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Home , Brotherhood and unity, Political subjectivity, Yugo, Yugoslavia, Yugoslavism

Post-war and Yugonostalgia as Expressions of Multiethnic Solidarity and Tolerance in and

by Tatjana Takševa (Saint Mary’s University, )

Abstract Grounded in empirical research conducted in 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, , Yugoslavism, Yugonostalgia , diversity, ethnicity, collective identity.

Introduction This paper contributes to a growing body of recent that surpasses and opposes 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 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 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--

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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 upin 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 of ethnic, confessional and philosophical trajec- space bringing new visions of solidarity and new tories” (Markowitz 2010, 15, 4). In the preface possibilities of coexistence” into being (46). to his history of Bosnia, a British historian rightly Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered the most observes that “the great religions and great pow- during the war and was the epicenter for some ers of European history had overlapped and of the most brutal, genocidal violence and tor- combined there: the empires of Rome, Char- ture that typified the conflict, as well as one of lemagne, the Ottomans and the Austro-Hungar- the main sites for . According ians, and the faiths of Western Christianity, East- to numbers from the ICTY Demographic Unit, ern Christianity, Judaism and Islam” (Malcolm there were 104,732 casualties among the three 1996, xix). More recently, Kurtović also points out ethnic groups, with the greatest number of that, “Bosnia historically played a very special Bosniak deaths.1 Thus it may be surprising that role in the Yugoslav socialist imaginary because the positive accounts of the pre-war Yugoslav it was the only with no clear national past, as well as the values associated with it in majority, and as such, presented a demographic an ideological sense were brought up and read- microcosm of the entire federation” (3). Life in ily discussed by the people I spoke with. In this Bosnian society during socialist Yugoslavia sim- sense, personal accounts, memories and per- ply embodied and reflected in a socio- political spectives relating to Yugoslavism and Yugonos- sense what had been the defining feature of the talgia, as they are articulated by today cultural imaginary of this territory and its people do indeed possess a “special kind of tragic irony,” for centuries. So when today’s Bosnians recall the socialist past and articulate aspects of -

Note: The research for this paper was supported by slavism and Yugonostlagia, they lament the loss an Insight Development Grant of the Social Sciences of not only the recent political entity itself, but of and Research Council of Canada. I am very grateful to all those who shared their per- the values of ethnic heterogeneity, solidarity and spectives with me. respectful multifaith co-existence that they- rec ognize as theirs in a longer historical sense and 1 The 1992-95 War In Bosnia and Herzegovina: Cen- sus-Based Multiple System Estimation Of Casualties’ that Yugoslavia enshrined within its federalist Undercount” (pdf). ICTY. Retrieved 27 January 2013. state borders and in its constitution through the

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discourse of “.” Memories book in 2004, Bošković highlights the politics of of the recent violence are still strong, but so are emancipation embodied in the project (2013). He the memories of the peaceful alternative. reads the project not as a “regressive idealization Notwithstanding these complexities, or -per of Yugoslav socialist past, but as a critical inter- haps because of them, many have acknowledged vention…in the contemporary postsocialist poli- the political, future-oriented and “emancipatory” tics of memory,” arguing that Yugoslav cultural (Velikonja 2008) aspect of Yugonostalgia as a dis- memory could serve as a site for what he calls course and an emerging ideology of resistance “the archeology of the future” (55). Maksimović, to official ethnonationalism. In his 2008 study of in particular, argues that the “actions inspired by post-war nostalgia for , Velikonja yugonostalgia can also have an active, progres- was among the first to point out that Tito repre- sive face, promoting cooperation, and ultimately, sents not only a specific political system, but also reconciliation among former ” (1078). the system of values associated with socialist She argues that with top-down reconciliation ini- Yugoslavia, such as, among others, social justice, tiatives infrequent, the “reconciliatory potential solidarity and peaceful coexistence, and that has mostly been discernible in bottom-up activi- the nostalgia associated with Tito can be inter- ties” embodied in various aspects of Yugonostal- preted in large measure as a desire for estab- gia (1075). Her work shows that Yugonostalgia lishing a social order that would foster those “fosters the reconciliation process” and voluntary positive social and cultural values. Others have “cultural convergence” by serving as an inspira- since demonstrated that this discourse can be “a tion for cultural and other cooperation among powerful ideological tool” that allows those who former Yugoslavs” (ibid; cf. Palmberger 2013). articulate it to “express their views, establish Palmberger’s study on so called “border-crossing” or retain value systems, or achieve a particular in the post-war ethnically divided city of Mostar goal” (Petrović 2010, 128-129). These claims cor- shows an example where youth of all ethnic and roborate with research relating to pre-war inter- religious backgrounds “deliberately emphasize ethnic relationships in the former Yugoslavia. those social values from Yugoslavia (and multina- Bizumić, for example, points out that the former tional Bosnia) that foster inter-communal trust, Yugoslavia was “characterized by relatively weak encourage reconciliation, and help reconcile con- ethnocentric norms and surveys had generally flicting collective memories,” and “consciously tended to document interethnic harmony” and choose the socialist past as an inspiration and that even in 1990, directly before the war, “only a driving force for cultural cooperation” (ibid). In small minority of individuals in ex-Yugoslavia per- her account of the regular gatherings that take ceived ethnic relations as negative” (51). place in post-conflict Bosnia organized by various With respect to values specifically, Petrović groups and associations to celebrate and com- argues that many values and narratives asso- memorate aspects of the socialist past, Kurtović ciated with Yugonostalgia, such as continuity, notes that these events are rooted in sociality, solidarity, social justice, workers’ rights, cosmo- and “call into being forms of solidarity and relat- politanism and peaceful, tolerant coexistence, edness that surpass the political boundaries cre- may be sources of resistance, solidarity and col- ated by the violence of the ” (3). The true lectivity in former Yugoslav states and tools for purpose of these meetings is a “re-enactment imagining, building or demanding a desirable of a bodily memory and a reproduction of a cer- future in this regard (2010, 130-131). In his study tain social relationship,” an enactment of a “way on the Lexicon of YU Mythology, the collectively of relating socially to others, on which socialist authored exhibition catalogue of various “things Yugoslavism was founded” (Kurtović 9). Yugoslav” interwoven with discourses of collec- I use the terms Yugoslavism and Yugonostalgia, tive and individual memories and published as a therefore, to underscore the particular manner

