Seeking Freedom, Seeking a King

Albania through the Eyes of Edith Durham in 1908

Timothy Hagen
ENG 101 and 105
PIR, ARCH, BINF, CE, CEN, ECE
22 October 2012
Albania Yesterday Essay

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Honor Statement (Besa): I have neither given or received, nor have I tolerated
others use of unauthorized aid. And he begged me to tell my King of the sad state
of Albania, and ask him what could be done. If he were really very rich, and would
do a lot for the country, perhaps he could be King of Albania too.
-Edith Durham (1909, 150)

This year, in 2012, Albanians celebrate the 100 th anniversary of

independence from the Ottoman Empire. Given the high level of patriotism to be
seen around the country and the tremendous value put on the declaration of
independence by Ismail Qemali and the representatives from around Albania who
met in Vlora, one might assume that the desire for an independent, sovereign
Albania was a strong one a century ago. However, a reading of Edith Durhams High
Albania (1909), based on Durhams travels through northern Albania and Kosovo in
1908, suggests that what most of the Albanians she met wanted was not full
sovereignty, but simply a better government. A possible deeper reason for this
apparent lack of interest in a fully sovereign, independent state was that after
millennia of foreign occupation, many Albanians simply sought to best realize their
personal and tribal goals by working within regional power structures rather than
through outright opposition and rebellion.
Admittedly, Durham meets a tribe that explicitly desires full independence
and wishes to have nothing to do with the outside world: The Bariaktar's son said
they did not want the King of England, or any king, interfering in Luria. Luria is a
free country. If he thought I was really the King's sister, he would cut off my head at
once (315). However, Durham describes numerous other encounters (55, 149-50,

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168-9, 183, 204-6, 228) in which Albanians asked for a foreign king, usually from
Britain.
These appeals by Albanian tribesmen for a foreign king are often not based
on knowledge of what a foreign king would do (35, 149-50, 168-9), but rather on
dissatisfaction with the imperial government of the time (13-4, 55, 149-50, 168-9),
dissatisfaction with their own violence and blood feuds (183), and frustration at
their inability to create a just government themselves (204-5).

Thus one interpretation that could be given to the appeals for a foreign king
is that Albanians were not seriously seeking a new foreign ruler, but were so
dissatisfied with their condition at the time that they were desperately trying to find
some means of escape and a new king seemed to be the best alternative. Durham,
knowledgeable of the behavior of the Great Powers, realizes that such an appeal is
likely not a good idea (10), and encourages Albanians to try self-governance. The
discussion she records is both tragic and enlightening:
People came to see me almost daily, bringing gifts of honeycomb or rakia, all
praying me to get them a new form of government. It was in their power, I
said, to start a better government at once. They had but to consult the
Franciscan before deciding to shoot, and to follow his advice. They replied:
How can we obey a man with a cord? He has no soldiers to force us. We
must have soldiers to make us obey!
They were at liberty, too, in their medjliss, I urged, to make new rules. What
is the use? they said; you can spend weeks making a new law; but the first
time it is broken, some one says of the guilty party, Oh, but he is my cousin.

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Then you would have to fight all his family. By your plan we should kill each
other more than we do now."

I said that we paid for the police and soldiers ourselves; but that any nation
could be so foolish as to do that they refused to believe.
There they satdark, ragged, voluble, conscious of their own misery, vaguely
desirous of something betterand clamoured to me for a King. (204-5)
Having lived under foreign occupation and the Kanun for so long, the Albanians with
whom Durham interacts in the above passage seem unable to conceive of peaceful,
just self-government. Although they do attempt a limited form of self-determination
insofar as they proactively ask for a king, their self-determination seems limited to a
choice of authoritarian masters; in other words, a choice of what type of bondage or
servitude they would most prefer. Several ideas seem quite alien to them: 1) The
idea of freely choosing to follow a law because it is inherently good or just and
without compulsion; 2) The idea of placing justice above family ties or honor; 3) The
idea of a police and military force that is under democratic, civilian control and
funded by the same.
The last line in the quote above clearly states the main argument of this
paper: that many Albanians 100 years ago did not seek independence for intrinsic
reasonsfor the sake of independence as a goalbut rather as a means of
escaping the misery of their situation at the time. Thus it is difficult to take the
requests for a king at face value, that is, as a deep desire for a Western European or
British king.
Indeed, this request for a king may simply have been an attempt by some
Albanians to best pursue their interests within the regional and global power

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structures at the time. In speaking of the Great Powers of the time trying to gain
influence in Albania, Durham writes: The Albanian has learnt by long practice how
to play off one against the other. He accepts money upon occasion from each and
all that offer it, and uses it for his private ends (9-10). Thus the appeal for a British
or other Western European monarch to come and rule Albania is likely an attempt to
use such a power for the private ends of the petitionersto rid Albania of the
excessive blood feuds and corrupt government of the time. Possibly, if the new
monarchy was not the liking of the petitioners, they would seek another power to
play off one against the other and thereby maximize what they believe to be their
own benefits. Durham hints that such was even the attitude of some Albanians
concerning religion (313).
Albania apparently pursued this strategy of playing off one power against
another for several years even in the Communist era before finally attempting selfreliance. When the path of political and religious self-reliance collapsed in 1991,
Albania again appealed to powers in both the East and the West for help. While a
deep analysis of this history is beyond the scope of this paper, the paper does pose
two key questions that need to be answered: 1) Are many Albanians today still
unhappy with their current condition and seeking something better? 2) What is the
better thing that Albanians seek, both subjectively and objectively? That is, what do
Albanians think would solve their problems and what would objectively do so?
In conclusion, a reading of Durhams High Albania (1909) suggests that many
Albanians a century ago did not claim to seek independence; instead, they sought a
better form of governmenta new foreign king to free them from the blood feuds
and unwanted government of the time. However, a deeper reading of the text
suggests that this may have simply been an attempt to play one power structure off

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against another in order to achieve some sort of limited independence. The
questions of whether such attitudes are prevalent today or what the solution to
blood feuds and unwanted government really is must be explored in subsequent
articles.

Reference
Durham, Edith. 1909. High Albania. London: Edward Arnold. Archive.org.