A gypsy is an individual that comes from an ethnic group referred to as Romani. Research indicates that Romani people left India for Europe around 1500 years ago.

Individuals and groups with dark skin and lead a nomadic life are often referred to as gypsies.

Gypsies have dark skin as Romani populations have a high frequency of a certain Y chromosome as well as mitochondrial DNA that are mostly found among groups originating from South Asia.

Gypsies are nomadic by nature given their history as an ethnic group.

History of gypsies

The Roman people are believed to have fled India to go to Europe, but were refused to settle permanently in Europe by locals as many believed that they were invading the Ottoman Empire.

It was the Europeans who coined the term gypsies since they believed that the Romani population came from Egypt.

The Romani people suffered under the hands of Europeans. They were enslaved and discriminated for their dark skin.

Gypsies are often described as thieves who are into fortune-telling and stealing. Many believe that gypsies steal as much as they can before they leave for their next destination.

The Romani population kept moving from one destination to another to survive the enslavement and discrimination. This group of people became nomadic and kept their culture among their group.

Gypsies are also unschooled since they were always considered as outsiders and many of them failed to attend to regular education.

Gypsies typically form groups of 10 to several hundreds of families to form a band, and they all travel in caravans from one place to another. One band elects a leader, the voivode who will only cease to be a leader upon his death. The band also has a phuri dari, a senior woman of the group who has the task of looking for the welfare of children and women.