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in which these interrelated, emerging discourses shaping and re-imagining must not be reduced function within the post-conflict context and the in positivist terms to some imagined desire to manner in which they are articulated by Bos- re-constitute Yugoslavia as it once was before nians who belong to understudied populations. Tito’s death, or to reinstitute or even endorse Their narratives exemplify that Yugoslavism and . Rather, it should be understood as Yugonostalgia represent more than simply a constructions and reconstructions of individual good memory of a time past. They constitute an and collective identity in a given historical, post- ideological relationship to the present moment conflict context: in the aftermath of a bloody war that is expressed through reference to values waged on the basis of imagined and real ethnic associated with the socialist past as they relate and religious differences. Bosnians’ references to to a potential future. This orientation toward the socialist Yugoslavia exist within several, interre- future pertains precisely to forms of “sociality,” lated current contexts: their current awareness to a mode of living and patterns of interaction of the political manipulation of ethnic -differ that are based on peaceful ethnic co-existence, ences effected by the political elite before, dur- multicultural curiosity and respect, and a prac- ing and also, now after the war; their first-hand tice of solidarity on the basis of dimensions of experience of the conceptual and practical bank- civic life that are common to all, regardless of ruptcy of these manipulations and the imagined particular ethnic belonging. category of “pure” ethnicities; and their lived Recent theories of nationhood and the con- experience during and after the war that involves struction of personal and collective identity respectful and tolerant living alongside- mem support these claims. Brubaker (2004, 152), for bers of a different ethnicity, and ongoing acts of example, points out that “ethnicity and national- friendship and solidarity on the basis of shared ism need to be understood as particular ways of civic values. Examined from within this perspec- talking about and experiencing the social world tive, forms of Yugoslavism and Yugonostalgia as and a particular way of framing political claims, they are manifested and articulated through my not as real boundaries inscribed in the nature interlocutors’ words, refer not so much to a par- of things.” In the theory of nationhood devel- ticular state formation or communism, but to a oped by Fox and Miller-Idriss (2008) the nation mode of living and patterns of interaction predi- is posited as a discursive construct, constituted cated on peaceful co-existence, cross-ethnic tol- largely through discursive claims that produce erance and respect, and a practice of solidarity personal and collective identity and are used to in dimensions of daily life that are common to evaluate people and practices. The authors state all, regardless of ethnic or religious belonging. As that discursive acts that construct national and such, these forms represent cultural and ideolog- ethnic identities are not simply descriptive of ical consciousness through which Bosnia’s official social reality, but they are “simultaneously con- ethno-nationalist politics is actively critiqued, stitutive of that reality, willing into existence that subverted and exposed as ineffective. which they name” (Fox and Miller-Idriss, 2008, In all my conversations it was apparent that 538). This perspective has significant implica- political and ideological consciousness is “an tions for how we see ethnic and national identity important marker of social identity” for all in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through respondents and that as such it is grounded in this perspective, individual choices and views their awareness that the “personal is political, regarding identity emerge as discursive acts with along with the perception that group members a clear political and cultural dimension and have have a linked fate” (Ysseldyk et.al 2014, 348; the potential to shape and re-imagine larger Foster and Matheson 1995; Dawson 1994; Read discourses concerning citizenship (cf. Takševa 2007). Group membership in their narratives 2018; Takševa and Schwartz 2017, 2). This re- operates on two levels: on the level of official

