I want to start by saying that traveling to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina was an amazing and beautiful experience, and I will most definitely be returning to Bosnia in the future!
During my time in Serbia, a big chunk of us went to the Museum of Yugoslavia. Full transparency, before this program I knew nothing about the Balkans, let alone the state of Yugoslavia. The museum was organized in two parts. However, this museum mainly felt like a tribute to Josip Broz Tito. He was idolized, admired, and in some cases, he is missed by the former Yugoslav people. It has been said that Yugoslavia was only possible because of him, and due to this, his death also meant the death and ending of Yugoslavia.
I learned that Tito was the ultimate hero to his people. He was admired by so many inside and outside of Yugoslavia. It was reported to be the funeral that was most attended by dignitaries from 128 of 154 UN member states and it had around one million people in attendance. Today, you learn that people still see him as a hero and associate him with Yugoslavia as a missed nostalgic past where everything felt better and stable. In Serbia, to honor him, they have this museum dedicated to telling his story, and the story of Yugoslavia. You will find a statue of him before you start the museum. I was shocked to hear how much people loved him. In this U.S. you rarely hear of anyone like this, at least from my perspective.
When we went to Bosnia, the story was different. I learned so much about their history, especially their losses during and after the wars. Serbia and Croatia teamed up to take over Bosnia and many many lives were lost. But they pushed through, and dare I say it was the most stunning place I had seen so far. While staying in Mostar, we saw their famous bridge, and in the following day we went to a museum of genocide that showed us a different side of the war but the same kind of nostalgia. Although there wasn’t specific praise to Tito, there was a nostalgic element towards the unity that Yugoslavia brought, before all of the murdering and pain.
One of our lecture speakers Danijela Dugandzic taught us so much about feminism today and during and after the war. There are so many silent heroes that had a huge impact that don’t necessarily get as much of a praise compared to Tito. It just so happens that these silent heroes are all women. We saw this through monuments, parks, etc. There were monuments of men’s bust, whole bodies, or heads, but you never saw the honoring of the female fighters of the time.
As I reflect on this trip, I know I will never see the Balkans the same again. I learned the perspectives of Serbia and Bosnia and their histories, something that wasn’t taught to me in middle or high school. But most importantly, I started noticing the lack of representation that places have for people who played an important role in our history. Women are often forgotten and overpowered by powerful men like Tito. This can also be true in the U.S., I cannot tell you about a monument or anything that honors or highlights the silent, underrated heroes of our past. When honoring them, it is important we do more than just name things after them, we need to tell their stories so that they continue to live on and not be forgotten.
