– Gjon Bruçi –
As fate would have it, in the north of our country lie the “Accursed Mountains,” part of our Alps. Why did our mountains acquire such a wild nickname? According to legend, a mother from our race, to escape the enemy, took the mountain with her small children, but unfortunately, it had no water source. The journey through the mountain’s ridges without water exhausted and dehydrated the mother and her children until they collapsed from thirst. In the final moments of her life, the mother cried out from the depths of her spirit: “Oh mountain, never lack water! May fire burst forth! May dew fall!” And she fell alongside her children, who had succumbed to thirst.
Nevertheless, the legend left us with the name “Accursed Mountains” for our Alps. I ask: Have we, the descendants of that mother who have lived for thousands of years at the foot of these mountains, inherited the epithet “accursed,” which is equal to “cursed”? Are we still a cursed people due to ancient heritage, or do we have some more recent sins and faults?
We now know from legends, but also from many facts, that the most persecuted people until modern times were the Jews. We don’t know the exact truth of this persecution, but legend gives us an example that we have read about in books and seen in movies. In the film “Jesus of Nazareth,” the main character, Jesus Christ, was the son of the Almighty God, who had come to the lands of the Hebrews to bring the message of Peace, Humanity, Equality and Freedom. However, the priests of the time did not believe in his messages, even though he, Jesus Christ, sometimes did unprecedented things, such as healing the sick and even raising the dead, as was the case with Lazarus. Unfortunately, even the crowds manipulated by the dogmatic priests of the time doubted and called Jesus Christ a deceiver. So when the priests accused him before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, of life and death, they left it in the hands of the crowd. History tells us that the crowd pardoned the thief and criminal Barabbas and voted for the death of Christ. Thus, the “son of God,” the missionary of freedom and equality, ended up on the cross. Since that time, the Jews have not seen a happy day, and even today, after two thousand years, people say, “We will wander like Jews in the wilderness.” Some Jews were finally stabilized by the United States in the state of Israel, but despite having their own country, they have never escaped conflict with the Arabs. Look at the current situation in Gaza.
I have gone through all this discourse to come to our people, who, it must be admitted, if not forced to wander “like Jews in the wilderness,” from Roman occupation to today, have not lived for the majority of the time but have survived, being squeezed between the “Accursed Mountains” or the “Tower of Imprisonment.” Certainly, this situation has not only arisen from the “legendary curse” of the mother who died of thirst with her children but also from subsequent actions, in some cases, similar to those of the ancient Jews.
Every time has had its messages and missionaries who have conveyed them. In the 20th century, the Albanians, like many other peoples and countries, received the message of communist ideals. With these ideals in minds and hearts, the Albanians rose up in the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War for the liberation of their lands from the nazi-fascist occupiers and traitors, securing for the first time in 2000 years the Freedom, Independence and Sovereignty of their country. And not only that, but with communist ideals in minds and hearts, they also built Socialism, the forerunner of Communism, a social system that could peoples foresee only in dreams. The architects of these achievements were the Communist Party and Enver Hoxha.
For fate, or perhaps coincidence, the leader of the communists and the Albanian people shone magnificently not only in the half-century work he accomplished but also in his glorious and manly physique, his voice, his demeanor, his love for the people and his hatred for his enemies. It was precisely these indicators that the people, in their estimation, surpassed the human limit, made him a legend and called Enver Hoxha the saviour of the country. Certainly, in this glorification, there was some exaggeration, but the people cannot be commanded as to their feelings. It is enough to revisit today the magnificent rallies where Enver Hoxha stood and the incomparable cheers of the people who followed him, dedicating thousands of greetings and songs to him in all the many dialects. Even when Enver Hoxha passed away, as a mortal man, the people mourned for days on end, as they had not for any other national or international figure. And these two “gestures,” the cheering and the mourning, cannot be imposed unless the people who perform them have them in the depths of their hearts and souls.
Now let us move beyond 40 years since his passing, when at least half of those who lived during Enver’s time are still alive. Most of those who until yesterday clapped their hands together or shed tears without stopping dare not even mention the name of their half-century “deliverer.” The glorious Anti-Fascist National Liberation War and the Enlightened Era of Socialism were led by the Communist Party and the great Albanian Enver Hoxha. But we, even these historical facts known to the world, do not have the courage to mention them as glorious histories of the Albanians. Moreover, we ignore them and even denigrate them!
Why this denial of our modern history?! Why this transformation in regards to the truth, within a very short period, only 30 or 40 years, where the characters of that period are still alive and well?! Doesn’t this behaviour lead us towards damnation?!
Certainly, among us, there are plenty of “Judas” and “Peter,” like those of the time of Jesus Christ, the first of whom betrayed Jesus, and the second denied him without “crowing three times like a rooster!” But the people are not and cannot be either “Judas” or “Peter.” They are manipulated by the “priests” of bourgeois propaganda.
Let us save the people from these “priests” so that they may walk the path of truth. And this is in the hands of the intellectuals of the people who must lead the fight to defend the people and the country from the “Accursed” and the “Curse”!
(Translated from the Albanian original)
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