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politics that propagates ethnic belonging as the However, that is impossible today with this ruling primary form of membership within one’s ethnic establishment and we can have war again. It seems that it suits all politicians for war to happen again community, and on the level of their own lived so that war profiteers could exist again… All of us experience and perspective on a larger form of would be much better if Tito’s era was back. civic belonging to Bosnia as a single state within which multiple ethnicities can peacefully cohabit, What Muhić’s words show is that while he does united around a set of different, civic values. draw an equivalent relationship between a reli- Through the narratives it often becomes clear gious denomination and ethnicity, ethnicity as that the civic form of multiethnic belonging is such is of little relevance. If it does figure as a cat- put forward as the preferred and desired option. egory of identity it is understood in contingent Alen Muhić,2 is a 24 year-old man who is a rather than essentialist terms: “If my adopted child of war adopted by a Bosniak family and family was of a Croatian background I might whose Bosniak birth mother was raped by a Serb be a Catholic, maybe Orthodox, or Buddhist, soldier causing pregnancy of which he is the all depends on who would have adopted me.” result. He is among the first from the group of Muhić’s bold assertion that “everyone who was children born of war in Bosnia to speak publicly born in Bosnia is a Bosnian” represents a direct about his origins. During our conversation Alen challenge to and a critique of the current state started speaking of Tito’s Yugoslavia—a period in of affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it is history that he himself did not witness-- without still not possible to declare oneself Bosnian offi- being prompted. He offered his account relating cially. On the last, 2013 census, the only category to post-conflict interethnic relations in the con- available for self-identification apart from those text of his critique of the current political situa- referring to the three constituent peoples (Bos- tion in Bosnia and Herzegovina: niak, Serb and Croat) was the category of “other,” the official term for national minorities and peo- You know what, I have never been a nationalist. All people are the same to me: we share the language, ple who do not identify with an ethnic label. The air, food, we drink the same water… I am a Muslim consequence of the census was thus to “render because my adopted family is Muslim. If my ad- national identity secondary and ethnic identity opted family was of a Croatian background I might primary, where ethnic identity appears to deny be a Catholic, maybe Orthodox, or Buddhist, all the existence of one’s national identity (Doubt depends on who would have adopted me… Look, everyone who was born in Bosnia is Bosnian. So 2014, 117). Muhić’s assertion also represents be it Serbian, Muslim or Catholic Bosnian he is still his belief that the identity of Bosnian should be just a Bosnian, however you look at it. I would love a civic identity, rather than a category founded for that to stay like that, but our current politics… upon ethnic belonging. really play on that card, starting with nationality What is also revealing about his words is that and all the way through ethnic affiliation to ethnic cleansing. If you are Orthodox you cannot work he links the current ethno-nationalist politics here and that is something that just worsens the and the nationalist rhetoric it is built on to the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Those are to- threat of another war as well as the cause of the tally idiotic things. If our politics was not like that, last one. His profound disillusionment with cur- life here would be much nicer, there would not be rent political structures is evidenced in his under- the threat of war… Pardon me but one butt cannot sit on three chairs. Those are things that need to standing that the basis for political action - cur be solved in these three countries - , Croa- rently depends entirely upon the elite’s greed for tia and Bosnia, so that it is better here in Bosnia. power, so that it is in their interest to fabricate and maintain divisions along ethnic lines. His 2 In identifying my conversation partners, I follow awareness that “If our politics was not like that, their wishes. Some of them indicated that they wish to be identified by their full name, others by their first life here would be much nicer” signals his desire name only, others yet by initials and/or pseudonyms. for a better present and a society that that pro-

