Forsaken Albania

By Artan Lame
Shkodra, end of the XIX Century. In view of the fact that the photograph of last week’s edition, showing the Monarch, the other gentlemen and the gilded furniture may have created some illusion of high society, today I have chosen some other snap shots.
Over the past two Centuries, the Albanian highlands have constantly been the object of study and admiration for many foreign scholars, which gave wings to the myths of our mountains, the highlanders, hospitality, the Cannon, honesty, the word pledged and so on. But this entire image that was built up has constantly suffered a knock back, whenever these highlanders have come in contact with the world of today in the developed countries. Having descended to the lowlands and the towns and cities, they have often become heartless murderers, unscrupulous plunderers, liars, perfidious, and it goes as far as thousands of young woman and girls from the highlands ending up on the streets of Italy and Greece, dealing the final blow to these myths. There is a saying today that has a scathing ring to it, that the tradition of the “pledged word” was searched for and sung to throughout the highlands because they were so treacherous. How can this contradiction be explained? Allow me to provide this explanation in next week’s edition.
In the photograph you can see a group of highlanders, in the middle of a squabble, obviously fighting over the division of spoils lying on the ground. As if all the guns were not enough, two of the highlanders, the one wearing the black cape and the other one who is holding on to his arm, hold swords in their hands, ( a little difficult to discern without looking closely), and stand threatening each other. They both have back-up behind them, and their associates level their guns against the adversary; the fifth highlander stands between the two groups and is trying to persuade them to back down, naturally, using as an argument, his own arm.
They are all dressed in the characteristic attire of the northern highlands, pointed leather opinga, leggings, vests and woolen caps. Naturally, the clothes are not the newest or cleanest possible, but this makes them appear even more threatening and fearless. Two of them are holding Martini-Henry rifles, known in the north as “Martini” rifles and which were used in the ranks of the Turkish Army in 1890. The highlanders continued to use them for centuries, because, as one foreign author writes, “The Highlanders continued to use them; the Albanians liked them because they were very noisy when fired.” The third holds an English rifle, an 1867 model known in Albania as “the cartridge.”
It is most probable that this photograph was taken in Shkodra, especially because of the high stone wall in the background, where the pebbles were typically from Shkodra.
Naturally the persons in the photo have obviously posed for this photograph. If it were a genuine scene of a real fight it would be hard to believe that the photographer lived to tell the story. However it reveals what it would be like to fall into the hands of these people.