My Images of SEE – 08:32, Thursday 25th August

I dipped back in to the old town to eat. I went next door to where I ate last night and ordered steak. It was lovely. Not to outstay my welcome, I left as soon as I was finished (it was a small venue, so didn’t want to stop new customers) and went over to the City Pub. I had a couple of pints before going back to the hotel. Such was my last night in Sarajevo. At the hotel, I asked the lad on duty if my clothes were done, and they were! So I did 95% of my packing. I then drifted off to sleep.

I woke up around 08:15 and showered and changed first, then went for breakfast. The muscled guy was on duty this morning, so I helped myself to breakfast. I then dashed out, through the old town, to a sandwich shop I saw earlier in the week. So I got a cheese & tomato baton. I also collected some bananas from the ‘Konsum’ shop. I quickly packed my satchel then went downstairs. I thanked the lad, and asked him the protocol for getting the tram. So I walked to the stop that was in-between the hotel and the water spring, and bought the 1.5KM ticket from a kiosk. My tram No. 1 arrived 3 minutes later, and I got on then stamped my ticket. The latter point was important because 2 stops down, 4 inspectors got on. My ticket was fine, but a lad didn’t have one – tried to buy one, but got fined. One inspector, a stern looking woman, wrote down his details. I continued on to the train station. Once there, I lugged my bag inside then wrote out my ticket. I then went to Platform 1.

My train was 15 minutes late (not bad since it had to cross the border near Ploce). So I got on and into a cabin. Luckily these windows opened properly. A mother with son and daughter joined me as we set off, but she got off at the next stop. It was an extremely hot day, as we passed through familiar valleys, past Zenica, and up to Doboj. We then turned west on our journey, to Banja Luka. The train trundled along at 20 mph for about 15 miles. It was annoying. I just kept on reading, or falling in and out of sleep-induced consciousness.

The area became more plain-like, and agriculture still dominated. Still a smattering of mosques, but churches were more present here – definitely in Republika Srpska! However, not as many in density as the mosques. A lot of newly built or partially built homes were there too. The border was seamless enough, and then we picked up speed towards Zagreb. 20 minutes out, and you could see it sprawled out ahead, glowing in the distance, with a hill/mountain as a backdrop. The sun had gone now, but an orange glow still remained.

The station was modern enough, with a shopping centre below it, to a road that I needed to take. I walked over a main boulevard in to a residential area, quiet now – then found my hotel. The two girls were cheery enough, and wondering where I was. They called ahead to a restaurant for me, so I dropped my things and walked 200 meters to it. Lost in translation, I said to the English deprived waitress “salad” and “chicken”. The salad came sure enough, but followed by steak and chips – twice in 24 hours! Oh well, I was starving so tucked in hungrily. I had two ‘Pivo’s’ to help it go down too. I paid the 134K and then left for the comfort of my bed and slept.

My Images of SEE – 19:10, Tuesday 23rd August

I quickly got ready and made my way out. I walked into the old town and had a coffee in one of the small cafes and read. I then made my return journey, in the shade, towards the Parliament building, and to the museum. Luckily it was open, so I went in. There were three sections, so I began with the Archaeology part. It had a lovely collection, which started with exhibits from outside BiH, but then moved on to it. I then explored the Botanical Gardens then on to the Ethnographic part. Here, they had an exhibit on 20^th century children’s toys. That was a bit modern and seemed slightly out of place. I then moved into another odd exhibition about ‘Love’ – more specifically about tokens for love. I then went upstairs where they recreated 19^th century Ottoman homes – parts of which were from an original home.

