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Rapping with a proud Albanian

• Mark Mardell
• 31 Jan 08, 08:12 AM

This week Today and PM are broadcasting my radio reports on my Balkans trip. One of the frustrations of radio or TV is that you can find someone who has some very interesting things to say, but in the quest for balanced pieces reflecting the whole story I can only give them a half-minute or so of airtime. Here, I am not limited in that way. So, over the next few days I'll be posting four different stories about how people are reacting to or . They are not meant to be comprehensive or in themselves balanced: they are a snapshot. But I hope together they add up to a bigger picture.

Rapper's studio

Genc Prevlaka sits on a low, antique wooden stool playing a traditional Albanian wooden flute.

In the corner of the small studio is a long necked guitar-like instrument which is a couple of centuries old.

Genc says he loves old things and traditions. We move from the studio to a control room-cum-chill-out room, bathed in a low, blue light.

The small but well-equipped studio is up a flight of stairs in a tower block.

Although Genc is proficient on the flute, he鈥檚 not best known as a folk musician but Kosovo鈥檚 premier rapper, now on his fifth album, .

On the big studio computer we watch the video, an oddly successful mix of disparate images - fighters, famous Albanians from to , prints of besting curved sword-carrying cavalry - intercut with Genc making that odd gesture with the fingers and thumbs that I am too old to understand.

Kosovo independence

Smoking a cigarette in a long holder, he tells me what it means to him that Kosovo is on the verge of declaring independence.

鈥淟ike every Albanian it means a lot to me, it means everything, we live for this day.

鈥淎lways we had hope, we had hope for our state that belongs to us. I must let you know that when we lived in ex-Yugoslavia, it was unfair because we were not Slavs. We were 2 million Albanians and there was not any connection with the Slavs, so we were originally part of Albania.鈥�

I say that it is noticeable that the song is called 鈥淧roud to be Albanian鈥�, not proud to be from Kosovo, and ask him why that is what he wants to stress.

鈥� is just a name for a special border. My identity is Albanian and will always be. Kosovo is OK. When we have an independent state we鈥檒l have lots of jobs to do. The name of Kosovo I accept for political reasons, but my emotional feelings will always be connected with the Albanian nation, it will never change.鈥�

Next, a rather thorny subject. At one time many Serbs, and some American commentators, warned that an independent Kosovo would lead to a , with the Albanians here joining up with those in Macedonia and Albania itself.

No Albanian, even those few who openly campaign for such a country, accepts the term itself. But I am not fully aware of this at the point I talk to Genc, so I ask the question.

Ethnic Albania

鈥淚 must correct you, it鈥檚 not about a Greater Albania, its ethnic Albania.

鈥淭he term 鈥楪reater Albania鈥� is kind of connected with Serbian propaganda. It鈥檚 just ethnic Albania, so if you ask me for ethnic Albania, OK, it depends on the political scene."

So to be clear: a Greater Albania is Serbian propaganda but he'd welcome a country that included Macedonia and Albania?

His answer is not direct.

鈥淎ll the threat in the Balkans and eastern Europe was Serbian, the Serbian regime. I鈥檓 not telling you that all the Serbian people are bad, but the Serbian regime always for the past 100 years was all the threat to the Balkans."

He says Albanians are a peaceful people and a peaceful nation. "We always want what belongs to us. You can鈥檛 compare Kosovo with Albanians who live in Montenegro or Macedonia, that鈥檚 a different case."

'An emotional state'

鈥淏ut if we talk about Kosovo we have all the right in the world to be independent. Ethnic Albania is just nowadays an emotional state, a state from history. What鈥檚 important is for Albanians to live free. It鈥檚 not necessary, if Kosovo gets independence, to be one state with Albania, that鈥檚 for sure.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 tell you about the future, because the mentality may change, but for now the only vision of Albanians who live in Kosovo is to live in an independent Kosovo, with good relationships with Serbia and Albania. So that was our mission, that was our idea, and that鈥檚 our vision about Kosovo.鈥�

It is true that no mainstream politician in Albania itself countenances the idea of one big Albanian country. But on my first trip to a market in that country, I come across a group of market traders, playing a noisy game of dominos at the end of the day.

I try not to ask a loaded question, and merely say 鈥淲hat about Kosovo, then?鈥�

The answer is immediate: 鈥淲e are all Albanian, we have one flag and one language.鈥�

So one country, I wonder? 鈥淲hy not? Yes, of course.鈥�

I have to agree with Genc that this is more of an emotional mood of solidarity that any sort of political project building steam but I think his rap may be getting a few more plays over the next few weeks and months.

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