Radio Papesse

Arberia is the name used by the Arbëreshë  - the Albanians in Italy - to define their scattered nation in Southern Italy. A geographically dispersed nation that is united by a language. The ancient arbëreshë language is still spoken by the descendants of those migrants who fled from the Ottoman Empire and came to settle down in Italy between the XV and XVIII centuries.

A language that stands as a sort of border, identity container, bypassing and questioning the usual idea of ​​administrative-territorial boundaries.

In the last fifty years, while thousands of people left the arbëreshë countries and the national mass media fosthered the unification of the peninsula under one and only one language, the arbrshit was less and less practiced. The recognition of these communities as part of a linguistic minority is not enough to keep alive an idiom that is being lost between the memories of older people and the songs of the youngest.

The noMade Collective explores part of this nation (Albania of Italy) focusing on its peculiarities and giving form to a geography of elsewhere. 

Project ideation: Collettivo noMade

Pre-mix: Lea Walter, Edoardo Gino

Jingles, studio recording, editing and mixing: Max Wayne

Narrating voices: Lea Walter, Anna Lucia Casolaro, Alice Ruzzettu, A.A. Pilozzoli

Field recordings: Marco Saveriano, Lea Walter, Fabio Pennacchia, Edoardo Gino, Gerdi Petanaj

Archive material from radio programs about the Arbereshe language and culture (1974) courtesy of: Anna Lucia Casolaro

Featured songs: various authors from the Arbëreshe folklore