AEMI

ELISA GOSSO
to idealize the Valleys as a point of reference
for all the Waldensians (through
the creation of museums as well as of
celebrations and, not least, of Waldensian
historic sites, with the consequent
transformation of the landscape into
cultural heritage).
The aim of these introductory remarks
about the cultural definition of
the Waldensian Valleys is to convey the
importance that the Church has always
assigned to cohesion and to the maintenance
of a certain identity for the
Waldensian community. They also allow
us to fathom the constant attempt to
manage migration and prevent chaotic
diaspora. This is also the reason why the
study of the wide variety of forms taken
by Waldensian migrations and colonies
provides a useful and in many ways
unique testing ground to assess some of
the tenets of transnationalism.
Homeland, nostalgia and return
visits
From the Middle Ages to the twentieth
century the Waldensian waves of migration
from the Valleys were mainly due
to socioeconomic causes. The only case
of forced migration because of religious
persecutions was the one of the German
diaspora.
Based on comparative studies of diaspora
histories, many social scientists
have attempted to define the notion
of ‘diaspora’. The conceptualization
proposed by Robin Cohen is helpful
to understand and define the Waldensian
case. Cohen (2008) identifies some
common features of a diaspora that refer
to the displacement from a homeland
and the creation of a collective memory
and a myth about this homeland, the
201
frequent development of a return movement
(not only a definitive return, but
also periodical visits to the homeland),
a strong ethnic group consciousness, a
sense of empathy with co-ethnic members
in other countries and a feeling of
tolerance for pluralism in the host country.
All these features are to be found in
the case of the German Waldensian diaspora
and refer to other key concepts I
will use to analyze the case of German
Waldensian transnationalism.
First of all, the concept of ‘homeland’.
The Waldensians who migrated to Germany
in the late seventeenth century
(de Lange et al., 1999) came all from
a specific place in the Valleys: from the
so-called high Chisone Valley and from
a portion of the low Chisone Valley,
which at that time were both under
French rule, while the other Waldensian
communities in the rest of the Chisone
Valley and in the Germanasca and Pellice
Valleys were subjects of the Duchy
of Savoy.
In 1685 king Louis XIV of France revoked
the Edict of Nantes, which nearly
one hundred years before had conceded
religious and civil freedom to the French
Protestants. The French Waldensians of
the Chisone Valley had to choose between
conversion to Catholicism or
exile. Some of them converted, but the
majority decided to migrate elsewhere.
They joined the stream of migration of
the French Huguenots from their lands
to countries of Protestant tradition, such
as Switzerland and Germany. Waldensians
settled in some areas of south-western
Germany, in Baden-Württemberg
and Hessen. The local lords eager to increase
their population in order to make