Procursus:

From its first publication in 1887, there has been a tendency among some speakers to think of Esperanto as more than just a language, perhaps even some kind of proto-country. A hint at the history of eventually unsuccessful “spin-offs” growing out of such sentiments is available in an excursus to this page. The text here concerns a relatively recent movement to create the formalized polity of “Esperantia” (Esperantio).

A current movement to promote the Esperanto-land idea claims to grow from a declaration issued at a convention of the Tutmonda Esperanto-Junulara Organizo (“World Esperanto Youth Organization”) —TEJO— in Rauma, Finland, in 1980. The document —Manifesto de Raŭmo— argued that the goal of Esperanto becoming a universal second language, especially in view of the rising role of English, was unrealistic and that its speakers should focus instead on creating, enjoying, and advocating the cultural value of the language itself on the model of other linguistic minorities (external link to the Esperanto text). Many Esperantists over the decades have felt this way, and it was nice to get it out in the open.

Turning inward, as advocated at Rauma, very soon led some Esperantists to imagine a separate, slightly isolationist (but geographically diffuse), Esperanto-speaking nation, “Esperantia”, and they decided to create government institutions (run by themselves) to manage it. (Some were among the organizers of the Rauma declaration, and may have had this intention from the beginning.) Several additional declarations were issued by various ad-hoc groups, and a government was formed for La Civito, “the Polity.”

To explain the structure of the government of the would-be state of Esperantia to a confused public, a graphic novel was published about it, and in 2023 I was asked to write a review of it for Literatura Foiro, a venerable literary magazine edited by one of the leaders of the Esperantia project. Esperantia is referred to in the novel (and elsewhere) as a civito, a word originally used for a city state but here better translated “polity” or left untranslated. Its participants are referred to simply as civitanoj, “citizens,” a word already in widespread use for citizens of any country.

Nicolas VANOF (teksto) kaj Tihomir LOVRIĆ (bildoj)

2022 Esperantio Vivas. La Chaux-de-Fonds: Esperanta Civito k LF-koop. ISBN: 3-906595-27-7.

—DKJ