Akekoi: A Romani Memoir

Through personal essay, dreams, poetry, newspaper reviews, song lyrics, and the language of Welsh Gypsies, Roberts Reilly’s memoir is a rare and unique account of the author’s life as a Welsh Gypsy/Roma woman. Emphasizing her heritage of music and folklore and her passion for human rights, she breaks the silence around Roma identity. It foregrounds the intersections of racism, class conflict, and cultural appropriation as they bear upon Roma today. Twelve chapters tell stories of diaspora, the war years, trauma, family secrets, photography, travel, a lineage of Welsh harpists, fortune-telling, and adult rites of passage. Linking personal memories to 4,500 years of a group’s collective journey, “Akekoi” makes a significant contribution to first-person narratives by a writer of Roma ethnicity.