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motes civic values and forms of belonging that of discord and disunity work against the wellbe- in turn result in a better life for all and greater ing of a single, united multicultural Bosnia that economic and social opportunities. His words embraces all of its citizens regardless of their eth- imply the wasted energy that goes to support a nic belonging. Through his narrative the concept system of ethnic division when that energy could of Yugoslavism functions as a model of peaceful be more productively employed to improve the ethnic co-existence which he sees as the foun- lives of all citizens in Bosnia. Muhić’s reference dation upon which a successful and productive to Tito and his conviction that “all of us would society and state can be built. be much better if Tito’s era was back” are strik- “Strong Woman,” a twenty-two year-old ing, not only in that he is a member of a young woman, also a child of war, speaks of the ques- generation who cannot remember and does not tion of ethnicity in similar terms, as something know first-hand what that era was like, since that is imposed by current politics, and that only he was born during the war and after the fall of some but not all members of Bosnian society Yugoslavia. It is striking because he himself is a have adopted. Her mother is Bosniak, raped and product of the , a conflict that in impregnated by a Croatian soldier during the many nationalist narratives is linked to the pre- war. Her mother is one of the few women who sumed failure of Tito’s vision for “brotherhood decided to keep and raise a child born of war and unity” of all nationalities within the Yugoslav rape. “Strong Woman” places herself as outside federation. of ethnic binaries; she sees ethnicity as only one When I asked him to clarify what he meant marker of identity that has a limited ethical and by his last statement, he said that he has heard moral currency, and one that is only marginally of Tito from his adopted father, and has subse- if at all relevant to how she would like to see her quently formed his own opinions of the past, its own life and identity: relationship to the present and a future for Bos- My mother always told me I should not hate and nia. He said: “I wish those old times are back since that if you hate, it is the same as if you hated your- there was order then. There were many more self…She never allowed me to make a difference peoples involved, , , and still between people. Never ever…I always had friends there was no war. When Tito was in charge peo- who did not have to be strictly Muslim, some were from Croatian families, some from Serbian families ple did not fight, argue, wage wars against each and some from Roma families. I was always “di- other, slaughtered each other…Today everything verse” (šarena) like that. She instilled that in me, is opposite to that. Today we are fighting against she never limited me to anything and we do have a our own country.” What he meant, therefore, lot of nationalistic types around here. Maybe not in was to articulate his own version of the broth- , in the city, you will not find it here physi- cally but if you go around to smaller places you erhood and unity motto, a model of interethnic will understand what I am talking about, you will cohabitation when people “did not fight, argue, see how it really is. But she never told me that is a wage wars against each other, slaughter each problem for us, she never forbade me to socialize other.” Muhić’s concept of “order” is rooted in with someone because his name is Saša [a typical both Yugoslavism and Yugonostalgia as they ]. articulate a set of social and cultural values, and “Strong Woman” credits her mother for instilling ways of relating to others. That “order” therefore in her the perspective according to which eth- refers to a mode of living and patterns of interac- nicity is not the primary marker of identity nor a tion predicated on peaceful ethnic co-existence true measure of moral worth. The hatred “Strong and mutual respect that he associates with Tito’s Woman” speaks of refers to their personal his- Yugoslavia. The official political rhetoric that tory – the violence the mother survived at the fuels ethnic divisions he terms“fighting against hands of a Croatian perpetrator and “Strong our own country” in that the official iterations Woman” as the outcome of that experience. It

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also refers to a reality that is the outcome of we cannot use election campaigns to talk about the war and the ossification of interethnic con- how we are the only victims. We were not the only ones. Then we go to to listen to flict through the country’s constitutional divi- Dodik and he was threatening some time ago that sion along ethnic lines. “Strong Woman’s” words Srebrenica will be captured again; then there was convey admiration for her mother who adopted an argument about whether the mayor will be Bos- a line of reasoning resistant to the official one. niak or it will be someone from Republika Srpska. Her own self-identification as ‘diverse’ places her All manipulations, political and legal manipulation. And there is social psychology that explains it all… outside the “tribal exclusiveness” (Bulatović 260) Every year there is someone new on a political typical for the ethno-nationalist rhetoric in much scene and still every year the same old people win. of Bosnian media. From “Strong Woman’s” nar- A vote costs 50 KM [Bosnian marks] in rative it is also apparent that she perceives dif- this country. … Everything is connected, from ma- ferences in people’s views on nationalism and nipulation, to nationalism and corruption. What ethnicity along an urban-rural divide, with urban can you do when your very leadership is corrupted and nationalistic? They are supported by media centres, like Sarajevo, being traditionally multi- and you know exactly which media supports which ethnic, cosmopolitan and tolerant of diversity, party. and rural areas being more likely to understand their identity in terms of ethnicity and religion.3 “Strong Woman” articulates a clear sense of soli- “Strong Woman’s” sense of equanimity and darity across ethnic lines and on the basis of a self-reflectiveness, as well her critique of the shared fate. Her words actively challenge the ori- current political climate is evident in the way entation of nationalist governments on all sides she understands that the war affected all sides. and exposes as fallacious the tendency for each She also signals the limits of the official public side “to view itself as the victim” without a “hint discourse that seeks to “repackage history” (Dra- of self-reflection” or willingness to understand gosavac) and the ongoing historical revisionism the other (Luthar, a. 6). Scholars have pointed “guided by open or hidden motives to justify nar- out that the new conservative political elites row national and political goals” (Luthar a.4): in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the other former Yugoslav countries, quickly discovered I cannot say that my mother suffered more just because she is Muslim compared to some woman that “the fastest way to win an electoral majority who is not Muslim. I cannot say it is harder for me was to play to the dominant nationality’s latent than for my friend from and we were resentment and fear of difference and other- born in the same way, on the same day, on two dif- ness” (Luthar b. 190). “Strong Woman’s” words ferent sides. It is being said that we have different clearly account for this and for the systemic cor- blood. There is no difference between him and me and I cannot say that it is harder for me… I want ruption in which everyone knows that votes are to see up close what a politician does and what is and can be bought. In her narrative she rejects wrong with that picture…since they do it as soon essentialist ethno-nationalist perspectives on as the election campaign starts… they talk about the past war and the present social and political what “big” and Muslims we are and yes, situation by claiming that there “is no difference” there were more Muslims who suffered in great numbers but how can they not understand that between her and her Serb friend, since they are both harmed by their governments’ exclusionary rhetoric. 3 For a more detailed discussion of Bosnia’s multi- By virtue of their own “mixed” ethnicity, like ethnic history in relation to post-war constructions of identity among children born or war rape see, Tatjana children of ethnically “mixed” marriages, “Strong Takševa and Agatha Schwartz, “Hybridity, Ethnicity Woman” and Alen Muhić are particularly well- and Nationhood: Legacies of Interethnic War, Wartime positioned to see the limitations of the current Rape and the Potential for Bridging the Ethnic Divide in Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina.” National Iden- ethno-nationalist politics and the benefits of tities 2017. DOI: 10.1080/14608944.2017.1298580 multi-ethnic tolerance and solidarity, as well

