Abstract
‘Boundary displacement and displacement as boundary (or Saturday afternoon in a kafana)’, wonders how the narrative of the ‘divided city’, frequently attributed to Mostar, changes when we take a closer look at places where those boundaries are being enacted. By taking seriously everyday practices in places such as an avenue, a square, a pub and a school, the chapter approaches concepts such as ‘places’ (placing) and ‘displacement’ (displacing) and suggests alternative narratives for Mostar.
‘A kafana is a coffee shop, bar, restaurant, or any other place where you can spend a lot of time doing nothing, while consuming coffee or alcohol’ (Hemon 2011, Mapping Home). Available at: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/12/05/mapping-home.
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Notes
- 1.
Interview with A., 18 April 2015. At Club Aleksa, Mostar. Interview originally in BSC.
- 2.
Interview with JV., 19 April 2015. Mostar Old Town. Interview originally in BSC.
- 3.
Interview with JB., 19 April 2015. Mostar Old Town. Interview originally in BSC.
- 4.
Interview with AV., 19 April 2015. Mostar Old Town. Interview originally in BSC.
- 5.
Interview with S., 18 April 2015. At Boemi Kafana, Mostar. Interview originally in BSC.
- 6.
Kulidžan, Nikolina (2010) ‘Across the River’, in: Spirit of Bosnia, Vol. 5, No. 4. Available at: http://www.spiritofbosnia.org/volume-5-no-4-2010-october/across-the-river/.
- 7.
Although Hemon talks about Sarajevo, in this chapter I argue that this feeling of placement was also expressed by people who lived in pre-war Mostar (Hemon 2011, Mapping Home). Available at: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/12/05/mapping-home.
- 8.
For infrastructures of socialization, they intend for ‘bars, sport venues, cultural venues, clubs, i.e., the infrastructure that materializes the possibility for people to meet, create emotional bonds, mix, fight, discuss; in other words, to use space (s) as a means of becoming acquainted with each other and to potentially form communities of belonging’ (Carabelli 2012: 135).
- 9.
Herceg-Bosna was intended to be a ‘homeland’ for Bosnian Croats before they joined Croatia itself. This project, however, did not end with their military defeat, or with the implementation of several measures adopted by the international organizations to maintain territorial cohesion within the borders of the FBiH (see Carabelli 2012: 38). In fact, the project of Herceg-Bosna is mobilized mainly by the leaders of Bosnian Croat HDZ BiH (Croatian Democratic Union of BiH) and HDZ 1990 (Croatian Democratic Union 1990), who often use this card to pressure for more rights to Croats, making occasional calls for a ‘Third Entity’ or the dissolution of BiH altogether. (Carabelli 2012), see also OHR www.ohr.int, and Herceg-Bosna website in articles such as this http://www.hercegbosna.org/eng/current-issues/nation-building/exclusive-croatian-counties-are-going-for-referendum-to-leave-federation-bh-4169.html.
- 10.
Gosztonyi, Kristof. ‘Negotiating in Humanitarian Interventions. The Case of the International Intervention into the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina’ (2002–2003).
- 11.
This square received this name thanks to the department store called HIT, whose building was completely destroyed during the war. Its skeleton is still among the destroyed buildings that have not been reconstructed in the Bulevar area. Nowadays, the square was renamed Spanish Square, after a monument in honour of the fallen Spanish soldiers during the war in Mostar.
- 12.
According to Jerrie Hulme, the chief of UN relief official in Mostar. In https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/02/21/mostars-muslims-living-like-rats/052b7dca-7e19-496c-8375-f8bac58c7b00/.
- 13.
‘Bridge Opens But Mostar Remains a Divided City’. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jul/23/iantraynor.
- 14.
‘Bridge over the Ethnic Divide: A Symbol of Hope Is Reborn in Mostar’. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/bridge-over-the-ethnic-divide-a-symbol-of-hope-is-reborn-in-mostar-5355111.html.
- 15.
Understood here by the representatives of the States sat at the negotiation table at Dayton, such as the United States, the European Union, France, UK, Germany and Russia.
- 16.
According to 2013 census. Available here, http://www.popis2013.ba/popis2013/doc/Popis2013prvoIzdanje.pdf.
