The Sunday of Sorghum Brooms
When a crowd crossed the closed border at Rožna Dolina in August 1950, they were not seeking freedom, but sorghum brooms.
We know many poignant stories about the harsh life along the border between 1947 and 1955, when the frontier between Italy and Yugoslavia was largely impermeable, except for dual owners and a few passport holders. A particularly unusual event, however, was the unplanned and remarkably successful incident of 13 August 1950, which the Italian nationalist press at the time called the “march of the hungry” (Marušič 1995; Brezigar 1998), while the Yugoslav press denied it.
On 6 August 1950, news spread that residents of both countries could meet in the middle of the international border crossing at Rožna Dolina, in the so-called no-man’s-land beneath the railway bridge. Not many people gathered that day, but word spread that the meeting might take place again the following Sunday, 13 August 1950.
On that day, a huge crowd gathered at the border crossing, estimated at around 5,000 people. The crowd pressed against the Yugoslav soldiers guarding the border and broke through into Italy. The people dispersed through the streets of Gorizia and bought everything available. Although it was Sunday, shopkeepers opened their stores. Among the goods, sorghum brooms were in the foreground, as they were unavailable in socialist Yugoslavia at the time. Many, especially women, returned home carrying all kinds of goods—and, of course, sorghum brooms.
And why sorghum brooms?
As explained in the article “Memories of Our Youth: An Ethnological View of Postwar Events in Slovenia” (1998), the answer lies in the everyday realities of the time:
“The change in housing culture and interior equipment after the First World War introduced stoves instead of hearths and wooden floors into rural homes, which a good housewife could properly sweep only with a sorghum broom and scrub every Saturday with a sorghum brush. Under Italy, our housewives bought brooms and brushes in Gorizia, where they were supplied by Friulian producers. After the closure of the border, stocks of brooms in shops on the Yugoslav side quickly ran out. Farmers helped themselves by planting a crop they called ‘metlar’ at the edges of their fields and making brooms from it, and they also collected the roots of a particular sharp grass [sorghum] to make brushes. This was a time-consuming and uneconomical process for an essential everyday household item. So when they came to Gorizia that day, they bought what they could afford with the little money they had, what they urgently needed—and perhaps also because everyone else was buying brooms.” (Brezigar 1998: 379)
It was said that the crossing would also be allowed the following Sunday, but by then the Yugoslav army had reinforced the border with barbed wire. According to testimonies, people continued to gather for several Sundays in a row at the Rožna Dolina crossing, and the police dispersed them. Many tried to use the chaos to escape, but few succeeded. The border was guarded by soldiers from Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, and elsewhere—locals called them “družeti.” They were very strict and would immediately fire if they spotted someone attempting to flee—first into the air, and if the person did not stop, then at the person. Those who managed to escape were soon returned by Italian police to the small border crossing in Rožna Dolina. Many were also found deeper inside Italy, even near the French border.
The brooms thus became an important symbol of that particular Sunday, which came to be known as the “Sunday of Sorghum Brooms” or “La domenica delle scope.”
Avtor: Jasna Fakin Bajec
Kraj: Rožna dolina
Vir:
- Miklavčič Brezigar, Inga. 1998. Spomini naše mladosti: Etnološki pogled povojnih dogodkov na Slovenskem, Acta Histria IV, str. 369 – 388.
- Marušič, Branko. 1995. Z zahodnega roba. Nova Gorica: Založba Branko.
- Marš sirkovih metel / dokumentarni film. Scenarij in režija Marko Radmilovič, 17 min, Produkcija TV Slovenija, 1955.
- Gorici se bosta danes spomnili pohoda metel, Primorski dnevnik, 9. 8. 2020, https://www.primorski.eu/goriska/gorici-se-bosta-danes-spomnili-pohoda-metel-GC576679 (12. 10. 2024).