Post-War Yugoslavism and Yugonostalgia As Expressions of Multiethnic Solidarity and Tolerance in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Post-war Yugoslavism and Yugonostalgia as Expressions of Multiethnic Solidarity and Tolerance in Bosnia and Herzegovina by Tatjana Takševa (Saint Mary’s University, Canada) Abstract Grounded in empirical research conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on autoethnographic observations, interviews with women survivors of war rape, children who were born of war rape, and NGO leaders, this discussion extends current work on Yugoslavism (Jugoslovenstvo) and Yugonostalgia by positioning the two interrelated discourses not only as ideologies of resistance to an unsatisfying political and economic present, but also as emerging ideologies of a shared cultural identity rooted specifically in the civic values of multiethnic co-existence and solidarity. I argue that in today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina post- conflict Yugoslavism and Yugonostalgia constitute an active expression of ethnic tolerance, peaceful multiethnic co-existence and mutual respect. As such, the direct or indirect transmission and articulation of these ideologies among and within different population groups constitute an exceptionally important form of multiethnic postwar solidarity that is of great significance to ongoing peace and reconciliation processes and the continuing development of a meaningful post-war dialogue and a new culture of collective identity. Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina, peace, conflict, Yugoslavia, Yugoslavism, Yugonostalgia , diversity, ethnicity, collective identity. Introduction This paper contributes to a growing body of recent that surpasses and opposes nationalism and thus literature on Yugoslavism (Jugoslovenstvo) and contains the potential for regulating future inter- Yugonostalgia as discourses that have emerged ethnic relationships by developing a collective in the post-war period on the territories of the sense of identity, and applying them to the con- former Yugoslavia, and whose political elements text of the federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina are increasingly being theorized (Velikonja 2008; specifically, I argue that post-conflict Yugoslav- 2014; Kurtović 2011; Bošković 2013; Petrović ism and Yugonostalgia, as articulated by people 2016; Maksimović 2016). It extends current work living on this territory today constitute an active on the subject by positioning the two interre- expression of ethnic tolerance, peaceful multi- lated discourses not only as ideologies of resis- ethnic co-existence, and mutual respect. As such, tance to an unsatisfying political and economic the direct or indirect transmission and articula- present that is the reality in most, if not all, of the tion of these ideologies among and within dif- new national entities, but also as emerging ide- ferent population groups constitute an excep- ologies of a shared cultural identity rooted spe- tionally important form of multiethnic postwar cifically in the civic values of multiethnic co-exis- solidarity that is of great significance to ongoing tence and solidarity. Building on recent insights peace and reconciliation processes and the con- by Maksimović (2017) and Popović (2018), who tinuing development of a meaningful post-war examine Yugonostalgia as a political subjectivity dialogue and a new culture of collective identity. NEW DIVERSITIES Vol. 21, No. 1, 2019 ISSN-Print 2199-8108 ▪ ISSN-Internet 2199-8116 NEW DIVERSITIES 21 (1), 2019 Tatjana Takševa In my account I use the definition of “new victims of some of the most egregious violence Yugoslavism” as proposed by Velikonja (2014) that typified the conflict—have wide-reaching to refer to the ideological discourse built around significance for understanding the implications “the narrative heritage of the socialist Yugosla- and potential of these ideologies for reconcilia- via and a posteriori constructs about it,” that tion and peacebuilding. is, socialist Yugoslavia’s “ideological represen- Over the course of my conversations and tations” of the Yugoslav political system, social observations, a complex picture emerged on order, cultural production, everyday life and anti- these issues, consistent with the findings of oth- fascist resistance (60). Velikonja uses the term in ers who work on the same topic (Kurtović 2011; a complex, multilayered and contradictory sense, Velikonja 2008, 2014; Petrović 2016; Maksimović to refer to both positive and negative ideologi- 2017). Petrović, for example, writing about the cal representations and constructions. Thus, as legitimacy of affective history as it exists in peo- a positive a posteriori ideological representation ple’s emotions and memories, points out that of socialist Yugoslavia embodied in individual the attempt to articulate