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as to think of identity as being linked to a civic on overcoming the barriers put in place by rather than confessional structures, the way ethno-nationalist politics. Describing her current identity functioned in the former Yugoslavia. friendship with a Croat and a Serbian neighbor Their perspectives on multiethnic solidarity and who stayed in the same small town during and their orientation toward an ethnically tolerant after the war, Selma said: future are especially valuable since their identity They are not guilty for what happened to me. I do is closely linked to the interethnic violence of the not know who did that. Maybe they came from recent war. However, this perspective is not lim- Serbia. Those were not neighbours that I know, I ited to children of war. Women survivors of war cannot name them…People came from different rape and other extreme forms of sexual, physical sides to do that…and the persons who committed crimes should be punished. I do not have a reason and emotional torture also articulate a sense of to hate that neighbour of mine. I hate those people identity that goes beyond narrow ethnic affilia- who brought evil upon me. I cannot hate the whole tion despite what they have experienced based world…It does not matter what names people have, on their ethnicity. the only thing that matters is being humane. You When asked how she identified before and cannot hate, even though you went through a lot, you can’t hate the whole world. You cannot. You after the war in terms of nationality and ethnic have to communicate with people. You have to belonging. L.O., a Bosniak woman who was held communicate with people since a person as a lone in captivity for one year by Serb militias, tortured, individual cannot do anything. raped and impregnated at the age of 19, said: Selma’s words clearly show solidarity and peace- I never identified with any side. The war came and went and I still cannot fully distinguish which first ful coexistence across ethnic lines during and names belong to which religion… And I did not after the war. She makes a clear distinction identify with anything, I guess I was Yugoslavian. between the perpetrators, who could belong to Before the war we never went to any religious in- any , and her friends and neighbours stitutions, we never went to religious school, so I from different ethnic groups: the distinction is don’t really know much about it. I cannot remem- ber that anyone ever told me that I am Muslim be- not based on ethnicity but on a moral and ethical fore. I don’t remember…It’s the same now. I am a orientation, such as the intention to commit evil. human being, a woman, an Earthling. Selma’s words, as well as the words of “Strong For L.O., despite the war and the extreme vic- Woman,” Alen Muhić, and others, indicate that timization she experienced based on her eth- the kinship structure that holds a very high level nic belonging, ethnicity remains marginal as a of “moral solidarity, sympathy and emotional marker of identity. The categories with which she warmth is the relation called ‘prijatelji’” as well identifies—human being, woman, Earthling-- are as the type of social relation called ‘komšiluk,’ large, universal categories transcending national, which implies ethnic co-existence and means geographic and political boundaries. Her refer- good neighbourhood” irrespective of the eth- ence to “Yugoslavian” indicates that she thinks nic belonging of those friends and neighbours of it as being a form of spacious identity that (Doubt 2014, 101, 133; Palmberger 2013a in did not require her to declare ethnic belonging Maksimovic). ‘Komšiluk’ is not “just passive tol- (“I did not identify with anything”); she thinks erance but active goodwill towards neighbours of it as a marker of supranational identity that from different ethnic communities” (Doubt 133). allowed her the freedom not to think of ethnicity In this respect, S. Š.’s words show what this as something to which one should attach impor- active good will means, as well as how references tance. to the values and sociality of socialist Yugoslavia Selma and Alma, each a survivor of torture contain both a critique of the present and a posi- and rape during the war, similarly spoke of the tive orientation toward the future. S. Š, a Croa- futility of hatred and the need to work together tian woman in a predominantly Muslim village,

