Kaale Roma settled. Travelling around was prohibited and many permanent settlements were established even though many travelled regularly for business. In 1883 the laws against vagrancy were softened so that they only applied to people who misbehaved.24 As always, mainstream society’s attitude towards the Roma seems to have

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hovered between outright racism and reluctant tolerance. From time to time there were suggestions for further restrictions but as a rule they did not gain general support.25 At this time, most Kaale Roma lived in the countryside of the southern parts of Finland. There were occasional intermarriages with the majority population but mostly, and particularly in the south-east, the Roma kept to themselves.26 Into modern times The first half of the twentieth century was a turbulent time in Finland’s history. This was also an era in which different ideologies competed with each other to offer large-scale solutions to the problems of society – socialism, conservatism, liberalism and nationalism were all examples of such ideologies. Although there were of course big differences between them, they had one thing in common: their universal ambitions. Without delving too deep into the political characteristics of modernity, it might be said that the European political climate, in this colonial era, was particularly prone to producing ideologies with big ambitions. Not only was there a belief that the new ideologies would be equally relevant all over the world, there also seems to have been a desire for them to influence society on all levels. Hence it could be said that a longing for coherence and consistency in society grew stronger in this period. For the Roma in Finland, this accentuated longing for societal coherence among the majority brought about some significant changes. As the notion of assimilation became significantly more prominent, the otherness of the Roma became the focus of the modern techniques of social engineering. Unlike the previous policy that had aimed to restrict them, the Roma were now to be moulded and chastised to fit the norms of the majority population. In 1901, the first official report on the situation of the Roma was produced. It proposed a strong policy of assimilation. The Roma were to be accepted as a part of Finnish society, but they needed to be ‘modified’ in order to fit in properly. One method that was subsequently used by the authorities to make this idea a reality was taking Romani children into custody. One organisation that became especially important to the project of assimilating the Roma was the Suomen Mustalaislähetys (The Finnish Gypsy Mission27), which was founded

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in Tampere in 1906. I shall return to this very important organisation shortly. When the Finnish nation declared its independence from Russia in 1917, the Roma became full citizens of the newly founded republic.28 The new political situation, however, did not entail solely positive changes for the group. In the spring of 1918 a cruel civil war between Soviet-backed socialists and German-backed conservatives broke out in the country. When the conservatives eventually won the war, the borders between Finland and Russia were closed. For the Roma, this made life especially difficult since many of them had made their living travelling between the two countries. In the period between the wars, the project of assimilating Roma into Finnish society continued. The Finnish parliament, having gained real power for the first time after independence, developed stricter rules to control its Romani population. In 1936, a new law restricting vagrancy was passed. Needless to say, this made things even more difficult for the Roma who still largely lived ambulatory lives. On top of this, the authorities would imprison the Roma who disobeyed the new rules. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the traditional lifestyle and livelihood of the Roma was severely circumscribed. A final blow came with the mobilisation of the army for what was to become the Winter War of 1939–1940. Now the military confiscated horses in the country for use in the army. For many Roma, losing their horses meant that the basic prerequisite of their livelihood vanished. They were now left without either juridical or material resources to continue living the way they were used to. Instead they were left entirely in the hands of the majority population and dependent upon its benevolence.29 It is important to note that about two-thirds of the Finnish Roma lived in Karelia until 1939. When the area was occupied by the Soviet Union around 400,000 Karelian refugees fled into Finland and large-scale programmes for taking care of them were launched by the Finnish state and different organisations. Needless to say, this was an immensely difficult time for all refugees. But the low social status of the Roma made it especially difficult for them. Many of them had problems finding a refuge in western Finland and had to roam around in search of shelter.

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As a response to this displacement, a labour camp was established in the small city of Kihniö in central Finland. Many Romani men were detained and kept there without trial. In the war, many Romani men also enlisted as soldiers. As I have mentioned previously there was a tradition of military engagement stretching back for some generations, and at this time, with all other possibilities of income restricted, there must have been little choice. Today, however, the participation in the Finnish wars between 1939– 1945 is still a source of much pride among Kaale Roma.30 Arguably, the fact that they fought for Finland, and the fact that the Finnish commander-in-chief, Baron Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, did not abandon them or ‘sell them out to Hitler’, as one informant of the present study expressed it,31 has strengthened the Kaale Roma’s sense of belonging to the Finnish nation.32 Hundreds of thousands of Roma died in the Nazi concentration camps, but Finland and its leadership did not desert its Romani population and this is widely remembered among the Kaale today. Recently a monument was raised in Finland to the memory of Roma who died in the wars and although many are proud of this, some would argue that it is only now, 60 years after the war, that the Roma’s participation in it is beginning to be belatedly acknowledged by the majority population.33 Regardless of the fact that their sense of Finnish identity might have been strengthened, the wars brought further hardship to an already very difficult situation for the Finnish Roma. The circumscription of their traditional lifestyle, that had taken place already before the war, was further deepened after it. Many Finnish Roma died in the war and among those who survived many were forced to evacuate. Some regions in eastern Finland, most notably the Finnish Karelia, were permanently lost to the Soviet Union and thousands of Finns living there never got back their lost homes. Many of these were Romani families. For these families, establishing themselves in new places was especially difficult. Roma were not welcome everywhere and many found themselves in a worse state of ‘outsidership’ than before. In addition to all these difficulties, Finnish society started to change rapidly. The structures of the old agricultural society disintegrated and

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the trades upon which the Roma had made their living lost their relevance and became increasingly obsolete. As a response to their new situation, the Roma, together with many other Finns, moved to the cities. The late 1940s and the early 1950s saw massive urbanisation in Finland. And the Roma became a part of this. Their marginalisation, however, remained intact in the cities, albeit taking a different form. Many settled in suburbs and became something of a slum community at the margins of the changing society. With this position came new problems, social misery and criminality. The Roma, as the historian Panu Pulma puts it, turned ‘from a vagrancy problem to a social problem’,34 and with this, their marginalisation increased even more. The new situation meant that the Roma and the problems surrounding them became an item on the agenda of the police and other societal institutions in a more prominent way than before. Then, as a response to the ‘social problems’ caused by the Roma, society’s efforts to assimilate them intensified. In the 1950s a policy aiming to ‘liberate’ Romani children from their Romani lifestyle developed. In 1952 it was estimated that approximately 4,000 Roma lived in the country. Out of these, 1,000 children were considered in need of being taken into custody by the authorities. In 1956 the Advisory Board on Gypsy Affairs (Mustalaisasiain Neuvottelukunta) was founded. Together with the Finnish Gypsy Mission they became the most influential implementers of the government’s policies as thousands of Romani children were taken into custody and placed in children’s homes.35 The idea was to solve the problems related to the Roma by dissolving Romani culture. The Romani language, consequently, was not encouraged or taught and no Romani representatives were part of policy discussions or decision-making. This history of the Kaale Roma in Finland is a clear example of how the problems surrounding a minority group stem from how the group is treated by the majority. It can be summarised like this: the lifestyle and otherness of the Roma in agricultural society is frowned upon by the majority; therefore the authorities take measures to limit the minority’s means of continuing its different (in this case ambulatory) lifestyle; the measures are successful but make the minority lose its income which in its turn results in new types of social problems with which the authorities

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now have to deal. In doing so the minority’s culture is identified as the source of the problem and, consequently, it is believed that it is possible to resolve the situation by eradicating that culture. The genocide committed by the German Nazi government was an extreme example of how the longing for coherence that is inherent to many modern ideologies led to the eradication of the otherness represented by Jews and Roma. Arguably, the attempts to eradicate Romani culture in Finland and Sweden during the same period could be seen as a parallel to this. In the northern countries, however, it was not genocide but social engineering that was utilised to implement the policy. The wind changes Then, in the 1960s, things started to change. In this period the job market was good in Finland, many Roma had managed to become employed and, at the same time, they had started to settle down on a large scale. Most had quit their mobile lifestyle except for the summers when many still travelled around in caravans.36 Parallel to this process of societal establishment, an ethno-political awareness started to grow among the Roma in the Nordic countries as, indeed, it was growing all across the world. In Finland, Roma started to take an active part in the organisation and formulation of their community and its problems. As a result of this newly awakened empowerment movement, community organisations run by Roma themselves were founded. The Finnish Romani association (Suomen Romaniyhdistys ry) was one of them. Its mission was to combat discrimination against Roma, and it used political connections and the media to make its voice heard.37 Cooperation with Roma in other countries also started to develop, and Roma began to express themselves through printed media. For instance, the Finnish Gypsy organisation started a magazine by the name Zirikli. All in all, the political initiative in Romani affairs started to move into the hands of Romani people themselves. As a result of this, a complete change of government policy towards the Roma could be observed. In 1968, the above-mentioned Advisory Board on Gypsy Affairs was completely reformed: Romani representation was included and in a statement the board concluded that the Roma were discriminated against in a way

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that was inconsistent with the Declaration of Human Rights. A policy of ‘reversed discrimination’ was now suggested. Special funding was to be set aside for anti-discrimination efforts, social aid and school support directed to the Roma. Romani culture and language was to be encouraged and regarded as a positive asset rather than as a problem. In Finland, the political course that was taken in the late 1960s has, more or less, been held to until the present day. This means that the juridical situation of the Roma has improved significantly during the last 40 years. It could be argued that the traditional lifestyle that was swept away by the assimilation politics and societal changes of the first half of the twentieth century has been replaced by an incorporation of the Roma into the system of the Finnish welfare state.38 During this period a number of reforms were passed that led to the improvement of the Roma’s social, educational, cultural, financial and linguistic status.39 In the 1970s, the country passed its first law that explicitly prohibited discrimination of Roma. In the 1980s, the Romani language started to be taught in schools.40 In the 1990s, a constitutional rights reform was passed in which, among other things, the Roma’s right to their own language and culture was ensured. The Roma themselves, it was said, should influence policies of childcare and the national radio should broadcast news in Romani. In the year 2000, a new constitution was passed in which the Roma’s rights were further secured. Panu Pulma, who has written on the history of the Finnish Kaale, argues that Finland’s membership into the European Union should be seen as the beginning of a new phase in the history of the Roma community of the country. With this, the international aspect of struggling for Romani rights has become more prevalent. Since its entry into the European Union in 1995, the country has also signed two international conventions that guarantee the minority rights of the Roma.41 The international cooperation between different Romani organisations has also been strengthened in this period. This has been a process in which the Finnish Kaale have played a significant role, not least through the work of Miranda Voulasranta, a Finnish Kaale, who is the vice chairperson of the European Roma and Travellers’ Forum at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

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Moving to Sweden In the years after the Second World War, many Finns moved to Sweden. This neighbouring country on the other side of the Baltic Sea had not been directly involved in the war and was using its remaining industries to build up a strong industrial welfare state in the post-war period. In 1954 the need for passports and working permits was abolished for citizens of other Nordic countries and the same year a prohibition against Romani people immigrating to Sweden, which had been established in 1914, was also abolished. All in all, these reforms created a large immigration of Finnish people and among them were many Roma. Most Finnish Roma came to Sweden in the 1960s. Like other Finnish immigrants, they came to find jobs and to try their chances of building a decent life on the other side of the Baltic Sea. In Sweden, the authorities’ attitude towards the Roma was largely parallel to that of Finland. Similarly, the Swedish majority institutions considered the Romani culture to be the cause of all the social problems that were associated with the Roma. The solution to these problems, therefore, was believed to be found in an assimilation of Romani people through schooling and lodging. An official report from 1954 brought forth the issues of education and settlement as the most important if the Roma were to be assimilated.42 In 1958, the parliament decided to make efforts to improve the situation of the Roma within these fields. Special funding was set aside for the teaching of Romani children and the ambition was to ‘normalise’ the lifestyle of the Roma as soon as possible.43 Although the project of reshaping the Roma into ‘normal’ Swedes soon proved to be more difficult than expected, a change of policy similar to that which occurred in Finland in the 1960s was late in coming to Sweden. From 1970, however, the authorities initiated some cooperation with representatives of the Roma, and in another governmental zigenar-report, issued in 1973,44 the patronising attitude towards Romani culture had been somewhat toned down. However, as I will return to in Chapter 3, real changes in governmental attitudes towards the Roma would not come until the beginning of the twenty-first century. The policies and methods of Finland and Sweden thus differed significantly in the last decades of the twentieth century.

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Another difference that struck many of the Kaale who emigrated to Sweden from 1954 and onwards was the fact that Sweden, unlike Finland, had several different Romani groups. The travellers (in those days spoken of as tattare by the majority population) and the Kalderash, then commonly referred to as Swedish Zigenare, were the most prominent groups. Especially among the latter, there had been some important efforts to be accepted by the majority population. Since the 1930s, prominent Kalderash individuals had appealed to the government to improve the situation of the Roma.45 Of special importance here is the Taikon family, among others the author and human rights activist Katarina Taikon, whose novels about the zigenare-girl Katitzi (1969–1980)46 had a great impact on public awareness of the Roma’s situation in Sweden. Furthermore, some Kaale informants of this study report that when arriving in Sweden they were astonished at first by the fact that many Kalderash Roma did not wear Romani outfits as they did. In 1967, the Kaale in Sweden founded the Finnish Gypsy organisation (Finska Zigenarföreningen). Soon after, Stockholm’s Finnish Gypsy organisation (Stockholms Finska Zigenarförening) was also founded.47 These organisations have cooperated and become members of larger umbrella organisations for Romani affairs in the Nordic countries, among others the Nordic Gypsy council (Nordiska Zigenarrådet) that was founded in 1972. Despite the work of these organisations, the situation of the Finnish Roma in Sweden is characterised by marginalisation and outsidership. Unlike the Kaale who live in Finland, most of the Swedish Kaale have no positively charged connection to the Swedish nation. The fact that many of them speak Finnish as their mother tongue has led to a double outsidership. There is still a strong connection to Finland among the members of the group and those who can visit there regularly. In the 1990s, there were several families who also moved back to Finland. At the same time, the third generation of Kaale Roma living Sweden is now growing up; for many of these the connection to Finland is becoming more and more distant and for parts of the younger generation, Swedish and not Finnish is now the first language.

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The religion of the Roma In the history of Romani Studies, much attention has been given to popular beliefs and practices among the Roma. Unfortunately, much of what has been written is characterised by an orientalist and essentialist interpretation of Romani culture that, in its turn, often has been coloured by traits of the mystic. Many have argued that scholarly discussions on Romani culture have been shaped by popular myths and prejudice rather than solid scholarly enquiry.48 A frequently repeated mistake seems to have been to take the legends and fairytales of one particular Romani people as sources that can provide knowledge about the perceived essential nature of all Roma.49 The early gaje scholars who discussed the topic of Romani religiosity usually concluded that the Roma had no religion. Thus John Hoyland (1750–1831), who was the first British scholar to address this issue, concluded that the Gypsies were non-believers.50 Michaël Jan de Goeje, George Borrow and Herman Grellman were other nineteenth-century gyptologists who expressed similar views.51 The sometimes openly racist attitude that is expressed by some of these scholars is perhaps best illustrated by a quote from the American folklorist C. G. Leland (1824–1903) who utters the following when discussing the possibility of a Romani religion: The real Gypsy has, unlike all other men, unlike the lowest savage, positively no religion, no tie to a spiritual world, no fear of a future, nothing but a few trifling superstitions and legends, which in themselves indicate no faith whatever in anything deeply seated.52

Now, without going too deep into a discussion on the perception of religion among European nineteenth-century scholars, it should be mentioned that their interpretation of Romani culture largely reflects the cultural evolutionist and Christiano-centric worldview that was dominant among the elite classes of the colonial empires to which these scholars belonged. One expression of this Christiano-centrism that becomes obvious in the texts about the religion of the Roma is the notion that a religion, in order to be worthy of this designation, should

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be composed of the institutions that are found in Christianity and Judaism. Hence the Roma’s lack of a canonised scripture, articulated dogma or a church-like organisation has led scholars to conclude that they simply did not have spirituality. Instead, many scholars choose to use other, often derogatory, terms to denote the religiosity of the Roma. Superstitions, belief in ghosts, magic, fear of spirits and similar belittling words are often used to denote ‘religion-like’ beliefs and practices that were prevalent among the Roma but that, as the British anthropologist Edwin Oliver James (1888–1972) expressed it, lacked ‘actual religious sense’.53 The British gyptologist E. B. Trigg in 1973 wrote a book on ‘the magical and supernatural practices of the Gypsies’.54 Although this book certainly has many valuable qualities, it is interesting to note that practices common among religious people of all religions and nations (including Anglican Englishmen), are categorised and interpreted as instances of magic or superstition when it comes to the Roma. Thus, when Trigg discusses the practice of keeping a token from one’s baptism, this is interpreted not as a sign of piety or devoutness, but the desire to obtain ‘a powerful amulet’.55 Similarly, the practice for men to refrain from shaving during a period of 40 days after a close relative’s death, which is a practice among some Roma and also among Jews, is construed not as an expression of tradition or mourning but as the result of a fear that otherwise the dead would rise from the grave and haunt the relatives.56 Although the interpretations that Trigg offers may have some empirical backing, it is significant that he constantly interprets the practices that he discusses in a way that devalues them and excludes them from the field of ‘religion proper’. The meaning of the concept of religion is an issue that has been much debated by scholars of religion and this is not the place to enter into that debate. Suffice it to say that the early gyptologists, who refused to describe the Romani objects of their studies as having a religion, felt this term to be something more than a mere analytical category. For them, arguably, having a religion was associated with the positive feelings that they had about their own culture and society. It was, or so it seems, a word that was felt to be synonymous with being civilised or

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living an orderly life, and these were features that they would not attribute to the Roma. Furthermore, in romantic and nationalist early twentieth-century Europe, the concept of religion was connected to the concept of a nation. Since the Reformation, Protestant Christianity in particular had developed into unities connected to specific nation states. The Anglican Church may be the most obvious example of this, although there are also several others, such as the Swedish or Finnish Lutheran state churches. Now, the Jews of Europe were, before the creation of Israel in 1947, considered to be a nation without a state. The fact that they had their own religion – including scriptures, hierarchies, rituals and dogma – helped them to fit nicely into this categorisation. But what about the Roma? Similar to the Jews and most other peoples of Europe, the Roma were considered to be a nation of their own. But at the same time they did not have a single unified sense of religious belonging. On the contrary, there seemed to be adherents of most different religious traditions among them. The Roma challenged established notions about the interrelationships between nation and religion. It may have been the fact that the Roma did not fit in fixed categories that caused many scholars, and indeed gaje people in general, to think of them as religiously abnormal. When it came to their religious affiliation it was, and still is, often claimed that they had no religion, that they adapted their religiosity to the societies surrounding them. Trigg, for one, writes in his book that the Roma were ‘taking over the initiation rites of the host culture’.57 I believe the often-repeated claim that the Roma merely adopt the religion of their surroundings is related to the difficulties of categorising this group. If we step away from the expectation that being a nation should entail having a religion, we will find that the religious adherence of the Roma is not particularly changeable. On the contrary, many Roma have kept their religion several generations after moving to a region where it is not dominant. That was the case with the Orthodox and Catholic Kalderash Roma who came to Sweden in the nineteenth century and according to some Roma, the Roma were among the few who had the courage to hold on to their Catholic faith when the Protestant Reformation swept through Scandinavia in the

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sixteenth century.58 Moreover, the idea that Roma are quick to change their religion to the ‘host culture’ seems to be repeated even if a Romani group has stayed for a long time in one region. For instance, the Kaale of Sweden and Finland have existed in this region for half a millennium, that is since before the Reformation, and it is still often repeated that the fact that most of them are Lutheran is an expression of their changeable culture. Is there a Romani religion? This is not the place to go into details about the religious practices of the Romani ancestors who emigrated from the South Asian subcontinent more than a thousand years ago. It is, of course, likely that there were religious beliefs and practices that were specific to that group. There is also evidence of divinities that were worshipped by Roma prior to their conversion to Christianity or Islam.59 Some of the old religious practices of the Roma have survived the conversion to the Abrahamic religions and continue within the framework of, for instance, Catholicism, the most prominent example being the annual pilgrimage to the Sara-la-Kali Black Madonna in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in southern France in May. There is also a multitude of legends, folktales and myths that can shed light on the pre-Christian or pre-Islamic beliefs of the Romani peoples. Except for these scattered traces, however, there is no such thing as a Romani religion, at least not if by this term we mean a coherent tradition of spirituality, ritual practices and worldview. The word Roma is an umbrella term for a number of different peoples with a common heritage. In many cases, therefore, the Roma are more comparable to linguistically related groups like the Germanic peoples or the Slavs than to more close-knit ethnic groups like the contemporary Finns, the Swedes or, for that matter, the Jews. It is therefore no surprise that there is no one Romani religion. Religion-like features: purity rules and respect for elders Having said this, however, it is important to acknowledge that there are certain religion-like features that are common to many Roma. Of special importance here are the rules of ritual purity and respect for the elders.

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Taking my examples from the Finnish Kaale group, I will now briefly outline these. The most significant common feature of Roma communities worldwide is the adherence to the rules of ritual purity. Indeed, it has been suggested that it is whether a person follows these rules or not that defines whether he or she is or is not a Rom. The purity rules and the taboos to which they are connected have also been much discussed by Romani Studies scholars.60 Central to these discussions has often been the theme of shame and honour.61 Central to the Romani purity regulations, as to similar regulations in other cultural systems, is a strong differentiation between that which is pure and permissible and that which is impure and forbidden. The general principle is that the latter of these two categories should be avoided at all costs and that the two should never be mixed. According to the general logic of the purity rules, it is important to avoid mixing categories of any sort. Each time, place, role or object has its proper place and function that should not be transgressed. Hence, to take one trivial example from everyday life, the functions of the kitchen should not be mixed with the functions of the bathroom. The kitchen sink is for washing dishes and not hands. If one wants to wash one’s hands one needs to go to the bathroom. Similarly, the borders between the categories of male and female, masculine and feminine, Roma and gaje, the upper and lower parts of the body, or life and death must not be traversed. Should the categories for one reason or another mix anyway, it will create impurity of some sort and the persons involved would need to take measures to re-establish the order of things. In addition to this general tendency to abide by given categories and as a continuation of the dichotomising logic, there are, among the Kaale, two fields that are especially charged with taboos and connected to the risk of impurity. These fields are female sexuality and death, and both are surrounded by very strong taboos.62 Female sexuality According to the purity rules, the women of the group are impure from puberty to menopause. Their impurity is specifically related to

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menstruation, reproduction and sexuality. Although menstrual blood is considered the basis of the impurity, the whole lower part of a woman is a source of contamination for anyone but her husband. Since objects that have touched or been close to the lower half of a woman’s body will also be rendered impure, women constantly run the risk of contaminating objects, places and other people. This regulation, of course, severely limits women’s liberty to move around as they like.63 But it can also protect women since it gives them the power to contaminate objects and persons around them. For instance, a woman can touch a man with her shoe and thus contaminate him with her impurity. Men’s private parts are also considered somewhat impure, but the regulations surrounding men are much less strict. Among the Kaale, a specific outfit has come to play an important role in the system that surrounds women’s impurity. The clothes – long black velvet skirts for the women, and dark creased trousers for the men – are considered to hold back the impurity and restrict the possibility of contamination. For a woman who wears the full outfit, it is only things and people that are located below that will become impure. In order to avoid contamination, it is a general practice among Kaale women to let men climb stairs before them, for instance, avoid entering apartments located above other Romani families, and avoid putting edibles on the floor.64 Although Roma in general and Kaale Roma in particular are more strict in their following of the purity rules, it must be remembered that sexual taboos and implicit codes that regulate conduct are also common among the European majority cultures. It has been pointed out that similar values and codes are prevalent especially in Mediterranean cultures.65 Death In the same way as sexuality, death is surrounded by strict rules among the Kaale. This is partly connected to the profound reverence and veneration for the elders of the group. Elders are deeply respected and when they pass away their memory will be honoured. As one expression of this, Kaale Roma will not keep the possessions of a person who has passed. As a consequence, clothes, attributes and personal possessions will be

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disposed of. Sometimes relatives will go so far as to sell, demolish or throw away all things in the household of the deceased. Usually only a few pictures of the dead will be kept and specially venerated. Another expression of the Kaale’s respect for the elders and the dead is their elaborate funeral ceremonies. When a Kaale Rom passes away it is customary for relatives to travel from far away to visit the family and to pay their respect to the dead and to her or his closest family. On these occasions people will come together for several days. There will be prayer, singing, eating and then more prayers. The night before the actual burial, people will sit up all night by the open coffin and pray for the deceased. When the morning comes, they will go together to the chapel for the funeral ceremony. In accordance with Finnish tradition it is common to read individual messages to the deceased. The singing and praying will then last throughout the interment. The men will themselves shovel the earth back into the grave as the singing continues. The dead will never be left alone. After the burial, it is common that the ceremony continues for another day before people travel back home again.66 To the Kaale Roma, the elaborate funeral traditions and the custom of doing away with the things that belonged to the dead are expressions of respect and love for the relatives who have passed away. Nevertheless, the elaborate traditions surrounding death are also connected to the purity rules and the notion of not mixing categories. Death is impure and that which belongs to the dead should not be kept in the world of the living. For this reason it is also common, for instance, that Roma who smoke refrain from knocking the ash off on cemetery ground. Doing so would create a connection between the realms of life and death that is not wished for.67 The origin of the Romani purity rules is disputed. The view that predominates among scholars is that the traditions date back to the Indian heritage of the group. Others, like most informants of the present study, claim that the rules originate in ancient Judaism. Regardless of their origin, however, it is clear that the purity rules serve on a social level to uphold the Kaale community and tie its members closer together. The Swedish word zigenare, from the German zigeuner, comes from the Greek word atsinagogoi, which literally means ‘un-communal’. Possibly,

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this epithet refers to the unwillingness of the Roma who arrived in Greek-speaking lands to mix with gaje. Whether this was so or not, it is clear that the strong adherence to the purity rules that many Kaale Roma still show is partly connected to a fear of losing one’s status within one’s own community. Few Kaale Roma have close friends among the gaje and for most, the relationship to other Kaale constitutes one’s primary social security and context. To be contaminated by impurity means risking losing this context which, needless to say, could be devastating. Relationship to Christianity There is no statistical evidence and it is of course impossible to say anything definitive about the worldview of all individual Kaale. Nevertheless, all informants of this study, Roma and gaje alike, have felt it important to stress that Roma, regardless of whether they are members of a church or not, have a strong belief in God. ‘They have all grown up with a belief in God,’ one gaje preacher tells me, ‘it is embedded in their culture.’68 ‘God’s name has always been held high among us,’ a Kaale woman tells me.69 ‘The only thing we Roma have ever feared is God,’ says another Romani informant, who does not consider himself Christian.70 Theism, therefore, seems to be deeply rooted in large sections of the Kaale community, or at least in the self-perception of present-day members of this group. Although there are of course exceptions, arguably mostly among individuals who are politically aware and leftist, it can be said that the Kaale traditionally believe in God. This theism, however, should not be confused with a positive relationship with the Christian religion. On the contrary, Christian churches have throughout history often collaborated with governments in suppressing the Roma or forcing them to assimilate.71 There are many examples of this in the history of Europe. For instance, Emperor Joseph II of the Austro-Hungarian Empire issued a famous decree in the late eighteenth century in which five out of 14 edicts dealt with the way religion should be used to control and assimilate the Romani population. In 1784, the German gyptologist Heinrich Grellman suggested that reforms should be forced upon the Romani population in order to come

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to terms with the ‘Gypsy problem’. Banishment, Grellman argued, would not be sufficient since the Gypsies would only move away for some time and then come back when the enforcement was less strict. Instead the ‘Gypsies’ needed to be reformed from the inside and religion was to be the means through which this should be achieved.72 As I have already mentioned, the Swedish and Finnish churches were used in similar ways from the late seventeenth century until the 1960s. Despite the negative experiences with state churches in the Nordic countries, a majority of present-day Kaale are affiliated to the Evangelical Lutheran former state churches of Sweden and Finland. This affiliation began as a result of the changed policies towards the Roma of the Swedish-Finnish kingdom in 1686. From then onwards more and more Kaale joined the church. Although they did not usually label themselves as ‘Lutheran’, in the nineteenth century the Kaale customarily baptised their children in the Lutheran church and occasionally had their engagements blessed by a priest. Despite this, however, they were often considered to be ‘a heathen people’ by the church.73 Because of the church’s negative attitude and its support of the state’s assimilation policies, its relationship with the Romani community has until recently remained mutually suspicious.74 Today this has changed. Largely thanks to ecumenical cooperations, the churches have become aware of their own culturally distinctive character. It has been argued that this, in its turn, has lead to a greater awareness of cultural differences and to more tolerance of Romani culture.75 Lately there has been a tendency to invite the Roma to join the activities of the churches. In 1993 Archbishop John Vikström of the Finnish Lutheran Church called ethnic minorities to a meeting in which anti-racism was discussed. This move improved relations with the Finnish Roma community and a working group entitled ‘The church and the Roma’ was established. In 1995 there was a seminar in which a representative of the Lutheran Church presented an apology for the discrimination that the church had subjected the Roma to in the past. In connection to the seminar, a bilingual service was given in Finnish and Romani. The fact that Archbishop John Vikström in this service uttered the benediction in Romani was a particularly important symbol of the

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reconciliation between the Finnish church and the Roma. Since then relations have been better and a project of translating religious text to Romani has been initiated.76 Today many Romani groups in Sweden are affiliated to different religious dominations – most notably the Lutheran state church, but also Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Islam and some few examples of Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses.77 The Pentecostal church, however, is the most evident spiritual home of the older Roma communities in this country. This is especially true within the Kaale, Lovaria and Kalderash groups who have had a presence in Sweden for longer. The more recently arrived Roma of Balkan origin are not engaged in Pentecostalism.78 Although some Kalderash informants would claim the opposite,79 it seems as if the Kaale group is the most active of all. The story of Kaale Romani Pentecostalism Having thus briefly sketched the background of the Kaale Roma and their religion, I shall move on to present the organisational history and structure of the movement that is the primary focus of this study. The story that I will present below is based on data that has been given to me by informants who are themselves part of this movement. It therefore reflects the self-image and historiography of the Pentecostal adherents themselves. The movement of Kaale Pentecostalism is intertwined with several different Christian revivalist movements in Finland, on the international scene and, to some extent, in Sweden. In order to get a grasp of the history of the Kaale revival, the history of several different movements must therefore be introduced. It all began in the late nineteenth century when some representatives of the Finnish Salvation Army made an attempt to bring the Romani people into an active Christian faith. In the beginning of the twentieth century, the process continued with the efforts of some individual evangelists of different denominational backgrounds. One of the most important of these was a minister from the Finnish Evangelical Free Church, Suomen Vapaakirkko (hereafter referred to

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as the Free Church). The name of the minister was Eli Jokinen. He started to organise mission work directed at the Roma and in doing so introduced in a way the notion of viewing the Romani community as a target for evangelisation. Although Jokinen himself belonged to the Free Church, the revivalist movement that he was involved in launching would develop mainly within two other organisations: the Finnish Gypsy Mission and the Pentecostal church. These two organisations are by far the most important players in the Kaale revival. As one informant put it, they are ‘the oldest, the most known, the most hated and the most loved of all.’80 The Finnish Gypsy Mission Of special importance in this early period of the Finnish Romani revival is the aforementioned organisation Suomen Mustalaislähetys (The Finnish Gypsy Mission). This organisation can be said to have been a part of the revivalist movement within the framework of the Finnish Lutheran state church. It was founded in 1906 by a certain Oskar Jalkio who, like Eli Jokinen, had a background in the Free Church. According to one story, Oskar Jalkio, who was a minister, had dreams of going as a missionary to China. One day as he was preparing a sermon in his study, a Romani boy knocked at his door. It was a cold day and the boy asked for some clothes. Oskar Jalkio, who was troubled because of his unfinished sermon, sent the boy away empty-handed and closed the door. As he returned to his desk, it is said that God spoke to him and blamed him for what he had done. ‘You say you are prepared to be a missionary and yet you sent this little boy away!’ God is supposed to have told Oskar Jalkio, according to one of my informants. Thus suddenly awakened, he ran after the boy and gave him what he needed. With that incident, Oskar Jalkio is supposed to have realised that his mission field was not China but the Roma who were living in his own country. In 1906 he founded the Finnish Gypsy Mission with the explicit intention of meeting the spiritual needs of the Roma. Initially, they organised revival meetings in connection to markets where Roma gathered. As we shall see, the efforts had a remarkable impact on the lives of Finnish Roma. One of the main reasons behind

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this was, arguably, the extensive social work that the organisation pursued. Among other things they ran an orphanage for Romani children in Sordavala between 1910 and 1918. Since 1945 the work of the Mission was always carried out in close cooperation with the state church and, hence, with the governmental authorities of Finland. It was these close relations between the Gypsy Mission and the Finnish state with its assimilation politics that caused many Roma to look for alternative Christian churches to engage in. Hence, the later success of Pentecostalism among the Kaale can partly be attributed to the other churches’ strong involvement with repressive government policies. It was therefore hardly surprising that the Gypsy Mission fell into a crisis when the repressive policies towards minorities started to be questioned in the 1960s. After a major restructuring of its organisational structure and policies, the organisation survived the crisis. It also changed its name to the Romani mission (Romano missio). It was not until the 1980s, however, that the organisation got its first Romani chairperson, a Pentecostal minister by the name of Henry Hedman. Today Romano missio remains an important and established part of Romani affairs in Finland. It cooperates with a number of different Christian churches, other than the Lutheran, as well as with other Romani organisations in organising activities for Roma. There are services in Romani and a magazine, Romani Boodos, in the language that is published five times a year.81 There are camps, meetings, Bible studies courses, scholarships for education, information services, school- and employment-support projects. Children’s welfare remains one of the main focuses of the organisation. There are two large children’s homes in Hämeenkoski and Sipoo and also a family home.82 Throughout the history of the organisation, their activities have been supported by voluntary contributions and church offerings. The children’s homes have received funding from local authorities that have provided financial backing for each child in the homes. Lately there have been some attempts at getting more governmental funding, but as the former chairperson Henry Hedman expressed it: ‘there was always, always, always the lack of money’.83

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Finnish Pentecostalism The general background of the Kaale Pentecostals leads back to the general Pentecostal movement that started dramatically among Afro-Americans in Los Angeles in 1906 and, from there, spread across the world. For one reason or another, several Swedes happened to be members of the small congregation in Los Angeles. These people brought back the movement to Scandinavia where the first congregations were founded as early as 1908. In Sweden the Pentecostal church was soon separated from the Baptists and grew as an independent revivalist movement under the Charismatic leadership of Lewi Pethrus, who led the organisation during the greater part of the twentieth century. In Finland, the first Pentecostal baptismal service was held in 1912. Charismatic manifestations of Christianity were not uncommon to the Finnish Christians, who since the eighteenth century had had many revivalist movements, most notably the Laestadian movement in the late nineteenth century. Even today, a low-church revivalist movement is a strong presence within the mainstream Finnish Lutheran church.84 Finland’s first Pentecostals were invited to Helsinki from Norway and it was here that the Finnish Pentecostal movement began. Similar to the development in the neighbouring Nordic countries, the Finnish Pentecostals, who originally came from different churches, formed an association that maintained a strong autonomy for the individual congregations. The Finnish Pentecostal Church (Suomen helluntaikirkko) soon grew into the second largest church in Finland after the Evangelical Lutheran state church. In the years prior to the Second World War, annual Pentecostal summer conferences in the country attracted up to 30,000 believers, a figure that made these conferences the largest gatherings of Pentecostals in the whole of Europe.85 Among those who were attracted to the Finnish Pentecostal tent meetings in the first half of the twentieth century were many Roma. The egalitarian and open style of the tent meetings always mostly attracted people coming from the lower social classes who had less prestigious positions in society. ‘No one would notice if you were unestablished,’ as one informant put it, ‘and this suited us Roma.’86

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In the early Finnish Pentecostal movement, there were also some gaje ministers who, inspired by the work of Eli Jokinen, started working with the Roma. They preached and provided aid to ease the hardship that many Roma were suffering at this time. The most prominent of them was Ernst Matsson. He was a businessman and a member of the Pentecostal church who gave his heart to serve Romani people. In the 1950s he arranged tent meetings that, according to the informants of this study, attracted more than 300 Kaale Roma.87 In 1961 Ernst Matsson died in a plane accident. He is remembered by the community as a person who dedicated his life to the Kaale Roma until his death. According to his son, Matsson had planned to leave on an earlier flight but since he heard that there was a Romani family who had problems renting a house and who needed someone to vouch for their reliability, he changed his plans and took the next flight, the aeroplane crashed and he died. According to the story, his son found a Romani hymnal at the location of the accident.88 Some of the Roma also became preachers within the church. According to one of my informants, Viljo Mäntyniemi was the very first Finnish Kaale Rom to become a Pentecostal minister. He was a man from the countryside of Ostrobothnia in western Finland. He was involved in the very early days of the movement and stayed within it until his death in the early twenty-first century.89 Viljo Mäntyniemi’s wife, Anna Mäntyniemi, who was not a Rom herself, also became very important in the early days of the movement and their great-grandchildren are still affiliated with it today. Hemmi Hagert and Herman Blomerus were two other Romani Pentecostals who played an important role in the early days of the movement.90 They travelled around the country and organised tent meetings and Romani feasts (romanijuhlat) to which people came to socialise, listen to music and hear the Gospel. A global Romani revival In the 1950s, a Breton Minister by the name of Clément Le Cossec founded a small congregation in Paris with the explicit ambition of making Roma convert to Pentecostal Christianity. He called the congregation Mission Évangelique des Tziganes et des Forains de France,91 and

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the first to convert were local Roma of the so-called Manouche group.92 This event marked the beginning of the international Pentecostal movement that since then has redrawn the religious map of the Roma worldwide. In the mid-1990s, 40 years after the first conversions, 500,000 European Roma had been baptised in the Holy Spirit and 4,600 had been trained as preachers.93 Today the movement is much bigger. In France alone, one-third of the Roma are estimated to belong to Pentecostal congregations and there are more than 50 churches.94 Because of successful missionary work the revival has spread across Europe to Spain, Portugal and Britain as well as, maybe most strikingly, to the Balkan states.95 In France, Clément Le Cossec founded an organisation called Vie et Lumière (Life and Light) in 1952. Until his death in 2001, Le Cossec made this organisation grow into one of the foremost umbrella organisations for Roma worldwide. Through it, social work and evangelisation among the Roma was administrated and missionaries were sent out to Romani communities all over the world. The organisation also issues preacher certificates to Romani preachers. Today the organisation is active in more than 40 countries.96 In 1964 a large Romani Pentecostal festival was held in Pieksämäki in central Finland. Clément Le Cossec and some other French Romani Pentecostals were invited to this festival to preach and meet their Finnish fellow-believers. Among the participants at the festival were two Pentecostal Finns of Jewish background, Herta and Einar Virio. They were members of the big Pentecostal Salem congregation in Helsinki and had come to the meeting alongside some other members of the congregation. Moved and inspired by the work of Clément Le Cossec they decided to start their own version of the Vie et Lumière movement. According to the story, Herta Virio did not have any cash when the collection-box was passed around for the congregation to make their offerings. Instead, she took a piece of paper, folded it to shape a heart upon which she wrote her name before putting it in the collection-box, thereby showing that she wanted to give her full devotion to the cause of evangelising among the Roma.

