Mihal Grameno

Mihal Grameno was born on the 13^th of January 1871; he died on the 5^th February 1931. He was a rilindas, a politician a freedom fighter a journalist and a writer from Albania.

source of picture: gazeta-shqip.com

Biography

Grameno was born in Korce to a merchant family; he attended a local secondary school before relocating to Romania in the year 1885. It was in Bucharest the he became engaged with the Albanian National Awakening where the movement failed quickly because of financial situations in the extended family that depended on money.

He became a member of the newly formed Çerçiz Topulli's kachak band in the year 1907; the group was a guerrilla unit that was fighting against the Turkish troops that were in Albania. They were also said to be apostles of Albanianism; they go from village to village to discuss the predicament of the country.

Grameno founded Orthodox league in the year 1909 in Korce and he worked as the editor of the periodicals of the league with the same name from 1909 to the year 1910. In the year 1910, the organization announced the establishment of an independent church of the country, Albania, though was not recognized by the Ottoman Empire. He also worked as the editor of the weekly Koha, which was formerly published in Korce and later transferred t Jamestown, New York where he resided from the year 1915 to 1919. He moved back to Europe to represent his country the through the Albanian-American community at the Paris Peace Conference of the year 1919 and after that year he went back to Albania.

In the 1920s, he did some literary and journalistic works until the dictatureship of Zog I mandated him to retire from the public service in the country. Resigned and seriously sick, he died on the 5^th February 1931 in Korce.

Works

Mihal Grameno's published works are;

• Vdekja (English: The Death), a patriotic poem published in 1903;
• Mallkimi i gjuhës shqipe, (English: The curse upon the Albanian language), a comedy published in Bucharest 1905,
• Vdekja e Piros (English: The Death of Pyrrhus), a historical tragedy published in Sofia, 1906.
• Oxhaku (English: The Hearth), E puthura (English: The Kiss), and Varr' i pagëzimit (English: The Tomb of the Baptism), Korçë 1909, short stories.
• Plagët (English: The wounds) Manastir 1912, a volume of poetry;
• Kryengritja shqiptare, Korçë 1925 (English: The Albanian Uprising), memoirs of his experiences as a guerrilla fighter against the Turkish and Greek troops.