The memory of ordinary, everyday intercultural or interreligious relationships, in brief
Baljvine has been repeatedly celebrated in the media of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the one multi-ethnic village that kept conflict at bay when conflict and atrocity struck, in the wars of 1941-45 and 1992-95. Residents of Upper Baljvine are Muslim, those of Lower Baljvine are Orthodox Christian, but the two halves of the village depend on each other – not least because they share water – and have never allowed armed parties to trouble the other half of their village. As nationalism has impressed itself – including violently – on politics in the region, Orthodox residents are identified as Serbs and Muslims as Bosniaks, but villagers account for their consistent solidarity by explaining that they have never allowed conflict to divide villagers, and that there is no sense in hatred or conflict between them.
The context in which these relationships made a difference at the time
Baljvine is situated in a mountainous region, difficult to access, at a distance from the nearest towns, in a region which saw some of the worst ethnic cleansing of the 1990s. The residents of Baljvine – like many villagers in Bosnia and Herzegovina – have a culture in which mutual aid plays a prominent role, and in which a tradition of solidarity has been reinforced both in their ordinary affairs and in times of need. A common school continues to function for children up to the age of 10 – after which time they travel together to school in Mrkonic Grad, 15 kilometres away. In speaking to the media, residents convey that there were never conflicts over their respective land holdings, although these are not to each other and such conflicts are common in other villages in the region. The village clearly has a social structure which enables discussions and negotiations when needed, with both sides of the village entrusting older villagers as adjudicators and as representatives. They also make clear that their solidarity is not just a ‘good news’ story – it is also a reflection of the lack of reliable resourcing from local and regional (Baljvine is in the Republika Srpska) or state governments, meaning villagers understand their solidarity is not shared by outside institutions. Villagers depend on each other in the course of their work and in aspects of home life, and they have been proudly on each others’ side repeatedly when insecurity threatened. From 1941, the lives of Serbian inhabitants were threatened by outsiders – the forces of the Croatian government were rounding up and killing Orthodox Serbs across the region. Baljvine’s Bosniak population stood up for their neighbours, preventing the Croatian Ustaše force from killing their neighbours – one resident recalling that they even prevented the Ustaše from taking more cattle and hay from their Serb neighbours than thy took from the Muslim residents. In 1992-95 the Bosniak residents were threatened by outsiders from the army of the breakaway Republika Srpska (the VRS), which was the dominant local armed force. Though younger Serb residents served in the VRS, according to an interview with one Bosniak villager, when they returned to the village they were careful to hide their arms and not cause offence to their Bosniak neighbours. Residents jointly patrolled their village, refusing the interventions of any outside security forces. Serbs consistently conveyed that their Muslim neighbours were protected. A spokesman for the Bosniaks residents once reportedly had to persuade the VRS commander that the Serb population would not accept any attack on their neighbours. In 1995, villagers fled an attack from a Croatian force and hid together in a nearby Serb village, Bočac.
While often the solidarity of residents in Baljvine is explained in terms of need, it may also be explained by the personal social ties between residents. As they are friends in bad times, so too they are friends in good times. The villagers’ share a full, ordinary life, at home and at work, and celebrating each others’ religious celebrations is natural in this context – they also restored the church together in recent times, and they collaborated in building the mosque in communist times. Yes, Baljvine residents of both halves of the village have elements of a structure that works for the representation of their interests in the face of outside institutions, but their solidarity is also a tribute to the ways its residents have bought into functioning social norms in their everyday lives. The Catholic philosopher Ivan Lovrenovic celebrated the example set by the residents of Baljvine, adding
I heard a simple little story in the old man’s Seido Zahirovic home: “In our house there was always some bacon and brandy – separately, not to get mixed with our food. You know how it is: the road is next to my house, neighbors from the upper village walk by, they have to stop by. And it is nice to offer them what they like.” (https://sarajevotimes.com/baljvine-the-only-village-without-a-conflict/)
What has happened since, which makes the memory valuable?
The memory of Baljvine’s solidarity is held up in repeated reports in the country’s media as a foil to the traumatic memories which have eroded trust in the public and political spheres – its story raises memories of war and atrocities, and of the gulf between the interests of ordinary people and nationalist institutions. Balvinje evokes the spirit of interreligious trust and harmony which many identify with ordinary people in the region, as well as a rural idyll – of agriculture, beekeeping and coffee in the village cafe – which captures something of the recent past for many families who have moved to the city for opportunities or because of the brutal ethnic cleansing of the 1990s.
How might the memory be used in bringing people together in practice now?
The Memory Bank team are interested in hearing from partners who could use examples such as this in promoting activities which advance the common good today. The appeal of the story of resilient Baljvine is of interest – not least to journalists – from a perspective of building support for peace at a grassroots, popular level. Citizens across the country will recognise the problems experienced in securing basic resources from government institutions or privatised providers for water, electricity, and other commodities.The village has also proven to function at times of stress, and its local model of conflict resolution and of the structured representation of common interests, memories and traditions provides a distinctive counter to the widespread expectation across the region that traditional society is not fit to meet the challenges of the contemporary world, because of rigid mindsets, inadequate resources or education, or an assumed propensity to insecurity, fear and extremism.
Additional context/Some additional reading
You may find numerous media accounts online of the common life of the Serbs and Bosniaks of Baljvine – in local languages and in English, a good number featuring interviews with residents. One example (Marija Arnautovic, ‘Baljvine: Selo U Kojem Nikada Nije Trijumfovala Mržnja’, IWPR, April 2010) will be found at https://iwpr.net/sr/global-voices/baljvine-selo-u-kojem-nikada-nije-trijumfovala-mrznja.
And if you would like to see more stories from Bosnia and Herzegovina which are similar to this, please consider following this interesting Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/stranicaljubavi
The nature of interethnic relations in Baljvine is the subject of an ongoing study worth following by the Anxious Peace Project of the University of Ljubljana (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077266482278), in which the experience of residents of Baljvine is studied alongside those of Vukovar, Mostar, and Kosovska Mitrovica. https://www.fdv.uni-lj.si/en/research/research-centres/department-of-political-science/defence-research-centre/news/anxious-peace-project-acknowledged-in-several-bosnian-and-herzegovinian-media-outlets. For English readers, further discussion of the different ways in which Baljvine’s history is interpreted will be found in George R. Wilkes, ‘Reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina’, in Jolyon Mitchell, et al, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Peace (forthcoming, 2022).