I then walked back through the gardens, located in a courtyard, surrounded by the museum. I went to the small Natural History museum that wasn’t worth seeing. I sat in the gardens for a while, to rehydrate, then left. I walked back into town then, and sat at a café next to the water spring. After that I wondered around and managed to find a couple of leather/cord bracelets for me and Liam, so I bought those. I then went to the hotel to see where this Ottoman house was. I located it on a map and walked up the narrow lanes, up a hill, to it. Within 10 minutes I was there, but it was shut. So I returned to the old town and grabbed a nice, white coconut cake and coffee. I then meandered my way around again, and led myself back to my hotel to relax. I did a bit of preliminary packing.

My Images of SEE – 09:53, Tuesday 23rd August

After refreshing, I then left for dinner. As soon as I stepped outside, the firework went off over my head. The cafés and restaurants will be packed. I, again, wondered around the old town for a place to eat. I eventually went to a place called ‘To be, to be’ – a take on ‘To be, or not to be’, only the ‘not’ was scribbled out for use as a slogan during the siege. It was an intimate place, and I sat upstairs with a group of 5 who were next to the window.

I ordered a beer and chicken risotto. I read while it was being prepared. When it arrived, I tucked in and was amazed. It was lovely. It had mushrooms too, and I even ate some! I devoured it whilst reading. I then left the 5 to it, and went down to pay. Only 17KM, bargain. I noticed that the kitchen was tiny, and home cooking obviously reigned here. I then walked to the Austro-Hungarian quarter, to a street that was lined completely with chairs, tables and umbrellas. It was busy with people on a night out – music in the background and football on the TV. I just relaxed with a pint. Afterwards, I grabbed and ice cream in the old town and returned to bed.

A better nights sleep, led to an earlier rise. So I went for breakfast armed with 10KM and my washing. The girl on reception suggested an Ottoman house to view, 5 minutes away. I said I would take a peek. I gave her the washing for the cleaner to do.

Thoughts on Ger Duijzings’ Religion and the Politics of Identity in Kosovo

Although Kosovo is its locus, this book observes the developments of several ethno-religious groups in the region on a wider scale, with focus on different aspects of identity. Duijzings brushes off the carte blanche descriptions and nationalist narratives of the two dominant ethnic groups/nationalities, the Serbs and Albanians, to demonstrate a deeper and wider plethora of people's with a distinct yet shared history and territory in the late 1990’s. How identities play out, are flexible (then rigid), and the complexities of these on social/political and economic relations are what is threaded throughout his work. One example is Letnica and its Catholic minority, about how they lived there, looking at the overarching battles that narrowed to two national narratives that they could not identify with, and their moving to Croatia proper. The next is the example of the diffuse Muslim identity, initially viewed as a unified whole across Yugoslavia, with its splits between official and Sunni, beside unorthodox dervish practices and Shi'a tendencies. Whilst he delivers ethnographic accounts, he also provides historical overviews of how these identities, national and religious, formed; and explains how objective and subjective relations meant that some peoples were included and excluded in these group/social events and practices. Fundamentally he portrays an image of religions that co-existed, tolerated each other, and shared each other’s holy sites; yet witnessing a descent into isolation and confrontation. The concept of syncretism is applied to highlight how religious practices on the ground weren’t those imposed via orthodoxy nor a pure form dictated from above, especially when new religions came to the fore and needed accommodating. This mirror’s Tone Bringa’s work in ‘Being Muslim the Bosnian Way’, which looked at village life in a Croat/Muslim mixed village on the eve of the collapse of Socialist Yugoslavia.

One specific and novel group he (re)’discovered’ were the 'Egyptians', who were presumed to be a new phenomenon, although lots of ethnographic and linguistic work has been written on this group. Debates around their 'origin' play to perennial views on nations and national identity, but Duijzings critiques these and suggests that, even if one took the term Gypsy as the core of their identity, the current identity was pulled together from diverse historical fragments and forged into a generic 'outsider' label. But this also aligns with the 'nestling orientalism' thesis, whereby this group wants to disassociate themselves with those identities that others seek to place them with. So the Egyptians use classifications to say why they are not like Gypsies, socio-economically or culturally. And so this argument builds by looking at the process of Albanianisation of Muslim Gypsies, to show how one group of people (Serb and Macedonian authorities) claim they wished to assimilate and wanted no conflict, and those groups themselves who had no vehicle for official recognition up to the 1990s. In detailing this recognition vis-a-vis the census, he describes the group’s mimicry which led to them being unaccounted for. This ties in with themes in my previous book review, that of Christian Promitzer et al, of groups hiding or being hidden.

