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One powerful similarity shared by interviewees was the use of a “rhetoric
of silence” in their narration of violent past events. “I cannot describe what
has happened”, “I have no words…” or “I don’t know what to say” were
common expressions used in the interviews. On this topic, Arben B.
referred to an Albanian proverb that he believed could not be translated
into Italian or English:
The first thing [the refugees] say is that it is impossible to describe what
they have been subjected to… they had suffered a lot… there is a proverb
that I don’t think can be translated into Italian… it means it is not possible
to lament the suffering we have felt.
The content of this expression, however, makes sense in Italian (and perhaps
even in English). The need to call upon silence to describe violence
might be thought common to many cultures. Indeed, this commonality
might be the sign of an approach to trauma and its evocation, which
crosses boundaries of language and tradition.
The politics of history
In the prologue to this section, I have already outlined some of the strategies
used in the countries of former Yugoslavia in order to construct a
narration of the past that is congruent with nationalistic agendas. In the following
pages, I will therefore try to analyse how different subjects recount
different histories of Kosovo and its populations, after which I will focus
on the Romany, and, more specifically, on their relationship with history.
Histories
Psychosocial Notebook, Volume 2, October 2001
Kosovo bears the weight of being the cradle of Serbian medieval culture
and the cornerstone of every Serb’s national identity. It is therefore not surprising
that Slobodan Milosevic’s nationalist party made full use of the
celebration of St. Vitus Day on 28 June 1989, in order to commemorate the
Battle of Kosovo of 1389. According to Milan Milosevic:
The 1989 event took place at Gazimestan, the site of the historic battle.
The commemoration had all the trappings of a coronation, staged as a
Hollywood extravaganza. Milosevic descended by helicopter from the
heavens into the cheering crowd; the masses were the extras. The camera
focused on his arrival. In some vague way, the commentator placed
Milosevic at the centre of the Serbian ancestral myth of Prince Lazar, the
hero and martyr of the Kosovo battle. Exactly 600 years before, the
voice-over told the viewers, on this very soil, Prince Lazar had chosen
the kingdom of heaven over his earthly kingdom, the glory of death over
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