The painful story of a dynasty of intellectuals

Zylyftar Hoxha

If you go today to Sheper, where the famous teacher and researcher, Ilia Dilo, was born and died, to whom Sheper gave his name, Ilia Dilo Sheperi, you will find no relics, no traces. As the only sign of memory, in the yard of the church of Sheperi, there remains the cypress tree planted 73 years ago, on October 14, 1945, when soil was thrown there. The grave was then removed from here and the remains were placed among the village cemeteries.

"Put him among the people he worked for", was the ironic as well as bitter message of the high party leadership of that time!

Although he had a valuable contribution to Albanian language education and science, his name was removed from the history of the Albanian people, from the history of the Albanian language and literature, from the reports and lectures of scientific media, until the Spelling Congress, where he had his scientific part, however modest this part may be. His photos with the most prominent patriots and scholars of the time were retouched. Likewise, his name was not included as a separate entry in the Albanian Encyclopedic Dictionary of 1985.

Some appreciation for him came late, after the 90s, after the change of systems in Albania: he was given the title of Teacher of the People and then the other high title, the Honor of the Albanian Nation; a street in Tirana is named "Ilia Dilo Sheperi"; his name is mentioned in new scientific publications, while in the Albanian Encyclopedic Dictionary, in summary, the voice with his name has this content:

Ilia Dilo Sheperi (1872 - 1945). National education activist, linguist, Teacher of the People. He graduated from the "Zosimea" high school in Ioannina, worked for 15 years in Bênja te Përmet. He participated in the patriotic movement and for the spread of books in the Albanian language. For his activity in these fields, he was persecuted, expelled from his homeland and sentenced to death by anti-Albanian political circles (1914). In the years of the First World War, he participated in the activities for the protection of the country as a whole. In the years 1918-1919, he returned the schools of the villages of Zagoria to the Albanian language. He was among the founders of the "Brotherhood of Gjirokastra" society (1919). He participated in the educational congress of Lushnja in 1920 and in that of Tirana in 1922. He helped to expand the network of schools and to prepare educational programs. He worked as an Albanian language teacher in Vlora, at the Gjirokastra High School and at the Girls' Normal School in Korça. In the field of Linguistics, he published the work "Grammar and Syntax of the Albanian Language, especially of Toskrit for Secondary Schools" (Vlora 1927), one of the best grammars of the time, with many personal contributions, which presents the state of the Albanian language of those years. In its preface, it expresses some valuable views and opinions on various problems of grammar and literary language. The work was republished in Rome (1972) and in Tirana (2011).

However, Albanian politics, which "sticks its nose everywhere" and "appropriates" everything, the Albanian academic world, as it is and as it has remained, owes a lot to this man. What, I don't know, I'm just a citizen of this country, but at least find the bones and put them where they belong, organize various scientific activities, to put the name in place , honor and dignity as it was, without exaggerating anything; to erect a memorial to him, if not elsewhere, at least in his hometown, in Sheper; to enter it into the memoirs of the nation from which it was unjustly and violently removed.

Above we presented something schematic from the life of the famous teacher and scientist, but his real life is a raging river, because the time was also such that it was looking for heroes. Anyone who knows history at all will understand how dangerous it was in 1900 to speak Albanian and not to open an Albanian school in your home. Small room indeed, but it had the grandeur and importance of a monument. The children there, brought up before their time due to poverty and suffering under the savage Turkish occupation, entered silently into the house where there was a bright room and learned to read and write. They learned Albanian.

When they sentenced Ilia Dilo Sheper to death, for the letter to the Patriarchate and the speech given before the people about the Hormova crime, his words were: "Even when you put a knife to my throat, you will see that the gurgling of my blood will pronounce A , B, C”!…

The people's protest caused the court to change its decision and the death penalty was changed to "Exile". This was to throw ashes in the eyes of the people, because they had decided to drown him in the boat that would take them to the ship. Barka navagisi and his friend drowned, while Ilia escaped by serving his sentence abroad, in Italy. After that, he returned to his homeland, to his Sheper, thinking how to enrich and make his homeland as beautiful and independent as possible.

The house, especially its large library, turned into a patriotic workplace for the entire South, where the problems of the time were discussed and efforts were made to find a solution and a way out for Albania and the Albanians. The stairs of the house echoed with the heavy steps of Çerçiz Topulli, Aristidh Ruçi, Petro Harritos, Andon Zako Çajupi, Kostika and many others... A warm hearth of patriotism, people who thought not how to get rich and fat for themselves, but how to get rich and decorate Albania.

As a class scientist, Ilia Dilo had regular correspondence. Professor Doctor Norbert Jokli, with whom they were of the same mind and gave the same scientific arguments that Albanian was even older and richer than the three previous languages, and it was not only its wealth and antiquity, but the generosity of to this language to lend many word roots which are found in other languages, but of Albanian origin.

