The Romani flag ( or O romanko flako) is the international ethnic flag of the Romani people, historically known as Gypsies. They constitute a stateless minority concentrated in Europe, but are also dispersed across parts of other continents. The flag was approved by the representatives of various Romani communities at the first and second World Romani Congresses (WRC), in 1971 and 1978. It consists of a background of blue and green, representing the heavens and earth, respectively; it also contains a 16-spoke red dharmachakra, or cartwheel, in the center. The latter element stands for the itinerant tradition of the Romani people and is also an homage to the flag of India, added to the flag by scholar Weer Rajendra Rishi. It superseded a number of tribal emblems and banners, several of which evoked claims of Romani descent from the Ancient Egyptians.
Older Romani symbolism comprises insignia reflecting occupational and tribal divisions, as well totems and pictograms. In some cases, Romani "Kings" and "Princes" were also integrated within the European heraldic tradition with coats of arms of their own. As a result of this synthesis, "Egyptians" became visually associated with heraldic animals, including the adder and, in the 19th century, the hedgehog. Around 1890, affiliates of the Gypsy Lore Society had deduced that a tricolor of red-yellow-black was preferred by the Spanish Romanies, and embraced it as a generic Romani symbol. In the Balkans at large, corporate representation was granted to the Gypsy esnaf—which preceded the creation of modern professional unions, all of which had their own seals or flags. The first stages of identity politics in the 20th century saw the emergence of Romani political groups, but their designs remained attached to those of more dominant cultural nationalisms in their respective country. Into the interwar era, the various and competing Romani flags were mostly based on Romanian, Polish, communist, or Islamic symbolism.
The 1971 flag claimed to revive a plain blue-green bicolor, reportedly created by activist Gheorghe A. Lăzăreanu-Lăzurică in interwar Greater Romania. This design had been endorsed in the 1950s by Ionel Rotaru, who also claimed it as a flag for an independent settlement area, or "Romanestan". A tricolor version, flown by survivors of the Romani genocide, fell out of use due to allegations that it stood for communism. Rishi's definitive variant of 1978, with the added wheel, gained in popularity over the late 20th century; it is especially associated with groups which are advocating the transnational unity of the Romani people and combating its designation as "Gypsies". This flag was promoted by actor Yul Brynner, writer Ronald Lee, and violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and it was also adopted by "King" Florin Cioabă. It was especially popular in Socialist Yugoslavia, which awarded it official recognition upon its adoption.
The WRC Congress never provided specifications for the flag, which exists in various versions and has many derivatives, including national flags defaced with Rishi's dharmachakra. Several countries and communities have officially recognized it during the 2010s, but its display has sparked controversy in various parts of the European Union. Derivatives were also widely used in Romani political symbolism during the same period. However, inside the scholarly community, the Romani flag has been criticized as a Eurocentric symbol, and its display as a perfunctory solution to issues which are faced by the ethnic group which it represents. It has continuously been rejected by various Romani tribes, as well as by the Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians, who form a distinct ethnicity.
History Original symbols Scholar Konstantin Stoyanovitch notes that Romani subgroups, such as the Lovari, traditionally employed a set of quasi-heraldic symbols: "Each tribe [has] its own emblem or marking, the equivalent of a flag. This sign consists of a small piece of wood bearing some notches, or a piece of fabric or threads of various colors, or even a branch torn off the tribe's favorite tree, a tree it considered to be its own (sort of like a totem). It is only shown within the limits of a territory only used for a certain group's travels."Konstantin Stoyanovitch, Les tsiganes: leur ordre social, pp. 103–104. Paris: Marcel Rivière et Cie, 1974 Romanies, along with the various other "traveling people" of Europe, used "rudimentary hieroglyphs" to mark their territories; art historian Amanda Wasielewski suggests that such practices survive in the "international squatters' symbol", which is indirectly based on "gypsy symbols or rogue signs".Amanda Wasielewski, "From Rogue Sign to Squatter Symbol. Origins of an Urban Meme", in City, Vol. 23, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 258–261 Travel writer George Borrow likened the secretive tribal folklore, or "Gipsyism", to Masonic ritual and symbolism. Borrow listed tents, hammers, tongs, tin kettles, creels, and cuddies as some of the Romanies' "banners and mottoes".Walter Simson, A History of the Gipsies with Specimens of the Gipsy