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Herta Virio’s engagement with the Roma ran very deep and she is remembered as a woman with a strong character. She started wearing the traditional Romani outfit and although she was criticised by some for this choice, she eventually won the respect of most her adversaries, or so I am told. Among the Roma it was especially important that she also shared the hardships and discrimination that Romani women had to deal with in their everyday lives. The movement that Herta and Einar Virio established in 1964 was given the name Free Romani Mission of Finland (Suomen Vapaa Romanilähetys). It was an ecumenical organisation created in cooperation between three Finnish free churches – the Pentecostal, the Baptist and the Free Church. This organisation, as the name indicates, can be seen as the free churches’ parallel to the Finnish Gypsy Mission, and its ambition was to do social work and to evangelise among the Roma.97 In order to connect this movement to the international Romani revival founded by Le Cossec, the Free Gypsy Mission of Finland later changed its name to Life and Light Association (Elämä ja Valo). This movement is still thriving but over the years its profile has become less ecumenical and more clearly Pentecostal. The Finnish Kaale revival is hence today organisationally connected to the churches of the Kalderash, Lovaria, Sinti and other Romani groups. Today the Finnish Life and Light Association arranges tent meetings in the summer and publishes a magazine in Romani. They also have activities for children, they visit prisoners and send missionaries to Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and India.98 Kaale Pentecostalism after the 1950s The balmy days of Kaale Pentecostalism were in the 1950s and 1960s. It is probably no coincidence that this was the same time as Roma got a better situation on the job market and became settled. It seems as if the Kaale Roma got jobs and apartments and became Pentecostals at about the same time. Arguably, all of these developments led to further establishing the Roma as a part of the Finnish society. The establishment of the Free Romani Mission of Finland (later Elämä ja Valo) and the reformation of the Gypsy Mission are thus connected to the Romani

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rights movement in Finland, which started to take shape in the 1960s. Pentecostalism, therefore, became a natural part of this movement. The Pentecostal churches had been the first to welcome the Roma without trying to assimilate them. This welcoming attitude was well rewarded. In the decades that followed, the influence of Pentecostalism grew in the Finnish Romani communities and ‘by the 1980s,’ as one informant expressed it, ‘the Pentecostals had taken over all Romani organisations in Finland’.99 For Sweden, the explicitly Romani revival that Le Cossec had founded came in the 1970s. Unlike the Finnish Kaale, the Swedish Kalderash Roma had largely stayed outside of the Pentecostal movement until this time. There certainly had been some Romani and traveller individuals100 who had been part of the movement before, but as a group the Roma was largely unaffected. Partly, I am told, this was because of the strong loyalty to the Catholic and Orthodox faiths that many of them felt.101 In 1970, however, this changed. At this time some Kalderash Pentecostals from France and Spain moved to Sweden and brought their faith with them. Beginning in the northern suburbs of Stockholm, they started to evangelise among the Roma by going door to door and by arranging small-scale prayer meetings for Romani people.102 Of special importance here was a French Kalderash minister by the name Fardi Athanasio. Appointed by Clément Le Cossec he was the pioneer of the Swedish Romani revival among the Kalderash. He founded a small congregation in Tensta, north of Stockholm, and arranged tent meetings in the suburbs. ‘I remember one of those early meetings,’ one Kalderash informant tells me: It was the first tent meeting that we had on this field in Hjulsta. There were some zigenare from France and Germany there also. Some guys and me went and bought one of those little plastic swimming pools, you know, and then the guys fetched some water and all. And me and my wife and another girl were baptised in that pool. It was 25 years ago.103

Since those days in the early 1980s, Pentecostalism has continued to grow among the Swedish Kalderash. The groups have established churches, Bible schools and even broadcasted evangelisation on local television.

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Largely because of internal conflicts among the leaders of the movement, the growth and establishment of the Kalderash churches came to a halt. On the other hand, groups, such as the Polish Lovaria, have joined the Romani Pentecostals and hence contributed to the maintenance and continued dynamics of the movement. Other denominations and ecumenical attempts Christian revival amongst Roma in Finland has taken place within the Lutheran, the Free and the Pentecostal churches. With the exception of some individual Baptist activists, the Romani revival has not been channelled through other denominations. Unlike other examples of Romani revivalism, like for instance that amongst Swedish Kalderash,104 the faith movement has not attracted many Kaale Roma. According to the ministers interviewed for this study, this is an expression of the fact that many Kaale Roma feel at home and firmly rooted in the not so spectacular form of Charismatic Christianity that they nowadays can find in the ordinary Pentecostal church. ‘God is not always asking us to walk on water,’ one informant tells me when discussing this issue: We have to learn that we also have to face sickness, death and struggles and that it is good to take that kind of attitude that we live normal lives with a God who can but who does not always do miracles.105

Now, although there is much truth in this statement, it should be mentioned that some Kaale have joined the faith movement in Sweden. According to many informants, furthermore, the Pentecostal churches have changed a lot since the 1970s. Today the church is less strict and less spectacular. Women with short hair, for instance, are tolerated in a way they did not used to be. There is also a more ‘realistic’ view of life in today’s Pentecostal church and, according to some informants, Roma have liked that.106 In 1996, when Henry Hedman, the former chairperson of Romano missio, became the executive director of Elämä ja Valo, he attempted to unite this organisation with the Romano missio and thus create one big ecumenical organisation for Christian revival among Finnish Roma. This attempt, however, failed. Although the board of the Romano missio

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were positive, the Pentecostal identity of Elämä ja Valo proved too strong for such a unification to be possible. Today the two organisations, while still being open for ecumenical cooperations, are characterised by their Pentecostal and Lutheran profiles respectively.107 The Kaale Pentecostals of this study The Pentecostals focused on in this study are Kaale Roma living in Sweden. Their religious affiliations are connected to all the traditions presented above. Many of them were born in Finland and first encountered Pentecostalism through the churches there. Others were born in Sweden but are still, through friends and relatives, strongly connected to the Finnish situation. Living in Sweden, however, there is also a connection to the general Swedish Pentecostal movement and to the Pentecostals found among other Romani groups in Sweden, mainly the Kalderash. Lately there have been some attempts at uniting the different Romani groups in pan-Romani congregations. To some extent these attempts have been successful but, as I shall discuss in later chapters of this book, it has also often proven to be quite difficult. Kaale Pentecostals in Sweden today Among the different Romani groups in Sweden, the Kaale group is the one with the highest degree of Pentecostal engagement. There are no reliable statistics here, and the question is difficult since it has always been possible to be Pentecostal while still being a member of the Lutheran church. The fraction of the Kaale who are active members of the Pentecostal church only is probably very small. But if one counts all those who view the Pentecostal church as their primary religious affiliation the figure is likely to be significantly higher. According to the estimates of my informants about 20 per cent of Finland’s Kaale Roma are Pentecostal. That would mean a bit more than 2,000 individuals. The religious affiliations of the rest of the community are Lutheran, Free Church or Baptist, in that order.108 But it is important to stress that none, or at least very few, of actively religious Kaale are members of the Lutheran church.109 It should be mentioned that the influence of the

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Pentecostal churches among the Finnish Roma reaches far beyond those who are themselves active in the church. According to one Romani Free Church minister that I have interviewed, ‘there is no religious Rom in Finland who has not been in touch with Pentecostalism in one way or another’.110 In Sweden, however, the percentage that are active Pentecostals is probably a little higher. According to the estimates of my more knowledgeable informants, about 40 per cent of the country’s 3,000 Kaale Roma are somewhat active in the Pentecostal church.111 The relatively large figure can be explained by the fact that the Pentecostal church in Sweden, more so than in Finland, has become the foremost religious gathering point for Kaale Roma. According to one Finnish gaje minister living in Sweden, ‘All Finnish Roma know where the Pentecostal church is located, 70 per cent has some kind of connection and 50 per cent are active for real.’112 If this estimate were only vaguely accurate it would mean that there are about 1,500 active Kaale Pentecostals in Sweden. If ‘active’ is defined as broadly as possible, this figure might be somewhat correct although it does seem to be a bit high. Official reports have suggested that altogether there are about 600 Romani Pentecostals in Sweden.113 This figure seems to be too low even if a strict definition of who is to be counted as a Pentecostal is applied. In the meetings followed for this study alone, which is limited to the Stockholm region, several hundred individuals have been counted. For a variety of reasons it is very difficult to give an exact number of the amount of Kaale Roma in Sweden who are connected to the Pentecostal church. But it seems reasonable to assume that the percentage of the group is significantly higher than in the other Romani communities. Among the other Romani groups, most notably the Kalderash, there are congregations that are explicitly Romani. Such congregations exist in the cities of Stockholm, Malmö, Göteborg and Helsingborg,114 and there are dreams of starting up more such congregations. Among the Kaale, however, the Pentecostals attend the church together with gaje and there are no churches run by Kaale Roma alone. This is the case in Finland where the Roma share the language of the majority population but it has also become the practice in Sweden.115 Since the preferred

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language is most often Finnish even in Sweden, however, the Roma will often attend the services offered in this language. There will sometimes be gaje Finns at these meetings as well, but the Roma often constitute a majority or at least a big part of the congregation. For this reason it can be said that the Kaale have their own Christian revival going on, even if they are not administratively independent of the gaje church. The ministers of the Kaale are sometimes gaje Finns and sometimes Kaale Roma. Romani Pentecostal congregations in Sweden The Kalderash group has several congregations in Sweden. In Stockholm, the most important centre has been the Aspnäs-church in Jakobsberg north of Stockholm. This is the congregation that was founded by Fardi Athanasio and which still holds regular services for mostly Swedish and Spanish Kalderash Roma. Until recently the congregation was led by the Kalderash minister Robert Kwiek, who has now moved to the United Kingdom.116 For a few years, Pastor Kwiek also used to lead a Bible school connected to this congregation. In central Stockholm the main Philadelphia church of the Swedish Pentecostal movement also holds meetings for Roma on a weekly basis. Here the Kalderash minister Jonny Ivanovich is the central minister. A third important centre for Kalderash Pentecostalism in Stockholm is centred around the minister Lars Dimitri who through his political and cultural engagement for Romani issues has been very influential in forming the Roma policies of the Swedish authorities. Pastor Dimitri also gives television sermons on a regular basis. Outside Stockholm there are Kalderash-dominated congregations in Göteborg, Malmö and Helsingborg. The Lovaria group, mostly consisting of immigrants who came from Poland and Russia in the 1980s, is connected to a congregation known as New Life in central Stockholm. Here they have Romani meetings every Friday under the leadership of Pastor Weszo Kwiek. Kjell Waern is a gaje minister who has also been very important for the creation and maintenance of the church and evangelisation among the Roma. Before joining New Life, the Lovaria group had their meetings in the suburb of Brandbergen where many of them live. Outside Stockholm there is a Lovaria congregation in Malmö.

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The Kaale of Stockholm gather on a regular basis in the Pentecostal churches of Spånga and Västberga. Under the ministry of the Kaale ministers Ossi Borg and Orvo Grönfors respectively, these two congregations have become the centres of Kaale Pentecostalism in Stockholm. In the nearby city of Uppsala, there are weekly gatherings in the central Philadelphia church and in the Pentecostal chapel of the village Länna some 20 minutes’ drive outside the city. Both these meetings are led by the Finnish gaje minister Reijo Luotomäki, who since 1991 has been the Finnish pastor in the local congregation. There are also regular services in cooperation with the Swedish Lutheran Church in the suburb of Stenhagen.117 The Uppsala meetings are not explicitly directed at Roma but are referred to simply as Finnish meetings. During the last ten years, however, the disposition of the group has changed so that the vast majority is Kaale. Outside Stockholm and Uppsala there are Kaale groups in the Pentecostal congregations of many cities, for instance in Karlskoga, Skellefteå and Eskilstuna. The Kaale Roma have no Bible schools in Sweden. If they want to educate themselves in this field the Kaale are instead encouraged to apply to the ordinary Bible schools administrated by the Pentecostal churches in Sweden or Finland. In Finland Iso Kirja is the name for the church’s Bible school at which several Kaale Roma have studied to become pastors or missionaries.118 Faith and Hope (Swedish: Tro och Hopp, Finnish: Usko ja Toivo) is the name of a pan-Romani Pentecostal organisation founded by the Kaale minister Ossi Borg and the Kalderash minister Daniel Tan in 2006. The organisation arranges summer tent meetings in different cities in central Sweden to which they invite Roma of all different groups. Gaje are welcome as well but the activities are especially directed at Roma and placed within the framework of an international Romani empowerment movement. Although all Romani groups are invited, the vast majority of the people who come to the meetings are Kaale. The meetings are bilingual and all speeches are translated into Swedish or Finnish respectively. The organisation has managed to buy a tent from a Swedish evangelist and has collected money from the visitors to pay back the loan for this. They organise four major meetings, lasting for three days each, every

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summer and one every winter. The purpose is to create a Romani activity firmly based in Christianity. The Pentecostal informants of the present study are Kaale Pentecostals belonging to these congregations. The organisation of Faith and Hope has been central for my selection of informants. It is largely through this organisation that I have been introduced to the people that have later become the main informants of this study. In this chapter I have sketched the background of the community that I have set out to present and discuss in the following chapters. I have said something about the history of their group and the religious movement to which they belong. Having thus set the general scene of my enquiry I will now move on to present the individuals whose concrete life situations I wish to discuss.

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3 Caught in a Deadlock

I meet Sonja at her flat in the outskirts of a poor Stockholm suburb. It is located in an area dominated by simplistic three-storey brick buildings from the 1970s. Sonja’s block is strikingly run down. The playground outside her gate is vandalised and there is graffiti all over the walls in the stairs that lead up to her apartment. ‘The authorities keep these buildings for refugees,’ Sonja tells me. Her neighbours are all asylum seekers waiting to get a decision from the authorities as to whether they will be allowed to stay in Sweden or not. ‘But they let some of us zigenare stay here as well,’ she continues, ‘they don’t know what to do with us.’ She deliberately uses the pejorative word zigenare when she speaks about the way she has been treated by the authorities. She does not like the term but I take it that she somehow thinks it reflects the way the municipality has behaved towards her and her family. Sonja invites me into the kitchen and offers me coffee and biscuits. ‘This is my high quarter,’ she tells me laughingly as I take my seat by the table. Sonja was born in Finland where her father worked with horses. When the work became scarce in the 1960s her family moved to Sweden. Sonja was still a little girl when that happened. Now she is in her mid-forties and has a family of her own. But life is also difficult in Sweden. Sonja has only a few years of proper schooling and she has never had a job. ‘I have been looking for a job actively for several years now,’ she tells me, I have worked very hard and taken courses to become a waitress, but it doesn’t matter. Being a Rom is my handicap. But I don’t want to hide here

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in this place. I want to go out. I want to go and eat in a restaurant. But we can’t. We tried to go to a dancing restaurant once, but they wouldn’t let us in.1

In Sonja’s view society systematically discriminates against Roma. She feels that she is always being informed of her duties towards the authorities but that she, because she is a Rom, has no rights. Today she lives on social allowance. Her husband is also unemployed but since he has not managed to get social allowance from the municipality, Sonja’s scarce income has to provide for the whole family. ‘How fun is that?’ she asks me sarcastically. ‘It is not enough to go anywhere; I can never go to Finland. We just walk around and around and around here all the time.’ She spends her days in the apartment, mostly drinking coffee with friends or participating in chat groups on the internet. A website called Paltalk.com offers special chat rooms for Finnish-speaking Pentecostals. You log in to the chat room and then talk to other people about religious matters. The good thing about the site, Sonja reckons, is that it is possible to both write and speak. Sometimes the online gatherings become veritable prayer meetings but usually it is quite calm. Sonja has created a little office for herself in one of the apartment’s wardrobes. It is not big, but enough to hold a computer and a chair, and it is good to be able to close the door and get some privacy at times. She can sit there for hours chatting with the people on Paltalk. Sonja’s situation is very representative of the informants in this study. With one or two exceptions, they all share the trait of living on the margins of public society. Most, like Sonja, are left outside the regular job market and survive on different forms of social allowances. For various reasons, some of them even fall outside the social welfare system. They are poor. Very few are educated and they have little or no impact on media, public debates, art or any other public sphere. Although some make a living in different forms of small-scale business, the general impression is that they are marginalised also in the field of commerce. Understanding the outsidership of the Roma is crucial if we want to grasp the background behind their Christian engagement. What is this about? Why are the Roma so marginalised in society? And what does their outsidership have to do with them as individuals and as a

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community? In this chapter I will discuss the societal marginalisation of Swedish Kaale. I will give examples of the many ways in which Roma are excluded in society and discuss the various ways in which they deal with this. The chapter begins with a presentation of the various aspects of Romani outsidership and the efforts that have been made by the authorities to counteract it. It goes on to present the different attempts to analyse their marginalisation by other scholars. The discussion leads up to an analysis of the situation that is inspired by post-colonial theory. The main aims of the chapter, then, are: first, to describe the difficult situation of the Romani community in Sweden; second, to present an analysis of the complex processes that in my understanding uphold this outsidership; and, third, to describe the individual predicaments that the situation gives rise to. Exclusion and discrimination All studies and reports on the situation of Roma in Sweden bear witness to a very prominent experience of exclusion. Although the situation is very multifaceted and complex there can be little doubt that the Roma are systematically subjected to mistreatment and discrimination. It could be argued that focusing too much on this situation may add to a negative image of Roma as merely passive victims. Although I understand that this is problematic, I have chosen to linger on the hardships that my informants suffer because I think it is necessary in order to elucidate the meaning and functions that Pentecostalism has in their lives. Because of the character of the official sources that I have used, I will in this chapter speak of Roma in general and not just the Kaale group. It is very difficult to measure the extent of the discrimination against Roma in Sweden. One way of doing so would be to look at the number of instances that have been reported to the police and other public authorities. Because of the widespread distrust of the authorities among the Roma, however, such an investigation would give a grossly underestimated picture of the extent of the problem. In the 16 years between 1986 and 2001, the Ombudsman against Discrimination (DO) received in total 50 reports of ethnic discrimination against Roma. Since then the

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number of reports has gradually increased and in 2003 alone there were 40 reports. This increase most likely is the result of a greater awareness among the Roma of the opportunity to report instances of discrimination to the DO. Still, however, the number of unknown cases is probably very large. Only a very small minority of Roma choose to report mistreatment. One study concludes that only 10 per cent of the Roma who have experienced discrimination have reported it to the authorities. The DO’s statistics cannot therefore give a reasonable idea of the extent of the discrimination.2 Instead we have to turn to the few small surveys that have been made on the experiences of discrimination among Swedish Roma.3 According to one of these studies, 90 per cent of Swedish Roma feel that Sweden is a racist country with a hostile attitude towards their group. Twenty-five per cent feel that they are not part of Swedish society at all. Sixty per cent have been yelled at or insulted because of their ethnicity during the latest two-year period.4 According to the DO, the Romani community is largely locked out from the democratic process and they are exposed to mistreatment in almost all sectors of social life.5 I will now briefly go through four of these in order to illustrate my point. Housing, camping and shopping Until the 1960s Roma in Sweden led ambulatory lives. They travelled around the country and lived in caravans or tents in a way traditional to their group.6 In the last few decades this lifestyle has been largely abandoned and today most Roma have settled down with the help of the public authorities. Although many have very positive memories of the way this issue was solved by the authorities, the change of lifestyle has not always been smooth. There have been many conflicts, not least with property owners who have often been sceptical about accommodating Roma. In Forsberg and Lakatos’s study on discrimination against Roma, 30 per cent of the informants stated that they had been denied buying or renting an apartment because of their ethnicity during the last five years. Fifty per cent had also experienced insults and harassment from their neighbours.7 Lately, a widespread privatisation of the housing market has given proprietors greater freedom to pick and choose their

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customers. This often affects Roma negatively since they frequently have problems living up to stricter demands on credit worthiness. For some, the tradition of the mobile lifestyle has somewhat survived through camping and caravanning in the summers. But this habit is also becoming difficult since many caravan sites will not accommodate Roma.8 The informants of this study have given me many examples of how they have been refused entrance to caravan sites and also to other privately owned establishments such as shops, bars and restaurants. Education The public and mandatory school is probably the societal sphere in which collisions between Roma and mainstream society become most apparent. This is also the most well-researched aspect of discrimination against Romani in Sweden. In the 1960s it was decided by the authorities that Roma were to be integrated into public schooling. Since most Roma had recently become settled it was generally expected that their children’s presence in school would increase. To the surprise of many, however, the opposite happened. Romani children’s absence increased.9 Now, half a century later, the project of integrating Romani children into majority schools has not yet succeeded. Some reports sketch a somewhat positive picture about the development,10 but the general impression is that the relation between the public schools and the Romani minorities is still quite dysfunctional. Educationalist Christina Rodell Olgaç has shown that the biggest problem is related to the fact that Romani pupils are absent from school.11 Up to sixth grade the problems are not so bad. But thereafter most Romani children start being increasingly absent and eventually they drop out of school completely.12 In the Kaale Romani group, very few ever manage to finish the nine years of compulsory education.13 Furthermore, studies show that communication between the schoolteachers and the parents of Romani pupils, if it exists at all, often is problematic. Many teachers feel that the parents defend their children’s misbehaviour.14 And many parents, on the other hand, do not trust that the school takes good care of their children. There are many instances of peer abuse of Romani children and many parents fear that their

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children will be bullied in school.15 Roma often live in strongly multicultural suburbs and they are therefore nowadays rarely the only group that diverges from ethnic Swedes. Contrary to what one may have expected, however, this has not made the situation easier for them. According to teachers interviewed for one report, the different ethnic groups are often divided in a certain hierarchical order in which Romani children are placed at the bottom.16 Many Romani parents feel that the school does not help strengthen the Romani identity of their children. ‘When they go to school they are like other children but when they come home they become zigenare children again,’17 Sonja says when I ask her about this issue. The double life that the children learn to lead works as long as they are small, but when they grow older and become adults it becomes difficult to handle. The story of Sonja’s two daughters illustrates this point. They are 17 and 14 years old and the youngest has just dropped out of school. Halfway through an interview with Sonja, which took place on an ordinary Wednesday morning, she comes into the kitchen, newly awakened, to grab some breakfast. In Sonja’s municipality, no Kaale Romani child has ever finished the nine years of compulsory schooling. Sonja believes lack of school-tradition among her people partly explains this. ‘Unlike the Arabs,’ she tells me, comparing her family’s situation with that of the other main minority group in her neighbourhood, ‘we Roma are not accustomed to sending our children to school.’ The lack of education and schooling tradition among Romani parents is often held up as an explanation for the difficulties Romani children have in school.18 In addition to this, however, she believes that the feeling of getting jammed between different cultural demands is what has made both her daughters give up school by the time they reached the seventh grade: They want our children to become Swedish, but we don’t want that. We want them to be proud of what they are and that their identity should be spoken about in school. The children get stuck in-between, so they say ‘we don’t give a damn about it’ and drop out of school. And when they do, no one will come after them, no one will call us or come here and ask for them. ‘They are zigenare’, they will say, ‘that’s the way they are.’

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As the Swedish national agency for education concludes in a research report, a school that is experienced as threatening can hardly function as a constructive arena of integration.19 Occupation Roma are also excluded from the job market. To a large extent, the traditional trades of the Roma have become obsolete due to the changes in society. It is today difficult or impossible to make a living in, for instance, horse trading or copper smithing. Roma in Sweden have also generally failed to get into the labour market and today the unemployment rate is very high among them. One reason for this is of course the widespread lack of education. But in addition to this many Roma feel that they are discriminated against by employers. According to one study, 80 per cent of unemployed Roma believe that they do not have a job because of ethnic discrimination. Twenty per cent testify that they have been refused a job because they are Roma and despite the fact that they have the proper qualifications.20 Sonja would be one of those belonging to this group. ‘We just want the labour market to receive us,’ she told me once, ‘we are as good workers as everyone else if we only got the chance, but we never do.’21 Health The health situation provides a final illustration of the comprehensive exclusion of Roma in Swedish society. The health situation among Roma is worse than in the rest of the population. For the older people who spent their childhood travelling, the harshness of that life has left its mark on their health as adults. Many Roma retire early because of their bad health. Many also retain an unhealthy lifestyle and heavy smoking is very common. Reports on the medical situation show that many Roma have poor knowledge of the body, how it works and how it is to be kept healthy. When they get sick, Roma statistically seek help later than other groups of the population. They are also over-represented in the statistics on accidents. Romani children are sometimes not vaccinated to the extent other Swedish children are and occasionally children with hearing or sight problems do not get access to hearing aids or glasses like others do.22

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These are all examples of the very tangible problems that Swedish Roma face, problems that all contribute to the very difficult situation that they come up against in everyday life, one effect of which is feelings of distrust. According to the above-mentioned survey study, 80 per cent state that they have little or no trust in the social services. When it comes to the police, 70 per cent state the same, and 40 per cent distrust public health care and hospitals.23 Although it is not in the scope of this study, it should be mentioned that the deteriorating situation of Swedish Roma is not an isolated phenomenon. The situation of Roma throughout Europe has drastically worsened since the turn of the millennium. British historian and Romani Studies scholar Adrian Marsh predicts that we are about to enter what he calls a new genocidal period for Roma, the situation being particularly bad in south-east Europe.24 Social problems The exclusion of Roma from all these spheres of society is connected to the social problems that are found among many members of the group. The relation between the Roma communities and the majority society seems to be caught in a vicious circle of mistrust: discrimination causes outsidership, which in its turn leads to social problems, which in their turn createss mistrust among authorities and in doing so upholds the exclusion. The social workers that I have interviewed for this study bear witness to an increased degree of social problems among the Roma. One explanation that is often put forth is that the general social climate of society has hardened. Today it is very difficult to survive without education or a job and during the last few years the resources of the social services have also been severely restricted. When the general pressure gets worse, social problems will increase as well.25 Violence against women One area that is frequently singled out is family violence. This is a difficult area to assess since there are no reliable statistics, but some informants who have worked with Roma for several decades have the

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impression that it has increased. ‘I believe their marginalisation has increased,’ one very experienced social worker tells me, ‘and family violence is something that comes more and more.’26 Although women often have a stronger position in the Kaale group than in other Romani groups, the patriarchal structures are strong and husbands beating their wives are rather common. According to the social workers, the problem becomes more complex because of strong social pressure from the community to keep family violence secret. Smaller instances of manhandling in everyday life are considered a normal part of married life, I am told. But when the problems develop into regular battering of women it is important to keep it secret in order to avoid it growing to a large-scale family conflict. A consequence of this is that very few Romani women, despite severe problems of this kind, have ever reported maltreatment to the police in Sweden.27 Lately, however, there have been some cases where younger Romani women have contacted women’s organisations or so-called emergency call-centres for women (kvinnojourer). The social workers I have spoken to interpreted this trend as a sign of how serious the situation has become for many Romani women. In Sweden there are special emergency homes that offer lodging for women who are being mistreated by their men and lately some Romani women have also applied to be taken in by some of these homes. One problem here is that many of these homes refuse to host Romani women, allegedly because it often gets so complicated. The marginalisation and exposure of these particular women, who are battered by their husbands, compelled to keep it secret by their community and rejected by the gaje institutions can hardly be overestimated. Romani women and children are the most affected victims of the increasing social problems among the Roma. And it seems that gaje society at times has nothing to offer for their protection.28 ‘It is very clear,’ one social worker tells me, ‘we have women and children who are in a very bad situation, but society has nothing to offer them.’29 Crime in general Roma are also over-represented in crime statistics in general; figures are especially high in crimes related to robbery, theft and drug-dealing.30

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And although this situation has also got worse lately, it is the increased abuse of drugs that, according to most of my Romani and non-Romani informants, constitutes the greatest social problem among Roma today. According to one of my informants: Using narcotics used to be very shameful among Finnish Roma. It was a great shame. But today it happens openly. It is like: ‘just go ahead and do it!’ Today I see deeply criminal people under the influence of narcotics. It is so sad.31

Many people bear witness to a dramatic increase of drug use among Roma.32 Alcohol is most common, I am told, but hard drugs, including amphetamines and heroin, are getting more and more common. There are also many cases of compulsive pill-taking.33 One survey study of Romani narcotics in Stockholm was carried out in 2003. Due to statistical problems and the shame connected to using drugs the figures in that survey are probably very low. All in all it found that 58 Romani addicts were known to the authorities in Stockholm. Fourteen of these were women and a vast majority were above 20 years of age. The Kaale group, furthermore, was the most highly represented Romani sub-group with 45 per cent of the known individuals.34 Some informants of this study claimed that the change of attitude when it comes to drugs is the result of the fact that many Kaale youngsters nowadays associate with other marginalised suburban groups who traditionally have a more lenient attitude to drugs.35 It is characteristic of drug abuse among the Roma that the families take care of the addicts so that their addiction will not become general knowledge. ‘Narcotic Roma die with shining shoes,’ one social worker told me, ‘they will look proper until the end.’36 The situation is worst in Stockholm and other big cities. One gaje preacher that I talked to buried 15 young Romani men during his last two years of ministry. They had all died from overdoses. Few families seek professional help to deal with drug abuse and those who do often come in too late.37 Moreover, the authorities often try to fight the drug abuse by keeping young narcotics isolated in special detention centres.38 This strategy has, however, proven to be especially unsuccessful among the Roma. Some social

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workers have even spoken of the drug situation as ‘the collective suicide of the Roma community’.39 It is getting worse Both the Romani and gaje informants of this study have concluded from their experience that the social situation among the Kaale is getting worse. ‘In the families that we know of,’ one social worker tells me, I can see that the outsidership has increased. I have always tried to be optimistic but now it is clearly getting worse. Maybe it is some kind of collapse that is about to happen. It is like they were on their last gasp.40

A knowledgeable Romani elder from Finland shares this pessimistic assessment of the situation. ‘We really have lost the young generation,’ he tells me, the older people have found ways to escape the old conflicts, but the younger generations are digging them out and start revenging again. Why is it so? This is an important question. Do they want to show they are macho? Is it some kind of image building? Or are their lives so empty that this is the best thing they can come up with?41

One can only agree with this man’s concern about these problems. Why is this so? Why is it that, although there are of course exceptions, the Roma are so thoroughly excluded from society? And why are their social problems not lessened despite the alleged efforts of authorities and policymakers? Why do the problems that they suffer not disappear faster in a welfare state like Sweden? Why does discrimination continue and social problems grow worse? Let me now move on to discuss some of these critical issues. Lots of attempts to find answers to these questions have been made and there are many different positions in these debates. However, generally speaking it is my impression that two major types of explanation can be distinguished. Let me now briefly present these two camps and the explanatory models that they represent. A bit incisively I have chosen to label these explanatory models blaming the system and blaming the victim respectively. It should be emphasised that

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the discussions I now refer to are carried out, almost exclusively, by non-Roma. Blaming the system The explanatory model that dominates governmental reports on the situation of the Roma from the year 2000 and onwards explains their exclusion as the result of systematic discrimination imposed by the majority society.42 The position can be summarised as follows: the Roma are and have been exposed to racist exploitation both in Sweden and in the countries from which some of them have emigrated. The widespread exclusion of Roma from society has forced them to lead the kind of outsider lives that they often do. The social problems this life has caused and that still remain will be solved if only the Roma are properly integrated into society. That is, if they get proper housing, education and training to get into the labour market. The term anti-Ziganism is sometimes used to denote the specific racist attitude directed against Roma. The term is a parallel to the more established and commonly known concept of anti-Semitism and the comparison has been discussed in a few studies.43 Anti-Ziganism, then, is the underlying prejudice that led to the genocide of Roma in the 1940s and which still prevails, although in a more disguised form, through the structural discrimination against Roma in Sweden and elsewhere. According to the Ombudsman against Discrimination, anti-Ziganism has been upheld through systematic discrimination by the authorities but also through racist academic research44 and stereotypical presentations of Roma in popular culture, films and novels.45 There can be no doubt that the Roma have been subjected to oppression throughout their history in the Nordic countries. As I have discussed in Chapter 2, the Roma were persecuted from the time of the arrival of the first groups in the sixteenth century. Many were forced to enroll as soldiers in the eighteenth century and in the twentieth century, notions of racial hygiene led to campaigns of forced sterilisation in which many Roma, although mostly from groups other than the Kaale, were included. In Norway the government made far-reaching efforts to get rid

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of the Roma populations by means of forced resocialisation. Children of Roma were taken from their parents and placed in specific institutions. Svanviken was the name of such a camp with especially horrendous connotations. In many Romani circles it is spoken of as a concentration camp.46 Now, from the blaming the system perspective, the age-old antiZiganism today lingers in a contemptuous attitude on the side of established society. In my material, some social workers bear witness to what they label a ‘compact resistance’ to Romani clients.47 ‘Fifty per cent of the work consists of dealing with the prejudice of one’s colleagues,’ one social worker with long experience of working with Roma tells me. A widespread opinion among social workers seems to be that the Roma who come to the social services tell lies and cheat in order to get the most out of the welfare system. ‘Roma are uninterested [in] cooperating,’ it is said, ‘they only want to make problems’ and ‘they have stupid traditions’. One informant tells me a bit jokingly that ‘social workers generally consider it to be a human right to only be responsible for one zigenare at a time.’48 From a blaming the system perspective, the negative attitude of these social workers is based on more or less anti-Ziganist prejudice. Social workers deal with problematic families all the time. Their job is to find solutions to difficult social situations. What is allegedly often different about dealing with Romani clients is that these are assessed collectively and culturally to a higher degree than, for instance, ethnic Swedes. The Roma, therefore, are dismissed beforehand as difficult people that are impossible to change. From a blaming the system perspective, this tendency to homogenise and culturalise the Roma could be seen as an example of the societal discrimination that is the primary cause of their exclusion. In the previously mentioned report from the Ombudsman against Discrimination, some suggestions for how to improve the situation of the Roma in society are made. In order to counteract discrimination, it is argued, a more comprehensive effort to overcome anti-Ziganist tendencies is needed. Central here is the cooperation between different governmental authorities on both central and local levels. The DO also

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highlights the need for greater entitlements to test discrimination and the necessity of more extensive cooperation with Roma organisations.49 Following a suggestion put forth by educationalist Christina Rodell Olgaç, the DO also suggests that ‘reversed discrimination’ should be considered as a political means to improve the situation of the Roma.50 The DO’s report and its solutions are characteristic for the kind of analysis that puts the guilt for Romani exclusion on the society from which they are excluded. Characteristic of this approach is that it very clearly sides with the discriminated Roma and that it is critical of the majority society. At the same time as it criticises the hegemonic society and its institutions, however, it proposes that solutions to the problems are to be found within the very framework of that society. Hence, exclusion of Roma is not seen as inherent to the modern social welfare state per se, but rather the opposite, resulting from the fact that the ideals of the welfare state have not yet been thoroughly implemented. If the public institutions responsible for education, health care, law enforcement, social services and so on only did what they are supposed to do, therefore, things would get better. The DO formulates the vision in the following way: The long term goal for a strategy that aims towards real Romani participation has to be that the marginalisation of Roma completely disappears. […] The efforts that are being made can, eventually, promote political participation and make the Roma become a part of the Swedish society.51

Let me now move on to describe a different, and largely contradictory, explanation of the exclusion of the Roma. Blaming the victim Unlike the above explanation, this perspective analyses Romani exclusion as a result of Romani culture. Roma, it is claimed, wilfully maintain their position as outsiders and are hence themselves to be blamed for their problematic situation. In the debate about Roma in Sweden this position is largely associated with the ethnologist Karl-Olov Arnstberg.52

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One main argument from this perspective is that the Swedish authorities have made significant efforts to improve the situation of the Roma from the 1960s and onwards. In the 1970s a number of central and local projects were launched with the purpose of integrating Roma into Swedish society. But these efforts did not result in the positive changes that one had hoped for and in the mid-1980s most projects were closed down. In 1996 societal efforts started anew with the formulation of new governmental integration policy. In cooperation with some Romani organisations, the Swedish migration board produced a report with suggestions on how to find a solution to the situation.53 Work groups with government officials and representatives of the Roma communities were also formed.54 In 1999 the Romani community gained the status of a national minority and the Romani language became one of five official minority languages in Sweden. In 2002 an advisory council for issues related to the Roma was formed with the task of advising government policies. There are several laws with the purpose of protecting Roma and other ethnic minorities from discrimination,55 and a few precedential test cases have confirmed that the law does not tolerate discrimination of Roma. In 1985, for instance, the high court of Sweden convicted and sentenced a property owner for illegal discrimination after a Romani family had been denied renting an apartment with the argument that there were too many Roma in the neighbourhood already.56 A few shopkeepers, restaurant- and campsite-owners have also been sentenced for racial agitation after putting up signs stating that ‘Zigenare are not allowed to enter’.57 There are also examples where people have been found guilty of illegal discrimination although anti-Ziganist opinions were never spelled out. For instance, one retailer was sentenced to pay fines and damages after prohibiting customers ‘wearing wide, long and heavy skirts’ to enter his warehouse. The court considered the prohibition to single out Kaale Romani women and hence considered it an act of illegal discrimination.58 Now, these are examples that could illustrate the well-meaning attitude of Swedish authorities. According to Arnstberg, ‘It is not likely that Zigenare ever, in any country, have met a majority population that is so firmly resolved on helping them “into the society”.’59 Despite this alleged

