Thursday, July 24, 2003

Where there were castles, there were slaves. My very own Vrbov was at different times slave to lords in the watchtowers of Kezmarok, Levoca and Poprad.
Theodore Zeldin’s research published in the last decade of the 20th century sums up the story of Slavs:
‘Before twelve million Africans were kidnapped to be slaves in the New World, the main victims were the Slavs, who gave their name to slavery. Hunted by Romans, Christians, Muslims, Vikings and Tartars, they were exported all over the world. Slav came to mean foreigner; most religions taught that it was acceptable to enslave foreigners; British children who were exported as slaves - the girls fattened up to fetch a higher price - ended up as Slavs.

Slave Music Fujara

A traditional Slovak wind instrument enters the twenty-first century...
Inspired by the number of web sites offering information about the Australian aboriginal wind instrument - the didgeridoo, he created www.fujara.sk, a web site devoted to the fujara, in English.
Why in English? If a Slovak wants to, he or she can easily find out about the fujara, there are many possibilities.