Albania: history, geography & writers

cat on house balcony in Tirana, Albania

 

I’m giving a talk to the Sauniere Society   at  the Musical Museum in Brentford, London, March 16, 2024, so I’ve been going over notes and making a photo presentation. The talk is about Albania’s history as a background to my book  Beyond the Lion Gate.  Beginning with the Ottoman Empire, I’ll look at Gjergi Kastrioti aka Scanderbeg, Ali Pasha, hero and tyrant, Lord Byron, Edward Lear, Edith Durham, the communist era, and its eventual demise. Moving to this century, there are quite a few books & memoirs written about life in Albania in the communist days and later. I could mention some authors of books that I would thoroughly recommend – Bessa Myftiu, (Confessions des lieux disparus) Blendi Fevziu,(Enver Hoxha: the iron fist of Albania)  Fatos Lubonja, (Second Sentence; The False Apocalypse; Like a Prisoner) Ornela Vorpsi (The Country where no-one ever dies)

I recently read a couple of articles on Balkan Insight website about Albania today – how the files kept by the sigurimi will not be opened to the public, and how the nation cannot reconcile itself to its past or go beyond it or whatever the right relation with past is supposed to be, as long as these archives are kept sealed.
 

Fatos Lubonja has written about his experiences as a political prisoner (Second Sentence; Like a Prisoner).  Fatos has continued to write articles & essays & produce visual artwork, and he is now an award winning writer and prominent political critic. He has exhibited his art work, along with Ardian Isufi, another artist, in the Spaç prison and labour camp where he spent several years of his life. You can see pictures of his art and the prison. 

 

Vjosa river, south Albania

A third article is about the river Shushica  a tributary of the river Vjosa. There is an attempt by villagers, backed by an NGO Eco Albania, not to let the water of this river be diverted to serve the coastal areas, where an increasing number of Tourist apartments and hotels are being built. The inhabitants of the valleys through which this tributary has always flowed, they need the water, to sustain their smallholdings, their vegetable gardens and their orchards as well as their daily needs. And as part of a protected National Park, other flora and fauna would be affected too.

Edi Rama has been Albania’s prime minister for some years now but back in 2000 when I first lived there, he was in the running to be mayor of Tirana. He described the city as being like ‘a medieval tavern’. Once he became mayor he began immediate improvements such as painting the exteriors of the apartment blocks ‘lurid colours’ (quoting Tirana in your pocket), demolishing illegal buildings such as the ones on the banks of the river Lana, and planting trees in their place. 

Lana river in 2000 (left) & 2019 (looking in the other direction)

Another reclaimed green area was turned into a park, trees were planted, paths were created, with benches at the sides and litter bins nearby. These metal bins were more delicate than practical, easily wrested away from their poles; they were also tiny, and quickly overflowed. (Much more robust bins are provided nowadays). Festoons of street lights were also placed in the median strips of the main roads. And though some criticised these changes as being superficial, they did make a difference, the start of much bigger changes. Tirana is now a modern lively city with busy restaurants and cafes, smooth and decorative paving stones on pavements, and equally smooth surfaces on roads, full of traffic. And some enormous tower blocks, and glass covered frontages of buildings, mainly banks. There is plenty of wealth here now. For a few.

Bike stall in Tirana, 2000 (left) and 2009