Katarina Taikon
Katarina Taikon-Langhammer (29 July 1932 – 30 December 1995) was a Swedish Romani activist, leader in the civil rights movement, writer and actor, from the Kalderash sub group. She was the sister of Rosa Taikon. She has been called the Martin Luther King of Sweden.
Also recorded as Katarina Taikon-Langhammer · Katarina Maria Taikon
Katarina Taikon

Ekholm, Aftonbladet · Stockholms stadsmuseum · CC BY 4.0
- Name
- Katarina Taikon
- Born
- 29 July 1932
- Birthplace
- Almby, Örebro, Sweden
- Died
- 30 December 1995
- Place of death
- Ytterhogdal, Hälsingland, Sweden
- Occupation
- Activist, writer and actor
- Nationality
- Sweden.
- Fields
- literary activity and human rights.
- Languages
- Swedish.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Katarina Taikon-Langhammer (29 July 1932 – 30 December 1995) was a Swedish Romani activist, leader in the civil rights movement, writer and actor, from the Kalderash sub group. She was the sister of Rosa Taikon. She has been called the Martin Luther King of Sweden.
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Note VALÉORINE
Katarina Taikon (1932–1995) was an actor, actress and political activist, among other activities, of Swedish nationality. The actor died in Ytterhogdal. Activity centred on human rights and literary activity.
The work spans children's and children's literature. Languages used include Swedish.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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Authority files
wikidata · Q466523 · wikipedia · Katarina Taikon
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Katarina Taikon • Born — 29 July 1932 • Birthplace — Almby, Örebro, Sweden • Died — 30 December 1995 • Place of death — Ytterhogdal, Hälsingland, Sweden • Other Names — Kahtitsi Taikon • Occupation — Activist, writer and actor • Children — 2 • Relatives — Rosa Taikon (sister)
Family background
Family background
Taikon's grandparents, Cori Caldares and his wife, came to Sweden with their twelve children at the turn of the century. They adopted the surname Taikon as it was already common in Romani communities, allowing them to avoid revealing they had recently immigrated. One of the twelve children was Johan Taikon, Katarina Taikon's father, who working in both copper and silversmithing.
Early life
Early life
In 1932 Katarina Taikon was born in a camp near Örebro to Johan Dimitri Taikon (1879–1950) and a Swedish woman, his second wife, who died when Katarina was only one year of age. She had three older siblings: Paul, Rosa, and Paulina. During Taikon's childhood Romani still lived in camps in Sweden, and had to move often, which made it hard for the children to get any school education. Taikon did not learn how to write until she was 26. This was despite the efforts of her father, who had been advocating for the education of Romani children since the 1930s. He tried to enroll his children in schools but was often rejected by the authorities or by local families, who threatened to remove their own children from school if they had Romani classmates. In 1946, Taikon was married off to a man eight years her senior. After a few months, she ran away from the tent she shared with her family and husband to another Romani camp. She was returned to her camp, but soon ran away again. She found a job in a shop through a charitable organization and lived on her own for several years.
Acting career
Acting career
In 1948, a 16-year-old Taikon participated in Arne Sucksdorff's documentary short film Uppbrott, where she danced around a campfire as part of a performance imitating traditional Romani dance. The filming of the documentary made it possible for Taikon to divorce her husband. For the next decade, Taikon acted in several Swedish motion pictures.
Activism
Activism
Taikon dedicated her life to improving conditions for Romani people in Sweden and throughout the world. Through her tireless work, debating, writing and talking to Swedish authorities, the Romani were granted the same right to housing and education as all other Swedes. In 1953, the 1914 ban on Romani immigration ended. This led to other Romani seeking refuge in Sweden, and the population, at first less than a thousand people, grew. In 1964 Katarina and her sister Rosa helped found the Zigenarsamfundet (Roma Society). That same year, Taikon was appointed as an honorary member of the Swedish Youth Peace Alliance. In 1965 Taikon headed the Romani May Day demonstration in Stockholm, the first such public Romani demonstration in the country. The demonstration called for the right to education. Taikon tried to convince Swedish authorities that these people were in fact political refugees, since they had been oppressed in their countries. In 1967 she successfully worked to convince the Swedish government to allow Italian and Polish Romani refugees to remain in Sweden. After fruitless efforts to help a group of 47 French Romani gain asylum in Sweden, she decided to change her strategy. The only way to end the prejudices against her people was to address the young, she realized, so she started to write her popular series of children's books about her own childhood, called Katitzi. Between 1969 and 1980 she published 13 books in the series. A comic book adaptation was created in 1975, and in 1979 a television series based on the books was produced. Her sister Rosa later wrote: the terrible injustices of which the Gypsies have for centuries been the victims, with the result that my generation and those which preceded it were deprived of all civil rights, might have continued in our country if, around 1960, Katarina Taikon had not decided to combat prejudice and racism in all its forms, She wrote books and countless newspaper articles, approached prime ministers, the Government, Parliament and all the political parties.
