Cioaba, Ioan

(1935-1997)

   Romania. Political activist. An elder of the Kalderash clan, he kept in contact with the Comité International Tzigane and agitated for Gypsy rights during the Communist period. In 1986 he was jailed on a trumped-up charge of cheating the government on a copper contract. After the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu, he was a member of the Provisional National Council. He and his son Florin Cioaba ran for the Senate in 1995 but were not elected. In September 1992 in Romania he was proclaimed king of all the Gypsies. His authority as king was limited to the Kalderash clan, but many other Romanian Gypsies also saw him as their spokesman. His daughter Lucia is married to the son of Emperor Iulian of All the Gypsies, who was crowned in Romania in August 1993, while a second daughter Luminita Mihai Cioaba is a well-known writer.