Language, pp. 386–387. London: Sampson Low, 1865 A late-18th-century etching by Francis Wheatley shows the "genuine dwellings of English Gypsies of that date", alongside a "strange object hung on a pole". This is tentatively identified as a drag harrow, suggesting that the camp was one of "smiths, who made or repaired such tools.""Francis Wheatley's 'Gipsy Encampment'", in Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, Vol. XLII, Issues 1–2, January–April 1963, p. 1 Within Romani encampments, the usage of cloth markers extends to the practice of segregating menstruating women and their garments. Anthropologist Judith Okely proposes that "the tea towel hanging separately to dry on a line becomes a flag of ethnic purity".Mayall, p. 260 A specific flag (steagu), fashioned from white scarf and red ribbon tied to a willow rod, appears during Gurban festival as practiced by the Boyash of Grebenac.Biljana Sikimić, "Gurban in the Village of Grebenac. Between Participants' Memory and Researchers' Construction", in Biljana Sikimić, Petko Hristov (eds.), Kurban in The Balkans (Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Institute for Balkan Studies. Special Editions 98), pp. 158–159. Belgrade: Institute for Balkan Studies, 2007
Folklorist David MacRitchie, building on ethnological observations made Heinrich von Wlislocki among the Hungarian Romanies, notes the existence of an established tradition in the Kingdom of Hungary, where tribal chiefs, oftentimes styled as "Kings of Egypt/of the Gypsies", wore "the serpent engraved on the silver buttons on their coats".MacRitchie (1892), p. 180 MacRitchie speculates that the three adders on a shield at Nunraw armorial, in the Kingdom of Scotland, may therefore connect to John Faa and the Scottish Romanichal.MacRitchie (1892), passim & (1894), pp. 27–28 In the 1860s, John's nominal descendant, Esther Faa Blythe of Kirk Yetholm, used a tinsel coronet with the Scottish thistle.William Brockie, The Gypsies of Yetholm, p. 27. Kelso: J. & J.H. Rutherfurd, 1884 Several 15th-century sources report the existence of heraldic symbols associated with nomadic "Gypsy Princes" from the Holy Roman Empire. One such figure, named Panuel, used a crowned golden eagle, while another one, Bautma, had a complex coat of arms, incorporating a scimitar and a crowned rooster; both figures also used hounds as their heraldic animal, with Panuel's being a badge.Heinrich von Wlislocki, Vom wandernden Zigeunervolke: Bilder aus dem Leben der Siebenbürger Zigeuner, p. 14. Hamburg: Aktien-Gesellschaft, 1890. See also MacRitchie (1894), p. 28 A 1498 epitaph at Pforzheim commemorates a Freigraf of "Little Egypt", in fact a Romani tribal leader. His attached coat of arms has the star and crescent in combination with the stag.J. G. F. Pflueger, Geschichte der Stadt Pforzheim, pp. 184–185. Pforzheim: J. M. Flammer, 1862 In Wallachia and Moldavia, where they were kept as princely slaves, Romani craftsmen were directly involved in fabricating heraldic seals, albeit of a rudimentary kind.Dan Cernovodeanu, Știința și arta heraldică în România, pp. 19, 170–171. Bucharest: Editura științifică și enciclopedică, 1977.
At the turn of the 18th century, the disunity and symbolic disorder of Romani tribes was a subject matter in Ion Budai-Deleanu's mock-epic, Țiganiada. A Romanian proto-nationalist of the Transylvanian School, Budai probably hinted at political disentanglement within his own ethnic community; Țiganiada shows Gypsies marking under numerous vexilloids: a shovel for the Boyash, a copper tray for the Kalderash, a stuffed crow for the Argintari, and a red sieve, painted on white rawhide leather, for the Ciurari.Adrian Mihai Bumb, "Țiganiada, în varianta unui pseudoletopiseț liric (II)", in Tribuna, Issue 317, November 2015, pp. 21–22 In the 1830s, the English philanthropist James Crabb recalled meeting a Romani fortune-teller, whose saddle was "literally studded with silver; for she carried on it the emblems of her profession wrought in that metal; namely, a half-moon, seven stars, and the rising sun."James Crabb, The Gipsies' Advocate; or Observations on the Origin, Character, Manners, and Habits, of the English Gipsies, pp. 43–44. London: Mills, Jowett, and Mills, 1832 A group of Ursari captured in 1872 at Fribourg reportedly wore red bonnets."Confédération suisse", in Gazette de Lausanne et Journal Suisse, Issue 230/1872, p. 2 By that stage, some Romani symbols had embraced more than tribal groups. These include a red banner carried by Turkish Romanies, all of whom belonged to a special esnaf (guild) of the Ottoman Empire.Elena Marushiakova, Veselin Popov, "Commencement of Roma Civic Emancipation", in Studies in Arts and Humanities, Vol. 3, Issue 2, 2017, p. 12 Gypsies also served the Austrian Empire in Serbian Vojvodina during 1848, when they reportedly wore "colourful garbs" and carried their own banners.Danilo Šarenac, "A View of the Disaster and Victory from Below: Serbian Roma Soldiers, 1912–1918", in Social Inclusion, Volume 8, Issue 2, 2020, p. 278 A banner of the Kosovar Gypsies, dating from 1849, is still preserved in Prizren.Marushiakova & Popov (2021), pp. 29, 304