Slobodan Berberski was born in Zrenjanin where he finished elementary school and gymnasium. He started studying law in Belgrade but the occupiers as a member of SKOJ in 1941 were immediately arrested. He was engaged in the labor movement since 1936 and has been a member of the Liberals since 1941.
He is a well-known Roma activist and was one of the initiators of the action of the then Yugoslav Roma under the name "Roma Seeks a Place Under the Sun" which started in 1967. He was elected the first president of the World Roma Organization at the first congress held in London in 1971. He died in 1989. And today, a street in the Belgrade suburb of Zvezdara bears his name.
Otherwise he wrote poetry where social and revolutionary themes were most prevalent in the texts. Later inspired by Roma symbols from legends and everyday life, he began writing poetry that was not in Roma but incorporated Roma words written in Serbian.
Berberi wrote about the suffering, poverty and discrimination of Roma with love motives. He published the following collections, including the first in 1950's "About Rainy Rain", then "Spring in the Eyes", "Takes", "Storm", "Military Diary", "Mild Day", "Height point", "Departure of the Jackal Brother" "," Like Endless Deer "," Border"," Everyday "," Unexpected Waters ", and the last" Dub "from 1986. year. His poetry has been translated into French, Russian, Hungarian, Romanian, Albanian and Slavic.
In war-themed poetry, Slobodan Berberski's poems express the awareness that a warrior brings with it suffering and death, so the poetic images are dark and bloody, mirroring all the horror of the war he himself experienced. Already in the 1976 collection it focuses on Roma motifs such as Road, Rug.
Otherwise Berberis is at the very top of Roma poetry besides Rajko Djuric, Jovan Nikolic and Trifun Dimic.