95 NEW DIVERSITIES 21 (1), 2019 Tatjana Takševa

who was imprisoned and raped by – she believes, ity and ethnic affiliations she said, “I think those Muslim--members of the Bosnian army at the categories should not exist”: age of 13. In describing her decades-long pro- We can’t go forward if we are not in it together. See, cess of recovery, she describes both life before you can’t and shouldn’t forget the past, but you the war and after the war: must forgive yourself and others in order to go on. Because we have no other way out… I’ll give you an We went to school together, we worked together, example. At the Eurovision contest, when Marija we just had different names and last names and we Šerifović performed from Serbia. Who do you think had to pronounce certain words in a certain way. I voted for? For her! Those are my neighbours! I do not think those people are guilty for what hap- That’s how I see it, and that’s what I‘ll do. I’ll never pened, but someone somewhere is guilty. Right be able to forget, but you can’t view all people ac- now, I find Muslims better than Croats, Muslims cording to one man and one event. I think those are readier to help around the house and farm men were mercenaries, the mercenaries from work. Croats will not do it. I was in trouble and re- Serbia, right? They worked for money and under alized that Muslims understand better if you are in the influence of drugs, because no normal person trouble or are destitute and you have worries that could have done that. The things they did, what a bother you. If a child is sick Muslims ask if they need havoc they made. to take the child somewhere while Croats have not offered something like that. I realized that Muslims are more pleasant than Croats and then I went to Alma points out that although she is never going see the priest and talked to the priest about it all to be able to forget the violence that was done to and I feel much better now. He said it was not their her, she calls for forgiveness, and she has a clear fault, they were just people and they did not start vision that if Bosnia and Herzegovina is to “go for- the war. He said I cannot hate my neighbour now ward” it needs to be with all ethnicities working because he did nothing wrong. I realized he was right. I cannot hate someone because he did noth- toward the same goals. Her perspective, as well ing and he is not guilty. Those who did it were some as the daily choices she makes, like voting for a other people. Serbian singer, represent a form of active solidar- ity, an expression of tolerance and a desire for S. Š. recalls life before the war as representing a future where there is a peaceful and produc- a typically Yugoslavian multi-ethnic co-existence. tive cooperation and co-existence among the dif- Reflecting on the ways in which the war changed ferent groups. Her statement that “we can’t go the patterns of interaction among people she forward if we are not together” lends poignant presents examples from her own experience as a weight to the significance of Yugoslav values-- Croatian woman in a predominantly Muslim vil- their historical role for this region, as well as a lage. While she is aware that her ethnicity was basis for an ideological orientation toward the likely the reason for her victimization, she also future. realized that it is her Muslim neighbours that she Other members of society in the Bosnian Fed- can rely upon for help. What counts is the will- eration express similar views. Vahdeta, a Bosniak ingness to offer help when help is needed, not small-business owner in Baščaršija, the old mar- ethnic belonging. ket in Sarajevo, in whose shop I found a great Alma, a Bosniak woman who was brutally number of objects related to Tito and Yugoslavia, raped and impregnated while being imprisoned in conversation recalled life and forms of solidar- for over two years at the age of 16 by Serb mili- ity during the four year-long tias, is even more directly critical of the current thorough which she and her family survived. political circumstances in Bosnia. She said that Her words point to the tragic irony of the fact she does not follow politics because “there is that while Sarajevo was shelled daily by Serbian nothing to see in politics in this country,” citing military and paramilitary forces, life within the the names of the current leaders of the three besieged city reflected solidarity and active good entities. In response to a question about ethnic- will among people of different ethnicities, includ-

96 Post-war Yugoslavism and Yugonostalgia NEW DIVERSITIES 21 (1), 2019 ing resident who decided to remain in the ka and Zana. And I have asked Senka a thousand city despite being warned of the impending siege. times during the war, what are you, then, a Serb, a Croat? I still don’t really know and I don’t really Their choice reflects that for many, life under care. We joked about this during the war, saying, siege followed the same patterns of kinship and I should know what you are since it matters appar- social interaction as before the war, and that the ently …. war and the current official ethnonationalist poli- tics did not disrupt. Vahdeta spoke of this choice Munira Subašic, the President of the Mothers made by her Serb neighbors for whom their life of Srebrenica and Žepa Enclave Movement, is and neighbourhood as they knew it all their lives well-known nationally and internationally for her took precedence over ethnic divisions, even relentless fight not only for the truth of the geno- though that choice exposed them to suffering cide to be known and documented, but also for violence at the hands of their own as well as the her steadfast commitment to building trust and armies of other ethnic groups. She describes an reconciliation among the ethnic groups, even incident involving her then four-year old son who after and perhaps especially after having experi- stood up to defend his Serb friend and next-door enced great personal losses during the war.4 My neighbour against accusations by the other chil- conversation with her reflected this commitment dren that he as a Serb must also be a “četnik” (a and is embodied in the way in which she speaks term used during the conflict to refer to a mem- about her work with other women and mothers ber of extremist Serb paramilitary armies closely on overcoming hatred within themselves and the associated with the Orthodox Christian Church, new generation of their children after the war: and espousing an ultranationalist Serb ideology; So, thanks to conversations we had with them, their they are held responsible for acts of brutality and mothers…now we have a lot of doctors, engineers, torture of people from other ethnic groups): professors. You know, when you look at a young man who is successful, he might have lost both My son comes to me and says Lola hit me, he says, father and mother. Or a child that had to watch Srdjan is a četnik, and I say to him he is not, his his mother being raped, father killed, there is no mother and father are here with us, in the neigh- hatred in him. That is the success of us, Bosnian bourhood. If he were četnik he would shoot at us. mothers. Hatred is a weakness and we the moth- And then Lola beat me. My son was 4 years old ers, we do not want to be weak. We always said then. I had explained to him that there are četniks, that we should not be like the one who does evil. ustaše, extremist Islamic fighters, and that there Remember that in our holy book it is written that are Serbs, and Croats. And he understood that you cannot do to others what you don’t want done Srdjan’s dad is not a četnik, that he is here with us to yourself. If you think that a rock doesn’t belong in the civil defense.…People here are wonderful, in your backyard, do not throw it across the street they still have a lot of spirit left in them, despite to your neighbour’s yard. And we really made it. politicians who try to impose their faulty politics There is a Serb woman that runs an organization on them… Here, recently a Serb man died in the in Bijeljina and her name is Smilja and for example, neighbourhood, he was here during the entire war, she calls me sometimes and my granddaughter he did not carry a gun, he did not fight, everyone tells me: ”Granny, you received a phone call from respected him, and his neighbours buried him your Smilja, she said to call her back.” That is what since he had no relatives. Gaga, a former colleague ‘your Smilja’ means, it means I build some respect of mine [a Serb] was imprisoned by the četniks. We with her, which is the most valuable thing in the did everything we could to bring him back. Another world. colleague, when the Serbs came for him—I can’t really say Serbs, they were not Serbs, they were Subašić’s efforts to build inter-ethnic bridges of četniks, and they came to recruit him to fight with trust and forge new forms of solidarity has been them. When he refused they killed him in his own front yard, in front of his wife and two small chil- 4 See, for example, an article about Munira Subašić dren. They killed their own man, as it were…. What on the portal of the UK-based chapter of the Remem- can I say, there were so many things that happened, bering Srebrenica charity: http://www.srebrenica. on all sides….Two of my very close friends are Sen- org.uk/survivor-stories/munira-subasic/