Jokli adored and respected the work of Ilia Dilos. Expressing considerations to his Albanian colleagues, more than once, he had said about him that "between the harsh mountains of Zagoria there was an ocean of knowledge".

In the 30s of the last century, when he retired, he did not stop his scientific work. He spent all his time in his huge library, which occupied an entire floor of the two-story house. When the house was burned by the Germans in June of '44, Ilia, knowing the German culture, could never believe that they would burn his library which contained 13 volumes of manuscripts into which he had poured everything he had achieved through his studies and throughout his life in terms of the Albanian language and its antiquity. But he did not think of betrayal. The house was burned first, because the Germans had Albanian firemen who directed the fire and fire that they had themselves or that others had advised them.

When Male Dilo, Ilia's son, who realized from where they were that the house had been engulfed in flames, asked his father who would depress him more, the burning of the house or the killing of his two sons. Ilia answered: - What do you say to me, my son! The boys would be a great pain for me, the whole of Albania would feel and be punished for the library!…

This was Ilia Dilo Sheperi. Like an ancient oak with deep roots, there, in Sheper, from the strong trunk branched out that were the faithful and unmistakable continuation of the healthy trunk. All ten of his descendants, seven sons and three daughters, throughout their lives justified themselves as his sons.

The eldest son Themua shouldered the big house and helped until the other children began to change.

In his help, two years younger, from 1902, Qirjakua, also hardworking, wise and kind, but also an excellent researcher. At the age of 15, he opened the first Albanian school in Nivan on his own initiative and with the help of his father. After that, he became the director of the Poliçani school where he also taught Albanian. But his intellectual interests were broader, he worked as a journalist and later as an economist.

Ilia's third child was Mihal Dilo; studied to be a veterinarian and worked with a lot of love and passion in the field of agriculture. Kokojka, the beautiful hill at the foot of Bisei turned into a wonderful orchard with trees of all kinds. He took the tree saplings from Italy. Before he died, alone with his wife by his side, he said to her: Turn on the radio! A labe song flowed from the radio through his mind and soul. He reached with difficulty from the nearby shelf. They were manuscripts of the studies he had done during his wonderful work.

Etien, Male's son, gave the manuscripts in 1996 with the good intention that they would be valuable for the university. But they disappeared and are nowhere to be found. Along with them was a part of the memories of his close friend, Bilal Golemi. They also disappeared!

Margariti continued his higher studies in Athens for mathematics. He was arrested and imprisoned by the dictatorship of the proletariat without the slightest reason, as well as many intellectuals of that time. He served his sentence in Maliq. Then he got married and gave birth to wonderful children who, with their behavior and work, keep the family name high.

Another friend of Dilove was Dr. Jani Dilo, serious and wise. After studying in Rome, he came to Albania, engaged in the war against the Italians and later the Germans, but he could not agree with the political divisions and the theater of battles that were taking place there. He graduated as a lawyer in Italy with flying colours, and in 1950 he went to the United States making a great professional career, first as a writer and journalist at the "Voice of America" ​​and then the important tasks he took on. If the Albanian academics were a little more attentive, they would have left him the deserved place in the Albanian Encyclopedia. However, for such essential historical corrections, it is never too late.

Oresti Dilo, doctor of medical sciences, in one of the most civilized countries in the world, in New York. He had a great desire to serve in his country, but it was impossible. Longing and desperate, he sent his savings to the people in Albania. He came to Albania in 1990 and after the longing meetings he had, he found out about the unworthy attitude and treatment of his father figure. So dishonored, he ran away the next day, to enter a hospital very shocked where he died.

Victoria, the pride of Ilia Dilo Sheperi. She adored her father's work, cherished it and practiced the profession of a teacher with immeasurable zeal and love.. All the events that happened caused her to suffer unparalleled shocks and she died silently and in sorrow at the age of 59. She was posthumously awarded the Meritorious Teacher in Pluralism

Koço Dilo. Like all Dilot, good, chosen. At the age of 50, he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly trying to escape! The only witness who had to testify about the lawsuit against Koço was shaking like a perch. He walked there in the hall, face to face he said to the judge: Mr. Judge, calm down the witness who is finding a place to enter. Tell him that I am being judged and not him. He spent 10 years in the terrible prison of Spaçi, where Krisua, Viktoria, Viktori (Xhamballo) Dilo, Ifi, Ylli, Bardhi, Edi, etc. often went to him. He got out of prison and after three years he died peacefully, in the hospital of Tirana

Ilias' other daughter was Thevronia. She was a hospitable and wise woman. She made good children and she also suffered like all Dilots.

This whole story of suffering and suffering, unfortunately, ends with a dark frame: Kaliopi Dilo, the wife of Male Dilo, invincible column of the house of Dilo, in 1991, at an advanced age, is killed in the most macabre way and at the same time the most banal that can be known, inside the house from the robbers, who remembered that they would find there "gold of the curvy Dilenjes"!..