Tatchoben ta hoknos: Breaking the myths of the past

      By Robert Lovell: Kale Kamulo (black Lovell)

  O chum bi O ratti The moon without the stars

  O kam bi O divvus The sun without the day

  benava savvo Romano Would be like all Romany

  bi ghilo! Without song

 I was born in 1949 and brought up in Aotearoa (New Zealand). My first childhood memory stands as clear now as it did then.

 My dadus (father) Adolphus Lovell took me to a local Blacksmith shop where the Smithy was busy shoeing a beautiful black grai (horse).

Dadus who was born at a well-known Romany stopping place in Upper Race Pontypool, South Wales told me in Romanes (the Romany language) what the Smith was doing. He also said, “don’t ever forget you’re a Romany Chavo son” (Romany boy).

 I'm as proud now as I was then of my Romany ratt (blood) for I am the great, great, great grandson of Old Slack Lovell. My siblings and I were not encouraged to broadcast our background and like many other of our folki worldwide, we found it easier to be like the Chameleon, so we could fit more easily into our surroundings.

There are some, gorgo (non-Romany) and Romany who believe in the stereotype Gypsy. One that must be wandering and living outside the gorgo systems: in part, it’s true ~ in part, it's a falsehood. What follows are my thoughts on the subject which in no way involves the thoughts or beliefs of any other people who may be connected to the Romany world.

 It is true our people have wandered across the world and many are the reasons put forward by scholars and researchers over the years. Yes, it is true that we have travelled partly due to the different trades undertaken by Rom that require one to be mobile. However, much of the wandering is due to prejudice from the gorga communities that Rom has encountered over a thousand years.

Also true is that the Romany language is Sanskrit based with many different dialects using borrowed words from host countries that Rom have stopped in or passed through. It is said that our origins are from North West India alone. I believe that the different tribes were made up of similar itinerant trades people who for whatever reason came from India and further a field as old Persia.

My interest is in the arrival of the Kale tribe or familia (families), who entered Wales sometime in the early to mid 1700's; AND what has been written on them by scholars and armchair academics more often known as the Baro Rai’s (great Gentlemen).

Much has been written by individual Gypsy researchers as well as work by the Gypsy Lore Society (GLS). The main academics I will write of are John Sampson (1862-1931), who collected much of the language, and produced the ‘Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales’ (Oxford Clarendon Press: 1926 - reprint 1968). Sampson also wrote and researched earlier items on English and Welsh Gypsies.

Second is an earlier scholar and old friend to Sampson, Francis Hindes Groome (1851-1902). Groom wrote ‘In Gypsy Tents’ and other works on Romany stories and songs.

 Another I will mention is Eric Otto Wilstedt, a member of the GLS who also wrote several items for the early volumes of the GLS. This rai I have trouble reading as some of his work relates directly to my own ancestors. They are not portrayed in a very positive manner and in turn promote the supposedly ‘pure’ Welsh Gypsies ~ the Abraham Woods tribe.

While I agree the Romany Wood Tribe was likely the first to enter North Wales they certainly were not ‘the 500 hundred only Kale’ as one Manfri Wood, descendant of Abraham states (In the life of a Romany Gypsy: Routledge & Kegan Paul LTD London 1973).

 Since I first became aware in 1996 that there were books written about my own ancestors and other Romany within the UK I have read what I could get hold of. My delight in them though turned to anger when it became clear to me that in the name of research that ‘Gypsiologists’ befriended Romany and used the cultural material they collected from them for their own ends.

To some extent, things Romany are still being exploited by the modern day equivalent of Gypsiologists AKA ‘the Gypsy industry’. However, this is not to say that all those who have researched and written about Gypsies do not have the best intentions and have done so for the betterment of Romany folki.

My education was not brilliant but better than my dadus, he did not have any formal schooling but he was an excellent judge of life and people. When I told my father in 1996 I'd been lent a book by George Borrow on the Romany people and it had things about our puri (old people) in it, my father became very upset saying it should not be! Why do gorgo have to do this, it only brings grief for Gypsy folki and most of it will be utter hokni (lies).

 It wasn’t until I spent time in Wales and England in 1999 that I began to understand my father’s anger. While there I journeyed around looking for lost family plus meeting many other Romany families, or what is left of them today. In 2007, I travelled again, thousands of miles between Wales and England searching for my Romistan or Turangawaewae (New Zealand Maori; standing place of my birth).

The thing that struck me the most is that today there is probably just as much racial stereotyping of who is/or is not a Gypsy as there was in the time of my dadus. Some is pure ignorant racial hatred shown by gorgo who don't want to or just are too lazy to find out the truth.

Gypsies are not by nature thieves who won't work for a living. Nor are we dirty lying vagabonds who roam around ripping people off and leaving our campsites in a disgusting mess. The majority of Romany/Gypsies/Travellers live a decent honest life they are people who pay their taxes and contribute to society but keep their culture to themselves.