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determination, however, Roma are, as I have shown above, still severely marginalised in society. For Arnstberg and some other proponents of his line of analysis,60 the answer to the question of why this is so is to be found in certain specific traits of Romani culture. A bit simplified, the argument is that it does not matter how much the majority culture tries to help the Roma, because they do not want to be integrated. On the contrary a significant trait in their culture is their determination to remain on the outside. By refusing assimilation while at the same time using the benefits of the welfare system the Roma, in Arnstberg’s understanding, have found a way of both securing their financial situation and upholding their cultural integrity.61 An important term in this kind of argumentation is ‘counter-culture’. Drawing on the work of Norwegian anthropologist Fredrik Barth,62 the Swedish educationalist Inga Gustafsson has discussed this concept in relation to the Roma. In her understanding, the Roma culturally enact a number of border-upholding mechanisms63 that serve the purpose of defending them from the cultural influences of the majority society. Gustafsson’s study concerns the sphere of school education but her analysis could be broadened to a more general view of Romani ‘counterculture’. Examples of the border-upholding mechanisms that she lists are: voluntary social isolation within the group; avoidance of occupations that lead to social relations with gaje; interpreting hierarchical inferiority as superiority (by, for instance, regarding social workers as employees); behaving mysteriously; moving on when things get too complicated, and illiteracy (a somewhat outlandish proposition by the author, who apparently sees the inability to read as a cunning strategy to exploit society, regardless of the enormous disadvantages implied by being illiterate).64 The Finnish scholar Tuula Kopsa-Schön follows a somewhat similar line of argument. She proposes that Roma, in order to prevent assimilation, limit the way they communicate with gaje to what she calls ‘the economic channel’ only. By making business partners and not friends out of non-Roma the distance between them is upheld.65 For Arnstberg the idea that Romani culture is a ‘counter-culture’ leads to the conclusion that this culture is destructive for the people who uphold it as well as for society at large. According to Arnstberg, Swedish

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official policies towards the Roma have since the 1960s been dominated by an attitude of assistance. By this he means that the authorities have based their work on the assumption that ethnic diversity by default is something positive. For this reason the authorities have actively made efforts to uphold and assist the cultural otherness of Roma, albeit with the requirement that an assimilation to some core values of the majority occurs.66 But this romantic view of ethnicity is delusional, Arnstberg claims, as he attempts to show how the lives of the Roma look ‘beyond the politically correct rhetoric about the values of ethnic minority life’.67 Culturalisation Arnstberg’s study has been severely criticised by both gaje scholars and representatives of the Roma communities in Sweden. At the core of the critique lies the allegation that Arnstberg has a static and homogeneous understanding of culture. The notion of culturalisation is sometimes used to pinpoint this. Culturalisation denotes the practice of ‘reducing complex social processes to simple, deterministic and static statements about culture’.68 Explaining the social exclusion of the Roma as solely caused by ethnic and cultural reasons, then, simplifies the complexity of their situation. In doing so one also risks falling into some kind of essentialist understanding of what the Roma are like. As Tuula Kopsa-Schön concludes, many Romani Studies scholars have been misled by an attempt to create a mythical ‘true Gypsy’ out of very diversified empirical material.69 Although Arnstberg could hardly be accused of romanticising the Roma, his tendencies towards cultural essentialism may risk leading to similar simplifications. Maybe, then, his conclusions are not as unconventional as he seems to think. On the contrary, statistical evidence from the Ombudsman against Discrimination indicates that being treated in a culturalist way by authorities is a part of the everyday experience of many Roma. For instance, hospital personnel often include the ethnicity of Romani patients in their reports and treatments,70 and many social workers admit that having Roma clients affects the way they work.71 Another critique that could be directed towards the position of Arnstberg concerns the question of whether the Swedish authorities really have been as well-meaning and generous to the Roma as he

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suggests. A comparison with the situation of the Kaale Roma in Finland gives a rather different picture. Roma in Finland have jobs and education to a much larger extent than in Sweden.72 They are also present in the media in a way that cannot be seen in Sweden73 and there are individual Roma who are known to the general public as celebrities.74 One reason for this is of course that the Kaale Roma speak Finnish and hence are not outsiders in a linguistic sense in the way they are in Sweden. But the language alone does not explain the differences between the countries. According to one of the social workers interviewed for this study the problem lies in the fact that Swedish authorities have failed to work with respect for and in cooperation with Romani groups in order to establish a successful integration.75 In Finland, on the contrary, as I showed in the previous chapter, the authorities have consciously worked together with the Roma since the 1960s in order to integrate them into society. There are Romani politicians, Roma working in public ministries and Romani advisors in the county administrative boards. In 1968 a delegation for Romani issues was formed. Through it both Roma and gaje officials worked to establish favourable housing loans for Roma, to modify the school system and to revitalise the Romani language. Among other things a spelling-book in Finnish Romani was produced and distributed to all Romani families. Although some problems still remain, all my informants agree that Romani culture is not perceived to be as problematic in Finland as it is in Sweden. Furthermore, many of the Roma interviewed for this study expressed disappointment with the treatment they get from the authorities in Sweden. Many have stories of mistreatment from the social security offices. As already mentioned, they also feel that the schools do not make sufficient efforts to encourage their children to stay and that the help that they are offered by society is mostly superficial or full of hidden agendas. For instance, many are fed up with being forced to attend educational programmes that, as they feel, never lead anywhere. ‘The only thing we do,’ one informant tells me, is to sit by our desks in school all day. For what reason? We have no use whatsoever of what we learn? It doesn’t matter if we go there or not.76

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Some social workers confirm this picture and criticise their own institutions for dealing with the problems in bureaucratic ways which allow the social workers to wash their hands of it and refute any further responsibility but which have little or no effect on the actual life of Romani people.77 When it comes to the national minority status that the Roma received in 1999, most informants are not impressed. They are happy about it and it does have some symbolic meaning but at the same time many feel that it is mostly an empty gesture with little or no impact on their everyday lives. This feeling exemplifies the impression that many Roma have of Sweden’s integration policies: there are many fine words and, on an official level, good intentions. But when it comes to practical implementation the situation is far from satisfying and much worse than in Finland. So clearly we are dealing with a very enigmatic situation here. On the one hand, the Roma are obviously strongly marginalised in society and their present situation is so destructive that some have even chosen to label it a collective suicide. On the other hand, regardless of the suspicion that prevails, the authorities have made serious efforts to improve their situation for half a century now. The two parties that I have sketched above seek the cause for the continued problems either within the majority society, which is accused of not having made enough effort, or among the Roma, who are believed not to want to be integrated. Needless to say, many researchers, social workers, public authorities and so on would position themselves somewhere in-between the two extremes. Still, however, it is my experience that most gaje that have something to do with the Roma tend to position themselves in relation to either of these explanatory models. Now, the two perspectives can be recognised from other discourses in which representatives of hegemony speak about and seek to explain the otherness of marginalised groups. It could be argued that both approaches, albeit in very different ways, describe the Roma in ways through which the superiority and normativity of the gaje way of life is confirmed. This is perhaps most obvious in a blaming the victim approach whereby the Roma appear as counter-images of the normative us, and

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their ‘cunning’ and ‘unreliability’ is more or less explicitly contrasted to the benevolence, openness and dependability of the hegemonic mainstream society. More surprisingly, however, I would like to propose that the blaming the system approach also bases itself in a clear understanding of what is and should be a normal way of life. In this perspective also, therefore, the hegemonic status of the gaje majority is acknowledged. The Roma, in their turn, are described not as counter-images of gaje but identical versions of them, which have not yet fully come into their rights. That is, as people who want to be like gaje in most regards. Although this view of the Roma is certainly positive and well-meaning, it still upholds the hegemony of the gaje way of life and hence cannot constitute the intellectual platform for a more profound critique of the hegemonic structures through which the outsidership of the Roma is perpetuated. Let me now try to deepen the discussion by providing an analysis of the situation inspired by post-colonial theory. A different look at exclusion Let me begin in a somewhat anecdotal manner. Among certain Swedish Romani groups,78 it is common to speak of non-Romani people as ‘farmers’ (Swedish Romani: buro). This term will be used regardless of the occupation of the persons refereed to. The farmer epithet, thus, has little to do with agriculture. Rather it denotes an attitude and a way of life that is thought of as fundamentally different to that of the Roma. By the logic of this dichotomy, the Roma are nomads whereas the farmers are settled and the attitudes of these respective lifestyles permeate everything they do. For a farmer, therefore, organisation is important. For a settled person it is crucial to plan for the future and to have functioning systems for the implementation of one’s plans. Methods for following up and validating decisions are necessary, and it is helpful to be able to articulate the rules of the system in a clear way. The farmer’s attitude is categorised by organisation, articulation and consistency. The attitude of the traveller, however, is different. Travellers do not need to plan ahead in the way settled people do. Their concern lies with

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finding ways to survive and stick together while still always moving on. Here flexibility, adaptability, inventiveness and social affinity become the most highly esteemed qualities. Needless to say, this essentialist dichotomy cannot serve as a description of the differences between Roma and gaje today. In Sweden, a vast majority of the Roma are as settled as any farmer and there are many non-Roma who live ambulatory lives, at least during certain seasons of the year. Nevertheless, this emic categorisation may provide a conceptual tool that can help us pinpoint the very subtle mechanisms of exclusion and discrimination that Roma are subjected to in Swedish society today. It is my understanding that we, in order to reach a deeper understanding of the outsidership of the Roma, have to approach the whole situation as an instance of dysfunctional discursive interaction and practice that has to do with the hegemony of the gaje ‘farmer’ kind of life. Thus in the following pages my main argument will be that the outsidership of the Roma cannot be thoroughly understood only by pointing at instances of obvious mistreatment. Neither can it be seen as solely a result of anti-societal counter-strategies among the Roma themselves. Although there certainly are many instances that fit both these categories, they do not suffice to explain the complexity of the exclusion of the Roma. What we need to discuss instead is how the ideological foundations of Swedish modern society at large leads to the exclusion of certain forms of otherness. This exclusion may be violent and direct in some instances. However, it is not through the use of blunt coercion that the implementation of hegemonic power is most efficient but through its subtle domination of public discourse, for example by permeating the way it is possible to think about and articulate a critique of the way things are. I have chosen to label what I try to pinpoint here a discursive form of exclusion. In order to understand the difficult situation of many Roma in Sweden and elsewhere I believe we need to begin our analysis on this level and to look at this subtle yet striking pre-active exclusion that comes when one is deprived of influence in the process through which the very rules of speech and action are set. Needless to say, this form of

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exclusion is more profound and difficult to pinpoint than that which is upheld by concrete instances of maltreatment or violence. Let me say something about how I believe it works. Discursive exclusion First of all, societal exclusion happens when a person or a group is not allowed to be a part of a community. Societies exclude all the time: criminals are excluded from society when they are put in prison; people with the wrong passport are excluded from other countries and young people are excluded from many of the benefits of adult life. Most people consider some instances of exclusion to be justified whereas others are felt to be morally wrong. The border between what is or is not believed to be right is constantly recreated and socially negotiated. However, when all is said and done it is up to those with discursive power to decide where the line is to be drawn. Discrimination, then, happens when an individual or a group is excluded from society for reasons that are not approved by these authorities. Discrimination, therefore, is a matter of social negotiation, and this negotiation takes place among those who can aspire to power and influence – that is, those who are in the centre of the discourse, and not by the marginalised individuals who are affected by the exclusion. This is my first point: the right to be considered as discriminated against is gained through discursive negotiations. Sonja’s story of being stopped from going into a restaurant because she and her friends wore Romani outfits may serve as an illustration of this point. Sonja and her friends were denied entrance to the restaurant, but they sued the restaurant-owner who was brought to court and sentenced for illegal discrimination. In this instance, arguably, the exclusion of Sonja and her friends was considered to be an instance of discrimination because it was decided by authorities more powerful than those of the restaurant, in this case legislators and policymakers, that it should be illegal to not allow Roma to enter restaurants. Now, Sonja’s success is of course a great conquest for the legal rights of Roma in Swedish society. Nevertheless, it is significant that it was only

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by referring to a more powerful gaje authority that the wrongs suffered by Sonja and her friends could be redressed. The rights of Sonja and her Romani friends are still in the hands of the gaje society. The difference is only that it is now a benevolent fraction (the legislator and the court) rather than a malevolent one (the restaurant) that has the higher authority. Thus, Sonja could affect the way she was treated, but she could do so only by going to the authorities. She had to find an ally among the elite that could take her side. The power to define right and wrong remained in the hands of the hegemonic institutions. Both the benevolent and the malevolent authority, therefore, upheld a power structure in which Roma need to adjust to the agenda set by the gaje. Moreover, the restaurant bouncers did not forbid Sonja to come in completely. Rather it was her Romani outfit that provoked them. Had she changed this for more ‘normal-looking’ clothes, she would have been allowed to enter, or so they claimed.79 The restaurant’s position, therefore, was that she could not come as she was but if she wanted to enter the establishment, she had to remove the attributes that communicated difference and adjust to the norms set up by those in power there. Arguably, the authority represented by the court worked in a similar way. Here also it was only possible for Sonja to make her voice heard if she adjusted to the rules of Sweden’s bureaucratic legal system. This, then, says something about how the distribution of power works. There exists a hegemonic discourse that secures its authority, not so much by deciding what people do and say as by defining the very parameters of action and speech. The Roma, like all other people, may prosper or fail within this system, but they will never be allowed to go outside it. Structurally, therefore, people like Sonja are forced to adjust to the hegemonic discourse regardless of whether it proves successful for them or not. Characteristics of hegemony If there is a discursive exclusion of Roma in Swedish society it is relevant to say something about the characteristics of the hegemonic discourse from which they are excluded. By pinpointing some features in majority society we may gain a better understanding that could help us explain

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the fact that the marginalisation of Roma prevails despite alleged efforts to change things. We are at risk of being on a slippery slope here. People of a given ethnic identity are not thrown in the same mould. Culture is neither static nor homogenous and in almost all matters there are profound differences between different ethnic Swedes, as there are among different Roma. What I seek to discuss here, however, are not the worldviews and experiences of individuals but traits of public discourse, for example the negotiated field of views and opinions that are presented and spoken of in public space – in newspapers, on television, through school curricula and in governmental reports. Although the borders of this public discourse are constantly renegotiated I believe it is possible to pinpoint some particularly prevalent features. Arguably, the Swedish majority society still carries some traits of the comparatively homogeneous Protestant peasant society that it developed from. Furthermore, it is significantly coloured by the social democratic welfare project that dominated the political scene in the country during large sections of the twentieth century, and it is characterised by strong adherence to the modern notions of democracy, individualism, gender equality, secularism, universal human rights and a worldly soteriology. Multiculturalism could possibly be added to this list of articulated ideals of the Swedish hegemonic discourse. One other feature that I believe is characteristic of Swedish hegemonic discourse is its focus on and elevation of articulated levels of expression. It is my impression that public discourse in Sweden is dominated by a fondness for lucid, coherent and verbalised ways of expressing and explaining social realities. Thus there is, for instance, little understanding of a system in which a clear differentiation between articulated ideals and real life practices is acknowledged. Now, when we humans are asked to articulate our beliefs and needs, we will pick our arguments and forms of expression from the repertoires of the articulated discourses that we have access to. For anyone who has interviewed people practising a religious tradition this is a well-known fact. If a ritual participant is asked about the reasons for doing what he or she is doing, the answer will most often be a repetition of the official

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dogmatic policies presented in sermons and confessional education. The personal or social incitements for ritual participation, on the other hand, that from an outsider perspective may be far more important, will rarely be mentioned. Articulated answers are hence obtained from the predefined repertoires of articulated discourse. This point might seem obvious, but it is important to remember when we continue our analysis of the exclusion of Roma in Sweden. So, whenever we seek to articulate our situation we pick our formulations from the available discourses. This also goes for the Roma in Sweden, who, when they need to articulate their specific problems and needs, seek their answers from the acceptable repertoire of the hegemonic discourse.80 As a minority group in one particular society, it is within the framework of this society’s discourse that Roma must articulate their position. This means that their specific cultural traits need to be expressed in a way that fits under the umbrella of the Swedish majority. In the name of multiculturalism attempts to strengthen certain distinctive cultural features such as language, clothing, cooking or the celebration of specific holidays are tolerated, or even encouraged. But it should be remembered that this has to be done within the framework of the hegemonic discourse. This means that all activities have to be spoken of as expressions of the ideals articulated in this discourse. Cultural otherness, to put it differently, can be accepted as long as it does not entail a questioning of the framework that allows it to be expressed. To have a different culture is acceptable, but only as long as it is reduced to an attribute. That which is profoundly different in one’s differentness must be removed. The Norwegian anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen has convincingly illustrated this point by showing how minorities can only work for their interests through accepted governmental institutions. Minorities, Hylland Eriksen argues, need to go through a modernisation process and learn the rules of the political game in order to be able to have an impact on the societies in which they live. This, he argues, includes learning to read and write as well as to objectify their culture.81 I have thus suggested that there exists a discursive exclusion that forces minorities to articulate themselves in accordance with the

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hegemonic discourse in Sweden. It is a political question and not the task of this study to define whether this exclusion is necessary or undesirable. But from a scholarly perspective, I believe pinpointing it may contribute to our understanding of Romani marginalisation and therefore of the very difficult lives that many Roma have to lead. The notion of subalternity The notion of subalternity, first used in this sense by Antonio Gramsci,82 may be useful to pinpoint the kind of marginalised position that I want to describe here. The subaltern is she or he who, because of his or her social status, is left outside the hegemonic discourse and hence deprived of agency. In the work of the post-colonial theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak ‘subaltern’ is not merely a different word for being discriminated against. Being subaltern means that one is so excluded from the hegemonic discourse that one cannot make one’s voice heard.83 ‘The Subaltern cannot speak,’ Spivak declares in a well-known essay.84 This means that being caught in the subaltern trap also means being deprived of the ability to express that one is deprived. This notion can be illustrated by the proverbial story of an innocent man who was asked whether he had ‘stopped beating his wife’. Just as is the case with this man, the limitations of the subaltern’s ability to express something have already been set a priori. The situation leaves no option for a constructive solution. If the proverbial man answers ‘yes’ he confirms the questioner’s misconception that he used to beat his wife. If he answers ‘no’ he verifies that he is still beating her. The situation of the subaltern, then, leaves one few options. How can one possibly respond to the question: ‘Have you stopped beating your wife?’ Arguably, there are two choices: either you accept the preconceptions of the questioner and act in accordance with these by answering ‘yes’ to the question. In doing so you will lose some of your self-respect but in return receive the goodwill of the questioner that may be necessary to move forward and possibly to get a chance to change the false preconceptions in the future. Applied to the case of the Roma in Sweden, this would mean accepting the hegemonic discriminatory definition of what their problems are and hence possibly gain the benefits

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of inclusion, but at the cost of losing the cultural features that are not accepted by the majority. The second option for the proverbial man would be to somehow express one’s disregard of the question itself. Provided that one has enough social status and authority to articulate distrust of the questioner, this would be a possible solution. The subaltern, however, has no such status and therefore any questioning of the question itself will be misinterpreted or not heard at all. This proverbial example is of course stereotypical and reductive; nevertheless, it may serve to elucidate an aspect of Romani marginalisation that is rarely discussed. Many Roma are frustrated about the way things are, about the way they are treated by authorities and other people. Many, like Sonja, are frustrated also with the ‘help’ they get from the majority population. Many feel that social workers do not really want to help them or that the education programmes that they are forced to attend are meaningless. Social welfare is good, education is important and the Swedes are very kind, but still there is a frustration about the whole thing. And that frustration at times makes you annoyed and obtrusive. In the words of the informant of another study: ‘The frustration makes you live up to their stereotype.’85 Hegemonic systems demand to be confirmed. For the Roma, the hegemonic Swedish majority offers education, social welfare and minority status. All these things are helpful for the integration of Roma into the society of the majority. However, the majority will not allow for anything that would challenge its hegemony. The characteristic traits of Swedish hegemonic discourse, therefore, cannot be challenged. Thus, Roma will have to express themselves in the articulated and coherent manner favoured by the majority. They will also have to declare their loyalty to, and frame their own situation within, the generally acknowledged ideals of individualism, democracy and human rights. In practical life, then, they can improve their status, not by maintaining a thorough cultural difference in relation to the hegemony, but by transforming some cultural features – such as language, clothing or music – into categories that are accepted by it. When it comes to struggling for minority rights (a notion that in itself is brought from the hegemonic discourse)

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this means that the methods established by other groups within the hegemonic discourse are the ones available. Roma can create organisations, publish journals and write policy documents but they cannot choose to do things that lay outside the overarching system. As some Roma may choose to put it: if you want to be accepted by the farmers you have to do what farmers do. Now, the obligation to formulate one’s otherness along lines defined by the hegemonic majority is not unique for the Roma. All groups have to do this. Maybe, however, the situation is especially difficult for the Roma because of their relative lack of an articulated communal historiography and because of the tacit and unarticulated way in which their customs have traditionally been passed on. In contrast to the articulation and transparency favoured by the hegemonic discourse, many Romani conventions are conveyed without ever being spoken of explicitly. Among the Kaale Roma this is true for the purity rules and respect for the elders. These rules exist, they are adhered to by a vast majority of the group and all children learn how to follow them. At the same time they are not summarised in a textual canon or taught in an articulated way. ‘The children,’ as one informant, when asked about this, put it, ‘learn the rules automatically.’86 If I have interpreted my informants correctly, the relation of many Roma to the societies in which they live is characterised by a paradoxical experience. This is an experience that remains despite radical changes of policy towards the Roma minorities. It is an experience of being a prisoner while at the same time being free; of being encouraged to be different while at the same time being forced to comply with the tacit rules of the majority; of being helped while at the same time being oppressed. ‘Our people has been exposed to oppression since the dawn of time,’ Sonja tells me on one occasion, we are known to be a sensitive people that express ourselves, how shall I explain, in a way that shows that we are free despite the fact that we are prisoners. We are free in our own way.87

The hegemonic discourse sets the preconditions for expression. It also defines which values and ideals it is possible to articulate. In this section

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I have argued that there is an unarticulated and ostensibly compassionate pressure on Roma to assimilate to the majority society. I have shown how this pressure creates a paradoxical situation among many Roma. Before moving on, let me just also say something on how the hegemonic pressure affects the gaje who, from their vantage point, try to help the Roma. The basic conclusion here is that from within a hegemonic discourse it is not possible to articulate the needs of persons outside that discourse in ways that are not, in themselves, parts of the discourse. As a ‘farmer’ one cannot help a ‘traveller’ to become a better ‘traveller’ because one does not know what being a ‘traveller’ is like. The only thing that one can do, therefore, is help others do what one does oneself. There is a risk that representatives of hegemony (researchers, social workers, government authorities and so on) despite their good intentions fail to see the profound (and maybe inescapable) form of oppression that this may entail. Regardless of how benevolent the framing, pressure to assimilate may be an inescapable element of any attempts to help others. Moreover, the frustration that many Roma feel as a result of their dysfunctional relation with the majority is also felt by representatives of the majority. This is true not least for the social workers who are the instruments of the hegemonic society and its ambition to help the Roma. In-between incommensurable demands I have shown how Roma in Sweden endure marginalisation and suffering in many different areas of society. I have argued that the efforts made by the authorities to improve the situation entail a type of oppression that is inherent to all interactions between a hegemonic majority and a subaltern minority. This leads to the conclusion that there exists an often-unarticulated pressure on Roma to assimilate to the majority. I have suggested that this unarticulated pressure results in frustration on both sides. I will now move on to further discuss the difficult personal situation that many individual Roma in today’s Sweden find themselves in. There are many different variables that constitute these difficulties. First of all, we have the demands of the majority society, discussed above, and the ‘failure’ of most Roma to succeed in the various acceptable

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arenas that majority society provides, for example in school, business, health and so forth. As I have shown above, Roma are strikingly marginalised in all these areas. Moreover, in addition to the frustration that comes from dealing with mainstream society and its demands, there are demands from the Roma community on each and every Rom to uphold a Romani identity. There exists among many Roma a fear that gaje are trying to eliminate them and their culture. Given the history of the Roma communities in northern Europe this fear is hardly unjustified. Several hundreds of thousands of Roma were murdered during the Third Reich, and in the twentieth century the governments of the Nordic countries also made several structured efforts to eradicate or, by means of coercion, dissolve Romani people and culture. Arguably, the memory of these traumatic incidents has an effect on how Roma today view the majority’s attempts to ‘help’ them. There are feelings of suspicion towards the majority culture. Among the Kaale this becomes apparent in all discussions about their situation in society. ‘We are Swedish citizens,’ Sonja tells me on one occasion, I have lived here my whole life. But they want us to be ashamed of who we are, that we should not wear these clothes. They want to press us and our identity down. […] But I am a Rom in my soul and in my heart, and no one can take that away from me. That is why they do not like us, because we are proud.88

The fear and mistrust towards majority society creates ambiguous feelings about, for instance, sending the children to school. Many Roma would agree that education is a good thing but, at the same time, if it entails too much interaction with gaje, it threatens to deprive the children of their Romani identity, and the parents, who often have little or no experience of schooling themselves, risk getting increasingly alienated from the worlds of their children. Furthermore, since the Kaale community is not very big, it is especially important to keep each individual within the community.89 Jussi, a Kaale Rom interviewed for another study, expressed a similar ambiguity when asked to comment on the notion of Romani university students:

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I cannot really explain why but to me it sounds really bad if I say that there are Zigenare who are college students today […] I don’t really think it is bad, it sounds nice and all and I am sure it is, but, at the same time, it makes that which is us disappear.90

Many individual Kaale Roma get trapped between the incommensurable demands of society on the one hand and the Roma community on the other. Probably the predicament is most notable in the lives of young people. In their early teens, young Roma, in a very literal sense, have to navigate between the demands of a majority culture that through compulsory public schools seeks to socialise them to become ‘proper’ citizens, and their Romani families who want them to start to dress and behave like ‘proper’ Roma. ‘They live with the unbearable tension of not belonging anywhere,’ one gaje preacher with long experience of working with Roma said, ‘they do not belong here, and they do not belong in their mum and dad’s way of living. They exist in a no-man’s land.’91 Needless to say, it is not an easy task to live up to contradictory demands like these. Indeed, it seems reasonable to assume that many of the difficulties that Roma suffer in today’s Sweden can be at least partly explained with reference to this strenuous and in many instances insoluble situation. One of the few studies that has been done on drug abuse among Roma in Sweden suggests that the increase in drug problems can be explained by the changes that the community has gone through during the last few decades.92 Such an understanding is confirmed by the Kaale informants of this and other studies.93 ‘It is getting tougher,’ as one of my informants put it.94 The most apparent change that is highlighted by these informants is the increased exposure to and interaction with the gaje way of life. This, it is believed, leads to identity conflicts for which the remedy is sought in drugs. Moreover, many Kaale Roma emphasise that drug abuse used to be completely taboo within their community. It is, as they see it, a social evil that has come as a result of the loosening up of the boundaries between Roma and gaje. For this reason, becoming a drug addict is especially shameful for a Rom. Even though the families of Romani narcotic addicts, as I have already mentioned, will usually take

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care of them and help them keep their abuse secret, the loss of respect that being an addict entails is very difficult to bear.95 Humiliation If the Roma were to yield to the hegemonic pressure and start measuring their lives by the standards of the gaje, where would that leave them? In every field accepted by the gaje – education, wealth, health and so forth – their success is very limited. To do that would therefore be to give up one’s identity in exchange for nothing but humiliation. So instead many turn to their own traditions. There are several examples of Kaale Roma becoming stricter and more elaborate in their adherence to their traditional rules. But here also there are problems. The old way of life has disappeared and the traditional trades have long since become obsolete, but at the same time the demand for cultural integrity grows stronger. Many people, and especially youngsters, feel the need to choose sides or find a compromise that can be somewhat accepted on both sides. For most, the only reasonable way to do this is to choose the family side and develop a strong Kaale Romani identity while still accepting the ambiguous dependence on the majority culture, and try to deal with the challenges that this entails as they come.96 For many Kaale Roma this choice leads to a passive life, dependent upon the social welfare system of the majority society. This state is humiliating. It is degrading to be part of a group that seems to be in a permanent condition of social misery. It is frustrating to feel that one will never be trusted or heard by the majority population, and it is wearisome to know that things are not really getting any better. Furthermore, it is hopeless to see that one’s own community, instead of mustering a strong joint response to the situation, is torn apart by internal conflicts. In addition to feelings of humiliation, hopelessness and frustration, the situation creates feelings of self-critique and, at times, even of self-contempt. During the scope of this study this has struck me as a prominent characteristic that has come to the fore in many interviews. Studies show that 50 per cent of the Roma choose to hide their Romani identity in their dealings with gaje society.97 To change one’s

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name or abandon dressing traditionally are examples of this. Here, however, the Kaale group differs from other Roma. There are some Kaale Roma who have abandoned their outfits, but the overall picture is that people of this group wear their characteristic clothes at all times. According to another government-initiated study, this causes the Kaale group to be especially exposed to discrimination.98 It is especially the Kaale women, whose outfits are the most obviously Romani, that have to suffer prejudice.99 Sonja is one of those women: ‘They want us to be ashamed of this’, she tells me, pointing to her big black skirts and embroidered blouse.100 ‘They’ in Sonja’s exclamation refers to gaje society in general and to the social authorities in particular. There is a certain ambiguity here. At the same time as many informants, like Sonja, emphasise that they are proud to be Roma, they also often show very little faith in the capacity of their people. In one of the group interviews carried out for this study this topic was brought up and I was surprised by the conformity that the otherwise prominently disagreeing group expressed. ‘We say that we believe in God,’ a man in his early thirties said, ‘and God tells us to be kind and loving to other people. But why then are we so racist?’ The others agreed and continued by declaring that Roma are not actually good Christians. ‘When a Swede becomes Christian,’ one loud-voiced woman declared, ‘he will really be Christian, but we zigenare we will never be 100 per cent!’ ‘One thing you should know,’ another young man said, turning to me, ‘and this is true for all Roma. If we could buy God, we would buy him and keep him to ourselves. And this is a fact!’101 When it comes to the issue of leadership the lack of self-confidence is especially clear. ‘We simply are not capable of doing it,’ one prominent Kaale Pentecostal tells me when I ask him whether they would like to create a church of their own. ‘It is better that we are led by a non-Rom, because if one of us is made leader there will immediately be conflicts. We cannot let someone else among us be leader.’102 A gaje preacher that I spoke to had asked members of his Romani congregation whether they hoped that the Roma would acquire their own country someday. ‘Nothing could be closer to hell than a country run by Roma only,’ they had answered him.103

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Now, the low self-esteem expressed in these quotes could be described as instances of that which the British post-colonial theorist Bobby Sayyid has labelled strong orientalism. Building on the well-known terminology of Edward Said, Bobby Sayyid distinguishes between weak and strong orientalism. Whereas weak orientalism denotes the demeaning image of the oppressed that is upheld by the oppressor for his own purposes, strong orientalism signifies what happens when this demeaning image is internalised and believed by the oppressed.104 In my interpretation, the informants’ low self-esteem is a devastating result of their general situation. The societal pressure to measure themselves by the standards of the hegemonic majority – in schools, at the job market, in the social welfare office – leaves them constantly exposed to their failure according to these standards. In comparison with the average gaje they perform worse in schools and on the job market, their families are more often torn apart by social problems, they are less healthy, more depressed and many cannot even stop smoking despite alleged determination to do so. No wonder the self-esteem is low. All in all, the situation can be described as a deadlock. For most individual Kaale Roma there is no escape from the pressures of the majority culture; nor is there a way out from the demands of their own community. These are opposing and equally powerful external forces that individuals have to find a way to combine. The incommensurable demands are also embraced and expressed by many individual Roma. All the informants of this study clearly express that they want to do the things that the gaje do. They want to work and be successful in school. But at the same time, they do not want to give up any features of their Romani identity or be assimilated into the gaje way of life. What, then, do they need? There are examples of people who miss the old times before the political project of integrating Roma into the Swedish society began. The previously mentioned Jussi expresses it in the following way: Despite the fact that they lived like that, Zigenare miss those days and that freedom. Now we sit in our apartments with computers and everything […] The children sit by the computer and miss the old people […]

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they didn’t have TVs or any such things in the 50s. They sat there telling stories.105

Indulging in nostalgic dreams about the past is something that many people do. Still, most of us, Roma and gaje alike, would agree that the solution to the problems of the present do not lie in reverting to the ways of previous eras. Many instead look forward to a change in the policies of the majority society. Educationalist and Romani Studies scholar Christina Rodell Olgaç hopes and thinks that a widened intercultural perspective that opens up for an inclusion of Romani solutions could change things for the better if it was implemented in government policies.106

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4 Inducing the Pious Mood

In the previous chapter I argued that many Kaale Roma are caught between the demands of their own community and those of gaje society. Pentecostal religiosity is built on a story that connects to this deadlock situation remarkably well. The Christian story of how God redeems the sins of humanity through the death of Christ provides a language for expressing and explaining exactly the kind of deadlock situations that many Roma find themselves in. Since the fall of Adam, the story explains, humanity is helplessly trapped in its own sinfulness. We are so deeply fallen that we cannot raise ourselves. Not only are our actions and thoughts corrupt but also our motivations and volition. It is so bad that only a miraculous intervention from the outside can resolve the situation. When God becomes man in Christ and dies for the redemption of all humans he provides such a solution and by adhering to this story, the Pentecostal preachers promise, Roma can find the relief and the hope that their situation so desperately calls for. Pivotal to the understanding and internalisation of this story, in Pentecostal religion, is the physical experience of its meaning in emotional rituals of the type presented in the very beginning of this book. But, what, then, are the emotional outbursts of Pentecostal meetings all about? How can people be moved to such strong emotional expressions? Why do they seek it so explicitly and what does it do for them, as individuals and as members of a community? In this chapter I will discuss the emotional aspect of Christian revivalism among the Kaale Roma in 87

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Sweden. I want to clarify the role that emotion plays in the focused rituals and present how it is spoken about, experienced and interpreted by the Pentecostals that I have interviewed and learned to know. I also want to discuss some different theoretical and interpretative perspectives that can be used to explain and understand it from an academic and outsider perspective. The word ritual is here used to denote religious practice in a broad sense. I do not, as some ritual theorists, limit this word to formalised religious activities.1 Rather, ritual is here approached as a certain mode of action. Rituals are bodily and verbal actions that are distinguished from other forms by culturally-defined classifications.2 The chapter begins with a section that describes the emotional experiences of the informants and the position of emotions in Pentecostal teachings. After this follows a brief introduction to emotion studies in general, followed by a presentation of the theoretical perspectives that I find most fruitful for understanding these phenomena. The experience of anointment Emotional engagement constitutes a crucial part of Pentecostal ritual life. In the sermons and Bible studies gathered for this study the importance of emotional engagement is an ever-present theme. There can be no doubt that the strong emotional atmosphere at the meetings has a paramount position in the religious life of most believers. All interviewees of this study have spoken with great enthusiasm about what they have gone through emotionally in connection to meetings. And the sermons repeatedly emphasise the importance of opening one’s heart. Indeed, as the example in the beginning of the book clearly illustrates, the whole setup of the meeting seems designed with the intention of drawing people into an elated emotional state. The emic term that lies at the core of this experience, then, is anointment (Finnish: voitelu, Swedish: smörjelse). Sometimes this word refers to the ritual practice of anointing the forehead of sick people as an act of blessing. This ritual is practised by some of the ministers with reference to the letter of James where the caretakers of a sick man are asked

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to ‘call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord’ (James 5: 14).3 However, most commonly the word anointment is used in a transferred sense to denote an emotional state that the Holy Spirit is believed to cause. The New Testament does not speak explicitly about anointment in this kind of figurative sense, but it is mentioned in the Acts that ‘God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power’ (Acts 10: 38). Historically this text has been interpreted in ways similar to those of the present preachers since the early days of Christianity. Some of the church fathers latched on to this text and elaborated further on the image of the Holy Spirit as an ointment. In his treaty on the Holy Spirit from 381 AD, for instance, St Ambrosius states that ‘Holy Spirit is the ointment of Christ. And […] the oil of gladness, the joining together of many graces giving a sweet fragrance.’4 Since the Azusa Street revival in 1906 and the first rise of Pentecostalism, the notion of anointment with the Holy Spirit is central. It is spoken of by prominent leaders like William J. Seymour5 and appears to have been a predominant motif in Pentecostal preachings ever since.6 The Pentecostal Roma this study focuses on use the word anointment to denote the divine inspiration that they believe creates the elated emotional state described in the beginning of this book. Most of them say that they have experienced this in connection to an open revivalist meeting or in a private prayer gathering. Some experienced it for the first time alone, praying in their homes. Spirit baptism (Finnish: pyhäkaste, Swedish: andedop) or to be born again (Finnish: uudestaan syntynyt, Swedish: pånyttfödd) are established terms for the first time the anointment occurs. One has to be careful about trying to pinpoint what the actual experience is like. Needless to say, we can never know for sure what people actually go through on an inner level of experience. Still, however, it is interesting to say something about the discursive practices that surround these emotions. When I have asked the informants to describe their experiences, many lack the words to explain what it is they have gone through more concretely. Instead the religious vocabulary is used as if the precise meanings of concepts such as ‘being saved’, ‘taking Jesus into one’s heart’,

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‘being anointed with the Holy Spirit’ or ‘feeling the grace of God’ were self-evident. A very typical answer along these lines is given by a senior member of the movement: ‘I felt the power of the spirit of God go through me. It was one of these warm things that made me feel just great.’7 Those who find words to describe the experience more elaborately often speak of calmness, peace, freedom and, most frequently, forgiveness and love. The anointment is described as an overwhelming and incredible feeling of being loved and forgiven. One informant explains it in this way: First, the Holy Spirit tells you that you are forgiven but you don’t believe it because you feel guilty but then, how shall I say? You feel that there is a big grace and that it is also for yourself […] you know, how shall I explain? Somehow you feel that you have been forgiven.8

