_{Source: LA Times - http://framework.latimes.com/2011/11/25/the-week-in-pictures-62/#/0}

For a long a time we all were taught to treat folklore as an important part of a country's culture as discipline that deals only with the problem of cultural identity. However, it was not often discussed about the connection between folklore and politics, to be more precise, with nationalism. Folklore has its inseparable connection with nationalism. Even international researchers say, that folklore was born from nationalism, however in Albania studies there was no tendency ever to see these two areas connected with each other. Even when its ties had to do with a few political issues such as those of national identity, ethnic or interethnic relations, even then nobody has connected folklore with politics. The focus of this article will be on folklore and nationalism, to be more precise, the focus will be on folk songs as an expression of nationalism. However, before I start discussing the subject, I think it is very important firstly to discuss the circumstances of the development of folklore as a discipline. 

Folklore began to distinguish itself as an autonomous discipline during the period of romantic nationalism in Europe. It started in a time when “nation state” were being created. So, the purpose of laying the foundations of folklore was nationalism, which was the result of the political circumstances that were created at that time in many countries. Now I will move from the European context of folklore development to an Albanian national context, and here I will strive to connect the folklore and politics. Even in Albanian lands folklore has started to appear almost in the same period as in other European countries. However, in Albanian lands folklore developed in another context. While “nation state” were being created in Europe, Albanian lands were still faced with a struggle for liberation from the Ottoman conqueror. So, folklore began to appear in unfavorable circumstances for Albanians. Therefore, cultural development in this aspect could not be seen apart from the political developments of that time. Raising awareness about the values of national folklore was manifested by the collection of books with material from folklore. In the Albanian territories, in the 20th century, the collection of materials from Folklore began. From this time there were numerous publications in magazines of poems, stories and various musical texts.

Music has played a major role in the development of folklore, not only in Albanian but in general. In Topic “folk music as an expression of nationalism” I will focus on the analyzes of texts of Dervish Shaqa, which is one of the most famous Albanian rhapsodist. Dervish Shaqa started his activity in Kosovo until 1956 even when he left Kosovo due to the persecution Yugoslavia's Internal Affairs (UDB) against Albanians. He moved in Albania and he never came back again in Kosova. He continued to express his feelings through song which was the only way of expressing his pain for his family and hometown. Dervish Shaqa in Albania continues the tradition of singing for the history of his homeland, with the lyrics of his songs describing national figures, devoted patriots, brave soldiers and homeland warriors. There are other song whom are very famous in Albanian and Kosovo territories. Those songs are called “Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors” are part of the traditional cycle of the Albanian epic songs. They took their definite form in 17th and 18th century and were orally transmitted by the Albanian bards. The songs were first time recorded in written form in the first decades of the 20th centuries by the Franciscan priests Shtjefën Gjeçovi and Bernardin Palaj. One of the most well known songs of the Cycle is that of Gjergj Elez Alia, the warrior who had nine wounds on his body and laid suffering for nine years in his house. When news come that “Balozi i Zi” ("Black Knight") had come from the sea and was killing people, Gjergj gets up and kills him. 

In the end I think it’s very important to do lot of researches in the folkloric discipline because these stories talks about important virtues such as goodness, honesty, in which the heroes and heroines of folk tales always use to prevail over their problems.