One of my favorite shows is Key & Peele- two comedians of mixed race who intelligently poke fun at a lot of the social "norms" across America. And they do a great Obama impression.
But this week, they released a skit on their show that has hit closer to home (er..?) than many of their other skits. They made a joke about Macedonians and Albanians.
I am providing the Youtube link for the skit below (if this infringes on the copyright laws and I must remove it, please kindly comment below). In short, the restaurant pokes fun at an American couple dining at a Macedonian restaurant, and the owners of the restaurant are outraged that the couple would compare the Macedonian "kepapi" to the Albanian "qebapi" (though in Prilep, we say "chebabi").
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3ZHebCyMbM#t=53
At first this clip is offensive, basically because no Macedonian (let alone an owner of a kafana) acts this way. This is just Kegan Key's over-the-top way of acting, and usually it is funny. Therefore, I am not completely offended by the way this skit is performed, even though Macedonian shop owners don't create havoc in their kitchens or stab a map with a knife.
However, deep down the skit discusses some truths, and I find it commendable that Key and Peele are aware of these. It is no secret that Macedonians and Albanians (at least on a political level) are in conflict. As I mentioned before, many Macedonians mentioned to me that they do not mind "Albanians from Albania," but Albanians from Kosovo or Macedonia are in their opinion less reputable. Yet, as I mentioned in one of my first posts, it is often difficult for me to tell the difference between the two ethnicities (Macedonians and Albanians) while walking down the street.
Of course, there are many differences in their culture, and religion plays a big part of it. But food, style of music, clothing, etc. is very similar across the Balkans. The menus in Macedonia are often similar to the menus in Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, etc. I cannot count the number of times that Macedonians covet some of their traditions or cultural icons as unique to their culture. For example, I once asked a host family member where ajvar originated, hoping to learn the correct facts, but secretly knowing that, of course, it must be Macedonia. Not only that, but supposedly ajvar is not produced in other countries in the Balkans, including Serbia or Bulgaria.
Likewise, when I told an HCN friend that I went to a club in Albania and heard Albanian turbo folk for the first time, he reacted in disgust and asked if it was horrible. Honestly, it was, but so is Serbian turbo folk. To foreigners, turbo folk is turbo folk, just as American hip hop probably sounds similar to French hip hop, especially to those who speak neither English nor French.
The point of this post is not to say that Macedonians, Albanians, or any other ethnicity from the Balkans do not have unique traditions or holidays to be proud of. Even though many of the Balkan countries have traditions that stem from the Ottomans, their are also many unique traditions that originated in each country. For example, Ilenden and Revolution Day (Anti-Fascism Day) are really cool holidays in Macedonia, and there are plenty of traditional Macedonian songs that are great to listen to or sing while eating or drinking.
What I am trying to say by referencing this video is that many Balkan countries have more in common than they have dividing them. Yet they continue to fight over nationalistic nonsense. For example, during the qualifying match for the Europa League earlier this week, an Albanian flag was flown by a drone over the match, resulting in a fight among the players and a riot within the crowd (see link below for an article). The man who executed this stunt is obviously a moron, but the players and fans could have exercised a little more self control.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2792953/serbia-vs-albania-suspended-martin-atkinson-banned-fans-use-drone-fly-flag-pitch-leading-violet-scenes-belgrade.html
Maybe geo-politics explains so much of this sense of division (so many mountains dividing peoples). Maybe the way the Ottomans ruled for half a millennium better explains it. Either way, as an American I see the similarities among them more than I see the differences. And happily for these ethnicities, each has their own nation to claim (except for the Roma). Thus, instead of trying to mentally divide themselves as nationalities and create "pure" nations dedicated to a certain ethnicity (similar to fascism in the early 1900s), it would be nice for each nationality to recognize the similarities and create more porous borders and substantial relationships across ethnicities. The European Union already shows that nations can identify as European while continuing to value what makes them unique as an ethnicity. Peoples in the Balkans may need to see themselves as "Southeast European" before they can get that far.
Key and Peele are able to poke fun at both black and white groups in the United States because they are both half-black, half-white. By no means did they win any right to address either group simply by being mixed race, but they certainly have a competitive advantage of understanding and projecting both races versus other "less-mixed" comedians. Likewise, since (I assume) neither comedian is Albanian or Macedonia, neither has a right to poke fun at their lifestyles. However, they have certainly lent some of their understanding to explaining the issue between the two ethnicities. Just as they try to explain that dividing African-Americans and white-Americans simply divides Americans, they seem to do the same with these Balkan groups. Did they succeed? I am not sure, but I laughed a bit.
