One of the descendants of the Muzaka family has returned to Albania after his family left their home country six centuries ago. Josef Muzaka recounts for Euronews Albania the traditions, costumes, and celebrations transmitted from one generation to another.
His family moved to Italy in the 1400s, with some of them departing for the United States in the early 20th century. Today we decided to visit the home of one of Albania’s most prominent families.
“It was my wife’s wish to return here and bring all our knowledge and investments from the US to Albania. We decided to come and give an opportunity to our children in rural areas, so they can become more active. We’ve founded a football league, a volleyball tournament for women, as well as summer camps in some villages”, tells us Josef Muzaka.
It would be a big waste to not go back in time, when you’re visiting the home of a famous Arbresh name, which passionately recounts a myriad of challenges encountered by his family and the community who still lives in the southern Italian village Piana Degli Albanesi, translated as the Plain of the Albanians.
“It is a long story, but Piana degli Albanesi became the center of the Arberesh. My family moved to Center Christina where they formed their own government while my great grandfather got involved n trade and wine. We traded with wealthy French families until relations between France and Italy became strained and trade almost stopped completely. My great-grandfather then decided to migrate to the United States. He then returned to Sicily, where many people from the community fell sick, a story with a lot of shade into it”, he recalls.
To his wife Jola, seeing the traditions of the Arberesh was quite a beautiful surprise.
“The Arberesh have preserved their traditions very well, I am surprised by how good they sing some of the old songs”, says Jola.
One of the main well-kept traditions of the Arberesh is the language.
“My ancestors in Sicily celebrated every single activity and preserved every tradition, but there was one thing that made us different from all, and that’s where you could understand that we were not like the others, and that is family unity. All our lives we’ve been told that ‘words are everything, and when they ask me about traditions, I tell them that this was the main and most important tradition of all, something that was inherited, but that we don’t get to see it a lot in the present days”, says Jozef.
But is the language of the Arberesh being consigned to oblivion? We asked the descendent of the Muzafas’ for his opinion on what could the state do.
“It is important that we don’t lose our history, because not having an identity is detrimental. We must never forget where we came from because we fought for that”, he said.
Jozef Muzaka actually was on a two-week visit to Albania with his wife, but the attraction that he felt made him change his mind, and return to the land of his ancestors.