- 17.
Along with other municipalities, such as Brčko and Stolac, for example.
- 18.
- 19.
Almost all my formal and informal interlocutors in Mostar claimed they know or have heard about young people who have never been to the ‘other side’. In a show produced by Radio Slobodna Evropa named ‘Perspektiva’, one 15-year-old student says he has never been to the Old Bridge. Perspektiva—Mostar—druga epizoda (2nd episode) (2015). Available at: http://www.slobodnaevropa.org/media/video/perspektiva-druga-epizoda-mostar/26849554.html.
- 20.
Interview with S., 18 April 2015. At Boemi Kafana, Mostar. Interview originally in BSC.
- 21.
The final document may be found here: The final document is available here: http://www.mostar.ba/statut-181.html.
- 22.
Mayor Ljubo Beslic has concentrated all powers in his hand, due to lack of a valid City Council. Mayors are indirectly elected in Mostar.
- 23.
Personal notes, 15 July 2009.
- 24.
Interview with G., 19 April 2015. At West Mostar. Interview conducted in French.
- 25.
Gojko BERIĆ, Španski Trg «Oslobodjenje», 28 May 2015, http://www.oslobodjenje.ba/kolumne/spanski-trg.
- 26.
Education is highly decentralized in BiH, and, as already explored in Chapter 3, highly politicized. As Bowder and Perry (2013) argue, ‘curricular content varies depending on the entity or canton in question, with nearly every school exhibiting a dominant ethnic “flavor” depending on whether it is predominantly Bosniak, Croat, or Serb’. In Mostar’s Gymnasium, curricula are offered in Croatian Language and Bosnian Language (for a discussion about this distinction, please refer to ‘Gladni smo na tri jezika’, in this book. These ‘national curricula’ as they are called, emerged during the war and have been consolidated ever since. While Math and Sciences are considered neutral subjects, History, Geography, Languages, Arts, Music, Literature are examples of sensitive national subjects, that may vary greatly from one curriculum to another. For more information on this, see Perry, Valery. ‘The Permanent Interim: Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ongoing Educational Crisis’ E-International Relations. October 12, 2014. Available at: http://www.e-ir.info/2014/10/12/the-permanent-interim-bosnia-and-herzegovinas-ongoing-educational-crisis/
- 27.
Interview with V., 6 May 2015, Mostar.
- 28.
Mostar’s Gymnasium has been ‘reintegrated’, in the sense that students from both Bosnian and Croatian curricula attend the school, and there is only one director. Students from different curricula, however, attend separated classes. In BiH, nevertheless, this is already considered a sign of progress, since most schools are either monoethnic or work as ‘Two Schools Under One Roof’, i.e. even though they share the same school building, everything about them—from the entrance door to the administrative staff—is separated.
- 29.
Gojko BERIĆ, Španski Trg «Oslobodjenje», 28 May 2015. Available at: http://www.oslobodjenje.ba/kolumne/spanski-trg. My translation. In the original: ‘Rekonstrukcija Španjolskog trga je više od nekog sličnog projekta u nekom drugom gradu u našoj zemlji. Jer Španjolski trg, osim što je središnji gradski trg, jeste i biće susretište i mjesto povezivanja svih građana Mostara, nekada u ratu podijeljenog grada. Njegovom izgradnjom sve manje ćemo se podsjećati na ružnu prošlost’.
- 30.
Interview with V., 6 May 2015, Mostar.
- 31.
Interview with V., 6 May 2015, Mostar.
- 32.
While Croat-control areas used the Kuna, in Republika Srpska, until 2000, Yugoslav Dinar was the most employed currency.
- 33.
«Ustaša», led by Ante Pavelić, is the Croatian fascist movement that nominally ruled the Independent State of Croatia during the Second World War. Among its aims, the Ustaša movement sought independence from Yugoslavia, and, once it was achieved, their goal was to create a ‘more purely Croatian state’. Hundreds of thousands of Serb, Jewish, Muslim and Gypsy inhabitants were brutally killed in such attempt. As for the Četniks (see Chapter 4), this denomination was also mobilized during the war in the 1990s (Encyclopedia Britannica). «Baljia», on the other hand, is a term used to denominate descendants of Turks of Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, and it is employed in a derogatory way to call anyone who is a Bosnian Muslim or consider themselves Bosniaks.