In some ways, the anointment is the emotional acceptance of a theoretical knowledge that one already possesses. To emotionally and physically grasp the message, then, is what is meant by ‘opening one’s heart to the word’. Some of the informants also clearly speak of it in terms of a bodily experience. ‘I could feel it in my whole body,’ one of them tells me and continues, ‘I grasped the meaning of what we were doing, what it was all about. That Jesus has died for us to save us.’9 The informants often also describe their experiences as sensations of warm water or oil. One older man with 20 years in the movement told the story of his first anointment in the following words: I prayed with a friend and his wife. I prayed but nothing happened. Then he said ‘pray with your heart!’ and then it was as if warm water came over me and gave me freedom and warmth in my heart. Then I spoke with tongues and I felt this warmth in my face and in my heart. Warmth, peace, joy in my heart. What an experience! I cried for two hours.10

A boy in his late teens describes a similar experience using the metaphor of oil, thus connecting to the general Pentecostal discourse of anointment: When I sat there and prayed I suddenly felt great warmth in my body. I felt like, you know, as if oil flowed from my forehead and down. You know,

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completely unbelievable, a very strange feeling. And I started feeling so glad and, you know, loveable and everything. Then I knew that I was Spirit baptised and I started to speak with tongues.11

The overwhelming experience of anointment at meetings is, however, not the only emotional state that the informants describe. In addition to this, they also describe how other, less dramatic, ritualised activities such as Bible reading, prayer, singing hymns or attending Pentecostal chat groups on the Internet, puts them in a certain frame of mind, a pious mood. When asked to describe this mood, they commonly use the same kinds of expressions used to describe the feeling of anointment. ‘I have always liked the word of Jesus Christ,’ one informant tells me, ‘when I have read the Bible I always feel that warmth.’12 Statements such as this one are common among all the informants. Although what is meant by expressions such as this probably differs from person to person, the pious mood is described as a similar but less intense version of the emotional state described as the anointment. It is a feeling of doing something that God favours, of ‘having done the right thing’13 as one informant puts it, a feeling of purity, lovableness, righteousness, divine presence and mild bliss. All informants speak of it in very positive terms. A genre of its own Edifying stories about salvation constitute an apologetic genre in Pentecostal discourse. By this I mean that the stories most often follow the same recognisable pattern and that they are repeated and appreciated largely because they confirm the worldview that is officially embraced by the movement.14 The style of the stories in this genre, then, is personal and self-reflective. They are always told in the first-person singular and their structure is simple enough: first, there is the sinful life with drugs and problems of many sorts, then this life becomes unbearable and a solution from outside is needed. At this stage the message of the Gospel is heard but not believed in. The first encounter with Pentecostalism is imbued with scepticism or even ridicule. Then, suddenly, something changes, prayer is tested seriously and the message is allowed to enter one’s heart. After that comes the emotionally overwhelming feeling of anointment and everything changes. The old life is abandoned and

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temptations that used to be strong lose their power. A new richer and truer life begins and with that the stories end. In the context of evangelisation, preaching and witnessing it is the joyful edifying message that is sought. Of course, everyone knows that keeping up the rich and true life as a born-again Christian is not always so easy. This aspect of the religious experience, however, is naturally not made part of this edifying genre. Emotion in the teachings Although there are some theological differences between different preachers, the theme of emotion also seems to have a solid position in the core of the Pentecostal teachings. The one who receives Jesus into his or her heart is saved. And it is only through personal emotional experience that one can know whether one knows Jesus or not. The grace of God is not bound to religious institutions, nor can it be known through intellectual effort. It has to be felt. Such a theological understanding legitimises the practice of arranging congregational services in ways that encourage and facilitate emotional displays. In the sermons and Bible studies drawn on here, one expression of this idea is the call to engage in the ritual with one’s heart. Time and again the preachers emphasise the importance of having an ‘open’ or ‘soft’ heart, because without it, it is said, the word of God cannot do its job. ‘If your heart is hard,’ one preacher asserts, nothing will happen. But if you have a soft heart, into which the word can come, then things will happen. If you have come here without hope, you will feel hopeful again! You will feel joy again! Because the word is beginning to have an effect!15

It is clear that the preachers identify a soft heart with readiness to be emotionally engaged in the rituals. Often, indifference is described as the worst state of mind, to be what the Book of Revelations terms ‘neither cold nor hot’ (Rev 3: 15). Such a state of mind is clearly not acceptable to God. ‘Because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot,’ God asserts, according to the preachers, ‘I will spew you out of my mouth’ (Rev 3: 15–16).16 Besides the risk of being emotionally lukewarm, moreover,

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there is the risk of filling one’s heart with something else than God. ‘What is the state of our Romani hearts?’, asks one preacher, ‘Where do we have our hearts today? What kind of love are they filled with? Is it the love for the world or the love for Jesus?’17 Another preacher follows a similar thought: You do not call for Jesus with your whole heart! What is it that holds you back? Is it money that holds you back? Is it your wrath? Your bitterness? Hatred? Is it your desire for revenge that holds you back from Jesus? I ask you, and I ask myself too, what do we really long for today?18

So in the sermons emotions play a vital and important role. This emphasis, however, is somewhat challenged by the picture that comes out in the interviews. When preachers and individual believers are asked about the role of emotion in the calm and reflective context of an interview, ministers and people who have been Pentecostal for a longer period especially argue that emotion must not take over. ‘Feelings are good,’ says one informant, ‘but they must not be allowed to take control.’19 Most pastors are actually critical of the strong emotional focus among Romani Pentecostals especially. It is primarily the unwillingness to let the emotional experience of the revivalist meetings lead to sanctification and real personal and social change that is criticised. One gaje preacher, held in high esteem among the Roma, expresses it as follows: After the strong initial conversion experience, the idea is that one should make one’s whole life to change. This means that one should work with oneself and so on. It is difficult and takes effort in ways that are not always easy. To be honest, I have not seen much of this among the Roma.20

Animation of moods An interesting feature of the way preachers speak about emotions is the inclination to interpret collective moods and individual emotions, not as individual internally caused expressions, but as atmospheres caused by the presence of spirits. This interpretative stance may be labelled an animation of moods. In the meeting described at the beginning of this book, when the preacher saw that the crowd was not engaged, he said

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that he could sense ‘a spirit of unbelief ’21 in the tent. In this way the emotional life of people is interpreted as being controlled by spiritual forces external to themselves. The most obvious example of this form of animation is probably the way preachers speak about the presence of the Holy Spirit. As I have already mentioned, the feeling of anointment is seen as the work of the Holy Spirit. And when an ‘anointed’ atmosphere rises in a meeting, it is common that the preachers speak of it as the actual arrival of the Holy Spirit in a very direct sense. At one meeting, when a strong feeling of anointment had taken over, a preacher expressed this in the following words: Please be still now, the Holy Spirit has arrived. We should stop talking now when the Holy Spirit is here. If someone wants to be healed it is possible now. Now there is power here and strength. Let us continue praying, now when the Holy Spirit has come we should welcome him in this way. Hallelujah!22

I have thus shown that strong emphasis on emotion is a primary characteristic of Romani Pentecostalism. How then should we interpret and analyse this material as scholars of religion? Before presenting two theoretical perspectives that I find helpful for understanding the meanings and functions of religious emotion I will briefly say something about emotion and the academic study of it in general. Emotion and the study of it In our everyday lives we constantly encounter and assimilate different, and often contradictory, impressions and experiences. We constantly perceive, sense, feel, think and learn different things. These many forms of experience are interconnected and, in our minds and bodies, we continuously interpret and evaluate them. Through them we form our way of being in the world. Our selves, therefore, are formed and expressed through processes of evaluation, interpretation and conglomeration of different experiences. Throughout the history of human thought, philosophers have asked what it is to be human. And in the endeavour to find answers to that

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question discussions about the nature of emotions have always been central. To Aristotle (384–322 BC) all motivations spring from emotion. Perceptions create emotions that in their turn create the motivation to act. The central task for humans, then, is to restrain emotions by means of reason.23 In René Descartes’s (1596–1650) work the Aristotelian distinction between emotion and reason turns into a clear-cut dichotomy between mind and body.24 Until recently, this dualism has been kept and nurtured in the history of Western thought. Lately, however, many performance and embodiment theorists have convincingly argued against it, claiming that no clear-cut distinction between desire and thought can be made. Physical and bodily experiences are crucial for our experience of reality. Dissociating themselves from the Cartesian dichotomisation they have shown that the human ‘mode of presence and engagement in the world’25 cannot be divided into mind and body, instead these two are constantly interconnected.26 Emotions, then, play a crucial part in this interconnection. Emotions seem to have the ability to combine different aspects of experience for humans. When we feel – for instance, if we are touched by a sad story that we read in a book – our bodies physically interact with our cognitive processes and to what happens around us. Emotions, furthermore, are often culturally defined insofar as they are triggered in ways specific to culture and reacted to within culturally defined modes of conduct. Yet individuals experience them in their own bodies, and they cause the body to change: to shed tears, to writhe in pain, to laugh and so on. Hence, emotions seem to have the ability to connect individuals to their social communities in a very physical way. Categories of emotion theory There is much talk of emotion today, both in academia and elsewhere. A brief look at any library catalogue will reveal a dramatic increase in the number of books that deal with emotion. The big breakthrough seems to have been in the 1990s.27 One can, of course, speculate about the reasons for this development. In my understanding, it seems reasonable to assume that it reflects a general trend in the Western intellectual climate that has been brought about by postmodernism. Arguably, the

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aforementioned dissolution of the Cartesian dichotomy has made it possible to bring emotion into the scholarly discussion in a way we have not seen before. A general longing for authenticity and something constant to hold on to, and a narcissistic endorsement of personal experience in a time of increasing disembeddedness, has probably also had its impact on the academic discussions.28 Moreover, it has been suggested that we now live in a post-emotionalist era in which people are largely indifferent to the needs of others and that our focus, in society at large as well as at the universities, is therefore primarily directed towards our own personal well-being.29 A Marxist analysis of this condition suggests that the capitalist system now manipulates our emotions in the same way it previously manipulated our intellect, causing us to value selfish self-examination rather than to engage in critiquing the system.30 Possibly, the increased emotion-orientation in research is also a reflection of such a development. Regardless of the reasons behind it, however, it is clear that we are witnessing an increased intellectual desire to be able to reach and speak about levels of human experience that lie beyond language and text. Previous research on religion and emotion There have been many attempts to categorise theories on emotion in a comprehensive way.31 When it comes to theoretical contributions to the study of religion and emotion, the American historian of religion John Corrigan has put forward a useful categorisation.32 Corrigan distinguishes between universalist and cultural relativist approaches to religion and emotion. Examples of universalist approaches are those favoured by the natural sciences, such as Darwinist; biological and neuro-scientific studies of emotion, but also the theological essentialism found in the works of Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834)33 and Rudolf Otto (1869–1937).34 The structuralist understanding of emotion favoured by Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) and Victor Turner (1920–1983)35 also falls under the universalist category since it, alongside contemporary language-focused anthropology, views emotions as caused by pre-cultural mental structures.36 The cultural relativist approach in its turn is represented by scholars who have argued that both the expression and experience of emotion is

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dependent on the cultural context and historical period in which it is felt. ‘Not only ideas, but emotions too,’ says Clifford Geertz, ‘are cultural artifacts.’37 Benedicte Grima is another prominent name mentioned here.38 William Reddy, to whom I will return later, could also be added to the list alongside a number of other historians. Two other scholars that Corrigan categorises as cultural relativist are William James (1842–1910) and Carl Georg Lange (1885–1912).39 As the founders of the so-called James-Lange theory of emotion, these scholars are probably among the most influential thinkers in this field. According to their theory, then, emotions are simply experiences of physical alterations. An emotion is the perception of a physical change in the body rather than, as one might intuitively think, something that on the contrary causes the body to change. To put it differently, we do not cry because we are sad but rather we are sad because we cry. In the words of William James: we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike, or tremble, because we are sorry, angry, or fearful, as the case may be.40

Although the James-Lange theory has been criticised, mainly by cognitivist scholars who disagree about the marginalised position it gives to cognitive processes, it still remains a classic within the field of the psychology of religion.41 Now, basic discussions about the nature and etiology of emotions are likely to continue for a long time. But the most interesting development in emotion studies that recent decades have born witness to, is the way emotions have become a variable and a key to understanding and interpreting human reality in a number of different areas. Thus, when Pnina Werbner seeks to pinpoint how worldview is created among Sufis in South Asia, she brings in emotion and speaks of these as ‘imbedded in implicit local ontologies’.42 Similarly, when Steven M. Parish analyses the construction of ethics among Hindus in Benares he feels the need to bring in the variable of emotion to pinpoint how morality is created through processes of feeling.43 Emotions are spoken of in relation to religious beliefs,44 as constituents of social relations,45 and as vital for

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self-identity.46 It seems as if emotion is becoming an aspect of human experience that many scholars feel the need to address in their analyses of not only the inner life of individuals, but of society and culture at large. Here, I want particularly to bring in the recent scholarly work that links emotion with people’s social and personal endeavours to shape the course of their lives and to develop a self-understanding. The work of Catherine Lutz and Geoffrey White is especially important here. They have discussed emotions as main expressions for the definition and negotiation of social relations of the self.47 Marie Griffith, similarly, has interpreted emotional displays among Pentecostal women as codes for self-understanding in the face of public scepticism. Taking her departure from a performance perspective she discusses how emotions disclose patterns of meaning and order and in doing so confirm and substantiate the life of the community in which they are performed.48 Definitions How then should we define emotion? First of all it should be clear that the word emotion in its everyday use denotes a folk-category with many different connotations and a rather vague delineation. Emotion is related and sometimes used as interchangeable with the equally vague concepts of feeling, mood, atmosphere and intuition. Clearly all experiences that we in everyday language may refer to as emotion are difficult to group together or to treat as samples of the same category. If we compare, for instance, being ashamed about arriving late to school with being afraid of a bear in the forest, it is clear that the first emotion is strongly related to socially constructed rules of conduct, whereas the latter is not. Can we really speak of these two emotions as belonging to the same category of human experience? In the following discussion I will depart from an understanding of emotions as an embodied aspect of human experience. Emotions in my definition are tenors of experience by and through which we react to comprehend and manage our relations with the surrounding reality. Emotions are not merely bodily in nature, neither are they products of cognition. Just like other aspects of human experience (such as thought,

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touch, sight, sexuality, belief and so on) they cut across these misleading categories and connect to humans as a whole. For the sake of stylistic variation I use the word feeling as synonymous to emotion in this text. Mood is another concept that I will use. Mood, then, is largely synonymous with emotion but whereas emotion is used to denote individual experiences, I use the word mood, in a wider sense, for collectively induced and appreciated emotional atmospheres. Mood, then, is a collective frame of mind. Like emotion it cuts across many levels of experience and is created through the conglomeration of many forms of practice. A mood is constituted by elements of thought, orientation of will, bodily practices and aesthetics. Let me now move on to present the first theoretical perspective that I find fruitful for an analysis of the emotional rituals, the performance perspective. The performance of emotions Most humans move between a number of different roles in their everyday lives. We have our professional roles, our roles in our families, a number of social roles and so on. The fact that we constantly alternate between these is not problematic and usually we do not reflect about it at all. Furthermore, the roles are connected to different collectivelyconstructed life-worlds. To assume one role is therefore always also to enter the community that it belongs to. The regulations that determinate how we behave in our different roles – how we talk, move, dress and so on – are established on the level of the social community. In the following I will refer to these sets of discursive regulations as repertoires. By using this term I wish to emphasise that I am interested in the performative aspect of what is said and done in the social group in question. A repertoire, then, is a discursive framework of norms, attitudes and practices that people belonging to a given social community adopt and perform to themselves and to others. The repertoire regulates and restricts the options for what individuals can do or say in a given situation. The Pentecostal ritual practices focused on in this study can be approached as one such repertoire.49

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One significant aspect of that repertoire, then, is the way emotions are expressed. In the following I will focus entirely on this and leave other aspects of the Kaale Romani Pentecostal repertoire aside.50 As I have already shown, emotions are often spoken about at the meetings. The normative ideas about emotion expressed in sermons and Bible studies should of course be included in an attempt to pinpoint the features of the emotional repertoire of this group. When it comes to the actual performance of emotions, however, the most important expressions are those that are not verbalised: moves, gestures, body postures, facial expressions, tears, laughter and so on. In the Pentecostal community the repertoire that people are expected to draw their performances from can be found in all spheres of activity, from the jumble sales at Christmas to social work and coffee drinking. Through charitable dedication and Christ-like friendliness a repertoire of emotional mildness is being performed in the everyday life of the congregations. But although these everyday performances are certainly important, it is at the meetings and services that the emotional repertoire of this particular group finds its most dramatic expression. At these meetings a clearly recognisable emotional dramaturgy is performed. As the example in the beginning of the book illustrates, it usually begins in an organised manner. The participants sit on the benches, listen to the sermon or Bible study and seem generally calm and content. Then, as time passes, the emotional intensity starts to rise. There are many variations on how individual participants perform this intensification. Needless to say, not all follow the dramaturgy in all its stages. For those who do, however, the following sequence of behaviours seems rather representative. At first one sits silently with hands folded and eyes downcast. In the second step one still sits silently but now with hands held up to cover the face. Sometimes people close their fists and shake them rhythmically as if to pep themselves up before a contest. Silent prayer or repeated mentioning of Jesus’s name is also common, ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus’. The next step is to raise one hand and hold it high with the palm facing outwards. In connection to this movement it is common to stand up, often with eyes closed and sometimes with a frowning facial expression. I interpret the standing as a way to communicate that one is ready to

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devote oneself to what is happening. When one person does this the pressure on the others to do it as well increases. Quite commonly the intensification stops here and the meetings end with people uniting in an ardent song of praise. However, if enough people give themselves up to the ritual, the performance can move on to the next step and culminate in a much more dramatic chaos of emotional display with loud crying, shouted prayers, spontaneous witnessing, glossolalia and violent shaking as common ingredients. Even if there is much space for individual variations in the emotional performance of a Pentecostal meeting it is clear that there is a certain range of feelings the expression of which is expected. Feelings of overwhelming grace, awe, exaltation and humility are certainly among the most accepted. If we, in accordance with the definition given above, consider a mood to be a frame of mind constituted by an orientation of will, elements of thought, bodily practices and aesthetics, we understand that the endeavour to create or uphold such a mood would take efforts on all these levels of experience. Arguably, this is exactly what the ritual performances do. I will now say something about the different ways through which this happens. Prophetic validation Through sermons and Bible studies a certain outlook and theology is conveyed to those who listen. The verbalised and systematic worldview that the Pentecostal adherents in this way are exposed to contributes to the mood by lending an aura of authenticity to the atmosphere. With the help of a theological superstructure, possible doubts about the genuineness of the experiences can be shattered. Arguments are provided for the standpoint that feelings of purity and righteousness are not the results of collective imagination, but genuine experiences of a supernatural reality. That this is the case is repeatedly confirmed in sermons and Bible studies. Another practice that contributes to the authorisation and legitimisation, and which adds a sense of authenticity to the moods created in the meetings, is that of prophecy. Prophecy according to the Apostle Paul

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(1 Cor 12: 10) is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the views of the informants of this study, it is a necessary element in every living congregation. ‘If there is not prophetic speech in a church,’ one informant tells me, ‘there has to be something wrong. There always has to be someone through whom God speaks directly to the congregation.’51 At all meetings there will be at least a few persons who come up to the podium to share some words, or sometimes an image, that they have been given by God. Preachers, like the one in the example at the beginning of this chapter, often declare that they say what they have been told to say by God. Furthermore, many informants have told me that they have been afraid of what may be prophesied about them. There are many stories of people who have been dramatically warned by God through prophesies. Having visions of the future is no rare thing among the Kaale Roma. On the contrary, it is a commonly held belief that this ability is something that many Roma have.52 In the Pentecostal context this practice and self-understanding takes its natural place in a Biblicist worldview where it is interpreted as a gift from the Holy Spirit. In this way the visions help to validate the teachings that are proclaimed and thus to strengthen the moods that are created in the rituals. Aesthetic framing One of the most powerful means to create an emotional atmosphere is music.53 Much like the way a soundtrack is used to strengthen or calibrate the emotional communication of a motion picture, the choirs, music ensembles and songs of praise are used to enforce the message and the dramaturgy of a Pentecostal revivalist meeting. Hence, soft keyboard chords are often played at a low volume to accompany sermons or prayer. And captivating songs of praise are often initiated as a means to achieve the right spirit when the enthusiasm of the crowd is diminishing. Some ministers are very skilled in orchestrating a meeting in order to create the right atmosphere and maximise the emotional effect. Among the informants it is also clear that music has a very important role in bringing about the pious mood. Singing, playing and listening to music are important aspects of their religious life in general. Some describe how they feel the love of God when they sing Christian songs.54

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Others prefer to listen to traditional Finnish Romani songs but still claim that these fill them with melancholy feelings that make them think religious thoughts.55 Besides the music, there are of course many other aspects that constitute the aesthetic framing of a ritual. In the case of the Roma Pentecostals, however, no other element is as striking as the music. As is the case with many Protestant traditions, there is little room for visual ritualisations in the meetings. Indeed there is very little that visually reveals that religious rituals are going on at all when the congregations gather. There are no crosses, no candles and no special outfits for anyone. Actually, there are scarcely any decorations whatsoever in the rooms or tents where the meetings take place. Even on the rare occasions when the Eucharist is given, symbols and paraphernalia have been conspicuous by their absence. More or less successful performances To theoretically approach a ritual from a performance perspective does not necessarily mean that the genuineness of the emotions displayed is questioned. Arguably, all human expressions, whether they be expressions of opinions, ideas or, as in this case, emotions, are set in the framework of a repertoire. If we hurt our knee, to give a very concrete example, we will feel a very real and genuine pain. Nevertheless, the ways in which we express this will, at least to a certain extent, be dependent on the repertoire we are performing within at that particular time. Physical pain, therefore, will be expressed differently in a funeral chapel than on a football pitch. The performance of a repertoire can be more or less successful. A successful performance, then, seems genuine and heartfelt. It is, so to speak, believed in by other people as well as by the person who performs it. It is interesting to note that the emotional performances of the Pentecostal meetings discussed in this study sometimes fail to achieve this. Whether a performance is believed or not is of course a subjective matter. Some people will be hesitant to believe in anything that is performed at a Pentecostal meeting. To them all the emotional expressions, and often especially those of the preachers and authorities,

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will simply be interpreted as fake. Others, and among them many of my informants in this study, will believe all of it. It is reasonable to conclude that in order to be able to appreciate the emotional performance in the rituals a certain suspension of disbelief 56 is necessary. Much like a theatre play, the ritual performance comes into its own if the spectator makes an effort to get drawn into the illusion that it strives to induce. There are several instances in my material when the ritual performances clearly fail to convey the sensation of authenticity that it, in my interpretation, strives for. The shifts – sometimes very quick – between different emotional states serve as good examples of this. For instance, such as when a person who has just been dramatically anointed is in the next moment having a discussion on their mobile phone about something completely different, or when people switch too quickly between expressions of exaltation and indifference. The most obvious example, however, is when the performance of an individual participant is frowned upon or in other ways dismissed by the crowd. Let me give an illustration of such an occasion. At one meeting, an old woman was asked to come to the podium to witness. As she rose from her chair it became clear that she was very old and very sick. Her back was bent and she frowned deeply as she tilted her way to the podium. As if to further demonstrate her weakness, she asked one of the girls in the choir to support her weight. For some reason her performance was not really appreciated by the crowd. Instead of greeting her with the solemn hallelujahs and exclamations that one would have expected in such a situation, her entry was met by conciliatory faces and giggling. Probably, people felt that she was overdoing it. Despite its poignancy and dramatic arrangement, her witnessing did not manage to change this impression: Two weeks ago I came home from the hospital where I had a heart operation. Then my sister told me about this meeting. I went to my bed and prayed: ‘Sweet Jesus give me the strength to go there!’ I have not driven for three years but now I somehow managed to get in the car. […] O Jesus, Jesus. You have shown me so much grace. You have given me so much. I am so happy now. I thank you Jesus for all that you have given me.

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At this point she stood straight as if suddenly healed and pushed away the choir girl who until now had held her arm. While doing this she exclaimed: I am so glad I came here! I can stand straight now! I need no helper! Thank you Jesus! Thank you Father! Thank you all! I want to ask for your forgiveness. I love you so much. Don’t forget the old people. Go visit them or at least say ‘hello’ when you meet them. Thank you Jesus.

It is obvious that the old woman’s miraculous transformation was not convincing. The crowd seemed to think that she was just faking, and her exit was accompanied by laughter and mock cheering.57 In this instance the performance of the ritual failed. People did not believe in the old woman’s witness and miraculous healing. Instead of adding to the elated atmosphere, her performance made it feel less authentic and her failure immediately provoked a reaction from the group. On the social level, then, the success of a performance can be measured in the response it creates in the group. A successful performance helps to create the atmosphere that is striven for. In doing so it contributes to the feeling of belonging together and helps to induce a common belief in the genuineness of the rituals that are being performed as well in the shared identity of the group. On an individual level, however, the performative accomplishment cannot be measured through social responses. Here the measure of success is rather dependent on what happens internally in the individual. What matters here is whether the body, so to speak, believes in the performance or not. And the way in which to know this is through emotional responses. In the following pages I will approach the emotional rituals from the somewhat different perspective that this implies. Instead of discussing their role on a social level I will now consider what role they may have on the ‘inner’ life of individual participants. I will propose that the ritualised emotions can be understood as a means of self-suggestion by which individuals manipulate themselves in order to feel in a specific way and thereby strengthen themselves to follow a chosen way of conduct. Before going into this in more detail, however, I will begin by briefly telling the story of one of my informants.

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The case of Tino Tino is a Kaale Rom born in Finland in the late 1960s. He came to Sweden with his parents when he was a small child and grew up in one of the suburbs of Stockholm. He is married and has two teenage sons. Nowadays he has been granted an early retirement pension but he still follows some courses in the adult education facilities offered by the local authorities. The plan is to complete the nine years of compulsory education and thereby get the opportunity for further studies in a Bible school. Tino comes from a Pentecostal family; his mother was a strong believer for as long as he can remember. His own story, however, is a bit more complicated. Tino tells me that he has always believed in God, he was raised to do this and it always felt natural to him. When he was 15 years old he felt the anointment for the first time. It was at a prayer meeting that he suddenly felt that God loved him. He felt the warmth and knew that God wanted him there. At that time, he tells me, he found salvation. Several years later, when he was a married man and father, Tino, like so many of my interviewees, ‘left his salvation’. He fell into a life pattern of hard work and little thought of things spiritual. At that time he worked as a welder for a friend in the province of Värmland in western Sweden. He used to go there during the week and only came home to see his wife and children on the weekends. ‘Then, on the weekends,’ he tells me, I was a wonderful husband to my wife. But in Värmland I started drinking with my boss. We drank more and more and after some time we drank every day. We worked all the time and drank every day. I lied to my wife about this for many years. I did not tell her anything.58

Eventually, Tino’s situation became unbearable. He could not sustain the double life he was leading any longer and he fell into a state of anxiety that just got worse. Then one day, when he was with his boss in the cottage where they worked in Värmland, he was struck by panic. This became the turning point: It was a panic attack but I did not know that then. I felt scared. Terrified! I ran out into the forest screaming. ‘What is going on?!’ It was as if I was

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hunted, as if people wanted to kill me. Horrible. I would not wish this for my worst enemy. After that had happened I called my wife and told her everything. ‘I have been drinking, I have lied to you.’ ‘I suspected that,’ she said and then the anxiety disappeared.59

After this, Tino returned home and for a while things were good. Soon, however, the anxiety struck him again. I wandered around in our apartment. I went out to be among people. I wanted to hide my condition from the kids. I locked myself up in the bedroom so that they would not see me.60

The turning point this time came when Tino’s brother came to his aid. The brother is a pious man who has been a born-again Christian for 21 years without interruptions. When he came, Tino tells me, he could see that God had abandoned Tino. ‘He could feel that I was cold’, Tino tells me, ‘the warmth that had been there was not there any longer.’61 Then they sat down to pray and during the prayer session the brother understood that it was God who, through all his fear and anxiety, was calling for Tino: There was so much anguish. I thought I would die. And when I thought of death, I thought about what comes after. Hell is not just physical pain, it is also this kind of agony, this kind of mortal dread. And then, through all this, I felt the love of God. How he loved me […] I felt his presence and this feeling came to me. I started crying. Felt his love. How pure it was.62

After this experience Tino’s religious engagement increased. At one of the first meetings he went to after praying with his brother, a woman came up to him and asked if she could pray for him. Tino tells me how she put one hand on his shoulder and the other on his chest and closed her eyes to pray. Then after just a moment she opened her eyes again, looked at him as if struck by a sudden insight and said joyfully: ‘God’s love is so strong in you!’63 Tino describes that acknowledgement as the moment that finally set him on the path of God. After it he started to go to church regularly, he now reads the Bible, speaks in tongues and prays. He is also active in some of the social work among drug addicts and alcoholics that the church organises. His wife has also taken him to see a psychiatrist who prescribed ataractic drugs that reduced the symptoms of his psychological condition.

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Moods for change: techniques of self-suggestion Besides being another example of a story in the salvation genre, the case of Tino illustrates how emotionally charged religious engagement can have the function of creating an alternative to a lifestyle that one seeks to get away from. The emotional tension that Tino’s alcoholism and dishonesty caused called for emotional relief and a new way of life. The religious interpretation of Tino’s situation offered by his brother, and the ritual activity of prayer seem to have helped this to happen. Tino shed tears and felt a strong sensation of being loved by God and he interpreted this experience as an offer of a new Christian life in the Pentecostal community. I believe that it is crucial to understand this capacity to facilitate or change life-orientation that the emotional rituals seems to have if we want to understand Pentecostal ritual life. I will argue that these rituals, when they are successful, can lead to a change of life-orientation even if it is only temporary, and that this is managed through the creation and sustaining of certain moods. I will argue that these rituals, much like other aesthetic expressions, have the ability to generate different frames of mind and to evoke affecting atmospheres. These moods, in their turn, can change individuals by encouraging certain actions and thoughts whilst keeping others away. A prerequisite for this to happen, however, is that there is some sort of determination on the side of the individual. It is the individual who takes the step of going to a meeting or to start praying in the first place. It is, of course, common that the first encounter with the feeling of anointment is described as something that one did not look for consciously. Nevertheless, the stories of salvation still often mention a longing of which one was not aware. ‘I went to the meeting to look at girls,’ says one informant whose story exemplifies this, but then I felt that there was something special going on there, that God was there. […] When the time for people to go up to the podium came, a man came up to me, took my hand and said, ‘I know you want to go up there’. Then I did go up and since that day nothing is like it used to be.64

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It is a voluntary act to join a ritual activity. In order for the ritual to be able to induce a certain mood, the individual has to have some kind of willingness or desire for this to happen. Nevertheless, the moods have the potential to change people’s ways. And they do this by affecting people’s bodily experiences. Emotion is a bodily sensation. There is no emotion that is not felt in the body. Hence, creating emotional moods is largely a matter of manipulating the body, of making oneself and others experience things in a very physical sense. As I have shown previously, it is clear that bodily movement and posture have vital roles in the performance of the Pentecostal repertoire. By standing up, hiding one’s head in one’s hands, clapping, raising one’s arms, shaking the head with closed eyes, jumping, shaking or falling down people communicate their ritual commitment65 to the people standing around them. However, these bodily movements and gestures do not only have a social function. They also serve to internalise the ritual into one’s own body and to help stir the emotions that are desired. The example of a meeting presented at the beginning of this book is very informative in this regard. In this meeting, the preacher is successful in inducing an elated atmosphere and involving everyone in the ritual. He manages to do this by providing a concrete instruction in which he explains to the participants of the meeting how they need to move their bodies in order for the ritual to work. ‘Let us stand up,’ he says, ‘Can we please raise our arms?’, ‘I ask you not to look at the people standing beside you,’ ‘Please raise your voices’.66 These series of directions in a very direct sense brought about the change of atmosphere that the preacher had attempted to create. Listening, singing, movement and posture are all means by which it is possible to simplify one’s own emotional transformation and to steer one’s own feelings so that they will develop in line with what goes on in the ritual at large. These practices are, in other words, techniques of self-suggestion. In order to further understand how they work I will now go on to make use of some concepts formulated by William Reddy. Emotive speech In an essay written in 1992, American anthropologist Vincent Crapanzano notes that there is something special about expressions of emotion in

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the first-person present tense. Utterances like ‘I love you’ or ‘I am very angry’ are similar to performative speech insofar as they bring about a change of the context in which they have been uttered. However, whereas normal performative utterances like ‘I now pronounce you man and wife’ or ‘the meeting is adjourned’ change the social reality around the person who has uttered them, first-person present tense utterances about emotion also, and perhaps primarily, change the emotional status of the speaker. When the phrase ‘I love you’ is uttered, hence, it is not merely an assertion of an emotion that is already present in the speaker, but a part of the performative construction of that emotion. In this way first-person present tense utterances about emotion have a strangely looped self-referentiality that differ from other performatives.67 The British historian William Reddy has developed and conceptualised Crapanzano’s observation. Taking John L. Austin’s Speech Act theory as his starting point,68 he has chosen the word ‘emotives’ to pinpoint the specific characteristic of these ‘first-person present tense emotion claims’. Emotives, Reddy means, constitute a category of speech that falls in-between performative and affirmative speech. In this position it is characterised by three specific qualities. First, it is descriptive and therefore similar to affirmative speech. The truthfulness of emotives, unlike other descriptive utterances, however, can only be verified by non-linguistic observations.69 Second, emotive speech includes a relational intention. It could be an offer of some sort, part of some kind of negotiation or something else. The point is that this kind of utterance is never relationally neutral.70 Third, and this is most important, emotives are self-exploring or selfchanging. This means that they change the emotional state of the speaker who utters them. Hence, when a person says ‘I love you’, this utterance is seen as symptomatic of the speaker’s emotional state. But at the same time it contributes to creating that very emotional state. The emotional effects of the emotives are, however, not always predictable. Sometimes an emotional utterance may have a reversed effect and create a feeling which is opposed to the one uttered. This is what makes it possible to say something and then ‘feel’ if it is true.71 In a way it is possible to see

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the emotives as links between verbalised and bodily levels of experience and meaning. Now, since emotives have this special characteristic, they can be used as tools to change, build, hide or intensify emotions. Individuals and groups, therefore, can make use of emotive speech in order to control their motivations or to steer their engagement in different directions. Reddy labels the endeavour to do this emotional navigation.72 William Reddy is an historian and his theory is developed with the aim of finding a method that can be applied to historical text sources. His categorisations, however, are also useful for the wider study of religious ritual. The usefulness of the concept of performativity for the study of religion is obvious. Words included in religious rituals have often been taken as the most obvious examples of performative speech. When a priest declares a couple to be husband and wife in a wedding ceremony, for instance, the words create an actual change in the social reality of the people involved. But what about emotives? Can William Reddy’s terminology provide any new insights into the Pentecostal rituals focused on in this study? I believe that it can, as first-person present tense utterances about feelings are commonplace at Pentecostal meetings. That people sing or loudly declare, for instance, their love for Jesus is quite expected at these rituals. Of course, William Reddy did not develop his theory with religious emotions in mind. Applying his terminology would mean that religious emotions are studied in the same way as other emotions are. To me, this seems reasonable. Emotional utterances of a person’s ‘love for Jesus’ are likely to have a lot in common, in terms of personal and social function, with expressions of love for another human being. In sociologically oriented research, however, this view has rarely been shared. Religious emotions have instead often been approached as inherent parts of an institutionalised discourse and therefore not ‘real’. A strong dichotomisation of private and ritual emotion has therefore been upheld. As far back as Émile Durkheim, ritualised sorrow was considered to lack real emotion. In a discussion of the ritual weeping of Australian Aboriginals Durkheim himself says: ‘If the relations weep, lament, mutilate themselves, it is not because they feel themselves personally affected

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by the death of their kinsman … [but because] it is a duty imposed by the group.’73 A similar view is expressed by Radcliffe-Brown in his famous work on the Andaman islanders.74 But more recent researchers have also held this view. Stanley Tambiah, for instance, holds that ritual as conventionalised behaviour is not intended to express emotion in a spontaneous or natural manner. If it did, he argues, it would threaten the order that is the most central aspect of ritual.75 Tambiah argues that unlike ordinary acts, which express attitudes and feelings directly, the stereotyped behaviour of ritual expresses attitudes and feelings which are congenial to an ongoing institutionalised intercourse.76 Therefore it should not be understood as a ‘free expression of emotions, but a disciplined rehearsal of “right attitudes”’.77 Certainly, Tambiah has a point here. There is an element of predefinition in religious ritual and the emotions that people express in, for instance, a Pentecostal meeting, are almost always exactly those that are expected. On the other hand, the emotions of our non-religious everyday lives are also expressed in accordance with predefined scripts. Our gender, age and societal status each have a strong impact on the way we can and will express emotions in all contexts during our lives, not only in religious ones. Hence, a clear demarcation between ritual and non-ritual emotion seems difficult to uphold. Let us thus return to William Reddy and the emotives uttered at Pentecostal meetings. There can be no doubt that spoken declarations of one’s love for Jesus are emotive in character. Such utterances are descriptive, relational and set in a context focused on self-change. They thus fulfil all the criteria for emotive speech. But to become interesting and relevant for the study of ritual, Reddy’s concept needs to be widened. It seems a bit incomplete to restrict the category of emotives to spoken firstperson present tense utterances. It is not only by actually saying that one loves Jesus that one can experience the emotive self-changing effects that Reddy describes. By expressing this love through physical gestures, song, body movements, facial expressions or even through inner visualisations it is, arguably, possible to get the emotive self-changing effect. Indeed, if the emotional expressions of Pentecostalism at large are seen as emotives, then the religious activity of Pentecostal adherents can be

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approached as examples of the emotional navigation that Reddy speaks of. And this, I believe, is where his terminology becomes most relevant for the study of religion. As humans we form and express our way of being in the world through a constant process of interpretation of different experiences. In our lives we are stuck between different levels of experience and we constantly need to negotiate between these. In doing so we may discover that all levels of experience do not combine smoothly. Our intentions and motivations on one level may lead away from what we have decided on another. Most people, I suppose, experience this kind of internal interest-conflict quite regularly. For instance, when we have to get up in the morning or when we fail to behave towards others and ourselves in the ways we want to. As the case of Tino exemplifies, many Kaale Roma find themselves in very problematic and complicated life situations. There is plenty of alcoholism or drug abuse and many people lead lives that are so destructive that they, quite literally, are on a path to their ruin. In such situations, a dramatic change of direction is necessary. It is also necessary to stick to the choice of direction that one has made. This, as anyone with the slightest experience of alcoholism will know, is not always easy. Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) once defined the relation between thought and desire with the following words: For the thoughts are to the desires as scouts and spies to range abroad and find the way to the things desired, all steadiness of the mind’s motion, and all quickness of the same, proceeding from thence.78

For Hobbes human behaviour is governed by emotions, and thoughts primarily serve to find rational arguments and worthy excuses to do whatever it is one desired in the first place. If Hobbes is right, anyone who truly wants to change the direction of their life must seek ways to alter his or her emotions. Emotive speech and action provide a means to do exactly this. It thereby offers a method that can help people stick to a chosen path of behaviour. By changing, building, hiding or intensifying emotions and moods, emotives can help in encouraging certain behaviours and rejecting others.