In tandem with this he looks at the timing 'of emergence', or more precisely, who were the political rulers at any particular time. He errs close to portraying a clientistic relationship, where state jobs are sought and thus identity alters or (re) appears to curry favour. But he fundamentally dilutes the 'invention of Egyptians' argument because identity traits must have resided locally anyway. It was timing and changes to the political discourse that allowed a space for these to come together on a wider, national space.

Yet by 1990, ethnic unmixing had already reached its goal, with communities having as little contact between them as possible. All have suffered, not just one side or another. It wasn’t ‘ethnic problems’ as such, but problems ethnicized by politicians and populations at ease to point the finger, and so one needs to see the problems from a politico-socio-economic perspective not an ethnic-national one. To resolve this, he declared that democracy and an opposition were needed in Serbia.

Although this prescription was a viable one when the book was being written, in the immediate years after publication the world witnessed the fall of Milosevic, and Kosovo was already being run as a UN protectorate. So events altered to hamper this path to de-escalation of the ethnic unmixing. Instead, secession and ultimately independence, seen as the answer, created new problems. As is the nature of nationalism, when a political boundary is newly defined, nations not happy with the delineation argue for a revision or for secession themselves. Hence the Serbs of the northern enclave of Mitrovica demanded their ‘right’ to leave Kosovo. And so the spiral continues. Thus the artificial maintenance of groups seen as ‘units’ continues, whether that’s on the ground as tangible relations (or lack thereof) between people, or merely from a theoretical point of view. And the myths used as a tool for unmixing leading to the solidification of these groups as units, seen by Duijzings as having a lifespan, continue to have a powerful negative impact, despite democratization in Serbia and independence of Kosovo.

So the return to a Venn diagram of ‘groupness’, as ethnographically accounted for by the author, is still a far way off. Yet, this does not underline and prove the nationalist argument that violence is the result of these differences in cultural traits. It is the conclusion reached from that very Western, enlighlightened, and rational notion of the nation-state.

What Duijzing’s provides us with is a deconstruction of the usual debate around identity in Kosovo. By ethnographically portraying the people within the area, he knocks down the binary of two, fixed identities of Serbs and Kosovans, as so typically seen by people in the West, and develops an overview of a diverse people whose path to unmixing stemmed from political and socio-economic factors ethnicised by political leaders. One could claim, however, that by unveiling ‘new’ identities in the region he is simply following the nationalist argument and identifying these groups as units. But I would agree with his assertion that there aren’t groups, but groupness. And what he portrays is a centre/periphery description of how one subjectively accounts for one’s own identity, and that the concentric circles of identity classifications that flow from the centre multifariously link up with identities’ of the ‘other’. So although the centres may not match, the lesser priority identity classifications may do so and create that common bond. The sharing of religious sites is a prime example of how this was done in Kosovo.

Thoughts on Christian Promitzer et al's (Hidden) Minorities

Deriving its contents from papers and discussions presented at a workshop on the Alpine-Adriatic region in 2002, this book looks at language and ethnic minorities in the region that do not necessarily 'fit' into the usual narratives on nationalism. The analyses turn away from the assumption that these groups are rigid, homogenised, and eternal, and thus as unusual examples of nation building 'gone wrong', but delivers an alternative narrative by ethnographically portraying the development of these groups under the forces of nationalism, globalisation, modernisation, and viewing them through the prism of minority rights legislation in the region. Using the urban/rural dichotomy, public/private use of language, economic liberation etc, the book attempts to account for how these groups have evaded being 'recognised' by hiding or being hidden vis-a-vis the state or other recognised minorities, and failing to succumb to objective definitions of how their ethnic or linguistic kin ought to be constituted.

