VENETS: the Belogradchik journal for local history, cultural heritave and folk studies

33-48

Authors: P.S. Petkov

The paper discusses wide accepted periodization of the modern Bulgarian history in which the wars are being used as border landmarks for beginning and end of different periods. Out of the six accepted boundary landmarks in the present periodization of our modern history from the beginning of the 18th until the middle of the 20th century, five are related to wars: the Russian-Turkish war of 1828–1829, the Crimean War of 1853–1856, the War of Liberation of 1877–1878, the wars of national unification of 1912–1918/19. The author brings forward arguments in confirmation but also reasons against some of the already accepted periodization border landmarks connected to the enumerated wars. If the chronological border landmarks are defined according to different essential criteria as for example economic development, political changes, culture change then the periodization should vary accordingly.

63-84

Authors: P. Hristov

A historic and cultural region exists at the heart of the Balkans, known in geographic and ethnographic research as Shopluk. This is a region in which, over the last 150 years, state boundaries were moved several times as a result of 5 different wars. Today, the historic Shopluk is where the borders of three nations converge – Republic of Bulgaria, Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia – and, during the last decade, the region was declared one of the “Euroregions” on the Balkans. Despite the historical similarities in traditional culture and language of this population, in the 19th century it became a subject of nationalist ambitions and a propaganda “wars” between the new national states of Serbia and Bulgaria. The joining of Bulgarian-inhabited parts of Shopluk (the regions of today’s Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad in Serbia) to the Kingdom of Serbs, Slovenes and Croats in 1919 created a long-lasting tension between the two countries, some residues of which can be felt in everyday relations even today. On the other hand, it has been a century-long tradition for men in this region to take part in seasonal labour migrations all over the Balkan Peninsula, despite political borders. In this way, preserving their cultural and lingual specifics, the groups of seasonal workers – migrants from Shopluk, became a bridge for cultural interaction and exchange with other regions in the neighbour countries. Even though today the population of Shopluk exhibits different national identities, historical similarities in culture and language can turn the Euroregion between Nish, Sofia and Skopje from one of the poorest on the Balkans to one of the most integrated and prosperous.

111-121

Authors: J.P. Madoshi

This paper examines the novel Adili na Nduguze by Shaaban Robert. It seeks to explain how humanness is embedded in the plot of this prose fiction. The study uses Utu/Ubuntu as a theory of analyzing and explaining the events and the actions within this novel. The focus of the paper is to explore the plot of the novel in order to see how it reflects humanness (Utu/Ubuntu) as it is perceived among the Bantu. The analysis is done by examining the reason of characters appellation and the author attention to diction which shows how royal characters intervene a conflict within this creative work. Also the study examines the novel in order to provide an account of the ontological conflict of two opposing beliefs in which a city is turned into stones (Mji Uliogeuka Mawe). Lastly, the paper attempts to inspect and explain reasons why Hasidi and Mwivu, Adili two brothers are turned into baboons, subjected to severe whipping from Adili and the cause of the removal of the curse placed upon them which subsequently makes them humans again.

128-128

Authors: B.V. Toshev (Ed.)

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