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Let me now move on to the next step in my analysis of emotional rituals by introducing the notion of emotional association. Emotional association The concept of emotional association refers to another strategy by which ritual participants can suggest themselves into emotional movement and thereby make the ritual become personally meaningful. First of all, it seems reasonable to claim that a sermon or a prayer has to be somehow intimate in order to touch the heart of an individual. In some ways it must connect to heartfelt and private aspects of that individual to work. Rituals to which a participant has no personal relation will not do the job. On the contrary, an outsider who attends a strongly emotionally charged religious ritual is most likely to feel alienated, uncomfortable or even scared or disgusted. At best the rituals that go on may seem exotic or interesting on an intellectual level. But unless some personal connection is made they will never really sink in. The reception of the Christian Passion story may serve as a very good illustration to this. Needless to say, this story is immensely charged with emotion. The iconic scenes of Gethsemane, the crucifixion, the empty grave and so on, are very powerful to many Christians. For them, these stories reflect some of the most central themes and values in their lives. However, in order to fully appreciate the story about the atoning sacrifice of Christ, for instance, one has to have a personal relation to it. It is helpful to know something about the cosmological prologue that precedes this core event – the Fall of Man, the flood, the irreconcilable rift between God and humankind, the significance of Christ’s sacrifice – but, more importantly, one has to identify with the story. That is, one has to feel that it concerns one’s own life in a very direct sense so that the sacrifice of Christ is understood and emotionally appreciated as a sacrifice for oneself. The tormenting awareness that a sinful life will truly lead to eternal damnation is especially important here. For many practising Christians these feelings are not unfamiliar at all; on the contrary, such emotional responses have been a natural part of their primary socialisation. However, for people without a Christian upbringing, the Christian myths are not necessarily more emotionally

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charged than other stories. For such people, these stories, or the rituals built around them, will be much less likely to have an emotional effect since there is no connection to their own worldviews, identities or biographies. There might of course be examples of preachers who manage to make the Christian story touch even the hearts of people who have never heard about it before. Generally, however, I believe it is safe to say that the emotional rituals often have to be integrated into the life-world of the individual in order to work. The Christian motifs and narratives, therefore, have to become subjectified or, if you will, believed, in order to have the desired effect on the people who attend them. Clifford Geertz’s classical analysis of religion as a symbolic system that gives plausible answers to existential questions may come in handy here. In Geertz’s view religious rituals at best have the capacity to combine people’s rational understanding of the world, their worldview, with their aesthetic and emotional understating of it, their ethos. If this happens, the worldview is strengthened by the emotional endorsement that it gets, at the same time as the worldview legitimises emotional experiences.79 To make emotional rituals work, then, participants have to find some kind of connection that makes them become intimate; some kind of link that makes the stories and discussions proclaimed from the podium or pulpit concern their own situations, or something with which they can identify. Emotional association is a means to make this happen. Emotional association is the process through which the ideas of one set of stories and practices are connected to an intimate and emotionally charged problem in one’s life. The result of this connection is twofold. First, the set of stories and practices are charged with the emotional intensity of the chosen personal problem. Second, it becomes possible to express and find an outlet for the chosen personal problem through the stories and practices. In the Pentecostal rituals that I have studied it appears as if connections caused by emotional associations of this sort often precede the spectacular sensation of anointment. Let me now go on to give some concrete examples of how this happens.

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A necessary prerequisite for an emotional association to take place is, of course, that people have emotionally charged problems that need an outlet. Most people it seems have such problems at some point in their lives. Among the Roma discussed in this study, they are often manifold. As already mentioned, many who come to the meetings are dealing with difficulties in their everyday lives. Sickness, poverty and unemployment are widespread and as I have shown in the previous chapters many carry feelings of self-contempt, guilt, anxiety and impurity. There are also many examples of people who come to the church with sadness or worries caused by loss of a close relative or other tangible personal problems. One of the informants was not able to connect to the Pentecostal message until his wife got lethally ill: When Rosa was pregnant she got very sick and that was the turning point for me. ‘What if she dies?’ I thought. How heartless I have been. If someone is going to die in this house it should be me, me and my sinful life, all the bad things that I did. Then I told God, silently to myself, ‘God, what am I doing? Forgive my rigidity.’ That was the turning point.80

In order for the turning point to come, the Pentecostal stories and practices have to be connected to personal heartfelt experiences, as they seem to have become in this example. The message of divine love, redemption and forgiveness has to be connected to personal experiences of failure, insufficiency or guilt. It is only when an emotional understanding that ‘this actually concerns me’ develops that the person will be moved by the message and the ritual practices become meaningful. Conclusions: an emotion-oriented approach to ritual In this chapter I have discussed the role of emotions in Pentecostal rituals. I have shown how emotions on a social level can be construed as the performance of set repertoires, the success of which is measured in the atmosphere that is created in the group. On an individual level I have discussed emotional rituals as techniques to bring about personal change. I have presented and analysed different means by which preachers and participants can suggest themselves and others into emotional

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states that, in their belief, can help bring about such change. In the next chapter I will discuss the effects that these emotional conversion experiences have on everyday life. In conclusion it may be said that this chapter has proposed a certain perspective or approach to the scholarly enquiry into emotional rituals. By focusing on the moods and emotions that the rituals can induce, rather than their verbalised content or visual execution, a different image of their function and meaning appears. These rituals, then, are not only the physical expressions of a set of beliefs, neither are they empty gestures or mere institutions with the purpose of upholding social hierarchies. Instead, the function and meaning that emerge if the rituals are approached from the emotion-oriented perspective is that of social and personal transformation. The rituals constitute a means for change. By focusing upon this aspect of emotional religiosity I wish to emphasise the individual agency of my informants. Furthermore, strong engagement in congregational religiosity can in this way be interpreted as an expression of individual self-control. An individual can choose to situate him- or herself in the ritualised and emotion-saturated situation of a Pentecostal meeting in order to help him- or herself to stay on a certain path in life. To choose this method of emotional navigation is not essentially different from choosing different, profane ones. Pentecostal and other emotional religious rituals, therefore, need to be approached, not only as imposed modes of conduct, but also as expressions of individuals’ struggle with the ambiguous and incongruent existential condition that is common to all humans, religious or not. If this aspect is approached as a dominant meaning or function of ritual, it may be expanded to other aspects of religiosity as well. In this chapter religious beliefs or ideological opinions have not been discussed. But these are of course also important components in what it means to be Pentecostal. Besides believing the central theological dogma of their church, many of the informants also have opinions on Darwinism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the causes for global warming. Holding these ideas are not necessary elements of a Pentecostal identity, but they do add up to the general picture of being loyal to the cause. Just like performing the rituals may call for a certain suspension of disbelief,

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then, holding these ideas may well be a means of sustaining the pious mood and demonstrating, to oneself and to others, that one is on the right path. In this way the emotion-oriented approach may shed light on meaning, function and agency in not only ritual but also individual religiosity in general.

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5 Staying on the Path

‘Yesterday, when I had come back home and was just about to sleep, I received some very powerful words from God.’ It is Leif, a middle-aged Kaale man with an impressive posture, who has stepped up to the podium to witness at the end of a meeting. His eyes are downcast and he clears his throat before conveying the prophetic words that he has received: We Finnish Roma, we have this harsh culture that we have. And I feel, in this moment, that the time is ripe for us to remove these thoughts and put the love of Jesus Christ there instead. All those things that we have been ready to sacrifice for this culture, that we have been holding on to so strongly. We should hold on as strongly to the love of God.

Leif goes on to tell the story of his own salvation and anointment. With his eyes still downcast, he tells the crowd about the prosperities and adversities that he has gone through since he gave his life to God. The story leads up to his new insights about the Kaale Romani culture. ‘Some things have to die before we can come close to Jesus Christ,’ Leif says, his voice now trembling with nervousness and emotion. ‘Many of these cultural things hinder us,’ he continues, ‘we have to make the choice of whether to stick to our customs or to hold on to the word of Jesus Christ.’ With tears rolling down his cheeks, Leif then stumblingly tells the story of his own tragedy: When parents separate and go in different directions, and the children are left behind, when one starts using the children as tokens in one’s own

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conflicts. For ten years I held on to the culture rigorously. Where did it lead me? To broken-heartedness! My two children left me. Word by word I went through what the Bible says: ‘the brother shall betray the brother and children shall rise up against their parents.’1

Leif goes on to witness to how the love of God has helped him to change his life. He started working with the congregation and living a better life. Eventually, he tells the congregation, his efforts, thanks to the grace of God, bore fruit. ‘Yesterday,’ he tells the crowd, which is now praying loudly and speaking in tongues in support of his powerful testimony, my daughter called me. For a full year I have had no contact with her. But now she called me and I got the chance to ask for her forgiveness. My child. O Jesus. […] Jesus is close to those who have broken hearts.2

Leif ’s witnessing follows the narrative structure repeated in most life stories that are presented from the podium in Pentecostal churches. It is the story of personal failure and the redemption and change brought about by the love of God. Unlike most witnessings of this story in gaje churches, however, Leif ’s version is also connected to the specific ethnic context of the Roma. In Chapter 3, the problematic situation of Roma in Swedish society was presented. The situation of many Kaale Roma in particular was described as a deadlock in which individuals get caught between the incommensurable demands of mainstream society on one hand and the Roma community on the other. In Chapter 4, I showed how the strongly emotional rituals of the Pentecostal revival provide a language and a method by which this impossible situation can be articulated and dealt with. In this chapter I will move one step further and focus on the consequences of Pentecostalism for Kaale Roma in Sweden. I want to discuss the consequences of Pentecostalism for the social situation of the Roma. I also want to discuss how the individual’s faith develops once the music has stopped and the elated atmosphere of the meetings has faded away. In doing this I want to address the question of whether Pentecostalism indeed has the beneficial effects that are often ascribed to it. I will take the story of Leif, and to certain extent that of his wife Miranda, as my starting point for the discussion.

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The story of Miranda and Leif On a sunny April morning I visit Leif and Miranda in their suburban apartment. They live on the first floor of a red brick three-storey building. The suburb in which they live is calm and close to nature. Leif and Miranda both like it, although they do not interact much with the neighbours. ‘That is just the way it has come to be,’ Miranda tells me as Leif puts on some coffee and asks me to take a seat by the table. It is quite early still and the children have not had their breakfast yet. Miranda pours milk and cereal in two bowls and brings it to them. Since I am there they will have their breakfast on the leather sofas by the television this morning. Both Miranda and Leif are born-again Pentecostals. Since Leif ’s strong testimony I met with them in the church and at various tent meetings and have got to know them a little. I visited their home in order to ask them about what it is like to be Christian in everyday life. What happens to the passionate emotions of the meetings when one returns to the ordinary hassles of the daily routines? Will the high ideals of the Sunday sermons collide with the real life challenges of schooling, economy and unemployment? Both Miranda and Leif live on social security and public health insurance. Miranda has some problems with high blood pressure and Leif has a bad back. But being officially disabled does not mean that they have nothing to do. Leif in particular lives a very active life. He helps out with the sound system in the church when he is needed and he also has some business going on here and there, mostly connected to selling and buying cars. The religious story of their family follows a pattern that is common among not only the Romani Pentecostals, but also among Christian revivalists in general. It is the story of a pious woman who over the years manages to bring her spouse to the faith as well. In this family, Miranda was the first to accept Jesus. ‘I have known Jesus my whole life,’ she tells me. She had an aunt who was Christian, but besides that Miranda was the only one in her family. ‘When I was ten years old I prayed to God that my parents would be saved,’ she says, ‘it took so many years but finally they came and now all of us are saved except one of my brothers.’

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In her new family with Leif and their two children, Miranda was again the first to know Jesus. Leif was sceptical about a full commitment at first and was not anointed until a few years ago. But the Pentecostal church has nevertheless been a big part of his life for a long time. Leif ’s story Leif was born in Sweden and lived first with his grandmother in a different city further north in the country. They left for Stockholm when Leif was still a small boy and moved around between different suburbs for a few years before settling down in the area where Leif and Miranda still live today. Leif remembers his childhood as reasonably happy. There were many non-Swedish immigrant groups in the suburbs where he lived, so being a Rom was not specifically stigmatised. However, in sixth grade going to school started to feel a bit uncomfortable and in eighth grade he dropped out with the rest of the Romani kids. Leif ’s grandmother was a Pentecostal Christian and, for as long as he can remember, Leif has believed in God. After he left school he soon entered into a relationship and started a family of his own. He was very young at that time and the marriage did not last long. After his second daughter was born his wife moved to Finland and left him alone with the small children in Sweden. Being the single parent of small children was not easy. Leif was lonely and in need of company and support. At that time he started to visit the Pentecostal church whenever the other local Roma went there. Leif was not a born-again Christian or a particularly enthusiastic believer, but religion, as he puts it, was always there in the background somehow. ‘When I was with my friends I didn’t think much about it,’ he says, ‘but then, when you are with yourself in your loneliness you start to long for something in that direction.’ For many years, Leif attended the church twice every week, without being anointed. He went there to meet other people, because he had nothing better to do and because he could sometimes help out with the sound technology. When he thinks back to that period, he tells me that although he did not take the step to complete anointment in those days, he used to feel something when he attended the services. ‘When the meetings came to the point where they ask people who want to be saved to come to

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the podium I used to leave the room to go and sit in the corridor,’ he says. ‘There was something there and it felt good, but I felt that I was too young. “When I get older,” I told myself, “I will go up there.”’ For ten years Leif felt something ‘stir his heart’ at every meeting, and for ten years he suppressed the feelings by means of, as he sees it, his own mind. When I ask him why he stopped the feelings from developing, he tells me that he was afraid to have to change his lifestyle in the way being born again entails. He wanted to be with his friends outside the church and was scared of being lonely or ridiculed if he were to go all the way with his religious emotions. The anointment Then something happened. One day Leif did not feel as strongly as he had used to where he sat at the back of the meeting hall. The emotional stir that had followed him through ten years of regular church attendance was suddenly gone. The music and the sermons seemed to have lost their power over him. He was not particularly touched by them anymore. Instead he felt ‘cool and indifferent’. This new development worried him. He attended a few more meetings but the emotions did not come back. ‘The thoughts began to spin in my head,’ he tells me, ‘what if my “period of application” has ran out?’ Leif started to fear that God had given up on him. He feared that he was about to forfeit his chance of getting saved at all. Soon this fear and the agony that it created grew into what he now calls a personal crisis. His mind kept spinning around these thoughts and fears. The feeling of having wasted his chance to salvation grew on him; it led to feelings of anxiety and fear of death. He did not speak to anyone about the inner turmoil that he was going through. Eventually, however, it led to the breaking point that he now remembers as ‘the night when I got saved’. As Miranda refills our coffee cups by the kitchen table, he tells me about it: Then there came a night which was the longest night of my life. At first I started to feel different things. I couldn’t sleep. The thoughts just came over me stronger and stronger and stronger. I was lying here at home in the bed. You know, it was the synnintuska (the torment of sin) that fell over me, feelings of guilt. So strong I could hardly breath. It came so strongly. I could

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hardly believe it. But I decided there and then that I wanted to be saved. I kneeled down by the bed [and prayed]: ‘if there is still a chance for me to get saved I want to be that now’.

The next day there was a meeting in the church and when the time for going to the podium came, Leif got up and went up there. It was difficult to find the strength to stand up and walk the many steps down the aisle. But when Leif finally did, it felt as if a heavy burden had fallen from his shoulders. ‘You cannot describe what it is like,’ he tells me, ‘it was just such a wonderful relief.’ Since that day Leif has considered himself saved. He continued to attend the church the way he had used to. But now things were different. In the beginning, he tells me, he was ‘like a sponge in a bucket of water’. He absorbed everything Christian he could get hold of with elated enthusiasm. Suddenly the words of the preacher felt real in a way that they had never done before. ‘I felt that he spoke directly to me. That the words mirrored my own life in a direct sense,’ Leif says as he laughs about the almost reckless intensity that characterised his first period as a born-again Christian. The same words and stories that he had listened to for ten years suddenly became meaningful in a way that he had not anticipated. He started to read the Bible on his own, to pray and to change his lifestyle. Soon he was also baptised in the local Pentecostal church in front of the whole congregation. He did not stop seeing his old friends but his relation to them became different. I could hang out with them when they were drinking and all. But I got an enormous strength from God. I could sit beside them without drinking. I saw what they were doing with different eyes. I could see how they would get some pleasure out of what they did for a short while but that that pleasure would not last and how they would wake up all sick in the morning.

Leif also managed to stop smoking after some time. He had been smoking since his early teens so that was quite an achievement and a proof of the strength of his commitment to his new life. Altogether these changes gave him a good standing in the church and he even began to sing with

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the choir at the meetings. All in all, his life was developing in a way he could not have hoped for. Dropping out But nothing lasts forever. When Leif thinks back to the period after his first anointment, he feels that he rushed it. ‘It is better to go slowly,’ he tells me, for I have noticed that when I have advanced straight up to the top at once, I have also fallen all the way down and landed with a ‘smack’ right down on the same level where I used to be.

Leif ’s new life soon met some severe challenges. ‘Some people have an easy road to follow and others have a more difficult one,’ he explains to me as our conversation moves on to the next difficult period in his life, ‘as for myself, I was given a trial so hard it swept my legs from under me and sent me crashing down.’ Leif had two daughters from his first marriage. Their mother had left the family when the girls were small and Leif had taken primary responsibility for their upbringing. One day when Leif was at the height of his new Christian living, the daughters told him that they wanted to leave him and move in with their mother in Finland. Leif could not bear to hear this. He could not understand how they could reject him like this after all that he had done for them. Moreover, the daughters’ decision brought back all the tormenting feelings that he had suffered when his first wife had left him. There had been a juridical dispute in those days, it was very harrowing and Leif had done and said things that he did not want to think about anymore. The daughters’ decision to move forced him to face parts of his history and his personality that he had hoped to leave behind for good. You know, we had one of those family disputes. It was a long never-ending process. I was not saved back then and there were many things that hindered me. I was so rigid in my principles and all that. All this came back to me and I prayed: ‘no, no, no, oh my God, why do I have to enter that area again?’

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The daughters’ decision became a severe blow to Leif ’s religious commitment. It caused him to back away from God and to turn back to his old self. He stopped attending the church regularly and started smoking again. As for his daughters, he considered them traitors when they decided to move without his permission or blessing. Eventually the conflict got so out of hand that they broke contact with him. So Leif ’s children broke with Leif and therefore Leif broke with Jesus. In the way he speaks about it today, one big problem was that he held on too strongly to what he now sees as certain negative sides of Romani culture; having conflicts, hatred and longing for revenge. It was a terrible period for him. As he describes it, he was tormented by anger, hate, jealousy and other destructive feelings that he could not escape from. He took his refuge in what he at that time felt to be traditional Kaale Romani principles and in the firm assertion that he was right and that he had been mistreated and deceived. Today he still feels that he was right in principle but nevertheless he has come to assess what happened in a different way. Returning to the grace A year passed in which Leif had no contact with his daughters. ‘When I was in it I could not think clearly,’ he tells me, but then, as he describes it, Jesus slowly returned to his life. Not in a dramatic way this time, but slowly and gradually like a silent love that step by step wears down hate and stubbornness. Slowly, so slowly, I started to understand that this may be God’s will. God wants to heal all hearts. He wants all these sad memories and wounds to be healed so that you get a whole and healed heart. He wants you to have a whole heart before he can send you out. How can you preach that one shall forgive everyone if you have not forgiven in your own heart?

Leif began to feel that God wanted to heal him and teach him something through the harrowing conflict that he had had to go through. ‘There was a meaning in those trials,’ he tells me as we talk about it at his and Miranda’s kitchen table. The meaning, as he sees it, was to make him stronger and to teach him to trust in God’s love. ‘I relied on my own

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strength in this matter,’ he says, ‘but my own strength got me nowhere! All the challenges came so that I should learn that I am truly dependent on God.’ Slowly, Leif ’s anger and indignation started to wear off and although he still struggles with these feelings, he came to a point where he felt that he was ready to forgive his daughters. Some time after that his daughters called him from Finland. It took more than a year but eventually we spoke on the phone and then I met them. And then I told them that, you know, everything is forgiven. Since then things have been easier. They still live in Finland but we have a more open contact and there is no conflict. Now we will have to let it take the time it takes for our relationship to recover.

The day after their phone conversation and reconciliation, Leif gave his testimony at the tent meeting. He was then overwhelmed and relieved about the fact that his relationship with his children had begun to recover. Today, like then, he thinks of his reconciliation with his daughters as the work of God’s love. We humans are egotists and full of principles. We think ‘why should I say I am sorry?’ Forgiveness happens only with the help of God. God gives love and it is because of that love that everything happens. Nothing works without love. Hate makes nothing happen and the opposite of that is love. Love makes everything work. You know: ‘the greatest of these is love.’3

Being able to forgive his daughters was for Leif connected to a return to his Christian life, it was a turning back to Jesus and to the salvation that he had accepted by his bedside with such emotion during that long night a few years earlier. But this time his acceptance of Jesus was not as dramatic or unambiguous as it had been the first time. Leif describes it more like an ongoing struggle between the flesh and the Holy Spirit. It goes on and on without clear-cut borders between joy and despair. ‘I had to [forgive the children] to be able to move on,’ he tells me. ‘I could not proceed with my spiritual development because this was holding me down.’

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A faltering journey Today, Leif is back in the church. He goes there regularly and has some responsibility for the music equipment. When we meet he has stopped smoking again and has managed to hold up for a couple of weeks. But despite his revitalised engagement, he is not as sure of himself as he used to be. There are many things he has to attend to and sometimes he does not really have time for religion. ‘I am in one of those downswings,’ he tells me. He does not read the Bible regularly anymore and he has stopped praying. He thinks that the natural thing to do, if he would want to develop his spirituality further, would be to attend a Bible school. But he feels that he is not ready for that yet. He just cannot find the willingness in his heart to make the effort it would take. Instead he is happy to just hold on to his faith and take life as it comes, day by day. ‘I say to myself, now I have won this day. That is good; let’s try one more. Then the next day comes and I survive that one as well.’ Marked by his conflict with the daughters, Leif has developed a Christianity without personal pretensions or high hopes placed on anything but the grace of God. Not a day passes without me committing sins. But it is only the grace of God that can rinse my sins away. I am a vulnerable human who falters all the time. But I tell myself that it is better to falter than to not believe at all.

Leif admits that being away from the church has changed his religious sensibility. If one stops praying and reading the Bible, the link to God may be disturbed, he explains. And that in its turn can make the religious fervour cool down. ‘Then Satan comes and whispers in your ear: “what is the purpose of you being saved at all? Why don’t you just leave it?”’ Leif has been tempted to abandon his salvation again on several occasions but so far it has not happened. Now, Leif ’s story is unique and special. At the same time it contains many elements that often recur in the interviews conducted for this study. In many ways Leif ’s personal situation is therefore representative of the Pentecostal life of Kaale Roma in general. For this reason I have chosen to make it the primary example for a discussion on the religious life of this group. In the following pages I will discuss some of its most significant characteristics. Before doing that, however, let me say

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something brief about the expectations of the religious life expressed by the leaders of the congregations. A promise of change The Pentecostal message holds a strong promise of change. ‘Give your life to the living God,’ the preachers promise, ‘and your life will be transformed.’ In the understanding of the preachers, this does not mean that one can sit back and continue with one’s life the way one used to. ‘We should come to Jesus as we are,’ one of them asserts, ‘but when he has received us, we have to acknowledge him as our Saviour and as our master. This means to follow his teachings.’4 The emotionally overwhelming experience of being anointed in a meeting, therefore, should only be the first step of a more profound transformation of one’s personality. ‘The Holy Spirit,’ one preacher tells me, ‘does not only help us speak in tongues, as many seem to believe, but more importantly he helps us to live and to change.’ According to the pastors, this means that Jesus challenges people, not only to come to the meetings and make some symbolic changes of lifestyle but also to actually change the way they are and to deal with their problems of pride, selfishness, irreconcilability or whatever. ‘The grace of God,’ one preacher says with reference to the Letter to Titus 2: 11–12, ‘teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly desires and to live decent, righteous and god-fearing lives in our time.’5 The gaje preachers interviewed for this study especially emphasise that the Christian community should be a place where people are allowed to come as they are. ‘The church should not be a place where already perfect saints are put on display,’ one gaje minister puts it, ‘rather, it should be a workshop in which we work together in mutual support.’6 Miracles for support There are many stories about how God miraculously intervenes in people’s lives once they have taken the step of giving themselves to him. A majority of the born-again informants tell me that they have experienced divine intervention in support of their choice. Sometimes it is primarily an emotional experience of divine support but quite often

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people have experienced that they have been helped in a very concrete sense. One man, who got a job in the church after his anointment, experienced this to be a clear sign of divine intervention. ‘God has his ways,’ he told me, ‘he saw my heart opening and how I made progress so he took care of me. Everything is in his hands and one has to trust on this.’7 Others have even more concrete stories of divine support for their piety. Maria, a 30-year-old Kaale believer, tells me a fantastic story of how God helped her once she had given her life to him: My economy [financial situation] was completely finished […] so I went out on the balcony and said ‘God’, just simply like this, ‘I don’t have any money now, do something’. Then I heard a voice: ‘it won’t take long, within twenty minutes you will have money’ and I trusted these words that I had heard. And everyone laughed at me. My husband laughed at me, ‘what are you talking about? Getting money, will someone come here and hand us money?’ Then suddenly I got a check in the mailbox with six thousand, six thousand! My husband just jumped.8

Maria’s is one of many fantastic stories of how God helps those who have committed themselves to him. As these examples show, a recurring component in these stories is the emphasis on the importance of trusting God’s promises to help. Living up to the ideal: pentecostalism and social change Now, having great ideals is one thing and living up to them in everyday life is another. Let me therefore move on to say something about the effects that being anointed has on the real life situations of the Pentecostal Kaale Roma interviewed for this study. As is hardly surprising, the picture here is very varied and diverse. There are many instances in which being anointed really seems to have had thoroughly life-changing effects, but there are also many examples of the opposite. The ministers and active Pentecostals that I have interviewed have all insisted that being born again has a definitive effect on people.9 However, coming from the proponents of the movement, this understanding can hardly be seen as a neutral assessment of the impact

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of Pentecostalism. There are also, however, many who are not themselves involved in the movement who claim that being born again has a strong effect on people’s lives. Many scholars who have studied the Romani Pentecostal revival in other parts of the world have come to such a conclusion.10 In my material there are also many positive assessments from outsiders. For instance, many social workers tell me that the reliability of Kaale Roma clients increase if they have been born again.11 Let me now move on to discuss some specific instances of change in more depth. I will begin with changes related to the social situation of Roma and continue with those that occur on an individual level. As I have shown in Chapter 3, the societal marginalisation of Kaale Roma in Sweden is undeniable. On all measurable levels the members of this group are found at the fringes of society. Their health situation, literacy, employment rate and participation in decision-making all score below or far below the national average. Their situation can be described as a deadlock between cultural integrity and the demands of the majority society and they are in dire need of realistic strategies that could help them find a way out of the situation. Among the Romani people interviewed for this study there seems to be a broad agreement that what is needed is an improvement of their social and financial status that is not implemented at the cost of cultural integrity. An unrivalled gathering point Arguably, the Pentecostal movement is so far the only institution that has managed to successfully provide a platform for such social change. Pentecostalism has always been a religion revolving around upward social mobility and Charismatic movements like Pentecostalism have often been a way to revitalise Christianity for ordinary people.12 The great awakenings in North America in the 1740s, in London in 1831 or in Keswick in the 1870s are only a few examples of this.13 Among the Kaale informants, all agree that the church is the most natural meeting place for Roma. When I have asked specifically, some have mentioned youth recreation centres as alternative places for young Roma to spend their time. There are also some national Romani organisations that could be mentioned. But the informants of this study all feel for one

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reason or another that these alternatives are more problematic than the Pentecostal church. ‘The [Pentecostal] congregations have always been the number one place for hanging out and meeting other Roma,’14 one informant has it and many others would agree. The story of Leif also illustrates this point. For ten years he attended the church regularly to meet others and to have a context to belong to, and that was before he became an active believer himself. For him and Miranda, there is not, and has never been, any other public place – school, workplace or organisation – in which they would feel more at home. The Pentecostal church, therefore, is unrivalled as a public institution that gathers and unites Kaale Roma in Sweden. The church and integration The fact that the church manages to gather Roma together does not necessarily mean that it improves their social status or helps to prevent discrimination. However, in the material gathered for this study there are some clear indications that this is the case. There are two important reasons for this. First of all, the Pentecostal church is in itself a place that is felt to be friendly and anti-racist. ‘For God everyone is alike,’ one informant tells me when I ask her about this.15 The welcoming attitude of the Pentecostal churches, furthermore, is often compared favourably to the other major churches that are often associated with the discrimination and oppression of the past. The Kaale particularly blame the Lutheran former state church. ‘If you go back in history,’ one informant expresses it, ‘it was because of the Swedish church that we were not allowed to go to school and all these things.’16 The major churches are here associated to Swedish majority culture in general and thus also associated with its anti-Ziganist history. The independent status of the Pentecostal church, therefore, seems to simplify the Roma’s association with it by allowing them to maintain a stance critical of the church and state of the majority. Second, the Pentecostal churches constantly offer opportunities for interaction between Roma and gaje. The Finnish-speaking Kaale will usually attend services because of the language they are held in rather than because they are directed specifically at Roma. This means that the

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most frequently church-attending Roma will meet gaje Finns in a friendly environment on at least a weekly basis. Since the Finnish-speaking ministers, with whom the members of the congregation often have close contact, are often gaje there will also be opportunities for close relationships and friendships to develop. The Pentecostal congregations, therefore, are, or at least have the potential to be, milieux for integration between Roma and other segments of the population. It should be noted, however, that despite this significant potential, most informants of this study state that they have not made close friends with any non-Roma members of their congregation. They are acquainted with and friendly to each other but to speak of friendship would be to exaggerate. This kind of statement is confirmed by the gaje preachers who often complain about the fact that the Roma and the gaje communities in their congregations never really seem to mix the way they had hoped for. So, by virtue of their structure alone, the congregations provide a platform for integration that then may be more or less utilised by its members. In addition to this, it should be mentioned that some congregations have worked more actively to promote integration. According to some reports, discussion groups in which people can talk about integration have been arranged on a few occasions and some Pentecostals have also participated in special courses about multiculturalism and dialogue, the purpose of which has been to change people’s attitudes to minorities.17 Moreover, there is an ambition among Pentecostal leaders to function as assets to Romani people who need other kinds of help in relation to the majority society. For instance, some Pentecostal leaders have helped their congregation members to negotiate with landlords or in connection to court trials. There is also an explicit ambition to provide support for people in dealing with the social security offices. According to some sources, these ambitions have been realised in a few instances.18 The church, education and employment When it comes to education, the general Pentecostal attitude is felt by many Roma to be school-friendly. Some congregations have offered basic

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educational courses directed to Roma children and adults.19 According to many interviews, becoming Pentecostal is associated with getting an organised life, and part of this ideal involves being educated and, if possible, having a proper job. The churches generally encourage efforts to study or work. In some places there are groups working with handicrafts that are sold in collaboration with the Red Cross.20 Whether being Pentecostal actually makes it easier to get a job or not is a matter of dispute. Some informants assert with confidence that such is the case. ‘When you get saved the old life disappears,’ one Finnish gaje preacher tells me. Then thoughts of getting an education and a profession and so on come naturally. Then when you tell the employers that you are a bornagain Pentecostal it is really like something to put on the mantelpiece21 because they will know that you are a decent person. It makes a great difference.22

At the same time, the unemployment rate of the Pentecostal Roma sampled for this study indicates that this picture is somewhat optimistic. Resisting crime In the material gathered for this study, there are many stories about how a Pentecostal engagement helps people in resisting the temptation of committing crime. Such stories are frequently told from the podium during meetings and many informants also bear witness to having been able to refrain from doing illegal things because of their religiosity. Dimitri, a young Kaale Pentecostal, tells me the following story: You know what kind of temptation I got three days ago? I was offered to earn 300,000 crowns. I had to do this thing but it wasn’t honest. I was about to go there but then just before, when we were at home praying, I started to feel that it was not right. It was a temptation but God is much more important than money.23

Angela, a young Kalderash woman, who attends the same class as some of the Kaale informants, has a similar story in which her inability to resist the temptation has some direct consequences:

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My uncle brought me a bag full of clothes and it was really high fashion clothes, but they were stolen you know. Not that he had stolen them but someone else had and he had bought them. I know it was a temptation and that I should not have taken them because they were stolen, but you should have seen them! The most beautiful sweaters and some really, really nice tops and some of it was Kookai and that is like one of the best brands there is. Imagine! I just wanted to have it so I took it. But then, ask me if I have even one sweater left today! They are all gone. If you receive stolen things it will disappear because there is no blessing on it.24

The notion that money received without blessing upon it will disappear seems to be widespread among the informants of this study. Since only honestly gained resources are blessed by God, it is only these that will actually bring wealth to your life. Maybe this belief works as an additional incitement to lead honest lives once one has committed one’s life to God. Most born-again informants testify that they have started living more lawful lives after their conversion, at least for a period, and many external sources confirm such a picture. The Swedish police, for instance, assert that the free churches are exceptionally important partners in their endeavour to combat criminality among the Roma. The Pentecostal churches are, according to one report, supposed to do especially important work by visiting Romani convicts in prison and thereby preventing them from falling back into crime after their release.25 Drugs Fighting drug abuse, and especially alcoholism, has been one of the trademarks of Pentecostal revivalism since its beginning. In Sweden the Pentecostals are largely connected to the temperance movement and the Christian lifestyle that they propagate has often been seen as the alternative to the alcohol-consuming routines of popular culture.26 The Romani Pentecostals are no exception. In more or less all interviews conducted for the present study, the function of drug-prevention is brought up as absolutely central to the movement. Becoming Christian, it is often stated, is connected to stopping drinking alcohol or consuming other drugs. ‘The personal decision to follow Jesus,’ one preacher tells me,

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means a decision to say no to certain things. If you are an alcoholic, you cannot even step on a cork without falling back again. You need to decide that you will never ever drink again. And if you do so, the Lord will help you.27

When asked how Pentecostalism has changed the Kaale Roma community in Sweden, many will highlight the way it has restrained alcoholism and drug abuse as its foremost and most profound impact.28 ‘The movement has really managed to put a brake on many of these things,’ a senior and highly respected member of one congregation tells me on one meeting, ‘we have got people here who used to be real junkies and inject heroin. Now they are standing there preaching the word of God.’29 Swedish anthropologist Göran Johansson, who has written a report on drugprevention among Roma, comes to a similar conclusion. He argues that greater success in the treatment of drug abuse in the community is a consequence of its members’ adherence to the Christian message.30 The Pentecostal figurative language is also full of metaphors that stress the dangers of alcohol in particular. ‘Liquor is the blood of the Devil,’31 one informant tells me. ‘If you drink you will get caught up in chains of liquor (viinaketjut). All things evil will come from the devil if you do ungodly things. Liquor is not from God.’32 Many of the people who are engaged in the congregations also work actively with young people who are at risk of getting caught in drug addiction. The Pentecostal churches at times arrange groups where people can discuss the dangers of drugs;33 many endeavour to help individuals with addiction problems and there are small teams of Romani Pentecostals who evangelise among young drug-taking Roma in the city centre on weekend nights.34 Smoking One habit that is very often brought up in the interviews is that of smoking tobacco. It is no exaggeration to say that an overwhelming majority of Kaale Roma either smoke or have smoked before. Among the Kaale informants of this study, every single one has a story about his or her struggle with cigarettes.

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In comparison to Pentecostals among other Romani groups, the Kaale Pentecostals are especially strict in their condemnation of smoking. Smoking is not from God and should not be a part of the Christian life, it is said.35 One preacher compares a person who smokes to a Finnish smokesauna. Such saunas don’t have a proper chimney, so when they are lit up, they will initially be filled with smoke. However, as the stove heats up the air in the sauna, the smoke will be pressed out through a small porthole. When it is really hot there will be no smoke left and it will be possible for people to go in and take their bath. The preacher, who is a gaje Finn, compared the smoke-sauna to a smoking human and the person waiting for the smoke to disappear to the Holy Spirit. ‘No one enters a sauna that is full of smoke,’ he said, ‘but when the smoke is gone you can enter.’36 In the congregations dominated by Kaale Roma, someone who still smokes will not be allowed to receive any honorary assignments in the church. Thus, smokers will not sing in the choir, play instruments or be allowed to preach until they have shown their commitment by quitting cigarettes. When explicitly asked, the informants have explained that the prohibition of smoking is not an issue of any major theological importance. ‘The important thing is that you have given your life to God, not that you have quit smoking,’ one told me.37 Another believer ascertained that it is not the smoking itself that is sinful but the fact that it makes one addicted to something else than God.38 Nevertheless, since so many Kaale Roma in Sweden are heavy smokers, and since being a smoker holds them back from declaring that they are completely saved and anointed by God, the struggle to quit smoking has for many become the most prominent aspect of their endeavours to live religious lives. Sonja, who was introduced in Chapter 3, is a good example. She started to smoke when she was 11 years old and has smoked continuously during the 35 years that have passed since then. ‘I try to quit all the time,’ she tells me, ‘but I simply cannot do it.’39 She feels ashamed about the fact that she cannot stop and therefore she tries to hide her smoking so that other people will not know that she smokes. She smokes by the kitchen fan or hides on the balcony when no one is looking. But the hiding only increases her feelings of guilt, she tells me.

