NEGRO COLONY

Grey River Argus, 13 August 1937, Page 5

NEGRO COLONY

OLDEST IN EUROPE. NEARING EXTINCTION. BELGRADE, June 28. Managers of the smartest hotels in the main cities of South-eastern Europe are becoming perturbed because the local supply of negroes is running so low that dusky pages, bell boys and majordomos will soon have to be recruited from abroad. This is because one of the only genuine settlements of pure African negroes on the Continent of Europe—and certainly the oldest—is dying out. It is to be found in the little Montenegrin seaport of Ulcinj (formerly Dulcigno) on the Yugoslav coast of the Adriatic and only a few miles from the Albanian frontier. Here,; and in the neighbouring villages of j Shtoj, near Bar (Antivari), the negro' colony which has been settled there; for several hundred years has shrunk j from 50 households in 1878 (when the Montenegrins captured the coast, from the Turks) to only five house-j holds to-day. Prior to tne Montene-| grin arrival 100 households are re-| corded. Yugoslav scientists are of the; opinion that the colony soon will die: out completely. j The exact date of the arrival of the, first negroes at Ulcinj is not definite-i ly known, reveals Professor Tihomiri Djordjevich of Belgrade University. | FIRST BROUGHT AS SLAVES They appear to have been first brought to Ulcinj as slaves, captured by the Ulcinjians themselves, who were notorious medieval pirates and first-rate seamen. Slave-running was pratised by them when other booty failed, and Egypt, Tunis and Tripoli appear to have been the negroes’ places of origin. All the Ulcinj and district negroes are Moslems, but they kept until recently—when the community was larger—some traditional annual feasts including one with war dances which was yearly held on a high mound outside Ulcinj. Negroes are known to have lived in various parts of Yugoslavia ever since the Turkish occupation of the Bal- ■ kans, adds Professor Djordjevich. They were usually bought, both men ■ and women, as slaves by Turkish officers and high dignitaries. Most of the male negroes were employed as eunuchs. i

To-day negroes from abroad visit Yugoslavia annually, offering their services to Moslem pilgrims to Mecca as “bedele,” i.e., substitutes for the pilgrimage for those who are unable to visit the Holy City owing to sickness, or even on behalf of dead people, whose relatives employ them. PROXIES FOR THE DEAD. This custom is dying out, but as late as 1931 “bedele” visited Kosovska Mitrovica, Diakovica, Novi Pazar, Prizren and parts of Bosnia where the Moslem communities are large. Members of the Ulcinj district negro settlement work on the land and take part also in fishing activities and as ordinary seamen. In the past they were frequently given away as a dowry gift by their wealthier owners. t

But the children of these slaves became free citizens while usually the slaves themselves were liberated by their masters after a number of years of service. They were then generally given a present'of some land on which to settle. While the piratical masters of Ulcinj sailed the high seas as corsairs the negroes usually tiled the land and tended the vines and olives on shore.

Inter-breeding by the negroes is held to be responsible for their being on the way to extinction to-day. Many left Ulcinj when their Turkish masters migrated to Albania after the Montenegrins captured Ulcinj. During resent years the main exodus has been of negro boys, who have found comfortable, well-paid jobs in Balkan and South-east European' hotels. Visiting their homes they have! told tales of their affluence which sufficed to prevent any dusky young Ulcinjian contemplating further life as a farm labourer.

The five households left speak only one tongue to-day—Serbian with a smattering of Albanian and Italian words. They form a picturesque link with the Dalmatian past, when Ulcinj pirates swept the Adriatic from north to south, driving even Greek pirates from the sea.