site.btaResearch Team of Ethnologists and Folklorists Present Monograph on Cultural Heritage of Bulgarian Migrant Communities Outside Europe

The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IEFSEM - BAS) hosted the premiere of the collective monograph "Cultural Heritage and Institutionalization of the Bulgarian Historical and Contemporary Migrant Communities Beyond Europe" by the authors' collective: Vladimir Penchev, Anelia Avdzhieva, Maryanka Borisova, Valentin Voskresensky, Nikolay Vukov, Lina Gergova, Yana Gergova, Boyan Kulov, Tanya Matanova and Shteryo Shterev, the team of IEFEM - BAS said on Thursday.

The publication covers the findings of research carried out within the framework of a project funded by the Scientific Research Fund at the Education and Science Ministry in more than 20 cities in ten countries, and as many more remotely via Internet surveys - among historical and contemporary Bulgarian communities in Asia, Africa, North and Latin America, Australia and Oceania.

Through the published materials about their organizational structures (schools, churches, folklore groups, community centers, etc. ), and the ways in which they preserve Bulgarian memory and culture, Bulgarian cultural heritage (linguistic, cultural, calendar-holiday, folklore, etc.), including in the conditions of pandemic, and the continuous connection with Bulgaria, this collective scientific work contributes to the expansion of scientific knowledge in the field of Bulgarian studies, ethnology, sociology, cultural geography, but is also useful for the development of policies aimed at Bulgarian communities outside Bulgaria.

The African continent section includes concise information about the Bulgarian schools, Bulgarian associations, women's societies, etc., which were and still are functioning in Libya, Sudan, Mozambique, Algeria, Egypt. Bulgarian emigration to Morocco and the Republic of South Africa is presented in more detail with the embassy, cultural centre, Bulgarian schools, dance groups, church, their festive (family, institutional) calendar and socio-cultural interactions.  

The sections on the Americas bring together brief information on the Bulgarians in Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Honduras and a detailed presentation of the Bulgarian communities in Canada and, more specifically, their historical traces, cultural heritage and institutionalization, media and social networks in the cities of Toronto, Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa-Gatineau, and in the southern cities of Buenos Aires, La Plata, Beriso and Ensenada, Chaco, Las Brenas, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo Belo Horizonte, etc.

The concluding part is dedicated to the thousands of Bulgarians in Australia and New Zealand, their "chain migrations" in the past and present, migratory movements to the cities of Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and New Zealand's Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, their Bulgarian churches, Bulgarian Sunday schools, cultural associations, dance groups, consolidating local Bulgarian communities.