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What does it matter if I hide from people? God sees everything, and I can’t hide from him. Shall I smoke in front of God but hide from the people! That would be hypocrisy and hypocrisy is also a sin.40

Sonja is a deeply pious person and she would like to be able to participate in the choir at the meetings and to have a role in the church. But because of her addiction to cigarettes it is not possible. ‘The body is the temple of God and I keep contaminating it with impurity,’ she tells me, ‘so how could I stand there in front of everyone? For that you need to be pure!’41 There are many variations of this understanding among the informants. ‘Our bodies are not our own,’ another one puts it, ‘it says in the Bible that they have been bought by God and therefore we cannot do as we like with them.’42 Another argument that comes in connection to this discussion is more eschatological in nature. ‘We have to be ready,’ one informant tells me, ‘when God comes and takes us we should not be holding on to anything from this world. We have to be free from all the things that keep us here.’43 The church leaders of the Kaale congregations are firm in their policy concerning who is allowed to have formal positions in the congregations or during services. ‘We are all sinners,’ one leader tells me, ‘but if they want to have a leading position they have to be pure of smoke and alcohol.’44 ‘We are very strict with this,’ another preacher explains and points to the contradiction of someone who is not pure himself lecturing others about changing their lives. ‘Such behaviour could have [a] reversed [negative] effect on people,’ I am told.45 It should be noted that the Kaale congregations differ from other Romani Pentecostals in Sweden on this issue. Although some Kalderash pastors also stress the importance of not smoking,46 the general picture is that the Kaale are much more strict. Several Kaale Roma that I have interviewed have argued that the fact that some Kalderash preachers smoke is the single most problematic obstacle for a closer cooperation between the Pentecostals of the different Romani communities. ‘Once we had one of those joint meetings,’ one Kaale woman tells me, ‘then we saw that their minister stood there and smoked outside the church. We were shocked! And after that we decided that we cannot work together with them so much.’47

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There are also some examples of Kalderash preachers who, after they have started working with the Kaale, have changed their attitude and started condemning smoking more strictly.48 Most people from this group that I have interviewed, however, have a much more lenient attitude to this particular sin. ‘I don’t think Jesus looks so much to the cigarettes these days,’ an elderly chain-smoking Kalderash Pentecostal tells me, of course it is not good for your body and all, but then again, you know, what can I say? There are so many sins in the world that you should refrain from.49

It has become quite clear that the Pentecostal movement has a rather significant impact on the lifestyle of its adherents. There are, of course, large individual variations and, probably, a certain divergence between the factual situation and the ideal image that is conveyed in personal narratives. Despite this, the material of this study clearly indicates that Pentecostal engagement creates strong motivations to live decent, lawful, sober and smoke-free lives, and that these motivations change the social situation of the Kaale Roma community both on an individual level and as a group. Conflict and reconciliation The social changes that I have sketched above are felt to be strongly positive by most Pentecostals as well as by many other people in Swedish society, Roma and gaje alike. But, as the story of Leif clearly illustrates, the changes that the church encourages are not entirely without controversy. On the contrary, there are many examples of how Pentecostalism is experienced to be in conflict with certain Romani traditions. I will now dwell a little on the informants’ thoughts about this. Among other Romani groups, such as the Kalderash or the Lovaria, there have been many conflicts related to the fact that becoming Pentecostal has meant leaving behind the Catholic tradition that some felt to be a very strong part of their Romani identity. In these groups the Pentecostals’ baptism of adult people has sometimes caused strong

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conflicts since it is taken as a rejection of the first baptism that people had been given as infants and hence as a criticism of their parents.50 Among the Kaale, however, such conflicts have been more rare. As in the case of Leif, the most crucial issues in this group have involved matters of honour and family reconciliation. There are many conflicts going on between different families in the Kaale community. Some families are caught in feuds so intense that the men of the feuding families are likely to get involved in violent confrontations should they encounter each other. Inherent in these situations are the notions of honour and revenge and the idea that the duty to defend the honour of the own family is, and should be, passed on as an inheritance from generation to generation. Customarily the tradition offers no means by which feuding families can reconcile. This means that the feuds can be very long-lasting. There is, however, an elaborate and widely accepted system for preventing the escalation of the feuds into violent conflicts. The system, which is usually referred to as ‘the duty of avoidance’, is based on the idea that the members of feuding families, and especially the members of the family that started the feud, must avoid each other and therefore refrain from having to carry out acts of revenge.51 Harri is another informant whose family is caught up in a feud. ‘You know, I have such a situation,’ he tells me, ‘my brother took the life of, you know, another Rom and now I cannot go everywhere.’52 In the families of the informants of this study, there are also many minor conflicts going on. These conflicts are felt to be connected to and enhanced by the strong tradition of honour among the Kaale Roma, but, since no blood has been spilt, they have not gone as far as regular feuding. Leif ’s conflict with his first wife and her family in Finland is an example of one such smaller conflict. This conflict, I believe, can be understood and explained largely without reference to specific Romani customs. It is a harrowing dispute between two former spouses who are at odds about the upbringing of their children. As in all such conflicts, personal feelings of pride, indignation and humiliation will mingle with and affect the rational arguments for the different positions. There is nothing specifically Romani about that. Still, it is not insignificant

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that Leif thinks back on his own rigidity in dealing with the conflict as a result of his Romani heritage. When Leif speaks about the conflict today, he sees his own unforgivingness, firmness and honour as destructive expressions of a specific Romani mindset that he does not like. Like all other Romani informants Leif is proud to be a Rom. He is honoured to have Romani identity and is pleased to belong to the Kaale group and to uphold many of its specific customs. But there are certain things in the traditions of his people that he feels could be ‘wiped out’ as he puts it.53 He tells me that the foremost of these things are the rigidity and unwillingness to be reconciled characteristic of the Kaale Romani. When Leif expresses this view, he is very much in line with the position of the mainstream authorities of the Pentecostal churches, that all share his distinction between positive and negative aspects of the Kaale tradition. All the ministers interviewed stress their support and respect for the Kaale customs while at the same time firmly expressing that unforgivingness and feuding is unacceptable and incompatible with the faith.54 ‘Revenge and feuding is unacceptable for a Christian,’ one minister tells me, Jesus himself says that the one who forgives on earth shall be forgiven in heaven but if you do not forgive here, God will not forgive you.55 […] The church has to be a place for everyone regardless if you have some blood feuding or revenge or fighting going on. If you feel that someone comes [to the church] who should not be there you will have to leave yourself! You can never prohibit another person from coming to church and culture can never be let [allowed] to have higher authority than the word of God.56

It is hardly surprising that none of the Romani pastors interviewed see a conflict between ‘true Romani culture’ and Pentecostalism. ‘Our principle,’ one minister tells me, ‘is that anything that is not directly against the word [of God] is acceptable.’ Often a distinction between ‘true’ and ‘corrupt’ Romani culture is expressed. Studies of Romani Pentecostals elsewhere have also shown that such a distinction between good and bad parts of Romani culture is common. A study of Gitanos in Spain show that some of the subjects go so far as to claim that the ‘Aleluyas’, as their Pentecostals are called, ‘are better Gitanos’.57

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Moreover, many feel that Pentecostalism is the only movement that can unify the Romani and put Roma-related issues on the international political agenda. The fact that big Romani organisations, like the International Romani Union, have cooperated with the Pentecostal churches is seen as an example of this. Those pastors who believe that is the case see suggestions of a conflict or tension between Romani culture and Pentecostalism as a rhetorical trick designed to discredit the churches. ‘Some Roma are critical of the movement,’ one Romani minister tells me, ‘so they pull that card saying that the church is not truly Romani and this and that […] to me it shows that they have a very locked and narrow-minded understanding of what being a Rom is all about.’58 The most frequently discussed discord between ‘negative Romani traditions’ and Pentecostal ideology deals with the resolution of conflicts. Reconciliation and the end of family feuding is strongly advocated by the church authorities, both Roma and gaje. But this ideal of forgiveness is very difficult to implement, at least when it comes to the proper blood feuds. The material of this study clearly shows that families who are locked in a feud will not attend the same meetings even if they have been explicitly invited. The social pressure to follow the traditional honorary rules is simply too strong to be disobeyed. It is important to remember that the feuds are not primarily individual quarrels but conflicts between groups of people. This means that even if one or several individuals want to reconcile with the other family group, they are not free to do so, instead being bound to behave in accordance with the duty owed to their family. For many individual Roma, the social pressure to adjust to the collective restrictions of one’s family can be very frustrating. But at the same time the social cost of going against the family would be too high, wherefore one often chooses to yield to the situation. One practical consequence of this is that some deeply pious and born-again Pentecostal Roma never can attend a church meeting, because their family is locked in a feud with another family from whom some members may attend. One Finnish Kaale pastor that I interviewed argued that the decrease of Christian work among young Roma is the reason for the return of feuding that he has seen among the younger generations.

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In the 70s and 80s there was very strong work among Romani children. There were children camps several times a year and a good spirit of raising the children to respect Christian values. But the last 20 years there has been nothing of this.59

When it comes to smaller individual conflicts the picture is more optimistic. Here the material bears witness to several cases of reconciliation. Leif ’s story of how he found the strength to forgive and re-establish contact with his daughters is by no means unique. On the contrary, many informants have told me similar stories from their own lives or the lives of people they know. A common feature of most of these narratives is the experience that forgiveness is nothing that comes quickly. Unlike the sudden and dramatic experience of being anointed and born again, the experience of forgiving relatives is usually associated to a prolonged emotional struggle. As Leif ’s story illustrates, the decision to forgive often grows slowly as feelings of anger and indignation wear off bit by bit. In the stories of the informants, it is also often the practical inconveniences that eventually force people to reconcile. It is emotionally strenuous and tiresome to be in a conflict; it is also connected to lots of practical hassles. Therefore, it seems, most people will try to resolve their situation as soon as their dignity and emotional status allow for it. ‘It can take several years,’ one minister tells me, when we discuss these matters, ‘but eventually they will come to a point where they have to solve their conflicts and move on.’60 It is difficult to know with absolute certainty whether Pentecostal engagement has any direct connection to the many instances of reconciliation that are found in the material. It is possible that many of these instances would have occurred even if the people involved had not been Christian and certainly there are many examples of Romani people who resolve their conflicts outside of the Christian framework. What is obvious, however, is that the Pentecostal informants clearly think of their ability to reconcile as an expression and a result of their Christian faith. It is also clear that forgiveness is an ideal that is strongly and repeatedly endorsed by the Pentecostal leaders. It seems reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the movement manages to encourage and provide a conceptual framework for personal

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reconciliation that is embraced by its most engaged adherents. The ideal that is proposed seems to be able to motivate the resolution of smaller conflicts. But from what I can see in the material of the present study, it has not been able to challenge or change the larger collective conflicts of the family blood feuds. A constant struggle The religious lives of Leif, Miranda and the other informants of this study can be described as a constant struggle with problematic situations and personal weaknesses. The Pentecostal church offers ecstatic anointment experiences and promises that a complete change of mindset and lifestyle is possible. ‘The spiritual experience can change you,’ one preacher tells me, ‘it contains a strength and a force that can help you in the lifelong struggle to work on and take responsibility for this change.’61 The born-again informants believe in the promises of the church and they articulate a desire to live in accordance with the high ideals of these promises. Among those who are actively Christian, there exists an oftenexpressed awareness that this entails a constant endeavour in all aspects of life. ‘It is a struggle that goes on every day,’ one informant who, like Leif, works here and there as an audio technician, tells me. God cannot only be about going to church on Sundays […] it is about caring for those nearest to you, your children, your wife. You cannot just let go of your responsibilities, go out or ramble around. [The Christian life] is about responsibility and love.62

When Miranda speaks about her own spiritual struggle, she also emphasises the importance of a continuous connection with God. ‘God only wants what is good for us,’ she tells me, there is nothing harsh or evil in him, but he wants to live in our hearts every day. He wants to be a part of all the things we do here in this life. He wants to be with us 24 hours per day. But we humans are sometimes in such a hurry. It is we who don’t have time for God.63

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For Miranda, as for many other pious Christians, the everyday struggle is primarily about being a good person and refraining from sins. When asked to give examples of what this can mean, the informants bring up the issue of refraining from thinking bad thoughts about others with particular frequency. ‘For instance, when I see some woman outside the window,’ Miranda says, ‘I might think “how ugly she is” or “what is she doing there?” But then I have to go and pray to God for forgiveness.’64 Maria, another pious Pentecostal Kaale Rom, gave me a similar example from when she was in the hospital. There was another woman in the same room at the hospital. She was coughing and vomiting and I really felt disgusted by her. But we are not allowed to feel like that when we are saved. […] Later on I heard the voice of God saying that ‘concerning that woman beside you, you all have the same value in heaven and in paradise’. I was not allowed to be disgusted by her.65

So the struggle is often about not thinking bad thoughts about others. Another theme that has often come up when we have spoken about religious struggle, and that is also reflected in this quote from Maria, is the notion of surrendering. Just as the strongly emotional experience of anointment is connected to a decision to let go of one’s own agenda, the everyday spiritual struggle is connected to ‘removing one’s own will and putting God’s will in its place,’ as one informant expressed it.66 There is a certain paradox connected to this idea. On the one hand, the informants claim God wants them to come to Him just the way they are. ‘He wants us the way we are right here and right now,’ Miranda expresses it.67 But on the other hand they are encouraged to change their lives in accordance with his will. Needless to say, this paradox is not a new one in Christian tradition. On the contrary, it is central, especially to Lutheran versions of the religion. God’s grace is free and unconditional and all a person needs to do is to say yes to it through faith. However, as a result of the grace and the strength that it gives them, it is believed, they will also improve themselves and grow into more and more Christ-like individuals. For many of the informants, the process of letting God into their lives is brought forth as the most crucial aspect of the spiritual struggle.

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‘Nothing good comes out of ourselves,’ Leif put it once, ‘and therefore everything that is good has to come from God.’ One informant, a very pious and religiously active man in his late thirties, formulates a similar thought. ‘I have got to understand something lately,’ he told me once as we had coffee in the break between two tent meetings. ‘The answer to all prayers is the same,’ he continued, ‘it is God himself and to be close to Him, that is the answer.’ According to this idea, all things can be solved if only God is included in the process. The answer to a problematic financial situation, therefore, is not more money but God’s presence, which, in the understanding of this informant, will bring about love, forgiveness and calmness in the face of adversity.68 As I understand him, Leif ’s assertion that it is ‘because of the love of God that everything happens’ is an expression of a similar experience and belief. Life is a constant struggle but it is by letting God in that hardships can be made bearable or even meaningful. As the stories of Leif and the others illustrate, the Kaale Pentecostals have quite varied ways of describing what this means. The movement seems to allow for a spectrum of interpretation that runs from a very direct and supernatural experience of what God’s help can mean, to a more subtle understanding of the divine as something that is very close to one’s own everyday personal endeavour. Ritual confirmation Those who have been anointed show no visible signs or attributes to the world. A born-again Kaale Rom will wear the same outfit as he or she did before and there are few visible signs that will reveal to an outsider what goes on in the heart of that person. If a person becomes a non-smoker, this could, of course, be seen as a clear indication of a Pentecostal belonging. But even this, as we have seen, varies significantly both between different persons and between the different periods of people’s lives. Hence, it could be said that the individual processes of Pentecostal religiosity are largely taking place in people’s internal, private and emotional lives. The spiritual struggle to which the informants bear

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witness largely comes to pass as an inner drama, the most defining moments of which happen at home; maybe, as in Leif ’s case, by the bedside in the loneliness of a sleepless night; and often in connection to the inner torments of a personal crisis with little or no outer signs to indicate what has been happening. There are, however, some ways by which inner changes can be manifested outwardly. To witness from the podium or to allow oneself to be prayed for at the end of a meeting could be seen as public manifestations of inner changes. More profound, however, are the ritual manifestations of baptism and marriage. Baptism Once a person has decided to give his or her life to Jesus, and usually after he or she has experienced the overwhelming emotions of being anointed,69 the next step is to be baptised in the church. The baptism ceremony usually takes place in connection with a Sunday service at the church and is carried out in accordance with Baptist and Pentecostal tradition through complete submersion in water. In the ritual, the baptismal candidate is dressed in white clothes and led to stand in water up to the waist in the baptismal pool that is usually located by the podium at the front of the church. Two other people, often the minister of the congregation and one of the born-again helpers, will also take their place in the pool. To the accompaniment of some soft song of praise, the candidate is asked whether he or she has accepted Jesus as the Lord and Saviour of his or her life. After the person has answered ‘yes’ to this question, the minister gently lays the candidate backwards into the water until she or he is completely submerged. At the same time he says the biblical formula that gives power to the ritual: ‘I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.’ On some occasions, and especially in earlier stages of the movement, the Romani Pentecostals in Sweden occasionally brought inflatable plastic children’s paddling pools to tent meetings to be used as baptisteries. Leif, like many other Kaale Roma, was not baptised as a child and therefore being baptised as an adult was not a difficult decision for him. But those who have been baptised in the Lutheran or another church

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as children usually decide to be baptised again in the Pentecostal way as a confirmation of their anointment. This is both the explicit recommendation of the pastors and the expected thing to do if one wants to be accepted into the community as a full member and a born-again Christian.70 The children who are born to Pentecostal parents are blessed in the church and then get the chance to be baptised when they are considered old enough to grasp what it stands for; usually this means from the age of seven and upwards. Marriage In order to be baptised, it is required that the candidate has decided to follow Jesus and that he or she attempts to lead what the congregation considers a Christian life. This requires that all intimate relations with the opposite sex take place within marriage. Among the Kaale Roma there is customarily a strong emphasis on monogamy and faithfulness, but the tradition has usually not included getting married in church. Instead a young man and woman who want to be accepted as a legal couple run away and stay gone for a couple of weeks. Upon their return they will traditionally be accepted as married and will be allowed to stay together.71 Partly because of the strong taboos that surround sexuality among the Kaale, issues of marriage are rarely discussed or even hinted at in public. On the contrary, it is my experience that many married Kaale Roma will make efforts to conceal their relationship while among other people. Public displays of affection – like holding hands, hugging or even kissing – that are quite commonplace among ethnic Swedes and Finns are strikingly absent among the Kaale. During church meetings where both Roma and gaje participate, this cultural difference becomes quite obvious. While gaje spouses will sit together on the benches, Romani couples will often sit as far from each other as possible. Should they need to communicate during the meeting, children are often sent as messengers. This traditional prudishness makes the church’s requirement of a Christian marriage, which takes place in front of at least two adult witnesses and preferably in front of the whole congregation, somewhat

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problematic for many Kaale Roma. For Leif and Miranda, who were both born-again Christians and did not have any non-Pentecostal relatives nearby, there was no problem. They married in church in front of the gaje-dominated congregation without complications. However, for those who have older relatives who are not born again living nearby, getting married can be quite complicated. Publicly drawing attention to one’s intimate love life can be felt as an insult or an embarrassment to older relatives. These couples will have to find ways to compromise between following the commandments of the church and respecting the elders. This can be done in many ways. Some wait until their older relatives have passed away, others get married in secret or in a different city. Baptism may also be a problematic issue for Kaale Roma. According to some, certain vital components of the ritual collide with the purity rules of Kaale tradition. Most problematic is the tradition of wearing a plain white garment instead of the traditional Kaale clothes. It is usually unacceptable for Kaale women to wear white ‘undergarments’ in front of other Roma, and especially not in front of the elders. It is also considered impure to bathe in still water. The ways people have dealt with these problems vary. A practical way to solve this problem has sometimes been that the elders simply sit so far away from the baptistery that they cannot see the white clothes and hence need not take offence at the ritual.72 It seems to me that it is mostly people who are not themselves a part of the movement who claim that the baptism situation contravenes the rules of purity. Arguably, this position can be construed as a part of a general criticism of Pentecostalism. The informants who are part of the movement, on the other hand, rarely see any contradiction between following the demands of the church and being faithful to Romani customs. Leaving salvation So far I have discussed the religious life of people who are actively engaged in the Pentecostal movement. In order to understand the full complexity of this revival it is, however, crucial that we differentiate between different levels of engagement. As the story of Leif clearly illustrates, being affiliated to the Pentecostal church can mean very different

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things to different people. Whereas some individuals clearly aim to implement the Pentecostal teachings in their lives as a whole, others attend the church meetings without any such ambition. Instead they may go there for social reasons, to meet friends and family or simply because they have nothing else to do. Leif ’s story also shows how the level of engagement can vary dramatically between different periods in a person’s life. It would therefore be an analytical mistake to consider the many church attendees who do not live up to the church’s high ideals of piety as examples of failure. Since there is no guarantee that all attendants share the ideals of the church leaders in the first place it is quite possible that many never even intended to live fully fledged religious lives at all times. Having said this, I shall now move on to discuss the gap between the Pentecostal ideals and the everyday realities of people’s lives. Like Leif, many informants have had periods after their first anointment when the hardships of life have forced them to abandon the pious path upon which they for a while had been travelling. Among the Kaale Roma, the practice of leaving the path in this way is so common that it has led to the construction of the concept of ‘leaving salvation’ (Swedish: lämna sin frälsning, Finnish: langennut, lit. being fallen). When speaking Swedish, all Kaale informants use this term as an idiomatic expression. The notion of ‘leaving salvation’, then, denotes the practice of falling back into old habits after having decided to leave them behind. When asked what this means exactly, the most common answer is that one has picked up smoking again, but it can also denote starting to drink again or falling back into old habits or behaviours in one’s private life as well as in business. ‘I don’t know where they got this term from,’ one gaje preacher tells me, ‘but it means that one no longer come[s] to the meetings and that one has fallen back in the old life again. Usually they are gone from one to three or possibly four years before they come back.’73 According to the same minister, half of the Kaale Roma in his congregation have ‘left their salvation’ at least once. When he compares this figure to the number of ethnic Swedes or Finns that drop out in a similar way, this is a remarkable and uniquely high figure. Out of almost

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1,000 gaje members of his congregation, he can only remember one who has dropped out in a similar way. ‘Personally I have been saved [for] 19 years,’ he tells me, ‘and I have not fallen ever or even once thought about leaving Jesus.’74 It seems, therefore, that this practice, or at least the conceptual label by which the practice is denoted, is something specific to this group. Such an understanding is supported by the fact that the problem of people ‘leaving their salvation’ is a frequent and reoccurring theme in the sermons. Furthermore, this theme is especially prevalent in sermons given by preachers who are themselves Roma. ‘What kind of love do you have today?’, one Romani preacher asks the Kaale congregation rhetorically, Jesus doesn’t want half your love. Jesus doesn’t like the 50-50 kind of love! ‘Sometimes I am saved and sometimes I am not.’ ‘Today I say hallelujah, tomorrow I will be cursing.’ [Ask yourself] what is the status of my Christian life today? Because one day you will stand before God, before Jesus, and then this will not do.75

It seems reasonable to assume that this minister, and the many others who bring up this theme, has seen a lot of people leave their salvation. The natural question, then, is why? Why are Kaale Roma more inclined to drop out of the Christian life than their ethnically Swedish or Finnish fellow believers? As one might have expected, the answers offered to this question by the informants are very varied. According to many of the preachers, the reason for the Romani Pentecostals’ inclination to ‘leave their salvation’ is that they have not gone deep enough in the spiritual change of attitude that being saved is supposed to entail. Some even see this problem as being an expression of a particular Romani mindset. ‘We receive the Holy Spirit but then it all comes to a standstill,’ one Romani preacher says in a sermon and continues, We make great fuss about it, but then there is no change. There has to be a change! We Roma, we like fast moves and powerful things, but we must cool down and be still before God.76

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The notion that there is much talking but less actual change is constantly recurring in the material. ‘They talk a lot of what they do and what they don’t do and they talk about a [Christian] revival,’ one preacher declares in a particularly strong condemnation of his congregation’s failure to change thoroughly, ‘but God, he talks about death. That you need to die away from your old lives!’77 The widespread understanding that the Roma Pentecostals do not 100 per cent engage in their belief is explained in different ways. ‘Just like children who are learning to walk, we fall again and again. But God, who is like a father, picks us up again and again,’78 one Kaale woman expresses it, thereby giving utterance to a somewhat forgiving interpretation of this practice. A more common stance, however, is clearly disapproving and mistrustful of the faith of those who drop out. ‘They do not seem to find the true joy in the Lord,’ a gaje minister tells me, ‘the truths of the Bible and of prayer never become really personal.’79 Although it is shared by some non-Roma, this understanding seems particularly prevalent among the Roma themselves. ‘When a Swede becomes Christian,’ one Kaale woman in her thirties tells me, ‘then he really becomes a Christian. But we Roma, we never become 100 per cent!’80 Having seen the deep religious engagement of Miranda and many other individual Roma, my interpretation of feelings such as these is that they reflect, to a large extent, the low self-esteem found among the members of this group rather than the actual level of their piety as compared with other groups. When I have asked people who have themselves left their salvation, like Leif, to tell me the story of what happened rather than offering a direct explanation for it, the picture that emerges is often filled with the concrete hardships of life. ‘There have been so many times,’ one man who dropped out a few times before becoming more steadily saved tells me, ‘when I have had it so tough that I simply have not understood my life, life can be so hard.’81 Often the ‘drop-out’ stories, just like Leif ’s, reveal how the necessity of dealing with social and financial problems collides with the Christian life. The reason for leaving is rarely a change of belief but more a consequence of having to deal with urgent practical

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or relationship problems. ‘Many of them are langennut [fallen],’ one preacher tells me, but if you ask them about it, they all have their faith intact. They fail to lead their lives the way they should, but they all know that what they do is wrong.82

Several other informants of this study confirmed this preacher’s observation.83 Many who have dropped out of their salvation, like Leif, tell me that they were afraid that God would punish or abandon them because of what they did. ‘When I had left my salvation I was afraid to go to church,’ one man in a situation quite similar to Leif ’s tells me, I was afraid someone would get a prophecy through which God would speak to me. […] Once there was a man who lived a hard life, he was saved but then he left his salvation. Then he was saved again but fell again and went back to the bottle a second time. Then he went to a meeting where someone got a prophecy in which God said: ‘This is my last warning. You have come and fallen again [too many times]. If you fall once again I will stop you through a bullet!’ Two weeks later he was shot. But he survived and now he is steadily saved.84

Given that those who drop out often maintain their faith, and the practical arguments that they themselves put forth for leaving salvation, it seems reasonable to assume that this practice is not predominantly caused by their inability to make ‘the truths of the Bible and of prayer become really personal’, as the gaje pastor quoted above claimed. Rather, it seems as if the rather extreme practical situations in which they lead their lives provoke their decision to leave. It should also be remembered that the Kaale Roma, unlike both gaje and other Romani Pentecostals, have very strict rules concerning who is entitled to claim that he or she is saved. As I have previously discussed, cigarette smoking is a particularly important area here. To fall back into an old habit of smoking could be enough for someone to declare that he or she has left his salvation. The same, of course, goes for falling back into drinking alcohol or committing other lifestyle sins that can be perceived by the people who surround him or her. It is likely that

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the gaje Pentecostals who, according to the minister quoted above, are significantly less inclined to leave their salvation, also have a less strict understanding of what calling oneself a born-again Christian necessitates in terms of lifestyle changes. It is also likely that these gaje Pentecostals have a significantly more secure social and financial situation than their Kaale fellow-believers. The Kaale Roma, as I have previously shown, are very marginalised on many social levels and most of them have to deal with practical problems and conflicts on an daily basis. The obstacles to living a Christian life are therefore greater for them than for other groups. Moreover, the strong proximity of family members and the frequent lack of social contacts outside the group make Roma especially susceptible to the impact of conflicts and problems within their own community. The tight-knit family groups make it difficult for single individuals to change their conduct. ‘The family problems are simply too big for any one individual to make a change,’ one social worker with long experience of working with Romani families tells me when I ask her to explain the reasons she sees for the habit of ‘leaving salvation’.85 Some gaje ministers support her explanation and stress the importance of social pressure from the Romani group when it comes to both coming to and leaving salvation. If one of the Romani youngsters is saved and baptised, then the other youngsters will follow. But then again, if one drops out, the rest will drop out as well.86

The ambiguity that the many drop-outs seem to feel towards the Pentecostal church also corresponds to the uncertainty and discontinuity that many Roma show in relation to the public school. ‘Their sense of worth is so low,’ one preacher tells me, when we speak about this, ‘they drop out of school in seventh grade then they come back once in a while, then they start anew. It is the same pattern.’87 As I have previously discussed, this ambiguity towards the institutions of the majority culture has to be construed in the light of the profound Romani experience of gaje hostility towards them. There is a fear, grounded in history, among many Roma that gaje are attempting to

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assimilate them or in other ways extinguish Romani culture. Arguably, a great deal of the ambiguity towards the institutions of the majority has its origin in this fear. Concluding discussion In this chapter I have shown that Pentecostalism in many ways makes a concrete contribution to the betterment of the social situation of many Roma in a number of different fields. I have also discussed how the Pentecostal churches constitute an unrivalled platform for interaction with the majority population. Starting from the individual stories of my informants, furthermore, I have exemplified how the high ideals of the Pentecostal teachings sometimes seem difficult to implement more permanently in everyday life. The notion of ‘leaving salvation’ that is commonly used by the Romani Pentecostals points to the gap between ideals and realities that is often prevalent in their lives. Pentecostalism as entertainment As I have shown in this chapter, many preachers complain about the fact that so many Kaale Pentecostals ‘leave their salvation’ now and then. When we as scholars interpret this phenomenon, it is important to remember that the preachers represent a religious position that could be labelled maximalist. By this I mean that they are strongly engaged in the church, that they take its ideology very seriously and that they believe that it should influence all aspects of their own and their fellowbelievers’ lives. When directly asked, most of those interviewed for this study would state that they agree with their ministers’ opinions in this regard. At the same time very few of them lead or even attempt to lead thoroughly pious and Pentecostal lives. On the contrary, most, like Leif, take life as it comes and only sometimes, when they are in the mood, engage more actively in the church for a period of time. From a minister’s perspective, as I have shown, this tendency is interpreted as a failure by the Roma to engage in their religion 100 per cent. But even though many informants who have themselves left their salvation would express this

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opinion as well, it is only from a maximalist insider’s perspective that this ambiguous practice must be interpreted as a failure. From an outsider’s perspective it could very well be interpreted as quite the opposite, depending on what the drop-out’s ambitions with regard to his or her religious participation were in the first place. If we leave the ministers’ view of Pentecostalism as an allencompassing category in the believers’ lives aside, and view it as an equivalent of other activities that they may engage in, a rather different picture appears. Compare, for instance, religious engagement with engagement in the fields of music, sports or theatre. Following a sports event or attending a theatre performance may create strong emotions and become a very important experience, but this does not necessarily imply that the experience has a large-scale effect on one’s life as a whole. One may enter the world and emotional state of a theatre play for a few hours, enjoy that and then go back to everyday life. The fact that the play does not change one’s life outside the theatre need not mean that it was a failure. Similarly, many informants simply do not have very high ambitions for their occasional Pentecostal engagement. Just like Leif came to church twice a week for ten years without letting the teachings of the church affect his life in any profound way, many others go to church for social or entertainment reasons. However, unlike sports, music or theatre, the Pentecostal discourse includes declarations of the religion’s all-encompassing effect. When people engage in the meetings and express the emotions proper to those experiences, an important part of the performed repertoire is to declare that the meetings have life-changing effects. To state that one is there for social or entertainment reasons, or to declare that one’s engagement is limited and temporary would ruin the atmosphere and immediately alienate oneself from the community. Although the Pentecostal discourse will often be maintained outside of the immediate church context, I believe it is reasonable to conclude that many of the informants do not share the ministers’ interpretation of what their religious engagement is all about and that their dropping out, therefore, need not be construed as a failure.

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A relational process What kinds of changes actually take place in the lives of the converted? The most obvious conclusion that can be drawn from the cases I have studied is that Pentecostalism brings about some changes but not as much as its proponents may claim. As the example of Leif clearly illustrates, Pentecostalism is not a complete vaccination against the complexities and challenges of life. A zealous religious life may change one’s life profoundly for a period of time but then lose its power and relevance entirely. It is easy to recognise the religious phases that followed Leif ’s anointment from the stages common to most relational or group processes – the passionate and enthusiastic beginning, the disappointment and loss of interest, and the gradual return to a consolidated, more balanced but less excited attitude. An ambiguous and changeable faith is, I suppose, common to most Pentecostals. Possibly, however, it is more tangible among the Roma who, because of the harshness of their lives and their general ambiguity towards fixed institutions, may be more liable to ‘leave their salvation’. Whether one is Roma or gaje, forming and articulating one’s life within the framework of a religious tradition often seems to entail moving back and forth between states of passion and disillusionment. On an individual level there are rarely fixed identities or permanent religious positions, but rather ever-ongoing negotiations between religious ideals and the realities of everyday life.

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6 Ethnogenesis and Eschatology

In the previous chapters of this book, my main ambition has been to show the way Pentecostalism can be seen as offering a method through which people who choose to do so can deal with their personal problems. Based on some individual examples I have tried to show how Pentecostalism offers a worldview through which personal problems can be construed; a language through which they can be articulated; and an emotional experience that strengthens an individual decision to change. In this chapter, I will move away from the focus on the individual and instead apply a more sociological method of approaching the Pentecostal revival among the Kaale. With the ambition of additionally clarifying the reasons for the positive reception of Pentecostalism amongst the Kaale at this point in history, I will highlight the revival’s connection to an international process of Romani ethnogenesis. I will also connect this to the theological focus on eschatology that can be found among the Kaale. My theoretical approach in this chapter, therefore, is sociological. I will analyse Pentecostalism as a movement that corresponds and connects to certain collective features among the Kaale community and I will not go into the matters of individual agency and meaning that I have addressed earlier. Ethnogenesis As I have touched upon in previous chapters, the Pentecostal church is an arena within which the dilemma of being caught in-between 159

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different cultures and communities can be negotiated. In and through the church it is possible to deal with what are perceived as problematic aspects of the Kaale heritage without being seen as a cultural renegade. But it is not only the Kaale tradition and the culture of the majority that compete to define the identities of the individual Pentecostals. For Finnish-speaking Kaale Roma living in Sweden the situation is much more complex, because unlike their relatives who live in Finland, they have to relate to a larger number of communities whose boundaries run alongside theirs. It could be said that there are mainly four such communities: Swedish gaje, Finnish gaje, Kaale Roma and general Roma when articulating their self-identity. Needless to say, this is not an easy task. Living as a potential member of several different communities is stressful. In most cases the Kaale Romani position is the one that people choose to articulate through their clothes and social relationships. But there are a few instances in which Kaale Roma living in Sweden have abandoned this communal identity, ceased to wear the traditional outfit, married a gajo and so on. In these cases, however, it is common that people start to think of themselves, not as Swedes, but as Finns. It is therefore the second minority identity that is strengthened and not, as one may have expected, the connection to the majority culture. For some of my Kaale informants who have remained loyal to their Kaale tradition, the practice of ‘converting’ to Finnishness is the cause of much frustration and irritation. ‘We cannot just say that we are Finns,’ one of them tells me, ‘because in the truth of all truths we are not! We are not Finns, we are Roma and we should not settle in an identity that is not true.’1 For these informants, a general Romani identity is often preferred to a Finnish or Swedish one. If you cannot stay Kaale, it is better to start thinking of yourself as belonging to an international Romani ethnicity than to lose everything and become a Finn or Swede. Pentecostalism is very much involved in these identity negotiations, but there is no single position that is advocated by all its representatives. On the contrary there are examples of Pentecostal ministers who, more or less explicitly, advocate each of the different articulations of identity mentioned above. Thus some congregations strongly advocate

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a dissolution of all ethnic borders,2 whereas others, mostly through language, uphold a clear Finnish but not specifically Finnish Romani identity. Despite the fact that there are several different positions among Pentecostals, the promotion of a pan-Romani articulation of identity is perhaps the most prevalent – albeit often disputed – on the elite levels of all the Kaale groups that I have followed for this study. The importance of unity among different Romani groups is something that is stressed by all influential Romani Pentecostals that I have interviewed.3 It is also often brought up in sermons and Bible studies. ‘It is important that we stay united,’ one preacher says when addressing this issue, ‘because when we are united, then Jesus will love us!’4 In the sermons, the relatively good material situation of Roma in Sweden is often contrasted with the situation of non-Kaale Romani groups in other countries. Several influential members of the congregations have been abroad to evangelise and to do relief work among Roma in Eastern Europe. Their experiences are sometimes shared in meetings. ‘Romani life can be so much worse [than ours],’ one evangelist who had recently returned from abroad tells the congregation on one occasion, So much worse, some [Roma] are less valued than dogs. Animals are more respected. They don’t have water, there is no food, nothing to drink! Can you imagine, this is 2008 and this is happening? Why do we [Swedish Roma] lead these good lives? Why haven’t we heard their prayers? 5

In this way, then, the Pentecostal ministers try to connect the life of the Kaale with Romani groups that they have previously had little to do with. As Paloma Gay y Blasco and others have pointed out, Pentecostalism provides an ethnic identity for the modern world.6 To use the words of Angus Fraser, Romani Pentecostalism can be seen as constituting ‘the first real example in Western Europe of a mass pan-Gypsy organisation, transcending tribal subdivisions’.7 Through Pentecostalism, Roma can be heard in ways that allow them to articulate for themselves.8 Pentecostalism, therefore, becomes an arena for the construction of a globalised transnational Romani identity.9

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In order to explain and understand this pan-Romani side of the Kaale revival, we need to contextualise it within the wider social processes taking place among Roma worldwide. The Pentecostal movement coincides with, strengthens and draws from other trends in the international Romani community. And, as far as its pan-Romani implications are concerned, Romani Pentecostalism is intimately connected to the process of ethnogenesis that is going on amongst Roma worldwide. In the wake of the Holocaust,10 in which countless European Roma were murdered, pan-Romani movements have grown.11 Through organisations such as the Roma Rights Network,12 the European Roma Rights Centre,13 or the International Romani Union, Romani people have sought to unite in order to improve their situation and to strengthen Romani culture. Through these organisations, Romani people have joined forces to fight discrimination, influence policymakers and hinder the oppression of Roma. Connected to these efforts is a willingness to think of the diversified Romani communities of Europe as belonging to the same ethnicity and to seek ways of politically establishing the notion of such a single unified Romani community. It can thus be argued that Romani rights activism is intertwined with a process of ethnogenesis in which efforts are made to unify different Romani groups.14 Historiography, linguistics and naming are all important aspects of this process. The endeavour to unify several scattered communities through ethnogenetic processes like these is not only found among the Roma. It would, therefore, be a mistake to contrast the variety of Europe’s Romani groups with a perceived unity of other European ethnicities. Ethnicity is always a construction. And whether we discuss Finnish, Swedish or Turkish ethnicity, it is obvious that these were and are all created through historical processes in which influential national leaders make efforts to create and maintain a sense of national unity out of linguistic, religious and social plurality. By means of politics and historiography, national identities that upgrade certain uniting features of a defined group of people whilst downgrading others have been created.