97 NEW DIVERSITIES 21 (1), 2019 Tatjana Takševa

unfolding over the last twenty-one years despite the Yugoslav spirit is in fact a form of Yugoslav- official politics that strives to inflame mutual ism that goes beyond a sense of longing for a lost mistrust and sharpen the differences among the past and that is articulated in terms of social and three groups. Throughout our conversation she cultural values based on mutual respect, solidar- reiterated several times that “there are only two ity and co-existence among people with different kinds of people, bad people and good people” ethnicities and religious backgrounds. The values and that their nationality and ethnic belonging derived from her memories of socialist Yugo- has very little to do with anything. slavia provide her with a concrete set of cogni- Esma D. is one of the few recorded women tive and practical structures through which she fighters during the recent war; she fought on critiques the present, explains the differences the side of the Bosnian Defense Army. She is the between past and present, as well as envision current President of the Association for Women as desirable a peaceful co-existence across eth- SEKA in Goražde, and the Coordinator of the nic divisions and a collective identity that goes Center for Education, Therapy and Democratic above narrow ethnic and religious affiliations. Development in the same town. In our conversa- Jasminko Halilović, the founder and director of tion, she spoke of being under the influence of the Museum of War Childhood in Sarajevo, one what she calls “the Yugoslav spirit” in the context of the few recent institutions in current Bosnia of her work on peace-building and cross-ethnic and Herzegovina seeks to commemorate the war reconciliation in small towns across Republika experience of children in a non- manner Srpska. When I asked her what the Yugoslav spirit and is open and welcoming to all citizens and means to her, she responded with the following: their memories, when asked about his opinion on the widespread presence of Yugoslav-related [It means w]ell being. Yugoslavia suited me even though I did not like some segments of that society. object of material culture around him, says: “I Even though I did not like communism as commu- know for certain that it is in part a nostalgia for nism with one party system, without enough free- a time of peace, and when I say peace Idon’t dom and with restrictions, now when I look around, only mean the absence of armed conflict, I I would prefer to go into some sort of Yugoslavian mean a general and widespread state of peace, spirit than this democracy where supposedly I can do what I want… I am allowed to say what I want the absence of tension…What I am also saying but I am not allowed to choose the life I want. So, is that currently, our public space is suffused by before, I could choose to go to Banja Luka and tensions, by criminality.”5 In Halilović’s words, as sleep well, to go to and sleep well, even in Esma D.’s, it is clear that forms of Yugoslavism, by the roadside if I wanted to. And today I am not and even Yugonostalgia, are closely linked to a safe even in Goražde, on the bench. Then, I could relax, I could live. It was the system itself, the way mode of living and patterns of daily interaction it was organized and the comradery and socializing that exist beyond narrow ethnic affiliations and that it encouraged—there was diversity. Whoever are founded upon peaceful co-existence, and wanted to attend the mosque, the church, they multiethnic tolerance and solidarity focused could. We fell from one system into another one upon improving aspects of living that are com- that I find difficult since it interferes with how I was raised and attitudes developed from that, and prin- mon to all. As such, the discourse of Yugoslavism, ciples I carry from my family. Suddenly I have to de- 5 clare belonging, to go to church or to a mosque, as For a more complete account of my interview with if that validates what it means to be a human being. Halilović in the context of current local peace-build- ing initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, see Tatjana Human and moral values are lost and we took all Takševa, “Building a Culture of Peace and Collective the worst things from the West….I still do not feel Memory in Post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina: well here in Bosnia and Hercegovina and I see that Sarajevo’s Museum of War Childhood,” Studies in a lot of youth leaves. Ethnicity and Nationalism, vol. 18. 1, 2018, pp. 3-18. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ In Esma D’s words it is evident that her idea of sena.12265