- 34.
Those antagonisms comprise not only national football teams as Beric mentions but also local football teams. The city has two main football teams, Velež and Zrinjski Mostar. This last one was forbidden during Yugoslavia due to its ustaši symbols employed during the Second World War, but the club was resurrected after the last war. Therefore, Zrinjski is considered the Croatian community’s club, and it is represented by the mostly far-right Ultras—even though, as one of my interlocutors has remarked, nine out of 12 of its players were ‘Serbs’. On the other hand, Velež is supported mainly by Bosniaks and the Red Army, a leftist group nostalgic of Yugoslavia and Tito, but also by some Croats who still cherish a particular idea of Mostar through time.
- 35.
Interview with LS., 6 April 2015. Mostar. Interview with V., 6 May 2015, Mostar.
- 36.
Interview with LS., 6 May 2015. Mostar.
- 37.
Interview with V., 6 May 2015, Mostar.
- 38.
Interview with SI., 18 April 2015, at Boemi Kafana, Interview originally conducted in BSC.
- 39.
Interview with JB., 19 April 2015. At Jead Vladovic’s restaurant, Mostar Old Town. Interview originally in BSC.
- 40.
Interview with B., 18 April 2015, at Boemi Kafana. Interview originally conducted in BSC.
- 41.
Interview with V., 6 May 2015, Mostar.
- 42.
Perspektiva—Mostar druga epizoda (2nd episode). Available at: http://www.slobodnaevropa.org/media/video/perspektiva-druga-epizoda-mostar/26849554.html (00:21:11). In BSC, my translation.
- 43.
Serbedzija i Sokolovic pocasni mostarski ‘boemi’. ‘Dnevni List’, Mostar, 16 February 2011. G. personal archive.
- 44.
Ibidem.
- 45.
Ibidem.
- 46.
Interview with G., 17 September 2015 at Boemi Kafana. Interview conducted in BSC.
- 47.
Interview with S., 18 April 2015. At Boemi Kafana, Mostar. Interview originally in BSC.
- 48.
Interview with SA., 18 April 2015. At Boemi Kafana, Mostar. Originally in BSC.
- 49.
Interview with G., 18 April 2015 at Boemi Kafana. Interview conducted in BSC.
- 50.
Interview with G., 18 April 2015 at Boemi Kafana. Interview conducted in BSC.
- 51.
Kulidžan, Nikolina (2010) ‘Across the River’. Spirit of Bosnia 5(4). Available at: http://www.spiritofbosnia.org/volume-5-no-4-2010-october/across-the-river/.
- 52.
Interview with A., 18 April 2015. At Club Aleksa, Mostar. Interview originally in BSC.
- 53.
Interview with AV., 19 April 2015. At Mostar Old Town. Interview originally in BSC.
- 54.
According to the school’s website: http://gimnazijamostar.ba/.
- 55.
Youth Cultural Center Abrasevic, named after Kosta Abrasevic (1879–1898), a well-known poet for its socialist ideas. Located in Aleksa Santica Street, the club existed in pre-wartime as RKUD (Workers’ Cultural Artistic Society), but it was almost completely destroyed during the war, due to its location. In 2005, the centre was officially reopened as a café and a multi-purpose concert hall. Through the years, OKC Abrašević became an important place of contestation in Mostar and has been working towards the reunification of the city.
- 56.
Interview with A., 18 April 2015. At Club Aleksa, Mostar. Interview originally in BSC.
- 57.
Ibidem.
- 58.
For more on the subject of inclusion and exclusion in BiH post-conflict society based on one’s experience during the war, please refer to Ullen, Sanda, ‘Connecting Past and Future—Negotitating Present: Memories and Belongins in Post-War Sarajevo’, in Past–Present—Fieldwork. Noura Kamal, Eva Kossner, Klaudia Rottenschlager (eds.), Conference Report Vienna Anthropology Days, 2013.
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Summa, R. (2021). Boundary Displacement and Displacement as Boundary (or a Saturday Afternoon in a Kafana). In: Everyday Boundaries, Borders and Post Conflict Societies. Critical Security Studies in the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55817-8_5
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