Alica Sigmund Heráková: How do we Roma celebrate freedom in the Czech Republic when systemic discrimination is frequently part of it?
Friday's celebrations of 17 November in the Czech Republic, Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day (Den boje za svobodu a demokracii) on Národní třída in Prague drew about 90,000 people this year, at least 76,000 of whom also attended the Concert for the Future on Wenceslas Square, which has been the final part of these outdoor celebrations for several years now. Those numbers are preliminary estimates from the festival organizers.
More exact numbers, based on mobile phone operator data, will be available early next week. Marek Cieslar, the spokesperson for the Festival of Freedom, a group of civil society organizations that annually convenes the biggest commemorative events on 17 November all over the Czech Republic, informed the Czech News Agency (ČTK) of the turnout.
The Concert for the Future began on Wenceslas Square at 16:30. The five-hour program was centered this year around the relationship between human beings, machines and nature.
A total of 16 musical acts and 18 speakers alternated on the outdoor stage. Organizers also streamed the program live on social media.
Romani people were also included among the speakers, represented by Alica Sigmund Heráková, the founder of Tuke TV who works as a journalist and moderator. “We all share a common memory, but it frequently seems that we are living in parallel realities. At the core of this fact lie questions being asked, and not just by the Roma, for which answers are being sought – again, not just by the Roma. We all are living these questions in practice somehow,” Heráková said.
“How do we celebrate freedom when discrimination, frequently systemic discrimination, is part of it? How do we believe this story about a future of opportunity, when we know that Romani people’s rights are not upheld as much as the rights of non-Roma? How do we find our place in society? How do I demonstrate to society that I am a full-fledged member of it, that I count, when from childhood I receive messages telling me the opposite? How do we honor our common heroes when I learn almost nothing about my own [Romani] heroes in school?” Heráková asked.
The concert has been held since 2016. It is part of the Festival of Freedom platform that is joined annually by organizers in the regions, whether civic initiatives or individuals.
Organizers said the most-attended part of the program was called Modlitba pro Martu (“A Prayer for Martha”), featuring live debates, live podcasts and a program for both adults and children. Specifically, the song “A Prayer for Martha”, which became a symbol of the Velvet Revolution in 1989, was performed by Hana Holišová on Friday at 17:11 CET and was heard by the 25,000 people around Národní trída at that time, according to the organizers’ estimates.
People in more than 30 towns and villages could also hear the performance live online, including through the online broadcasts managed by municipal departments or municipalities. Countless national and regional radio stations also included the performance to their programming, Cieslar said.
During the celebrations on Národní třída, crowds of people flowed through the streets all day, and the initiative called Thankful that We Can (Díky, že můžem) prepared a rich program for them as part of the Korzo Národní street celebrations. Eyewitnesses to the 1989 events participated, as did children and other members of the younger generation; outdoor temperatures were low and many visitors welcomed the stands offering hot coffee, mulled wine, or tea.
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Alica Sigmund Heráková’s speech in full translation
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, people, lačho džives!
On this unique day for Czech democracy, I have been given the heavy task of representing the voice of the Czech Republic’s biggest national minority, the voice of the Roma, and if I am to represent Romani men and women here, then it’s certain that I am not representing a single, unified voice. We are all different, as is everybody in this country, irrespective of their ethnicity.
This country is home to all who live here, we sing the same national anthem in the same language about the same beautiful country, and in addition we Roma have another national anthem, the Romani one.
I believe that fact is something all Romani men and women would agree on in this country, everybody who lives here, whether they are Sinti, Vlax Roma, indigenous Czech Roma, or from Slovakia, like me.
We all live together in this country, we are living a common story about the way to democracy and the way of democracy.
We all are facing many challenges today, the same challenges, the same events, the same heavy news of the world. We all share a common memory, but it frequently seems that we are living in parallel realities. At the core of this fact lie questions being asked, and not just by the Roma, for which answers are being sought – again, not just by the Roma. We all are living these questions in practice somehow.
How do we celebrate freedom when discrimination, frequently systemic discrimination, is part of it? How do we believe this story about a future of opportunity, when we know that Romani people’s rights are not upheld as much as the rights of non-Roma?
How do we find our place in society? How do I demonstrate to society that I am a full-fledged member of it, that I count, when from childhood I receive messages telling me the opposite? How do we honor our common heroes when I learn almost nothing about my own [Romani] heroes in school?
People who are not part of the Romani community frequently ask us: “Why haven’t you emancipated yourselves yet, why is it taking you all so long?” Believe me, Romani men and women will be fully emancipated and engaged citizens once they will no longer have to explain to their little children, frequently of preschool age, after their first personal experience of racism, that there is nothing wrong with them, but something wrong with the world into which they were born.
I am not just standing here for other Romani men and women, but also as myself. As a parent and a person, I have to say that I teach my own children that the world isn’t just bad, that every person is different no matter their ethnicity, that the world is not black and white, that each of us is here in the world to be herself or himself, each of us makes our own decisions, we are each part of a whole that actually is not perfect, just as we ourselves are not perfect.
Romani men and women, on the way to democracy in our society, face the same challenges as everybody else, as well as the additional challenges posed only to us. Our past, present and future in this country are a common endeavor. It’s up to us, we are the future, all of us. Paľikerav tumenge. Thank you all.