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Processes of ethnogenesis go on continuously but were, for the majority of European states, most intense during the latter half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. This was also the period when nationalism, through leaders like Theodor Herzl (1860– 1904), formulated the dream of a homeland for the stateless and shattered Jewish communities. Unlike the Jews, however, neither the notion of national unity nor the idea of a nation state gained any traction amongst European Roma at that time. Instead it is only during recent decades that Romani ethnogenesis has taken off for real. Pentecostalism and ethnogenesis The Pentecostal movement, then, has to be seen as one of the most important components in this process. It has become an expression of pan-Roma self-consciousness15 and, in the words of Thomas Acton, something like ‘an indigenous church of the Gypsies’.16 Not only does Pentecostalism provide functional international organisations, like the Vie et Lumière or the International Roma Evangelical Movement (IREM), it also contributes to the ongoing process of Romani ethnogenesis by preserving and strengthening a firm, albeit changed, Romani identity.17 Based on a study on the Manouche Roma in France, Patrick Williams argued in 1991 that Romani Pentecostalism activates a process of tradition perpetuation since it made Roma more prone to think of the Romani community as a whole rather than at the level of their own extended family only.18 Williams’ observation is confirmed by the present study. It is hence interesting to note that we can find a somewhat paradoxical causality in the Romani Pentecostal movement. The teachings open up closer relations with gaje while at the same time strengthening the integration of the international Romani communities. Pentecostalism thus forms an arena for the construction of a globalised transnational identity for Roma. By providing the means to engage politically, religiously and socially in improving the position of Roma, and by making it possible to do this across the conventional boundaries between different Romani communities, as well as between Roma and

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gaje, Pentecostalism has thus become a unique platform in the struggle for social change.19 Now, besides practically simplifying the Romani struggle for human rights, the process of ethnogenesis provides Roma with a certain selfesteem. By articulating a pan-Romani identity, it helps people to think of themselves as more than just ‘national minorities’.20 For persons who suffer the hardships that often come with the marginalisation of the Romani, it is helpful to know that being a Rom is to be part of a global community that stretches worldwide. Pentecostalism, then, adds to this self-esteem by ascribing a certain religious value to the suffering that many Roma have had to endure. Roma Pentecostals often argue that being Pentecostal makes them better Roma and being Roma makes them better Christians.21 The suffering and the homelessness of the Romani people make them, in the self-image provided by Pentecostalism, especially fit to bring the Gospel to other peoples. In addition to this, Pentecostalism also provides a mythological and theological justification for why Romani people are special in the eyes of God. The key here lies in the comparison and identification with the Jewish people. Roma have always lived under circumstances that in several ways are similar to those of the Jews and there is a certain identification based on the knowledge that this is the case. But this identification goes deeper. Among the informants of this study it is a commonly embraced belief that the Roma are descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel. The tribe of Efraim, it is believed, fled via Egypt to India and from there immigrated to Europe.22 The similarities between the laws of the Old Testament and the purity rules of the Kaale are often seen as proofs for this connection. ‘Many say that we come from India,’ one informant tells me, But if you look at the Old Testament with the Jews and the laws that they got from Moses, then we Roma recognise ourselves in these laws. I believe that we were there when they [the Jews] marched out of Egypt. I am quite positive about this because there are many purity rules in our culture.23

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So through this Pentecostal reinterpretation of their status and history, the Roma are given a historiographical justification to think of themselves as the chosen people. With this new understanding of themselves and their roots, many Roma find some of the self-esteem that they need so badly. As one informant put it: We have always been thrown out, always been harassed and degraded. We Roma never had anything to show. But God has elected his people and opened our eyes to see what we really are.24

Eschatology The identification with the Jews and the notion of being specially selected by God is also connected to the emphasis on eschatology that can be found among the Kaale Pentecostals. As many other scholars have pointed out, Romani Pentecostals often contextualise their own revival in a wider salvation history. The conversion of the Romani is thus portrayed as a lost tribe finding its place in God once again25 and ‘the glorious present’, as Elin Strand puts it, ‘is enforced by disclosing the destructive past’.26 But the glory of the revival is also portrayed against a background of darkness. In sermons, Bible studies and interviews it is repeated again and again that these are evil times. Financial and environmental crises, war in Iraq, terrorism, increasingly brutal crime and influenza pandemics are all seen as worrying proof of a dark age. ‘There are many signs and prophesies all over the world now,’ Sonja tells me when we discuss this issue. ‘Have you heard what they are doing in the United States? Trying to kill innocent Christians!’27 This particular quotation refers to a report in a local newspaper about the murder of four people in an attack at a missionary centre in Denver.28 It is one of many statements of similar content that exemplifies the informants’ inclination to interpret what goes on in society around them as signs of evil powers gaining strength. Harri, another informant, has a similar belief. ‘We do live in the last days,’ he tells me,

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look at all that is happening around us, in different countries and, close by, in the families. Then look in the Bible and you will see what it says. It says that the daughters will oppose their parents and that parents will oppose their children29 and this happens all the time. There is no love anymore; it disappears more and more. People turn cold against each other, and that warm loving smile? You cannot see it anymore. And then there are all these other things, tsunamis30 and Estonia ferries31 and what not?32

Many previous studies of Romani Pentecostalism have shown that there is often an unusually strong focus on eschatology in these congregations. For instance, Strand’s study of a Kalderash congregation in the United Kingdom notes that the Book of Revelations was that most frequently cited in sermons.33 Although Pentecostalism in general has a strong focus on eschatology it is interesting to note how this focus, in the case of the Kaale, mixes with the notion of a special position for the Romani people in God’s divine plan. The end of time draws near and, as foreseen in the Bible, the evil of the world grows stronger. In the sermons to the congregations, however, the salvation that Pentecostalism has brought about is the result of Jesus actively directing his attention to the situation of the Roma.34 There is a widespread belief among Pentecostals that the ten lost tribes of Israel will return at the end of this age, closely followed by the second coming of Christ. When considered with this belief in mind, the Romani revival, their return to God, can be interpreted as being in itself this particular eschatological sign. The Roma are one of the lost tribes of Israel and their return to the true religion is a sign that the end draws near. So in the midst of frightening developments in the world, the revival of the Roma shows that God has not abandoned humankind altogether. ‘Be proud!’ one preacher tells his Kaale congregation at a meeting, Your names are written in the book of heaven! Be glad! Your names are written in heaven! Our names, our Romani names – we Roma who no one has loved – our names are written in paradise! We are welcome there! Be proud of it! Sometimes we have names that are not so good, names written on the lists of the authorities. Sometimes we have names that are blacklisted.

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But Jesus has cleansed your name! Now you are saved and your name is in the book of life. It may be written in the ledger of the police, but the most important is, that it is written in the ledger of God!35

So the Roma are identified as one of Israel’s lost tribes and their revival is seen as a sign that heralds the imminent return of Christ. A Bible passage that is of special importance here is Jesus’s Parable of the Great Banquet from Luke 14. In this parable a man invites guests to a big feast but all of them turn down the invitation with various excuses. The man then tells his servants: ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.’36 A widespread understanding among the Kaale Pentecostals is that the Roma are the people of ‘the roads and country lanes’. Hence this parable further strengthens their belief in the eschatological status of their revival. When I have asked the informants of this study what the eschatological task of the Roma actually is, there are many different answers. Some deny that there is any such thing as a special task for the Roma at all and claim that God does not differentiate between ethnic communities like that.37 Several others, however, do believe in a special divine task for their people. ‘I believe the Roma have a mission,’ one Kaale preacher tells me, and that is to show who the Lord is, to be that torch. I believe the Romani people is one of those 12 tribes. There will be a last revival and we are the ones who will lead it.38

Another aspect of the chosen position of the Roma concerns mystical powers. Among my informants there is a widespread belief that many Roma have clairvoyant abilities and experiences with those powers. The notion that people, through dreams or in other ways, are able to know beforehand when someone is going to die is especially common.39 There are some informants who interpret this experience in the light of their Biblicist worldview. ‘It comes from the Bible,’ Juhani, a young and particularly zealous Pentecostal Kaale Rom puts it. ‘It says in the Bible that in the last days your young will see visions and that your old will dream about what is going to happen in the future.’40 It is interesting to note

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that Juhani in this way connects this feature of Romani tradition to the Pentecostal eschatology and hence transforms it into another sign of the special role of his community. Another story that illustrates in a more humorous way the notion that Pentecostal Roma have been chosen for a special task comes from Sonjatta, a Kaale woman in her late thirties. While staying at a hospital for her asthma problems, she experienced God using her to convey his love to her fellow patients. When the night came I started to hear this voice in my head: ‘talk to that person’ it said. But I thought that it was only myself making it up. ‘Now I’m going out to have a smoke,’ [I told myself], ‘I have had enough of this asthma treatment.’ So I got up and took a cigarette from the pack, but then, as I walked down the hallway, there was this woman there who wanted to commit suicide. Now she came walking towards me. So I hid the cigarette in my hand, you know like this. Then she started talking and crying: ‘no one loves me!’ she said. So I turn to her and I said: ‘but God loves you’. Then suddenly the staff came running and they were astonished. ‘You are the first person who has been able to talk to her,’ they told me, and the woman, she sat down there and she looked at me and she said: ‘God, I see this light [radiating] from you, who are you? Are you an angel?’ and I said: ‘God loves you just as he loves me and he has died for our sins. He just wants you to receive him.’ Then I thought: ‘I hope she pushes off now, I really need to get my smoke.’ But then I had to go back in and breathe the asthma machine again because I could hardly breathe. Well, after that I thought: ‘now I can go out and smoke’. But then, can you believe it, another man comes and he cries and says: ‘my wife has left me and I haven’t seen my little girl in 14 years!’ ‘Too bad for you’, I replied, but I thought: ‘O my God, I really need to get a smoke now’. But it was only to forget about the cigarette because instead I had to sit there and talk about God to this man. Then more people joined us and all of them listened to me and then I realised that: ‘O my Lord God! So this is how you had thought it out for me! This is the reason why I had to come here!’ And finally that man, he looked at me and he said: ‘You know what, angel! The God that you have given your life to, I shall give my life to

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him too!’ And after that there was no chance I could go out to get my smoke at all that night.41

Sonjatta’s story is not only stylistically well structured, it also clearly illustrates the way God is believed to make use of those who are born-again Christians, however reluctant they may be, to spread his gospel. Although this particular story does not single out Romani converts as being different from other Pentecostals, such connections are often made. By ascribing a special divine purpose to the Romani people, Pentecostalism also helps in building up a self-esteem that, in addition to the general sense of worth that is gained from being individually loved and forgiven by God, is connected to the Roma community in particular. It should be mentioned, however, that the eschatological focus is not only connected to self-esteem. Some gaje ministers whom I have interviewed have expressed scepticism of what they see as an over-emphasis on eschatology and judgement among Roma Pentecostals in general and Kaale Pentecostals in particular. According to these ministers, these motifs are brought up partly with the aim of frightening people into faith and should hence be understood, at least partly, as connected to a strict and authoritarian leadership culture within the Romani, and especially the Kaale, community.42 Eschatological beliefs There are many individual differences in people’s beliefs about what the return of Christ will be like, but in general it can be said that a Biblicist and literal interpretation of the New Testament texts that speak of the return of Christ predominates. ‘The Bible is clear on this point!’ one preacher at a tent meeting declares from the podium. ‘It says 300 times that Jesus will come on a cloud to get his congregation.’43 An issue that is often addressed in sermons is why Jesus has not yet returned. On one occasion, Helena, a woman in her fifties stands up to witness in a meeting. She walks up to the podium to share a vision that she has been given about the end of this earth. ‘Don’t forget,’ she says into the microphone with her eyes closed,

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that one day for the Lord is like 1,000 years. So although it might seem so for us, he is not loitering. He is waiting because he does not want anyone to be destroyed. He gives the sinners more time to turn to him. But the day of the Lord shall truly come. And it will come as unexpected as a thief in the night. Then skies will tumble down with a terrible noise and the celestial body [Swedish: himlakroppen] shall dissolve in a cloud of fire and the earth and all that is upon it shall burn. We want to give up, but don’t give up because when the Lord comes to get his own then we shall be awake and wait for him. Amen.44

Spontaneous witnessings about the Judgement Day like this one are not uncommon at the meetings and, as this quotation shows, they are often inspired by the imagery of apocalyptical Biblical literature. Mixing quotes with personal exegesis, one of the ministers interviewed for this study relates the overall sequence of the eschatological narrative in the following way: There will be seven years in which the Antichrist will rule. It is going to be diabolic. You’re not going to be able to buy anything without this sign and you will have to kneel down to Satan. You will have to renounce your faith or be killed and they won’t let you buy anything. Then Jesus returns and founds his kingdom of peace that will last 1,000 years upon this earth. After that Satan will be released for a while to test the faith of the people who have been born in this period. And then Satan will be thrust down and God will create a new earth and a new heaven and there will be a New Jerusalem, which will be bigger than the USA!45

It is interesting to note that certain American Evangelical motion pictures on the theme of eschatology have had a major impact on the views and religious imagination of several Kaale Pentecostals. This is especially true when it comes to conceptions of the Rapture; that is God’s removal of the faithful from the world in the last days. There are many different exegetical positions concerning the timing of this eschatological event but the Kaale Pentecostals all have a so-called, premillennialist or pretribulationist position. This means that they believe that the second

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coming of Christ will happen in two phases, the first of these being the Rapture. One minister describes it like this: Jesus will come from the clouds and take his congregation, that is the Christians and no others. It is said that two men will work on the field, one is taken away and the other is left behind.46 Only those who believe in Jesus and the Holy Spirit will be able to see him. They will see him through the Holy Spirit and in that instance they will just disappear. Jesus will come like a thief in the night. The Holy Spirit opens your eyes and ‘hey presto’ you’re gone! In the USA they always keep a second pilot in order to be certain [that there will be a pilot] in case Jesus should come.47

In the premillennialist version of the Rapture, then, God, in an act of mercy, saves the most faithful from the hardships of the rule of the Antichrist. Another Biblicist position on this question is the postmillennialist understanding according to which Christ’s return will be one single event. The premillennialist position that the Kaale Pentecostals of this study adhere to is most strongly defended by Evangelical Christians in the United States. Here it is largely associated to preachers such as J. Dwight Pentecost, Tim LaHaye, Chuck Smith, Grant Jeffrey and David Jeremiah. In the United States the premillennialist position on the Rapture has spread though a number of novels and motion pictures based on this idea. Authors such as Robert Heinlein48 and Mark Rogers49 have both written novels that have contributed to the popularisation of this idea. Between 1972 and 1983 the Evangelical filmmaker Russel S. Doughten produced a sequence of four films50 about the second coming of Christ, which were to have a major impact on the genre of Rapture movies that they inspired. After Doughten’s movies, among which A Thief in the Night (1972) became the most famous, several other Rapture movies have been produced. Michael Tolkin’s The Rapture (1991), Cloud Ten Pictures’ Apocalypse (1998) and Robert Marcarelli’s The Omega Code (1999) are all good examples of movies in this genre. By far the most influential Rapture movie, however, is Left Behind: The Movie. This film, which is based on Tim LaHaye and

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Jerry Jenkin’s series of novels with the same name, was released in 2001 and followed by two sequels in 2002 and 2005 respectively. The film features a young, ambitious and good-hearted reporter (played by the actor and Evangelist Kirk Cameron) who is struggling to reveal a conspiracy through which the allegedly peace-loving Secretary-General of the United Nations, Nicolae Carpathia, seeks to gain world domination. The story begins in Israel where a scientist has managed to produce a crop that will solve the food crisis and bring an end to world hunger. While the young reporter interviews the scientist, Israel is unexpectedly attacked by innumerable bomber planes, which are mysteriously destroyed before they have a chance to bring any harm to the city of Jerusalem. In the midst of this commotion, thousands of people suddenly disappear enigmatically in what turns out to be the divine Rapture that precedes the seven-year reign of the Antichrist according to the premillennialist understanding. The Secretary-General of the UN soon reveals himself to be the Antichrist and the struggle between good and evil among those who have been left behind can begin. The novel Left Behind has sold more than 50 million copies and the DVD has also been a huge success. In 2006, it was released as a computer game in which players have to convert as many people as possible to Evangelical Christianity and the Tribulation Force that fights the Antichrist and spreads the truth behind the Rapture disappearances. It is obvious that the plot of Left Behind has largely shaped the eschatological imagery of the informants of this study. Many of them explicitly refer to the film when asked to elaborate on their expectations about the second coming, the movie is felt to be ‘something very special’ and it is taken not as a mere action film, but as an instance of evangelisation that helps to promote spiritual growth.51 It appears as if the film has also influenced many of those who do not explicitly refer to it. For instance, several informants have mentioned aeroplanes when I have asked them about the Rapture. In Left Behind: The Movie, one of the crucial scenes features the inside of a flying aeroplane as several of the passengers suddenly disappear, leaving only their clothes behind. It seems, therefore, as if the plot and imagery of this particular film have largely shaped

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the pictures that spontaneously come into the informants’ minds when thinking about eschatology. I shall not elaborate further on this issue here, but since Left Behind is also quite obviously political in its outlook on the world, it is likely to have also had an impact on the informants’ views of global politics, not least on issues related to the Arab-Israeli conflict or the United Nations.

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7 Walk this World a Stranger: Concluding Remarks In this book I have related the stories of some Kaale Pentecostals that I have got to know over the last couple of years. I have presented the history of their revival and discussed some aspects of its theological focus and ritual expressions. I have also attempted to interpret what I have seen and heard in light of the general societal situation of the Kaale. It should not be forgotten that this small study comes at a time when the situation for Roma is worsening all across Europe. The last few years bear witness to the re-emergence of pogroms and explicit racial discrimination directed against the Romani population in several European countries. This book is a contribution to the scholarly discussion about Pentecostalism and Romani revivalism, and not a petition in the genre of human rights activism. But it cannot be denied that all that is said about the situation of the Roma today – whether it is within the fields of politics, academia or art – will have to be regarded in the light of the imminent crisis that Romani people seem to be facing and it is, of course, my hope that this book may help create a clearer understanding of what is going on and, hence, contribute in some small way to improving the situation. What I have come to understand from following this group for some time is that the situation of the Roma, or at least that of the Kaale, needs to be analysed with a constant awareness of the power structures that govern the obvious social hierarchies of our societies. Further to this, an awareness of the unarticulated ideals and the very language through 175

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which we speak of these hierarchies is also important. The power of gaje society lies not only in its control of material resources, but in its ability to define what ‘a good life’ is about. This discursive hegemony, then, puts pressure on all those who are contained within its sphere of dominance to act, think and feel in accordance with its ideals. This is true for marginalised Roma who are pressured to think of themselves in the terms defined by the hegemony. But it is also true for the gaje who are pressured to think and act towards themselves, but also towards others, along these lines. Hence even benevolent attempts to help marginalised groups like the Roma will be carried out within the framework of the dominant ideology. ‘Where there is power there is resistance’1 and opposition is possible to the hegemonic status of what Romani see as gaje society. It is possible for all people who live in this society to choose a different worldview or a different way of living than that which is favoured or considered normal. But it is not easy to do so. It costs in both material and immaterial ways to choose to play a different game than that which is proposed by those in power. Most significantly a choice to do so means that one will have to lead one’s life outside the warmth of the hegemonic community. All outsiders – whether they are political dissidents, religious deviants or ethnic foreigners – know what that entails. In this book I have tried to show how my Kaale informants find themselves in a situation where they stand with one foot in the no man’s land of social marginalisation and dissidence, and with the other in the seductive but exclusive community of the gaje. I have tried to show how this ambiguous situation, at least at certain times in their lives, has created a need for a social and intellectual platform upon which this conflict can be articulated and expressed. I have argued that the Pentecostal church provides such a platform. Pentecostalism, then, could be said to provide a language and a method to deal with the problems that spring from this ambiguous situation. The language is that of the Pentecostal theology and worldview. According to the Christian theology that is preached in the Pentecostal congregations, difficulties and feelings of insufficiency are inherent to human life since the Fall of Man. Being human, it is taught, is to

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be trapped in a situation that we cannot resolve by our own unaided efforts. As sinners we are always torn between sin and righteousness and there are dark spiritual forces that try to lead us astray and tempt us to self-centredness and impurity. By presenting this kind of theological explanation, Pentecostal preachers provide the members of their congregation with a set of concepts that can be used to articulate and interpret their personal experiences. Personal problems are thus placed in the context of a larger cosmological drama and the ways individuals deal with the social pressures of their own lives become parts of a battle between good and evil. Pentecostalism offers a language through which a difficult situation can be articulated and construed. But it also offers a method of actually changing one’s way of life. In the language of the Pentecostals themselves, the goal of this method is to be touched by God or filled with the Holy Spirit. When a person surrenders to God, it is believed, God will reward that person and the Holy Spirit will give him or her the strength and support needed to break a drinking habit, reconcile with relatives or stop committing whatever sin it is one finds especially problematic. There are many testimonies of how, for instance, drinking alcohol completely loses its attraction once one has given one’s life to God. Often the Holy Spirit’s entry is presented concretely as the literal casting-out of malevolent spirits from the heart of the believer. Many testimonies include stories of what they construe as miraculous divine interventions in their lives following their surrender to God. But the Pentecostal Kaale also speak of the change that they offer in less spectacular terms. Sometimes the change is construed in a more psychological way. For instance, many preachers explain that the experience of being loved and forgiven by God redresses a person’s wrongs in a way that enables him or her to deal with personal problems and relationships in a constructive way. From the point of view of social psychology, it could be argued that the strong social pressure to behave in accordance with Pentecostal groups’ norms could explain the life-changing effect that the conversions sometimes seem to have. In the Kaale Pentecostal communities, certain unacceptable behaviours are strongly renounced and socially punished.

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The disapproval of smoking cigarettes is particularly striking here. People who smoke cigarettes are not allowed to have any kind of position in the congregation. Hence, in order to preach, play instruments or sing in the choir, Kaale Pentecostals need to be ‘pure’ of such habits. Other disapproved-of behaviours are punished in this way, although, of course, many lifestyle problems are not as easy to detect or control as smoking. Thus Pentecostalism offers a method by which people, who choose to do so, can deal with their personal problems. It offers a worldview through which these problems can be construed, a language through which they can be articulated and a social pressure that makes it more difficult to abandon the decision to deal with the problems. In addition to all these things, as I have shown in this book, Pentecostalism through its rituals also offers a powerful emotional experience that strengthens the decision to change and the devoutness to Pentecostalism by anchoring them in the physical body of the adherent. I have shown that a process of emotional association, in which the central Pentecostal narratives are connected to personal sorrows, is especially important in order to make these emotional rituals efficient. Finally, I have suggested that Pentecostalism offers a platform upon which the experience of being torn between the gaje and Kaale communities can be dealt with in a constructive way without risking being seen as cultural traitors. Organisationally, the Kaale Pentecostals are members of the same Pentecostal congregations as other Swedes and Finns. They meet in the same churches and sing the same songs. Often, however, and this is especially true in Sweden, the Kaale will form their own groups within the congregations. Thereby they manage to uphold their own communal integrity while still being part of an organisation that largely belongs to the gaje society. In this way Pentecostalism manages to create a space in between the two communities. In this space, then, it is possible to deal with personal problems, including those that are connected to the Kaale community itself, without taking the risk of being seen as disloyal to the Kaale community. But, Pentecostalism is not always as life-changing or constructive as it is portrayed in the testimonies of its adherents. Often, the distance between the pious ideals and the hardships of everyday life is too big.

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Another conclusion of this study, then – illustrated by the story of Leif in Chapter 5 – is that Pentecostalism to many, or maybe even most, of its Kaale followers is a dream. It is a dream of what life could be like that is occasionally performed, believed and enjoyed at revivalist meetings, but which does not always last long after the preaching has stopped and the music has faded away. I met Marko for the last time on a rainy December afternoon. We met in a McDonald’s restaurant by the highway just outside the suburb where he lives. We spoke about his life and his experience of the Pentecostal church. Marko used to be active in the church when he was younger but nowadays he only occasionally attends the meetings. Towards the end of the interview I asked him what he considered most important to write in a book like the one I was working on. ‘Is there anything,’ I asked, ‘that one really shouldn’t miss when writing about the Romani revival?’ Having heard the question, Marko looked out the window for a while. Outside, cars were moving in and out of a nearby petrol station as a silent winter rain fell over the grey project blocks of the suburb behind. Marko looked at them for a moment before turning to me again. ‘The most important thing,’ he said finally, ‘is that God has seen to [cared for] also the Roma. That he wants to save them.’2 The phrasing of Marko’s answer and his use of the expression ‘seen to’ (Swedish: se till) are significant. This expression comes across as somewhat old-fashioned and to me, and I think also to Marko – who is a native Swedish speaker – it is associated with the most widespread children’s prayer in the Swedish language, Gud som haver, in which this particular expression is used. God who treasures children all, See to me for I am small. When I walk this world a stranger, God keeps me away from danger. Though joy may come and go again; Our loving father will remain.3

Maybe Marko’s subtle reference to this childhood rhyme, and his implicit connection of its message to the Romani people, captures much

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of what makes Pentecostalism meaningful for the Kaale Roma who let themselves be absorbed in it from time to time. Kaale Pentecostalism, then, pivots around the trust its adherents’ find in the story of a God who treasures them despite the difficult situations that they often find themselves in in this world. Pentecostalism is allowed into their lives because it has managed to become meaningful without excluding those who fear that becoming a personally engaged Christian means losing one’s dignity as a Rom. But the Kaale Roma do not allow Pentacostalism in all the time. With the exception of the ministers who make their living by upholding the Pentecostal institutions, religious engagement is something that flares up from time to time and then dies down, not something steady and consistent. The persons whose stories I have touched upon in this book – Sonja, Tino, Miranda, Leif and the others – all fit this description. They have all experienced the bliss of being anointed and the passion of strong religious commitment, but also the indifference of periods when life moves on quite well without an active religious engagement. Marko has not been particularly engaged for a couple of years. ‘One has too much other stuff to think about,’ he tells me as we leave McDonald’s after the interview is finished. Marko mentions some of the most recent problems that occupy his mind and our conversation leads on to the recent killing of a young Rom in Stockholm. ‘Evil is getting bigger,’ he tells me as he lights a cigarette, ‘that guy was a junkie but it was a non-Rom who pulled the trigger this time. It was a jealousy thing.’ As Marko opens the door of his car and as we shake hands, he continues, as if wanting to convey a final truth before we part: ‘the awakening is the only thing that can stop it you know,’ he says. ‘Look at me! I could have ended up God knows where if it hadn’t been for it.’4 The rain is still falling as Marko drives away.

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Chapter 1  Introduction    1. In this book I will use the terms Rom (singular), Roma (plural) and Romani (adjective) to denote the shattered community that I speak of here. For many reasons, these terms are not unproblematic. First of all, the people that the terms seek to denote belong to several different groups with many different self-identities and names for themselves, of which Roma is only one. Furthermore, the use of the word Roma as an umbrella term to embrace all groups of Gypsies, Roma and travellers is strongly connected to the political movement of Romani rights activism. Indeed, among the Kaale it was not until recently that any of them at all identified with this term and many Kaale still do not. The reason why I have chosen to use this term, despite its complexities, is because it is used by many leading representatives of the Pentecostal movement that I wish to portray. The term Roma is, hence, emic. I will also use the term Kaalo (singular), Kaale (plural) and Kaale (adjective) when discussing the informants and their community. Since I consider the word Gypsy to denote the specific group of English Gypsies who call (or used to call) themselves by this name, I have not, as is sometimes common, used this word as an English translation of the Swedish zigenare or the Finnish mustalainen. An exception to this is when I refer to the names of organisations who have, themselves, proposed such a translation.    2. Meeting, June 2008.    3. In this book I will use the term Pentecostal Christianity or Pentecostalism in the broadest possible sense. Other scholars have chosen to denote very similar movements among the Roma as Charismatic or Evangelical rather

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than Pentecostal. For the purpose of this presentation it is not necessary to discuss the demarcations of these names in depth. Suffice it to say that I here use Pentecostalism as an umbrella term for Protestant revivalist communities, which in teaching and practice strongly emphasise individual conversion, Bible reading and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.   4. Smith 2000.    5. Strand 2001: 31.    6. Adrian Marsh in a lecture at Södertörn University, Stockholm. 29 April 2009.    7. This refers to a proposal by the city of Verona’s mayor Flavio Tosi in 2008. Available at: www.humanrightsfirst.org/discrimination/pages.aspx?id=85   8. The words gajo (singular), gaje (plural) and gaje (adjective) denote nonRomani people in Romani. I will use this emic category throughout the text when speaking about non-Roma.    9. Thurfjell 1997, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008i, 2008ii, 2010i, 2010ii.

Chapter 2  The Finnish Kaale and their Religion    1. For a discussion about the Romani language in Sweden, see Carling 2005.    2. Acton and Klimanova 2000: 37.    3. Granqvist 2009: 47, 49.    4. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007.    5. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007.   6. The Roma people in Finnish society and church, 7; some also live in Russian Karelia and, allegedly, there is a small group in Canada.    7. Lainio 2002: 8.   8. Raber 2003.    9. For a thorough presentation of the clothing style of the Finnish Kaale, see, for instance, Huttu 2009.  10. The Roma people in Finnish society and church, 4; Romerna i Finland, 2007: 7.   11. Granqvist 2009: 48.   12. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007.   13. In Swedish: Greve Gaginos sällskap.   14. Pulma 2009: 12, also 2006.   15. The word tattare or tartare comes from the Low German word (tatere, which literally means tatar. When Romani people wandered into Europe from the East they were associated with the troops of Genghis Khan and hence given this name. The word also brings connotations of the Latin word tartaros, meaning Hades or hell. It is hence from its beginning laden with very negative implications (Hazell 2002: 396).

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  16. Pulma 2009: 12.   17. Pulma 2009: 12.  18. 1637 års Plackat om tartarens fördrifwande af landet.   19. Pulma 2009: 14.  20. For a thorough presentation and discussion of Swedish-Finnish soldiernames, see Mikkonen 1986.   21. Pulma 2009: 14.  22. 1748 års Kongl. Maj:ts ytterligare nådige förordning angående hämmande af the så kallade Tartares och Zigeuners samt annat löst folk och lättingars strykande omkring landet.   23. Pulma 2009: 10–11.   24. Pulma 2009: 20.   25. See, for instance, 1804 års Kongl. Maj:ts nådige Förordning Om Allmänna Arbetsställen … or 1822 års Kongl. Maj:ts nådige kungörelse, angående förbud för glasoch porcellainesförare …   26. Etzler 1944.   27. In this book, I use the word Gypsy only in quotes and when speaking about organisations that have chosen this word as the English translation of their Swedish or Finnish names. When my informants use the term zigenare, which is sometimes translated to English as Gypsy, I stick to their original wording because of the different and partly incomparable connotations that the Gypsy and zigenare have in these respective languages.   28. The citizenship given to indigenous Roma contrasted with a stricter attitude towards foreign travellers. See, for instance, 1914 års Lag angående förbud för vissa utlänningar att här i riket vistas.   29. Pulma 2009: 24–25.  30. Romerna i Finland, 2007: 3.   31. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.  32. Romerna i Finland, 2007: 3.   33. Interview with Romani minister 6, January 2009.   34. Pulma 2009: 28.   35. Pulma 2009: 28.   36. Interview with Romani minister 6, January 2009.  37. Parallel organisations that are present today are, for instance, Gypsies Future, a support organisation for young Roma founded in 1996 with the purpose of supporting Romani children and youngsters living in children’s homes or in foster-families. The Roma and the church was another organisation founded the same year with the ambition to help Romani members of Finnish congregations (Romerna i Finland, 2007: 14).

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 38. Romerna i Finland, 2007: 3.  39. Romerna i Finland, 2007: 6–7.  40. Romerna i Finland, 2007: 4.   41. These were the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, 1992, and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, 1994.  42. 1954 års zigenarutredning.   43. Tan Marti, no date.   44. Isaksson, no date: 7.   45. For instance, Johan Dimitri Taikon wrote to the king in 1936 and 1943 demanding improvement of the school situation for Roma (Tan Marti, no date).   46. Taikon 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979.  47. Romer i Sverige – Tillsammans i förändring.   48. See, for instance, Strand 2001.   49. An interesting example of a book that does this is Trigg 1973.   50. Hoyland 1816: 199ff.   51. De Goeje, no date: 133–134, Woodcock 1865: 84, Trigg 1973: 22.   52. Leland 1873: 10.   53. James 1938: 1. See also, Trigg 1973: 25, 27.   54. Trigg 1973.   55. Trigg 1973: 82.   56. Trigg 1973: 135.   57. Trigg 1973: 81. See also Acton 1979: 290, Fraser 1992: 311, Maximoff 1965: 151.   58. Interview with Romani minister 5, April 2006.   59. For more information about pre-Christian Romani religiosity see Trigg 1973.  60. See, for instance, Miller 1975, Okely 1981, Stewart 1997, Sutherland 1975, Thompson 1922. For a presentation of the purity rules among Roma in Sweden see Goldstein-Kyaga 1990.   61. Strand 2001: 41.  62. There are examples of Romani groups who also have rules surrounding food. Eating raw meat or horsemeat has been considered impure among some: see Trigg 1973, 67–70. This is, however, not the case among the present-day Kaale.   63. For instance, a woman should not be alone with another man, especially not a gaje. Kenrick and Clarke 1995: 73, Okely 1981: 203.   64. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007.   65. Hirschon 1978.

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  66. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   67. Interview with gaje minister 1, December 2007. For further discussions about Romani traditions surrounding death see, for instance, Trigg 1973: 133–134.   68. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   69. Interview with Maria, November 2007.   70. Interview with Toumas, November 2007.   71. Rombase.   72. Trigg 1973: 16.   73. Pulma 2009: 18.  74. The Roma people in Finnish society and church booklet, p. 10. Interview with Romani Minister 7, January 2009.  75. The Roma people in Finnish society and church, 10.  76. The Roma people in Finnish society and church, 11.   77. Interview with Romani minister 5, April 2006.   78. Interview with Romani minister 4, November 2007.   79. Interview with Marko, December 2007.   80. Interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009.  81. Romerna i Finland, 2007: 14.   82. www.romanomissio.fi.   83. Interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009.   84. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   85. Ahonen 2002: 103–105, Kärkkäinen 2000: 116–131.   86. Interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009.  87. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007 and with Romani minister 7, January 2009.   88. Interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009.   89. Interview with Romani minister 6, January 2009.   90. Interview with Romani minister 6, January 2009.   91. Strand 2001: 32, Le Cossec 1985, 1991, Lindahl 1955.   92. Acton 1979: 293, Fraser 1992: 313, Maximoff 1965: 152.   93. Locke 1997: 21.   94. Fraser 1992: 314.   95. Acton 1979: 293.   96. Interview with Romani minister 4, November 2007. See also the webpage: www.vieetlumiere.fr.   97. Kopsa-Schön 1996: 257.  98. The Roma people in Finnish society and church, 10. See also the webpage: www.elamajavalo.fi.

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  99. Pulma 2009. 100. For instance, Lewi Pethrus himself allegedly baptised a successful Romani businessman of Russian background in Stockholm. Interview with Romani minister 5, April 2006. Also some prominent members of the Taikon family were Pentecostals early. Interview with Fred Taikon, April 2006. 101. Interview with Romani minister 5, April 2006. 102. Interview with Fred Taikon, April 2006. 103. Interview with Romani minister 4, November 2007. 104. Fardi Athanasio joined the Word of Life congregation towards the end of his ministry and this added to the conflicts in this group. 105. Interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009. 106. Interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009. 107. Interview with Henry Hedman, January 2009. 108. Interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009. 109. Interview with Romani minister 6, January 2009. 110. Interview with Romani minister 6, January 2009. 111. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007. 112. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007. 113. Romer i Sverige 1997: 60. 114. Romer i Sverige 1997: 60. 115. Interview with Romani minister 6, January 2009. 116. Interview with Dimitri, November 2007. 117. Interview with gaje minister 2, November 2007 and gaje minister 3, December 2007. 118. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.

Chapter 3  Caught in a Deadlock    1. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   2. Diskriminiering av romer 2003: 16.    3. In this study, 150 Roma were asked to answer questions about their experiences of discrimination. The study was a Bachelor thesis at the Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, 2003. See, Forsberg and Lakatos 2003.   4. Diskriminering av romer 2003: 19.   5. Diskriminiering av romer 2003: 12.   6. Romer i Sverige 1997: 31.    7. Forsberg & Lakatos 2003.    8. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.