such histories of social- memories, collective narratives, material and ist Yugoslavia is “inevitably complex, messy, frag- consumer culture, etc., Yugonostalgia overlaps mentary and resistant to flattening into a linear with post-conflict Yugoslavism in its positive ori- and consistent historiographic narrative” (518). entation. Since this positive and enabling aspect Kurtović also acknowledges that Yugonostalgia of both discourses is the focus of this study, I will is a “heterogenous and complex phenomenon use the two terms throughout the paper inter- whose many practices and forms are best stud- changeably, in this context specifically to denote ied in the contexts in which they emerge and a set of cultural and social values derived from for the effects they produce” (3). So, on the one Yugoslavia’s socialist past and since the war, hand, it was clear and undeniable the country deemed desirable by many. remains divided along ethnic lines in conse- The empirical portion of this study is based on quence of the Dayton Peace Agreement (signed autoethnographic observations during a month- on 21 November 1995 to end the open conflict), long research-related stay in the Federation of and that political and social realities of daily life Bosnia and Herzegovina in the summer of 2017; for the most part continue to be organized along interviews with primarily Bosniak women who ethno-nationalist principles. Some of the people survived rape during the war, interviews with I spoke to made reference to those realities as children who were born as a result of those rapes they are enacted in their family or community and who now live and work in BiH, as well as con- circle by those who are complicit with this posi- versations and interviews with a number of lead- tion and seek to perpetuate it. ers of NGOs in BiH and ordinary citizens. Through On the other hand, there were three significant these conversations and observations, what and equally undeniable themes that emerged became apparent is that politics, and national through my conversations: the awareness of the and cultural identity are not neatly contained need to live and work together in the process in official publications, policy and discourse, but of building a peaceful civil society; the absence instead they filter into everyday life, “shaping of hatred for the enemy group of the perpetra- the landscapes that surround us,” politically and tor on the part of the women survivors and the personally (cf. Crooke 86). Women survivors of children born of war; and the stories of solidarity war rape, and children born of war, in particu- and friendship that now exist across ethnic lines lar, are understudied as agents who participate and that are in fact, for some of my interlocutors, in the articulation and transmission of the ide- a continuation of those same stories that existed ologies of Yugoslavism and Yugonostalgia, and before and during the war. These themes chal- whose perspectives in this regard—as secondary lenge, resist, and actively subvert ethno-nation- 88 Post-war Yugoslavism and Yugonostalgia NEW DIVERSITIES 21 (1), 2019 alist official narratives, and speak to the ways and acquire a “different sense of urgency” (4) as in which officially constructed nationhood, as a well as “additional layers of political and ideolog- form of collective identity, is negotiated and in ical complexity” (Kurtović 3). This complexity is some cases undermined and subverted through evident in the fact that my interlocutors ranged the actual practices, memories and narratives in age and encompassed those who actually of ordinary people in everyday life (Hobsbawm remember the pre-war past and who could thus 1991, Billig 1995, Herzfeld 1997, Edensor 2002). be nostalgic in the common sense of that term, More specifically, in the context of Yugoslavism as well as those who were born after the war and and Yugonostalgia as ideologies of shared cul- in some cases as a direct consequence of the war, tural identities and multiethnic solidarity, the and who acquired Yugoslavism as a desirable memories and narratives of individuals relat- ideological alternative to the current cultural ing to interethnic co-existence and friendships and political reality. From a historical perspective, as they exist not only in the nostalgic recollec- however, Yugoslavism and Yugonostalgia in the tions of the older generations who grew up in Bosnian context become less surprising since for socialist Yugoslavia, but in younger generations centuries Bosnia has been a “fluid site of ethnic who were born during and even after the war, diversity and religious tolerance,” characterized reassert themselves in what Popović, following in the fabric of its daily life by cultural heteroge- Rothberg’s work on transnational memory, calls neity and hybridity and defined by “a multiplicity “mnemonic communities” that create a “dialogic