Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
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cized politically, and this was done without any regard to differentiations<br />
and deviations [e.g. regarding the many mixed marriages or the former<br />
moves of populations]. …ethnicity very often is nothing but the friendly<br />
and seductive mask of a fierce and narrow nationalism. It would be a<br />
simplification if the idea of cemented ethnicity were to be reduced to the<br />
militant excesses around Sarajevo and in other areas of war. The cruel<br />
strategy of “purification” is, probably, only the worsening of a widespread<br />
idea. And one should ask if sciences like ethnology have not contributed<br />
to paving the way for this view and – more importantly – if<br />
scholars, to a certain degree, have not accepted the ethnicization of<br />
people. Even in nations with a rather homogeneous population, there are<br />
always people of other ethnic backgrounds (Bausinger, 1996: 289).<br />
I carry these questions with me, throughout my analyses of stories told by<br />
the interviewees who have identified themselves, and have been identified<br />
by others, in one of two groups: Kosovar Albanians and Kosovar Romany.<br />
Between memories<br />
and the wish to forget<br />
<strong>Psychosocial</strong> <strong>Notebook</strong>, Volume 2, October 2001<br />
Memory is a complex sphere shaped by individual memories, forgetting,<br />
oblivion and silence. These terms are not synonymous and can also carry<br />
quite different meanings according to the language in which they are<br />
uttered. 1 The debate on the subject stresses that memory is a battlefield<br />
that, according to different geographical and historical locations, requires<br />
specific strategies, subjects and institutions in the construction of what is<br />
remembered and what is forgotten, as well as in the meanings associated<br />
with each.<br />
Nationalism is the main ideology and political project we are encountering<br />
in this research. The conflict we ask about in our interviews has strong<br />
nationalistic roots. This means that situations of the past, fabricated by a<br />
given group for itself, are reduced to their essence, which then lends legitimacy<br />
to “ethnic and national identities”. In discussing memory throughout<br />
the following pages, we are aware of the contradictory meanings and<br />
political implications that are also on stage. Several books have been written<br />
about the vital use of the past in constructing, for instance, Serbian and<br />
Croatian nationalism. In the case of these nations, World War II becomes<br />
the genesis of their two separate and clearly antagonistic narrations, as was<br />
described by R. Jambresic Kirin:<br />
While the memory of World War II in Croatia was evaluated with respect<br />
to the need for national reconciliation and the need for admission of<br />
Communist crimes against prisoners of war and civilians, in Serbia the<br />
memory of the same period was largely connected with the repeated<br />
195