The theoretical framework that underpins the book emanates from older debates around ethnicity and nations, recalling the likes of Anthony Smith and his primordial/perennial case, listing categories that make up the ethnie; or Ernest Gellner's retort that nations are the result of modernity. The latter point is what the authors agree on, and thus they coalesce around Rogers Brubaker who writes that ethnicity and nationality 'are not things in the world, but perspectives on the world'. Hence, in terms of identity, they observe the relationship between subjective factors accounting for ones own identification to the community, in the 'self/other' guise, and the objective classifications of what one's identity is by external groups or institutions. Yet all the while, their observations reel back to how hidden minorities place their identity within the locality.

Sited in the region as it is, one of the points of departure are the placing of political borders. This involves analysis of groups that straddle or are contained within new state boundaries, and how this has impacted on the objective and subjective categories that define those linguistic or ethnic groups. An example would be in Duska Knezevic-Hocevar's chapter on the Kolpa River acting as a new political boundary encompassing the residents of the Kolpa Valley. Here, linguistic analysis of the past century lent itself to nationalist interpretation, not because it revolved around two written standards of Slovene and Croat, as this was a modern phenomenon, but those linguists wanted to portray the independent developments of the two languages that became the common local tongue. They explained the dialects away as sub standard local dialects of the two higher standards in an attempt to make the two languages ahistorical and thus 'natural' for them to be separated. This jarred with how the locals saw it because, for them, the locally spoken language was the same either side of the river. Alongside this analysis, Knezevic-Hocevar described the dynamics of national identity, and the paradox of locals not necessarily feeling strong national identities (as they had mixed families) yet using the language of national stereotypes in their day to day conversations.  

This placing of a border brought with it the assumption that the people on the ground on either side would automatically affiliate with their newly designated co-nationals. Yet this was not the case. And this moves on to another theme in the book revolving around the relation between a group being hidden or hiding and the application of minority rights legislation within the state they reside. Many factors are involved in this debate; the size of the group, does it have 'supposed' co-nationals in another state, does it have supposed 'co-nationals in the state they reside in and how do they relate to them vis-a-vis state legislation on minority rights, do they want to hide or would they prefer to carry ethnic/lingustic traits in private, the timing of when borders were put up, are they from the countryside or town, or have they migrated far as a group either recently or in the distant past. All these factors, and more, create dynamic situations that each group contends with in its relation with the state. One particular example is Klaus-Jurgen Hermanik's study of the Slovenes of Styria, which analyses the identity constructions that have occurred in the area over the last two centuries. What this chapter highlights is the difference between 'hiding' one's ethnic/linguistic traits, however one would classify them, and being 'hidden' from the view of the state and/or other ethnic/linguistic minorities. Overarching this, is how political borders have changed, how laws within the these altered states changed, but crucially, how the relations between the group and these institutions played out as part of borderland dynamics. In the Slovene's case, Germanisation, economic marginalisation, and political oppression led to the group 'hiding' themselves. Yet they were 'hidden', because some still had private use of Slovenian, but wouldn't think of using it in public. Thus, a signifier that would usually be viewed as an ethnic/linguistic unifier of minority groups, was weak and so did not lead to the group being conscious of their own collectivity, and so were not 'seen' in the eyes of the state.