But this week, they released a skit on their show that has hit closer to home (er..?) than many of their other skits. They made a joke about Macedonians and Albanians.
I am providing the Youtube link for the skit below (if this infringes on the copyright laws and I must remove it, please kindly comment below). In short, the restaurant pokes fun at an American couple dining at a Macedonian restaurant, and the owners of the restaurant are outraged that the couple would compare the Macedonian "kepapi" to the Albanian "qebapi" (though in Prilep, we say "chebabi").
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3ZHebCyMbM#t=53
At first this clip is offensive, basically because no Macedonian (let alone an owner of a kafana) acts this way. This is just Kegan Key's over-the-top way of acting, and usually it is funny. Therefore, I am not completely offended by the way this skit is performed, even though Macedonian shop owners don't create havoc in their kitchens or stab a map with a knife.
However, deep down the skit discusses some truths, and I find it commendable that Key and Peele are aware of these. It is no secret that Macedonians and Albanians (at least on a political level) are in conflict. As I mentioned before, many Macedonians mentioned to me that they do not mind "Albanians from Albania," but Albanians from Kosovo or Macedonia are in their opinion less reputable. Yet, as I mentioned in one of my first posts, it is often difficult for me to tell the difference between the two ethnicities (Macedonians and Albanians) while walking down the street.
Of course, there are many differences in their culture, and religion plays a big part of it. But food, style of music, clothing, etc. is very similar across the Balkans. The menus in Macedonia are often similar to the menus in Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, etc. I cannot count the number of times that Macedonians covet some of their traditions or cultural icons as unique to their culture. For example, I once asked a host family member where ajvar originated, hoping to learn the correct facts, but secretly knowing that, of course, it must be Macedonia. Not only that, but supposedly ajvar is not produced in other countries in the Balkans, including Serbia or Bulgaria.
Likewise, when I told an HCN friend that I went to a club in Albania and heard Albanian turbo folk for the first time, he reacted in disgust and asked if it was horrible. Honestly, it was, but so is Serbian turbo folk. To foreigners, turbo folk is turbo folk, just as American hip hop probably sounds similar to French hip hop, especially to those who speak neither English nor French.
The point of this post is not to say that Macedonians, Albanians, or any other ethnicity from the Balkans do not have unique traditions or holidays to be proud of. Even though many of the Balkan countries have traditions that stem from the Ottomans, their are also many unique traditions that originated in each country. For example, Ilenden and Revolution Day (Anti-Fascism Day) are really cool holidays in Macedonia, and there are plenty of traditional Macedonian songs that are great to listen to or sing while eating or drinking.
What I am trying to say by referencing this video is that many Balkan countries have more in common than they have dividing them. Yet they continue to fight over nationalistic nonsense. For example, during the qualifying match for the Europa League earlier this week, an Albanian flag was flown by a drone over the match, resulting in a fight among the players and a riot within the crowd (see link below for an article). The man who executed this stunt is obviously a moron, but the players and fans could have exercised a little more self control.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2792953/serbia-vs-albania-suspended-martin-atkinson-banned-fans-use-drone-fly-flag-pitch-leading-violet-scenes-belgrade.html
Maybe geo-politics explains so much of this sense of division (so many mountains dividing peoples). Maybe the way the Ottomans ruled for half a millennium better explains it. Either way, as an American I see the similarities among them more than I see the differences. And happily for these ethnicities, each has their own nation to claim (except for the Roma). Thus, instead of trying to mentally divide themselves as nationalities and create "pure" nations dedicated to a certain ethnicity (similar to fascism in the early 1900s), it would be nice for each nationality to recognize the similarities and create more porous borders and substantial relationships across ethnicities. The European Union already shows that nations can identify as European while continuing to value what makes them unique as an ethnicity. Peoples in the Balkans may need to see themselves as "Southeast European" before they can get that far.
Key and Peele are able to poke fun at both black and white groups in the United States because they are both half-black, half-white. By no means did they win any right to address either group simply by being mixed race, but they certainly have a competitive advantage of understanding and projecting both races versus other "less-mixed" comedians. Likewise, since (I assume) neither comedian is Albanian or Macedonia, neither has a right to poke fun at their lifestyles. However, they have certainly lent some of their understanding to explaining the issue between the two ethnicities. Just as they try to explain that dividing African-Americans and white-Americans simply divides Americans, they seem to do the same with these Balkan groups. Did they succeed? I am not sure, but I laughed a bit.
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