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   9. Rodell Olgaç 1998: 46.   10. See, for instance, Romer i Sverige 1997: 34.   11. Rodell Olgaç 2006: 120.  12. Romer och den svenska skolan 1999: 48.   13. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.  14. Romer och den svenska skolan 1999: 48.  15. Romer och den svenska skolan 1999: 51.  16. Romer och den svenska skolan 1999: 52.   17. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.  18. Diskriminiering av romer 2003: 27.  19. Romer och den svenska skolan 1999. For further information about the situation of Romani children in Sweden see also Romer i skolan en fördjupad studie 2007 and De vill att jag ska vara osynlig … 2005.  20. Diskriminiering av romer 2003: 30.   21. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.  22. Romer i Sverige 1997: 35–36.  23. Diskriminiering av romer 2003: 32.   24. Adrian Marsh, seminar at Södertörn University, 3 March 2009.   25. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   26. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   27. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   28. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   29. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.  30. Romer i Sverige 1997: 41.   31. Interview with Andreas, November 2007.   32. For instance, interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009.   33. Interview with gaje minister 1, December 2007, and Romer i Sverige 1997: 40.   34. Raber 2003.   35. For instance, interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009.   36. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.  37. Romer i Sverige 1997: 40.   38. In Sweden known as ‘paragraph-12 homes’.   39. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   40. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   41. Interview with Romani minister 2, January 2009.  42. Romer i Sverige 1997: 40, Diskriminiering av romer 2003: 32, Romer och den svenska skolan 1999: 52.   43. See, for instance, Wippermanns 1997 or Hancock 2002.

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  44. Ohlander 1943 and Dahlberg 1945 are two publications used to exemplify this.  45. Novels that are mentioned are Carl Jonas Love Almqvist’s Tre fruar i Småland, 1842; Victor Rydberg’s Singoalla, 1857 and August Strindberg’s Tschandala, 1897. Examples of films upholding stereotypical images of Roma would be I mörkaste Småland/In the Darkest Part of Smaland (dir. Schamyl Bauman 1943), Folket i Simlångsdalen/People From Simlangs Valley (dir. Theodor Berthels 1948) and Tattarblod/Gypsy Blood (dir. Hampe Faustman 1954).   46. Interview with gaje minister 2, November 2007.   47. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   48. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.  49. Diskriminiering av romer 2003: 40–48.   50. Rodell Olgaç 1998: 29.  51. Diskriminiering av romer 2003: 45 (my translation).   52. For a presentation of his perspective see Arnstberg 1984 and, most importantly, Arnstberg 1998.  53. Romer i Sverige – en situationsbeskrivning 1996.   54. In 1997 this work group published the report Romer i Sverige-tillsammans i förändring (Roma in Sweden – together in change), Romer i Sverige 1997.  55. For instance, Lag 1999: 30 against ethnic discrimination on the labour market; Lag 2001: 1286 on equal treatment of students and Lag 2003: 307 which prohibits discrimination in connection to selling goods and services. The Penal Code, chapter 16, paragraph 9, furthermore, regulates illegal discrimination. Diskriminiering av romer 2003: 17.  56. Nytt Juridiskt Arkiv 1985: 226.   57. Swedish Penal code, chapter 16, §8 prohibits racial agitation. For individual verdicts, see, for instance, Helsingborgs tingsrätt. Mål nr. B 1941–89 in Nytt Juridiskt Arkiv 1982: 128.  58. Nytt Juridiskt Arkiv 1999: 556.   59. Arnstberg 1998: 70 (my translation).   60. Inga Gustafsson and Tuula Kopsa-Schön could be seen, at least partly, as such scholars although their analyses also differ from Arnstberg on some crucial points. See Gustafsson 1973 or Kopsa-Schön 1996.   61. Arnstberg 1998: 242.   62. Barth 1969.   63. Swedish: gränsbevarande mekanismer.   64. Gustafsson 1973: 29–31.

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  65. Kopsa-Schön 1996: 255.   66. Arnstberg 1998: 422–423.   67. Arnstberg 1998: 372.   68. De los Reyes, Molina & Molinari 2003: 28 (my translation).   69. Kopsa-Schön 1996: 251.  70. Diskriminiering av romer 2003: 33.   71. Müntzing 1998: 43.   72. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008. Interview with Romani minister 2, January 2009.   73. For instance, there was in 2007 a television debate in which Roma discussed Romani culture with each other. Such public displays of fractures among Kaale Roma is unheard of in Sweden and arguably proves that there is at least a certain degree of trust between the Finnish Roma community and Finnish public society.  74. One such celebrity is the author, journalist, debater and ‘Tango-prince’ Rainer Friman.   75. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   76. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   77. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   78. Especially among the so-called Resande-romer, the travellers.  79. It is a strategy especially among many non-Kaale Roma in Sweden to change names and clothes and so on in order to be accepted by the majority culture. Some people of Muslim background have also done this.   80. This notion could be clarified by the concrete example of religion. In many places of the world, it is generally accepted that religion articulates an ideal condition rather than the actual situation in people’s lives. To proclaim adherence to a religious institution and its values, therefore, does not necessarily mean that one lives in accordance with its recommendations. Furthermore, the difference between the articulated dogma and real life practice need not be seen as a problem at all. It is, for instance, common that south European Catholics use contraceptives while still declaring strong adherence to and belief in the authority of the Pope. In Sweden, however, the situation is different. Regardless of whether this feature stems from a tradition of Lutheran logocentrism or other historical peculiarities, it is my impression that these kinds of double standards are often frowned upon. Articulated levels of discourse are given precedence over other forms of expression.   81. Quoted by Rodell Olgaç 2006: 159.   82. Morton 2007: 96–97.

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  83. De Kock 1992: 44–45.   84. Spivak 1988.   85. Bondesson 2006: 31.   86. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   87. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   88. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   89. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   90. Quoted in Bondesson 2006: 44.   91. Interview with gaje minister 1, December 2007.   92. Raber 2003.   93. Raber 2003.   94. Interview with Tino, November 2007.   95. Raber 2003.   96. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   97. Forsberg and Lakatos 2003.  98. Romer i Sverige 1997: 28.  99. Romer i Sverige 1997: 38. 100. Interview with Sonja, December 2007. 101. Interview with Elisabeth, November 2007. 102. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007. 103. Interview with gaje minister 1, December 2007. 104. Sayyid 2003: 32–35. 105. Bondesson 2006: 36. 106. Rodell Olgaç 2006: 172.

Chapter 4  Inducing the Pious Mood    1. See, for instance, Rappaport 1999.    2. This definition is in line with the work of Catherine Bell. See, for instance, Bell 1992: 220.    3. Interview with Pekka, December 2007.   4. St Ambrose: Select Works and Letters, Chapter 9: Verse 100.    5. For instance, William J. Seymour speaks on this theme in his sermon ‘River of living water’. Seymour, no date.    6. For a presentation of the historical development and theological debates of central Pentecostal concepts see, for instance, Baumert 2004.    7. Interview with Kari, November 2007.    8. Interview with Dimitri, November 2007.    9. Interview with Marko, December 2007.

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  10. Interview with Kai, June 2008.   11. Interview with Dimitri, November 2007.   12. Interview with Andreas, November 2007.   13. Interview with Andreas, November 2007.  14. For an interesting discussion about Christian conversion narratives, see Stromberg 1993.   15. Meeting, November 2007.   16. Text written by Veija; meeting, June 2008.   17. Meeting, November 2007.   18. Meeting, June 2008.   19. Interview with Kai, June 2008.   20. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   21. Meeting, June 2008.   22. Meeting, June 2008.   23. Aristotle 1924.   24. Descartes 2003.   25. Csordas 1994: 12.   26. These two words, mind and body, are in themselves misleading since they insinuate that there exists a dichotomy of human experience. And this is not true. What actually exists is instead a number of layers, which are unavoidably interconnected.   27. A search on titles containing the word ‘emotion’ in the Library of Congress catalogue from the 1950s to the present day shows a clear trend. The 1950s have an average of 4.4 titles containing the word ‘emotion’ per year; the 1960s 6.1 titles per year; the 1970s 10.1 titles per year; the 1980s 15.5 titles per year; the 1990s 25.5 titles per year, and the 2000s 44.7 titles per year.   28. This hypothesis has been discussed by scholars like Zygmunt Bauman and Anthony Giddens. See Bauman 2000 and Giddens 1991.   29. For further discussions on this matter see, for instance, Dean Hartley 2003.   30. Marx’s own critique of religion finds its most explicit articulation in Marx 1843–1844.   31. One example here is the American psychologist Randolph Cornelius who sorts out four categories, or discourses as he calls them, of research on emotion: 1. Darwinism and evolutionary perspectives; 2. Body-focused theories such as that of William James (1884); 3. The cognitivist discourse, and, 4. The social constructivist discourse (Cornelius 1996). Antonio Damasio is another example. He distinguishes between psychoanalytical and neurological explanations (Damasio 1999).

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  32. Corrigan 2004.   33. See, for instance, Schleiermacher 1884.   34. See, for instance, Otto 1991.   35. See, for instance, Turner 1995.   36. Corrigan 2004: 7–13.   37. Geertz 1973.   38. See, for instance, Grima 1992.   39. Lange 1885.   40. James 1884.   41. Corrigan 2004: 7–13.   42. Werbner and Basu 1998.   43. Parish 1994.   44. Gordon 1987.   45. Stocker and Hegeman 1996.   46. Griffith 1998.   47. Lutz and White 1986.   48. Griffith 1998.   49. One of the few scholars who have studied Kaale Romani culture from a performance perspective is Tuula Kopsa-Schön; see Kopsa-Schön 1996.   50. For further discussions about performativity and Romani Pentecostalism see Thurfjell 2010ii.   51. Interview with Dimitri, November 2007.   52. Group interview, November 2007.   53. For discussions about the role of music among Romani Pentecostals see Llera Blanes 2003, 2004 and 2005.   54. Interview with Tino and Dimitri, November 2007.   55. Interview with Magdalena, December 2007.  56. The notion of ‘suspension of disbelief ’ originates from an essay by the English poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1817: Chapter XIV). It has been alluded to in aesthetic theory and discussed as a means of overcoming the tension between intellectual scrutiny and immature devotion in aesthetic experiences. Suspension of disbelief, therefore, implies the willingness to momentarily overlook the limitations of a medium in order to be able to fully appreciate what it tries to convey. I want to thank Peter Jackson for bringing my attention to this concept.   57. Meeting, June 2008.   58. Interview with Tino, November 2007.   59. Interview with Tino, November 2007.   60. Interview with Tino, November 2007.

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  61. Interview with Tino, November 2007.   62. Interview with Tino, November 2007.   63. Interview with Tino, November 2007.   64. Interview with Tomas, June 2008.   65. Humphrey and Laidlaw 1994.   66. Meeting, June 2008.   67. Crapanzano 1992: 234–235.   68. See, for instance, Austin 1962.   69. Reddy 2000: 113, 2001: 100.   70. Reddy 2000: 114, 2001: 100.   71. Reddy 2000: 114, 2001: 100.   72. Reddy 2001: 322.   73. Durkheim 1965: 442–443.   74. Radcliffe-Brown 1933: 239–240.   75. Tambiah 1985: 132.   76. Tambiah 1985: 132.   77. Tambiah 1985: 134.   78. See Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Chapter 8.   79. Geertz 1973: 163.   80. Interview with Ted, November 2007.

Chapter 5  Staying on the Path    1. See Mark 13: 12.    2. Meeting, June 2008.    3. Leif here refers to 1 Corinthians 13: 13.    4. Text about Pentecostalism by Romani minister 3.    5. Text about Pentecostalism by Romani minister 3.   6. Interview with gaje minister 1, December 2007.    7. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007.    8. Interview with Maria, November 2007.    9. Interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009.   10. See, for instance, Gay y Blasco 2000.   11. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   12. Calley 1965: 2.   13. Calley 1965: 10; Strand 2001: 30–31.   14. Interview with Dimitri, November 2007.   15. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   16. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.

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 17. Romer i Sverige 1997: 61.  18. Romer i Sverige 1997: 61.  19. Romer i Sverige 1997: 61.  20. Romer i Sverige 1997: 61.   21. The literal translation of the proverbial expression used in this quote would be ‘like a feather in the hat’.   22. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   23. Group interview, November 2007.   24. Group interview, November 2007.  25. Romer i Sverige 1997: 41.   26. Interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009.   27. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   28. See, for instance, interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   29. Interview with Marko, December 2007.   30. Johansson 2007: 6.   31. Group interview, November 2007.   32. Interview with Juhani, November 2007.  33. Romer i Sverige 1997: 61.   34. Interview with Tino, November 2007; and Marko, December 2007.   35. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007.   36. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   37. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   38. Group interview, November 2007.   39. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   40. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   41. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   42. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007.   43. Interview with Magdalena, November 2007.   44. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   45. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007 and Romani minister 4, November 2007.   46. Interview with Romani minister 4, November 2007.   47. Group interview, November 2007.   48. Interview with Romani minister 4, November 2007.   49. Interview with Marko, December 2007.   50. Interview with Marko, December 2007.  51. For a thorough introduction to and sociological analysis of the feuding among Kaale Roma, see Grönfors 1977.   52. Interview with Harri, November 2007.

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  53. Interview with Leif, March 2009.   54. See, for instance, interview with gaje minister 1, December 2007.   55. This reference probably refers to the Gospel of Matthew (16: 19) where Jesus declares that ‘whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’   56. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   57. Gay y Blasco 2000: 10.   58. Interview with Romani minister 5, April 2006.   59. Interview with Romani minister 7, January 2009.   60. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   61. Interview with gaje minister 1, December 2007.   62. Interview with Tomas, June 2008.   63. Interview with Miranda, December 2007.   64. Interview with Miranda, December 2007.   65. Interview with Maria, November 2007.   66. Interview with gaje minister 1, December 2007.   67. Interview with Miranda, December 2007.   68. Interview with Tomas, June 2008.   69. There are some examples of individuals who are baptised before they are anointed, but in my material this is not common. Interview with Romani minister 4, November 2007.   70. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   71. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   72. Interview with Roma minister 7, January 2009.   73. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   74. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   75. Meeting, November 2007.   76. Meeting, June 2008.   77. Text about Pentecostalism by Romani minister 3.   78. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   79. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   80. Interview with Elisabeth, November 2007.   81. Interview with Tomas, June 2008.   82. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   83. See, for instance, interview with gaje minister 2, November 2007.   84. Interview with Tino, November 2007.   85. Interview with social worker 1, January 2008.   86. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   87. Interview with gaje minister 2, November 2007.

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Chapter 6  Ethnogenesis and Eschatology    1. Interview with Harri, November 2007.   2. Interview with gaje minister 1, December 2007.    3. Interview with Marko, December 2007.    4. Meeting, November 2007.    5. Meeting, June 2008.    6. Gay y Blasco 1999, 2000.    7. Fraser 1992: 315.    8. Strand 2001: 52.    9. Strand 2001: 2.   10. Sometimes referred to as Porrajmos (The Devouring). This term was introduced by Ian Hancock. See, for instance, Hancock 2006.   11. Acton 1998: 10.   12. Webpage: www.romarights.net.   13. Webpage: www.errc.org.   14. Gheorghe 1997: 158.   15. Strand 2001: 46.   16. Acton 1979: 295.   17. Linton 1979; Strand 2001: 51.   18. Williams 1991.   19. Strand 2001: 2, 12; Acton 1979, 1998; Fraser 1992; Gay y Blasco 1999, 2000.   20. Gheorghe 1997.   21. Gay y Blasco 1999: 10; Acton 1979: 291.   22. Interview with Harri, November 2007.   23. Interview with Romani minister 4, November 2007.   24. Interview with Dimitri, November 2007.   25. See, for instance, Locke 1997 or Ridholls 1986.   26. See Strand 2001: 13, but also Locke 1997, Ridholls 1986, Maximoff 1965 and Smith 2000.   27. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   28. For a news report on this particular story see, for instance, http://news.bbc. co.uk/2/hi/americas/7140409.stm.  29. Harri here probably refers to Matthew 10: 21, which reads: ‘And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.’

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  30. This refers to the tsunami that hit southern and south-east Asia in December 2004 which killed more than 200,000 people including many Swedish tourists.   31. This refers to the ferry MS Estonia that foundered in the Baltic Sea in September 1994. The Estonia catastrophe of 1994 and the tsunami of 2004 are generally seen as the greatest tragedies suffered by the Swedish nation since the Second World War.   32. Interview with Harri, November 2007.   33. Strand 2001: 37.   34. Compare with Locke 1997: 92.   35. Meeting, November 2007.   36. Luke 14: 15–24.   37. Interview with Sonja, December 2007.   38. Interview with Romani minister 1, November 2007.   39. See, for instance, interview with Toumas, November 2007.   40. Interview with Juhani, November 2007. Juhani here refers to Acts 1: 17 where it says: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.’   41. Interview with Sonjatta, November 2007.   42. Interview with gaje minister 1 , December 2007.   43. Meeting, June 2008.   44. Meeting, June 2008.   45. This is basically a very concise version of the story of the Book of Revelation as construed by Biblicist Pentecostals. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   46. The text that is referred to is Matthew 29: 38–40 where it says: ‘For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.’   47. Interview with gaje minister 3, December 2007.   48. Robert Heinlein’s 1984 book Job: A Comedy of Justice.   49. Mark E. Rogers’ book The Dead, published in 2001.  50. A Thief in the Night (1972), A Distant Thunder (1977), Image of the Beast (1980) and The Prodigal Planet (1983).   51. Interview with Sonja, December 2007 and with Leif, March 2009.

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Chapter 7  Walk this World a Stranger: Concluding Remarks    1. Foucault 1978: 95.    2. Interview with Marko, December 2007.    3. In Swedish this prayer reads: ‘Gud som haver barnen kär, se till mig som liten är. Vart jag mig i världen vänder, står min lycka i Guds händer. Lyckan kommer, lyckan går, du förbliver fader vår.’    4. Interview with Marko, December 2007.

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References

Structured interviews Not anonymised Fred Taikon, April 2006. Henry Hedman, January 2009.

Anonymised Andreas, November 2007. Angelika, November 2007. Dimitri, November 2007. Elisabeth, November 2007. Gaje minister 1, December 2007, June 2008, November 2008. Gaje minister 2, November 2007. Gaje minister 3, December 2007, June 2008, June 2009. Gaje minister 4, November 2007, June 2008. Gaje minister 5, June 2008. Harri, November 2007. Helena, June 2008. Juhani, November 2007. Kai, June 2008. Kari, November 2007. Leif, March 2009. Magdalena, November 2007. Maria, November 2007. Marko, December 2007. Markus, November 2007.

199

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Miranda, December 2007. Pekka, December 2007, November 2008. Rainer, June 2008. Romani minister 1, November 2007, June 2008, June 2009. Romani minister 2, January 2009, November 2009. Romani minister 3, June 2008, November 2008. Romani minister 4, November 2007, June 2008, June 2009. Romani minister 5, April 2006, November 2009. Romani minister 6, January 2009, June 2009. Romani minister 7, January 2009. Romani minister 8, June 2008. Romani minister 9, June 2008, November 2008, April 2009. Saska, June 2008. Social worker 1, January 2008. Social worker 2, October 2009. Social worker 3, November 2007. Social worker 4, May 2009. Social worker 5, May 2009. Sonja, December 2007. Sonjatta, November 2007. Ted, November 2007, June 2008. Tino, November 2007. Tomas, June 2008. Toumas, November 2007. Veija, June 2008.

Motion pictures Apocalypse. 1998. A Distant Thunder. 1977. Folket i Simlångsdalen. 1948. I mörkaste Småland. 1943. Image of the Beast. 1980. Left Behind: The Movie. 2001. The Omega Code. 1999. The Prodigal Planet. 1983. The Rapture. 1991. Tattarblod. 1954. A Thief in the Night. 1972.

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Websites BBC News: news.bbc.co.uk. Elämä ja Valo: www.elamjavalo.fi. European Roma Rights Centre: www.errc.org. Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church: www.evl.fi. Finnish Romani Education Unit: www.oph.fi/info/romanit. Human Rights First: www.humanrightsfirst.org. Roma Rights Network: www.romarights.net. Romano missio: www.romanomissio.fi. Rombase: ling.kfunigraz.ac.at/~rombase. Vie et Lumière: www.vieetlumiere.fr.

Laws, court cases and governmental reports 1637 års Plackat om tartarens fördrifwande af landet. [Decree expelling vagrants from the country, 1637]. 1748 års Kongl. Maj:ts ytterligare nådige förordning angående hämmande af the så kallade Tartares och Zigeuners samt annat löst folk och lättingars strykande omkring landet. [The 1748 Additional Gracious Regulation of His Royal Majesty concerning the restraining of the vagrancy of so-called Tartares and Zigeuners as well as other idle people and mendicants in the country]. 1804 års Kongl. Maj:ts nådige Förordning Om Allmänna Arbetsställen för Sweaoch Götha-Riken, samt Stor-Förstendömet Finnland. [The 1748 Gracious Regulation of His Royal Majesty concerning public employment places for the realms of Swea and Götha as well as the Grand Duchy of Finland]. 1822 års Kongl. Maj:ts nådige kungörelse, angående förbud för glas- och porcellainesförare samt smides-handlare att, i ändamål af dylika warors försäljning, uti landsorterne kringresa; samt om hwad wid handel med desza waror på landet hädanefter bör iakttagas. [The 1822 Gracious Announcement of His Royal Majesty prohibiting glass and porcelain vendors and merchants of forging products to travel around the country with the purpose of selling such goods; and setting out the concerns which should be attended to when these goods are traded]. 1914 års Lag angående förbud för vissa utlänningar att här i riket vistas. [The 1914 law prohibiting certain foreigners from dwelling in the country]. 1954 års zigenarutredning. 1954. Zigenarfrågan: Betänkande. Statens offentliga utredningar 1956: 43. Stockholm, 1956. [The 1954 Zigenare report]. 1982. Helsingborgs tingsrätt. Mål nr. B 1941–89. Nytt Juridiskt Arkiv 1982. Page 128. [Court case from the district court of Helsingborg].

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1985. Landskrona tingsrätt. Mål nr. B 344–84. Nytt Juridiskt Arkiv 1985. Page 226. [Court case from the district court of Landskrona]. 1992. European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, 1992. Council of Europe. Strasbourg, 5.XI.1992. 1994. Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, 1994. Council of Europe. Strasbourg, 1.II.1995. 1996. Romer i Sverige: En situationsbeskrivning. Norrköping: Statens invandrarverk i samarbete med Nordiska Zigenarrådet. [Report from the Immigration Board: Roma in Sweden, a description of the situation]. 1997. Romer i Sverige: Tillsammans i förändring. Departementsserien 1997: 49. Stockholm: Näringsdepartementet, regeringen och regeringskansliet. [Report from the Government offices: Roma in Sweden, Together in Change]. 1999. Om åtgärder mot etnisk diskriminering i arbetslivet. Lag 1999: 30. [Law concerning measures against ethnic discrimination on the labour market]. 1999. Romer och den svenska skolan. Skolverkets rapport 1999, dnr 98: 2652. [Report from the school board: Roma in the Swedish schools]. 1999. Supreme court of Sweden. Case no. 127–1. Nytt juridiskt arkiv 1999. Page 556. 2001. Om likabehandling av studenter i högskolan. Lag 2001: 1286. [Law on equal treatment of university students]. 2003. Law 2003: 307, which prohibits discrimination in connection to selling goods and services. The Penal code, chapter 16, paragraph 9. 2003. Diskriminering av romer i Sverige: Rapport från DO:s projekt åren 2002 och 2003 om åtgärder för att förebygga och motverka etnisk diskriminering av romer. Stockholm: Ombudsmannen mot etnisk diskriminering. [Report from the Ombudsman Discrimination against Discrimination against Roma in Sweden]. 2005. ‘De vill att jag ska vara osynlig’ romska barn och ungdomar berättar om sin vardag. Barnombudsmannen rapporterar 2005: 07. [Report from the Ombudsman of children: ‘They want me to be invisible’, Romani children and young people talk about their everyday life]. 2007. Romer i skolan en fördjupad studie. Skolverket rapport 292, 2007. [Report from the school board: Roma in schools: an in-depth study].

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Rappaport, Roy A., Ritual and religion in the making of humanity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Reddy, William, ‘Sentimentalism and its erasure: The role of emotions in the era of the French revolution’, The journal of modern history no. 72 (2000), pp. 109–152. ———, The navigation of feelings: A framework for the history of emotions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). Ridholls, Joe, Travelling home: God’s work of revival among Gypsy folk (Basingstoke: Marshall Pickering, 1986). Rodell Olgaç, Christina, ‘Vi är rädda att förlora våra barn’: Romska barn i Norden och Barnkonventionen (Stockholm: Rädda barnen, 1998). ———, Den romska minorieteten i majoritetssamhällets skola: Från hot till möjlighet (Stockholm: Intellecta docusys, 2006). Rogers, Mark E., The Dead (Haverford: Infinity Publishing, 2001). Romerna i Finland/Finitiko romaseele, Social- och hälsovårdsministeriets broschyrer 2007: 2 (Helsingfors: Social- och hälsovårdsministeriet, 2007). Rydberg, Victor, Singoalla (Stockholm: Bonnier, 1857). Sayyid, Bobby S., A fundamental fear: Eurocentrism and the emergence of Islamism (London: Zed Books, 2003). Schleiermacher, Friedrich, Der christliche Glaube nach den Grundsätzen der evangelischen Kirche (Berlin: Reimer, 1884). Seymour, William J., ‘River of living water’. Sermon available at: www.azusastreet. org (accessed 25 September 2012). Smith, Cornelius, The life story of Gipsy Cornelius Smith (Great Britain: Romany & Traveller Family History Society, 2000). Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty, ‘Can the Subaltern speak?’ in Cary Nelson & Larry Grossberg (eds), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988). Stewart, Michael, The time of the Gypsies (Oxford: Westview Press, 1997). Stocker, Michael & Elizabeth Hegeman, Valuing emotions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). Strand, Elin Pernilla, Moving hearts: Pentecostalism and Gypsy identity, Masters’ dissertation (Greenwich: School of Social Science, University of Greenwich, 2001). Strindberg, August, Tschandala (Stockholm: Beijer, 1897). Stromberg, Peter, Language and self-transformation: A study of the Christian conversion narrative (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). Sutherland, Anne, Gypsies: The hidden Americans (New York: The Free Press, 1975). Taikon, Katarina, Katitzi i skolan (Stockholm: Tai-Lang, 1975).

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Werbner, Pnina & Helene Basu, Embodying charisma: Modernity, locality and the constitution of emotion in South Asian Sufi shrines (London: Routledge, 1998). Williams, Patrick, ‘Le miracle et la nécessité: A propos du développement du pentecôtisme chez les tsiganes’, Archives de sciences sociales des religions vol. 73 (1991), pp. 81–98. Wippermanns, Wolfgang, ‘Wie die Zigeuner’ in Antisemitismus und Antiziganismus im Vergleich (Berlin: Elefanten Press, 1997). Woodcock, Henry, The Gipsies: Being a brief account of their history, origin, capabilities, manners and customs with suggestions for the reformation and conversion of the English Gipsies (London: William Lister, 1865).

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Index

Acton, Thomas 163 Advisory Board on Gypsy Affairs 22, 23 Alcoholism 60, 106–108, 113, 135–136, 138, 153, 177 Anointment 4–5, 88–91, 94, 104, 106, 108, 115, 122–123, 129–130, 137, 143, 144, 145, 147, 150, 157, 180 Antichrist 170–172 Anti-ziganism 6, 15, 16, 62–65, 132 Apocalypse (motion picture) 171 Aristotle 95 Arnstberg, Karl-Olov 64–67 Assimilation 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 34, 35, 38, 43, 66–67, 79, 84 Athanasio, Fardi 43, 47 Austin, John L. 110 Balkans 36, 41 Baptism 6, 28, 35, 39, 41–43, 89–91, 124, 139–140, 147–148, 149, 154 Barth, Fredrik 66 Belarus 42 The Bible 2, 3, 38, 43, 47, 48, 88, 91, 92, 100, 101, 106, 107, 120, 124,

128, 138, 152, 153, 161, 165, 166, 167, 169 Biblicism 102, 167, 169, 171 Black Madonna 30 Blaming the system perspective 62–64 Blaming the victim perspective 64–70 Blomerus, Herman 40 Book of Revelations 92, 166 Borg, Ossi 48 Borrow, George 27 Buro 70 Calé 14 Call-centres for women 59 Cameron, Kirk 172 Caravans 23, 54, 55 Catholicism 29, 30, 36, 43, 139 Church meeting in Linköping 16 Church of Finland (Lutheran folkchurch) 29, 35, 37, 38, 39, 44, 45 Church of Sweden (Lutheran former state-church) 29, 35, 36, 45, 48, 132 Clothes 1–2, 15, 32, 37, 73, 75, 77, 80, 83, 135, 147, 149, 160, 172 Copenhagen 15

211

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Copper smithing 57 Corrigan, John 96–97 Le Cossec, Clément 6, 40–43 Council of Europe 6, 24 Count Gagino’s company 15–16 Crapanzano, Vincent 109–110 Criminality 22, 58–60, 72, 134–135 Darwinism 117 Death 28, 31–34, 40, 41, 44, 87, 107, 112, 123, 152 Descartes, René 95 the Devil, see Satan Dimitri, Lars 47 Discursive exclusion 72–73, 75 Doughten, Russel 171 Drug abuse 59–61, 81–82, 91, 107, 113, 135–136 Durkheim, Émile 96, 111–112 Education 24, 25, 38, 43, 47–48, 51, 55–57, 58, 62, 64, 68, 74, 75, 77, 80–82, 84, 98, 106, 121, 122, 128, 132, 133–134, 154 Elämä ja Valo 42, 44–45 Emotional association 114–116, 178 Emotions 88, 89, 92, 93, 94–101, 103, 105, 109, 111–113, 116–117, 121, 123, 147, 156 Entertainment 155–156 Eschatology 159–173 Ethics 11, 72 Ethnogenesis 159–165 Ethos 115 European Roma and Travellers’ Forum 24 European Roma Rights Centre 162 European Union 24

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Faith and Hope 48–49 Faith movement 44 Fall of Adam 87, 114, 176 Farmers 70–71, 78–79 Feuding 139–144 Finnish Civil War 20 Finnish Evangelical Free Church 36–37 Finnish Gypsy Mission 19–20, 22, 37–38, 42 Finnish Gypsy organisation 23, 26 Finnish Pentecostal Church 39 Finnish Romani association 23 Finska zigenarföreningen, see Finnish Gypsy organisation Forsberg, Anna 54 Fortune-telling 17 France 6, 30, 40–41, 43, 163 Free Romani Mission of Finland 42 Funerals 33, 103 Gay y Blasco, Paloma 161 Geertz, Clifford 97, 115 Gitanos 14, 141 Glossolalia 3, 4, 5, 90–91, 101, 107, 120, 129 God 3, 4, 5, 10, 34, 37, 44, 83, 87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 102, 106, 107, 108, 114, 116, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 132, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 141, 144, 145, 146, 151, 152, 153, 165, 166, 167, 168, 168, 170, 171, 177, 179, 180 de Goeje, Michaël Jan 27 Grand Duchy of Finland 18 Great awakening 131 Grellman, Herman 27, 34–35 Griffith, Marie 98

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index

Grima, Benedicte 97 Grönfors, Orvo 48 Gud som haver 179 Gustafsson, Inga 66 Hagert, Hemmi 40 Hammarberg, Thomas 6 Health 44, 57–58, 64, 80, 82, 84, 116, 131 Hedman, Henry 38, 44 Hegemony 64, 69, 70, 71, 73–79, 82, 84, 176 Heinlein, Robert 171 Herzl, Theodor 163 Hobbes, Thomas 113 Holocaust 162 Holy Spirit 3, 6, 41, 89–90, 94, 102, 127, 129, 137, 147, 151, 171, 177 Homogeneity 7, 12, 63, 67, 74 Horses 17, 20, 51, 57 Hoyland, John 27 Human rights 6, 24, 26, 63, 74, 77, 164, 175 Hungary 6 Hylland Eriksen, Thomas 75 Incommensurable demands 79–82, 84, 120 India 14, 33, 42, 164 International Roma Evangelical Movement 163 International Romani Union 13, 142, 162 internet 10, 52, 91 Islam 11, 30, 36 Israel 29, 117, 164, 166–167, 172–173 Israeli-Palestinian conflict 117, 173

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Italy 6 Ivanovich, Jonny 47 Jalkio, Oskar 37 James, Edwin Oliver 28 James, William 97 James-Lange theory 97 Jeffrey, Grant 171 Jehovah’s Witnesses 36 Jenkin, Jerry 172 Jeremiah, David 171 Jesus Christ 3, 4, 5, 87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 100, 104–105, 111, 112, 114, 119, 120, 121, 122, 126, 127, 129, 135, 139, 141, 147, 148, 151, 161, 166, 167, 169, 170, 171 Jews 23, 28, 29, 30, 163, 164, 165 Job market 23, 25, 42, 51, 52, 57, 58, 63, 68, 84, 134 Johansson, Göran 136 Jokinen, Eli 37, 40 Joseph II, Emperor, 34 Kååle 14 Kalá 14 Kalderash 26, 29, 36, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 134, 138, 139, 166 Karelia 18, 20, 21 Keswick awakening 131 Kihniö 21 Kopsa-Schön, Tuula 66, 67 Kwiek, Robert 47 Kwiek, Weszo 47 Laestadianism 39 LaHaye, Tim 171 Lakatos, Agnes 54 Lange, Carl Georg 97 Leaving salvation 149–155

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Left Behind: The Movie (motion picture) 171–173 Leif (case study) 119–129, 132, 139, 140, 141, 143, 144–146, 147, 149, 150, 152, 153, 155, 156, 157, 179, 180 Leland, Charles G. 27 Life and Light Association 41–42 Linköping 16, 17 Los Angeles 39 Lost tribes of Israel 164, 165, 166, 167 Lovaria 36, 42, 44, 47, 139 Luotomäki, Reijo 48 Lutz, Catherine 98

Nazism 6, 21, 23 Neo-pentecostalism 6 New Life 47 Nordic Gypsy council 26 Nordiska Zigenarrådet, see Nordic Gypsy council

Mannerheim, Carl Gustaf 21 Manouche 41, 163 Mäntyniemi, Anna 40 Mäntyniemi, Viljo 40 Marcarelli, Robert 171 Marriage 19, 111, 122, 125, 148–149 Marsh, Adrian 58 Marxist analysis 96 Matsson, Ernst 40 McDonald’s 179–180 Menstruation 32 Military 16–17, 18, 20, 21 Miranda (case study) 7, 120, 121–129, 132, 144–146, 149, 152, 180 Mission Évangelique des Tziganes et des Forains de France 40 Moods 87, 88, 91, 93–94, 98–99, 101–102, 108–109, 113, 117, 118 Music 5, 40, 77, 102–103, 120, 123, 128, 156, 179 Mustalaisasiain Neuvottelukunta, see Advisory Board on Gypsy Affairs

Paltalk 52 Parish, Steven M. 97 Paul, the apostle 101–102 Pentecost, J. Dwight 171 Pethrus, Lewi 39 Petri, Laurentius 16 Pielisjärvi 17 Pogroms 6, 175 Portugal 41 Premillennialism 170–172 Prophecy 101, 102, 119, 153 Protestant Reformation 16, 29, 30 Pulma, Panu 22, 24

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Ombudsman against Discrimination 53, 62, 63, 67 The Omega Code (motion picture) 171 Oral culture 10 Orientalism 11, 84 Orthodox Christianity 29, 36, 43 Otto, Rudolph 96 Outsidership 6, 11, 52, 53–62, 70, 71

Racism 11, 19, 27, 54, 62, 83 Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred 112 Rapture 170, 171, 172 The Rapture (motion picture) 171 Reconciliation 36, 127, 139–144 Reddy, William 97, 109, 110–113 Restaurants 52, 55, 65, 72, 73 179 Rodell Olgaç, Christina 55, 64, 85 Rogers, Mark 171

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Roma Rights Network 162 Romani Boodos 38 Romani feasts 40 Romani language 14, 15, 22, 24, 65, 68 Romani mission 38, 44 Romani rights movement 24, 42–43, 162 Romani studies 11, 13, 27, 31, 58, 67, 85 Romanichal 13 Romanijuhlat, see Romani feasts Romano missio, see Romani mission Russia 18, 20, 42, 47 Said, Edward 84 Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer 30 Salvation Army 36 Sara-la-Kali 30 Satan 4, 5, 128, 136, 170 Sayyid, Bobby 84 Schleiermacher, Friedrich 96 School, see Education Second World War 20, 25, 39 Self-confidence 83 Seventh Day Adventists 36 Sexuality 31–32, 99, 148 Sinti 13, 42 Smith, Chuck 171 Smith, Rodney ‘Gypsy’ 5 Smoking 1, 2, 33, 57, 84, 124, 126, 128, 136–139, 146, 150, 153, 168, 169, 178 Sonja (case study) 51–53, 56, 72–73, 77, 78, 80, 83, 137–138, 180 Sordavala orphanage 38 Spain 41, 43, 141 Speech Act theory 110 Spirit baptism 89

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Stockholm 1, 15, 26, 43, 46, 47, 48, 51, 60, 106, 122, 180 Stockholm’s Finnish Gypsy organisation 26 Strand, Elin 165, 166 Strong orientalism 84 Subalternity 76–79 Suomen Helluntaikirkko, see Finnish Pentecostal Church Suomen Mustalaislähetys, see Finnish Gypsy Mission Suomen Romaniyhdistys ry, see Finnish Romani association Suomen Vapaa Romanilähetys, see Free Romani Mission of Finland Suomen Vapaakirkko, see Finnish Evangelical Free Church Suspension of disbelief 104, 117 Synnintuska 123 Taikon, Katarina 26 Tambiah, Stanley 112 Tampere 20 Tan, Daniel 48 Tattare 16, 17, 26 Tattarplakatet 16 Tensta 43 A Thief in the Night (motion picture) 171 Tino (case study) 7, 106–109, 113, 180 Tolkin, Michael 171 Trigg, Elwood B. 28, 29 Tro och Hopp, see Faith and Hope Turner, Victor 96 Ukraine 42 United Nations 172, 173 Urbanisation 15, 22

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Usko ja Toivo, see Faith and Hope Valshanange 14 Vie et Lumière 41, 163 Vikström, John 35 Violence against women 58–59 Virio, Einar 41–42 Virio, Herta 41–42 Voulasranta, Miranda 24 Waern, Kjell 47

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Wales 14 Weak orientalism 84 Werbner, Pnina 97 White, Geoffrey 98 Williams, Patrick 163 Worldview 27, 30, 34, 74, 91, 97, 101, 102, 115, 159, 167, 176, 178 Zigenare 26, 33–34, 43, 51, 56, 63, 65, 81, 83, 84 Zirikli 23

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