PK 6: PACK
BALKANISM
B: There are many reasons why Balkanism was created, the fundamental reason being to be frank is my obsession with the region over the years. My parents sought asylum in London in 1994 due to the repression they were facing in the Kosovo (then Yugoslavia), I was born in London however my parents made it their goal to take us (my siblings and I) back to the Balkans annually. My first trip to the Balkans was when I was a mere 2 years of age, and since then I fell in love with the region and its diversity. My parents would take us to different regions in the Balkans, so I was raised seeing the different cultures first-hand and it was also framed in a positive way. Seeing the differences in cultural, religious, and ethnic identities was never presented as a negative thing in my household, it was always a known fact that the Balkans is a diverse place but there are overarching similarities that we all share. Through my years and with the advancement of social media, I was desperate to see platforms that spoke and presented cultures like mine. However, I was often left disappointed by the lack of representation or the misrepresentation. Balkan pages when I was a teen were often focused at being divisive and were bigoted when it came to the social rights issues, I am personally deeply passionate about. At the age of 18 I started my bachelor’s degree at Goldsmiths, UoL- that also happened to have a Balkan centre of study with some esteemed Balkan academics. My time studying my history degree there was very influential as to why I started this page, I was able to engage with Balkan history from reliable sources – and this opened my eyes to the level of misinformation and bigotry that is taught and widely believed in Balkan cultures presently. I wrote the word “Balkanism” on a notebook in 2018 after reading Maria Todorova’ work (she coined the term, denoting the problematic power dynamic and relationship between the rest of Europe and the Balkans). Fast forward to 2020 and everyone found themselves in lockdown, I finally had no excuses not to start the social media platform. Balkanism has always been a space made to help Balkan people reclaim their cultural identities, an educational space helping people explore their identities and demystify other ethnic/religious identities they had no prior interactions with or had preconceived notions about.
 |
'My first time in Kosovo after the war with my sister and cousin' |
P.K: The Balkans haven’t really been adequately represented in the media, we would even go as far to say that historically, it has been poorly reflected in various forms of media culture. Do you think it is a stigmatisation of sorts, and possibly something that can serve a greater purpose, like for example, unifying & allowing people from the Balkans to find value in collectivism and not allowing our micro differences to antagonise and divide us?
B: Europe has always had a problematic relationship with the Balkan region, historically the Balkans and its people were presented as an “inferior” group of people. The recent conflict of the 90s in the former Yugoslavia furthermore embedded and perpetuated these historical tropes about the region and its people. The only time in the last 3 decades the Balkans has been consistently presented in the media is due to social, ethnic, political, and economic instability – which has massively impacted the perceptions of the Balkans in the west and globally. People only associate the Balkans (namely former Yugoslav countries) with war, conflict, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. Which is in fact very problematic because although these are substantial events in our histories and experiences – these are not the ONLY aspects that define us as Balkan people. I personally have faced a lot of stigmatisations due to being a Balkan/Kosovar-Albanian person. Growing up in London the perceptions were overtly negative, and I often felt myself needing to conform to the dominate culture to be accepted. That is why I am so vocal about my identity presently, I must be a positive representation for my people, not that I necessarily must prove bigoted views wrong. But I generally want to present my region, country, and culture in a more positive way to improve the self-worth of future Balkan generations who live, specifically in the diaspora. The second half of your question raises an interesting point, and throughout my years – Balkan people generally do have a kinship with one another due to our experiences in the west. Recognising those similarities in the complexities of navigating our identities in the context of the diaspora should most definitely bring us together and I think it does in many cases. I know speaking for myself when I meet a person of Balkan origin, I generally hit it off with them and find that common ground. However, even amongst the Balkans and its people there are historical power dynamics that do at times present themselves – so there are needed conversations to be had internally amongst Balkan people before we can collectivise ourselves to fight western bigotry. To truly be a collective, there can be no hierarchal feelings amongst the different cultures, and I am afraid due to egotistical nationalism, cultural narcissism, and lack of transitional justice these bigoted and nationalistic views still exist in our region and cultures. Which is massively affecting our abilities to progress as a region.
P.K: Do you think we as a people produce more history than we can handle the consequences of it?
B: Every culture/ region produces history and I think its not that we cannot handle consequences of this history, the issue is that we often have opposing and conflicting narratives of major historical events in the Balkans, that are usually centred around victimisation of the self and the damnation of the other. Often, Balkan historical and academic circles are dominated with individual’s hell bent at perpetuating a self-serving account of historical events in Balkan history to validate themselves. Although I am not a historian by trade, having studied history at an academic level there are methods and practices individuals are taught to make sure the way history is being written is as correct as possible and as close to the truth as possible. However, historically this has not always been the cause in the Balkans, even today – if we were to go into a school history class, the history that would be taught in one country of the Balkans would be completely opposing to the history taught in another. This is in fact a major problem because individuals are not being taught the reality of their history, which massively impacts the relationships Balkan people have with one another. This especially concerns events of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Balkan history, usually the perpetuators of this act would manipulate history to embed a perpetual sense of victimhood and negate the realities of what happened - this severely impacts the potential for transitional justice in the region and amongst the different ethnic groups.
However, there are very responsible academics and historians in the Balkans who are dedicated to presenting as accurate a picture as possible, but these individuals are often shunned when they present evidence of historical events that do not serve the cultural picture present in the region. We should all as Balkan people question the history we were raised with, scrutinise it, analyse it and try to find evidence to support your claims etc. I have fallen victim of believing everything I hear even though it may not necessarily be true. Of course, the way history is studied is massively impacted by perspectives and aspects of personal experience, but we need to be able to take a more objective approach to this history to evaluate things properly and get as close to the “truth” as possible.
P.K: The Balkans are sometimes romanticised for its weirdness and unique folk aesthetics, but at the same time there are misunderstandings when it comes to the cultural and aesthetic values of the region. We dare say it may be a form of historical neglect? Is it right to think of it as an erasure of Balkan culture and why do we seem to brush it aside when we aren’t “seen” or validated by others? I mean, maybe it is wrong to frame things this way, and it might be that we shouldn't be thinking like we belong in a certain place in the hierarchy of Europe (and the world), but there is a definite self deprecating quality to Balkan people that perhaps allows others to view us in a certain, dare we say, derogatory way...
 |
| Bosniak woman from southern Kosovo |
 |
| Bulgarian headpiece |
B:Well right now we are focused on making sure the Balkanism team expands and reflects what we stand for, so we recently recruited a team of ambassadors that come from diverse identities from the Balkan region. We did this so that we are keeping in line with our ethos of inclusion and diversity, making sure that everyone has a seat at the Balkanism table. Future plans involve the establishment of a podcast, our following have really wanted for us to a do a podcast so that is something on the agenda for us. And our overarching goal is for Balkanism is for it to become an educational platform for Balkan and non-Balkan people alike to reference in pertaining to our region. We want it to be a space where people can interact with one another
 |
Croatian men, 20th century |
 |
Bulgarian Braids – Sofia region |