Writing career
Writing career
In 1963 Taikon published Zigenerska, an autobiographical book that focused on the struggles of the Romani community in Sweden. In 1969 Taikon released her first children's book, Katitzi, based on her own childhood. By 1980 she had published thirteen books in the series. Unlike some earlier Swedish children's books, the Katitzi series deals with darker storylines as the books progress, with the last few being aimed toward a teenage demographic. The books aimed to illustrate the struggles Romani children and communities faced as a result of systemic societal and legal discrimination. A comic book adaptation of Katitizi was created in 1975, and in 1979 a television series based on the books was produced.
Personal life
Personal life
Taikon married Björn Langhammer in 1962. She had two children.
Filmography
Filmography
• 1948 - Uppbrott • 1949 - Singoalla • 1950 - The Motor Cavaliers • 1951 - Tull-Bom • 1953 - Marianne • 1953 - Åsa-Nisse på semester • 1956 - Sceningång
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
The authorities additionally record the headings Katarina Taikon-Langhammer and Katarina Maria Taikon. Her recorded language was Swedish. She married Björn Langhammer. 2 children are recorded: Angelica Ström and Niki Langhammer.
Identity
Identity
Katarina Taikon is recorded with the occupation political activist. Classed in the genre children's literature. Recorded as writer, actress and political activist.

Porträtt av Katarina Taikon, 1953.
Aftonbladet, Linde (Aftonbladet), Ilgars
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1932
Katarina Taikon was born on 29 July 1932.
1995
Katarina Taikon died on 30 December 1995.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Örebro.
Birth place
Ytterhogdal.
Death place
Publications
• Zigenerska (1963) • Ziegnare är vi (1967) • Katitzi I ormgropen (1971) • Katitzi rymmer (1971) • Katitzi, Rosa och Paul (1972) • Katitzi I Stockholm (1973) • Katitzi och Lump-Nicke (1974) • Katitzi I skolan (1975) • Katitzi Z-1234 (1976) • Katitzi barnbruden (1977) • Katitzi på flykt (1978) • Katitzi i Gamla stan (1979) • Uppbrottet (1980)
Death and legacy
Katarina Taikon died of brain damage in 1995 after a 13-year-long coma, which had been caused by cardiac arrest in 1982. In 2012 Lawen Mohtadi wrote a biography of Taikon, entitled The Day I Will Be Free. In 2015 a documentary adaptation of Mohtadi's biography, entitled Taikon, was released.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Katarina Taikon”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
institutional register
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q466523: Katarina Taikon
Unverified · Wikimedia Foundation
Literature
Literature
Slåss mot alla orättvisor: Katarina Taikon och föreställningen om barnets rättigheter runt 1968, Barnboken, 2018
Katarina Taikon and the Swedish Gypsies, Race, 1964
Slåss mot alla orättvisor: Katarina Taikon och föreställningen om barnets rättigheter runt 1968, Barnboken: Tidskrift för Barnlitteraturforskning, 2018
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Uppbrott (1949). Filmarkivet.se.
- 2.Taikon, 2015 documentary by Gellert Tamas and Lawen Mohtadi.
- 3.Haglund-Calley, Laila. Katarina Taikon and the Swedish Gypsies. Race. 6. 1. 63–65. July 1964. 0033-7277.
- 4.Rodell Olgaç, Christina. Die Bildungssituation von Roma in Europa. 199. 2013.
- 5.Documentary on Roma rights activist Katarina Taikon to premiere this fall. Sveriges Radio. 2015-08-19.
- 6.Brunow, Dagmar. Curating Access to Audiovisual Heritage : Cultural Memory and Diversity in European Film Archives. Image & Narrative. 18. 1. 104–105. 2017.
- 7.Zetterlund, Christina. Beauty and Struggle. Bulletin muzea romské kultury. 28. 67. 2019.
- 8.Selling, Jan. Romani Liberation: A Northern Perspective on Emancipatory Struggles and Progress. Central European University Press. 34. 2022. 10.7829/j.ctv280b6tr.6.
- 9.Selling, Jan. Romani Liberation: A Northern Perspective on Emancipatory Struggles and Progress. Central European University Press. 75. 2022.
- 10.Selling, Jan. Romani Liberation: A Northern Perspective on Emancipatory Struggles and Progress. Central European University Press. 136–138. 2022. 10.7829/j.ctv280b6tr.10.
- 11.Katitzi (Series). Koja Agency.
- 12.Widhe, Olle. The Politics of Autobiography in Katarina Taikon's Katitzi Series. Children's Literature. 49. 1. 59–73. 2021. 1543-3374.
- 13.UNESCO Courier: The sharing, caring family - Gypsy families. UNESCO Courier. 2006-03-24.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 1
- Katarina Maria Taikon.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Wikidata, structured authority record Q466523: Katarina TaikonWikimedia Foundation
Unverified
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
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