Faith and Revivalism in a Nordic Romani Community

Pentecostalism Amongst the Kaale Roma of Sweden and Finland

David Thurfjell

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781848859289
• eBook ISBN: 9780857733184
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: European History

A Pentecostal revival is sweeping the Romani communities of Europe. The dominant religious orientation of European Roma, Pentecostalism has become one of the major factors behind Romani social development, in the wake of the discrimination, marginalisation, and growing anti-ziganist sentiments of the latest decades. Through this form of charismatic Protestant Christianity, Roma have overcome social problems and internal conflicts as well as battle against the hostility and exclusion of the 'macro gajo' (non-Roma) society. Based on interviews and field work, this original ethnographic study offers a unique presentation and analysis of the Pentecostal revival in one of Europe's many Romani communities - the Kaale Roma of Finland and Sweden. Through individual life stories, historical exposes, sociological interpretation, and ritual and discourse analysis, Thurfjell provides a vivid, accurate portrait of the multifaceted and complex situation of contemporary Roma. Despite the efforts of the Nordic welfare state over the past decades to counteract poverty, and to integrate their Romani communities into society, these groups are persistently problematic.
Inspired by postcolonial theory, Thurfjell's study addresses the failure of the integration politics of the Roma; he highlights the discursive pressure the hegemonial society places on outsiders as it reaches out to help them. Romani individuals, it is argued, are caught in a deadlock between the pressure to assimilate themselves into the majority society, and that of their community, to remain Romani. This study of the Pentecostal movement is of interest to anyone who seeks to understand the religious, historical, social and discursive processes that underlie the complex and difficult situation of European Roma today.

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 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 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 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 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 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 anti-Ziganist 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 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 meaning-making 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, 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 spring from this situation. Often, the difficult situation of the Roma is described as being caused either solely by...

Table of contents

• Author Biography
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Finnish Kaale and their Religion
• 3. Caught in a Deadlock
• 4. Inducing the Pious Mood
• 5. Staying on the Path
• 6. Ethnogenesis and Eschatology
• 7. Walk this World a Stranger: Concluding Remarks
• Notes
• References