It seems that the label of ‘Gypsy’ covers anyone who by their choice of lifestyle claims to be one. Actually, the opposite is true and there are some of the old Romany familia left who can trace their lineage.

The second group are the Romantics who are just as damaging to Romany as the racists. These are the dreamers and know alls who often claim they have known real Romany Gypsies and they are good while the rest are riff raff. A prime example of the dreamy romantic this happened last year when a woman upon learning I was of Romany lineage said;

‘OH! Bob, when I was young we used to have our very OWN Gypsies stop down OUR lane every year - we would give them old clothes and shoes and the like and in return the Gypsies would always leave OUR lane very clean when they left and nothing ever got stolen from US!?

I said to the woman, did you let them YOUR Gypsies off their leash! She said in surprise, why do you say that and I answered that from where I’m standing it sounds like you are talking about your pets and That Gypsies are human too not untamed wild animals here for your entertainment.

Then thirdly come the pure Romantics, and in this group, I include the rai's such as Sampson who with their questionable motives have helped strengthen the false image of the Gypsy – that is a wild, wandering people with flashing eyes and dark skin, that commune with nature and whose musical abilities verge on the supernatural.

Unlike many minority races of people Romany don't have a country (or own the land). We once may have had a place to call home but if we did the reasons why we are not still there have long been lost to time.

The Maori of New Zealand for example were a thriving race that is until English & European colonisers decided they wanted the country and took it by force. Land was a precious commodity and taken at the point of a gun and/or brought with cheap wares such as blankets, beads, & muskets.

Today some of the wrongs committed against the Maori people have been righted BUT much of their culture has been lost. Rom may not have had land but we did have something gorgo folk wanted, a bit of the magic & supposed fancy free life of the Gypsy (have you never heard non Romany say oh we went on holiday and camped out like gypsies or we just wandered around through Europe like a tribe of gypsies!)

 The rai's I believe had this same need and to get what they wanted they offered tobacco, drink and food of the sort that Rom could hardly afford.

Yes, they loved to play at ‘weekend gypsies’ and go on holiday in tents and horse-drawn vardo so they could be just like their friends the Romany.

As more and more knowledge was gathered these gorgo made a name for themselves in educational circles. With the formation of the Gypsy Lore Society (GLC), it’s members were ensured ongoing financial and social prominence as there was to have an income in the name of cultural research, with the sale of books written on their research work on Romany Gypsies.

Romany then were exploited so the exploiters could be popular within Universities. At this point I can hear Folkie saying BUT! Sampson saved the language. This is true he did publish a book on Welsh Romany language, a book that is now a collector’s piece costing a great deal. I wonder who owns the copyright today - Romany folki?

Some of these rai went even further with their fancy notions. Francis Hinds Groome in his book – “In Gypsy Tents” with assistance from Hubert Smith and Romany Esmeralda Lock (who married both men), used the familia nav of Lovell as main players in the book when in fact they were Woods and others. So exactly, who was Groome writing about? Why were the names changed? Somehow, it doesn’t seem right?

 Of course, I can hear Rom saying, Oh but we are all related anyway so it doesn’t matter or that was a long time ago so why worry. Well it does matter to the folki involved as Groome is very clear leading up to the end of the story that the Lovell's were very simple folk in many ways compared to their relatives the Woods & Roberts families.

He also points out that those who had settled enjoyed a certain standing as ‘pure’ Welsh Gypsies compared to those as old Sylvanias Lovell who were still wandering with donkey & tents and had lost much of their Romany language & culture.

I wonder what my Puri (old people) would think today if they were here? By changing the names and attaching negative connotations to them, Groome has left my people with an unwelcome stigma. While his fanciful writing has some merit as a record of social history, it is still romantically driven.

It is unfortunate that the fabrication in Groome’s book is still held up today as a guide to the REAL Gypsies of Wales and England. And that the bias towards the settled and perhaps more gorgified Romany was continued in 1931 by E.O. Winstedt long time GLS member and old friend to Sampson.

Information for the GLS journals supplied by Winstedt reads that Abraham and John Wood (two Gypsies) were hanged in 1737 Gloucester for the crime of robbing Old Henry Lovell a Gypsy. He then takes great pains to clarify that

this Abraham Wood was NOT the Abraham Wood King of the Welsh Gypsies, but that he and John Wood were probably gorgo; as Wood was a common enough name found in Wales at the time.

Then Winstedt states that Abraham had taken up with a gang of Lovell's and Bozell's (Boswell's) who called themselves Egyptians, and lived a STROLLING way of life stealing sheep and committing Robbery! According to oral history passed down my famila, I believe these gangs were Romany Lovell, Boswells and Woods. This kind of life certainly took place, as it was not too many years before in the UK, one was hung just for being Romany.

Bob Lovell tuning up!

Adolphus Ruben Lovell

Author Bob lovell Overlooking Blue Anchor Bay

Adolphus & Rhoda Lovell

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