What this book does best is to inform the reader of other perspectives on how ethnic and linguistic groups are formed in the Alpine-Adriatic region. The writers don't presume, from the outset, that these groups are ahistorical and perennial entities, but neither do they treat the information gathered from informants during ethnographic research with disrespect and scepticism. What they do, is develop theories on how identities are formed and explain how groups perceive themselves and their views on how the world views them. Parallel to this, they try and put it into historical contexts regarding state collapse and (re)formation, where borders fall, and globalisation. As stated before, identities aren't just the sum of a checklist of classificatory 'things' in the world that form a perfectly defined group. Instead, identities are fluid and continually changing phenomenon whose edges are blurry, and have to content with subjective and objective perceptions of what 'we' and 'they' are. This book ought to frustrate nationalists who believe that groups can be rigidly defined and exclusive, as this text shows that even in the era of the 'nation-state', some areas in the world fail to conform to the nationalist dream.

My Images of SEE – 18:10, Monday 22nd August

I walked to the market and bought a couple of magnets, 4 postcards and a key ring. I then went to the museum near the Latin bridge about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. It was simply a large room, but covered the Austro-Hungarian occupation and then the incident itself. They actually had Gavrilo Princip’s clothes and gun used on the day. Very intriguing. I then walked alongside the river out of the old town, west. Again the sun was piercing.

I reached the Parliament building that was opposite the shopping mall I went to two days ago. I took a photo and continued to the museum. The first one I went to was closed today; So I continued to the next one. It was housed in a Soviet-esque building, with weeds growing in the cracks in the tiles and being shrouded in bushes and trees. I went in, paid, and bought a programme.

In the main atrium there was a board, 20 ft long that was a wall that Sarajevans were asked to put up info on loved ones last year. It was housed here now. There were news clippings, photo’s of loved ones murdered, photo’s of people houses – then and now. But two things specifically stuck out. One was a blue and white-stripped jumper. It had a dark stain on it. Below was a photo of a 7 year old boy, who was wearing the said jumper Luckily for me, the viewer, the photo was of a happy occasion. But it got to me, emotionally, that the boy was no more – and would have been a young adult now. The second was a series of photo’s. 4 A4 sheets, 2 photo’s on each. On it was written the town of Visegrad. It showed men cowering, near red plastic chairs in what must have been a former canteen, and in the process of being bludgeoned to death. From cowering, to blood soaked, to laying there motionless. I felt sick.

I went upstairs to a room split between 2 exhibitions. I continued with the siege first of all. There was the story of the siege, in government documents, photo’s, newspaper articles – and a range of exhibits such as uniforms, weapons, make shift cookers, food examples, and evidence of continued culture and arts. It was very emotional. I left a comment in the guestbook.  I then went around ‘the history of 1,000 years of Bosnia’ exhibit, that was more a written experience, but had a couple of exhibits. Back downstairs in a side room was a small explanation of the first written acknowledgment of the Banate of Bosnia. In another, there were several before and after shots around Sarajevo. I then left and went to the mall. I ate at Viapiano again. I wrote my final postcard to Kirsty and Sean then.

I walked back to the old town, with resources for the train ride from the mall. I found a post office near the Bezistan, and sent it off. Around the corner I saw a pub the other day, “Cheers”, so I popped in for a drink and read. After an hour I left for the hotel again.

My Images of SEE – 10:19, Monday 22nd August

Again, once it became dusk, I ventured out. I wanted to look for a proper restaurant i.e. one I could eat and drink at. It seems that you can only do one of the other here. So I wondered around the old town, walking past a lot of food places. I then walked to the more Habsburg part of town, then back into the old town. I picked a place called Hacienda. It was quiet, and I was the only person inside what seemed to be a mini nightclub. So I had cocktails and fajitas. To finish I had chocolate pancakes. It came to 35km, the most I had spent so far. By the time I left, the old town was quiet – as some shops hadn’t been open all day, so those closing now added to the quietness. I saw a bookshop with English titles on display. I then left and returned to the hotel.

It was a hot night, so slept uncomfortably. At 09:20 though I went down for breakfast and opted for cheese rather than Nutella for a change. I talked to the receptionist, thanking her for the tip regarding the view. I asked her where the Parliament building was, and she said it was by the museums & Holiday Inn – where I planned to go later. I then got changed to leave.