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as it emerges from the words of my interlocutors tion while respecting the rights of each national- represents a complex conceptual tool with which ity;…and finally, Yugoslavism for those of us who trace their origins from different Yugoslav ethnici- to critique the present and imagine the possibil- ties and who cannot separate or deny any of those ity of a better civil society. parts within themselves (13-14).6 Since the war, many non-governmental orga- nizations in the Bosnian Federation have been Matvejević’s is among the most eloquent and working tirelessly on building peace and solidar- succinct articulations of the Yugoslavist ideology ity among the different ethnic groups. I became as an intellectual attitude, as it existed then from familiar with twelve of those organizations dur- the perspective from which he was writing, as ing my stay and had the opportunity to speak to it does now, outside a reference to the specific people who are involved in their leadership. In political entity. The values embodied in this kind all of those conversations, aspects of Yugoslav- of Yugoslavism are the values that inform today’s ism and Yugonostalgia surface in the efforts to post-conflict Yugoslavism. These values to a great develop peaceful co-existence, solidarity and tol- extent embody the meaning of the “good life” for erance among all people who live in Bosnia and many in socialist Yugoslavia and they are predi- Herzegovina. At this point in post-conflict Bos- cated on a peaceful and purposeful living with nian society, these discourses should be under- and relating to others who may on some level stood as ideologies through which people assert (religious, ethnic) be different. For those who social and cultural values that are more positive lived in the socialist Yugoslavia and who can liter- than the values promoted by current politics. ally “remember” those values as they permeated In 1982, two years after Tito’s death, possibly their understanding of their identity, this Yugo- anticipating the potential for the violent disso- slavism manifests as Yugonostalgia. For those lution of the Yugoslav state, Predrag Matvejević, who were born after the dissolution of the politi- a renowned Yugoslav author and thinker, wrote cal entity, it is a historically and intellectually- Yugoslavism Today, a book about the meaning of grounded ideological orientation. As such these Yugoslavism and the role of nationhood, ethnic- efforts and ideological perspectives are consis- ity and religion within its context. In it he defines tent with theories regarding ethnocentrism and the specific set of values embodied in this ideol- peacebuilding, in that they “emphasize similari- ogy: ties (and underemphasize) differences alongside non-ethnically based dimensions” of daily life Today, as in the past, there are different forms of Yugoslavism and different reasons to declare one- among people (Bizumić 47). Post-war Yugoslav- self Yugoslav, remaining all the while, to a lesser or ism as it is manifested in Bosnia and Herzegovina greater extent, a Serb, a Croat, a Muslim, a Mace- thus represents an oppositional discourse and a donian, Roma, a Turk, etc., as well as for those who category of cultural and political dissent through wish, simply and only Yugoslav. Some of the most which official ethno-nationalist politics is actively convincing reasons and forms of Yugoslavism are the following: Yugoslavism that strives to preserve, critiqued, deconstructed and subverted. It is a against all external and internal temptations, the discourse that, given the country’s recent vio- Yugoslav community and the dignity of individual, lent past, stands for a particularly enlightened social, and national life within it; Yugoslavism that and progressive orientation toward reconcili- is not an extended ethnicity emanating from one’s ation and rebuilding of Bosnian civil society on original ethnicity (Serb, Croat, etc.) and that can- not be reduced to simple citizenship;…Yugoslavism the principles of mutual respect and solidarity freed from localism that fails to transcend its local among the different ethnic groups. limitations, and from regionalism that cannot be- come a positive national choice; Yugoslavism that 6 Matvejević, Jugoslovenstvo Danas (: Globus, opposes Yugoslav nationalism in the same way that 1982; Beograd: Beogradski Izdavačko-Grafički Zavod, it opposes any particular nationalism; Yugoslavism 1984). Translation from the original Serbo-Croatian is that rejects pathetic rhetorics on behalf of the na- my own.

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Note on the Author

Tatjana Takševa is Associate Professor at the Department of English and the Women and Gender Studies Program at Saint Mary’s University, Canada. Her current research project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, deals with enforced impregnation on the territories of the former YU during the recent war, and the mothering practices of women who are raising children born of wartime rape. She is the editor of Mothers Under Fire: Mothers and Mothering in Conflict Zones,with Arlene Sgoutas (Toronto: Demeter Press, 2015). She has also written on discourses of national identity on the Balkans. Email: [email protected]

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