“Geopolitics has always conditioned historical narratives and memory”

Dr. SVJETLANA NEDIMOVIĆ - socio-political organizer and activist [Bosnia and Herzegovina]

GENERATION OF LIVED HISTORY

The war does not end with the cessation of the conflict. Survivors continue to carry it deep inside them. The way post-war society relates to war affects individuals and shapes transgenerational memory.

• How has the generation that lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region during the wars in the former Yugoslavia – and especially during the genocide in Srebrenica – experienced and shaped this history in the past 30 years: through personal memories, reflections, but also through narratives in the media, films, books, textbooks and rituals of remembrance?

"I would dare say, maximum falsification for the purpose of victimization. An ever-weakening creative charge, no political imagination, and the critical shift was more present during the war and immediately after than now. It is dominated by a completely barren and shallow riding on its own suffering, which is mostly perceived as the basis for moral superiority and, consequently, social inertia."

TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY DYNAMICS (1995-2025)

Society in Bosnia and Herzegovina is still marked by war traumas. Prevailing ethno-national policies keep citizens in fear, under constant threat of a new war – for their own interests. Politics has instrumentalized trauma.

• How – and whether – generations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the regions that lived through the wars in the former Yugoslavia, especially the events of 1995, and the generation born that same year have shaped mutual understanding of the past? To what extent are their views aligned today – and how do they differ?

"The fears encountered every day, except perhaps in the generations of the third age, are far more existential and this extends from those in their early twenties to those before retirement. As far as wars are concerned, extremism seems more present among these younger ones."

REGIONAL FUTURE: TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY, HERITAGE OR TRAUMA (2025-2055)

Thirty years after the war, ethnic identity still dominates the civic. In post-war society, the structure of ethnically divided space often makes civic initiatives impossible, as they are automatically attributed an ethnic sign.

• How could political, social, educational and cultural development in Bosnia and Herzegovina – and more broadly in the region – affect how transgenerational memory will be preserved, reinterpreted or denied in the next 30 years?

"If some social changes occur due to the closure of borders in the EU, i.e. organizing people for resistance to both domestic and foreign elites, conditions may be created for a radical reinterpretation of history. Without this, the established paths of festivalalization and commercialization of the past will continue."

GLOBAL FUTURE: TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY, INDIFFERENCE OR REVISIONISM (1995-2025-2055)

In the modern world, geopolitics is rapidly conditioning historical narratives and transgenerational memory – openly trading influence in conflicts and party choices through daily-political revisionism.

• How could global political disruptions, conflicting international historical narratives, and changing norms on justice and human rights shape the ways in which knowledge of wartime events from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the region will be transmitted, challenged, or withheld across generations over the next 30 years?

"Geopolitics has always conditioned historical narratives and memory. The Balkan space is currently of interestin terms of raw materials, so economic pressure will derail the past if it is not usable for colonialist claims."



The opinions and insights expressed in this text reflect solely the views of the author. We publish these contributions to encourage reflection and open space for diverse perspectives on the topic of transgenerational memory in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the wider region.