Hope for the future

 

By Ruïe-Jalo Wijnschenk

 

For our project my group and I wanted to use the perspective of childhood and parent-child relationships to recontextualize Kosovo’s past, present, and future. We decided to interview people our age and document these interviews by creating a documentary. In the end, we interviewed a total of six people, of whom four identified primarily as Kosovar Albanian, one as Bosnian and one as Serbian. 

 

I was very excited about these conversations as I myself have experienced the workings of generational trauma firsthand. I think our focus point provided an opening for really honest and valuable conversations to blossom. Furthermore, my group and I decided on this approach as we were searching for an overarching narrative which considerably is underexposed and at the same time has the power to provide for a sense of connection between individuals of all backgrounds and ages. In our opinion, childhood and family relationships provided for this perfectly because they are part of a worldwide and indiscriminate shared experience. As we were rewatching all of the recorded interviews and editing the documentary, I realized also that our chosen perspective provided for a framework which highlights the great potential for youth being agents of change.

 

The interviews for our project highlighted the intricate balances which lie at the core of peace building processes and working towards sustainable reconciliation. One of the aspects of such future peace in Kosovo which was brought up by all of our interviewees was the issue of narrating history. Generally they agreed on the fact that it was important to know history and ‘where one comes from’, thus it being important for future generations to know about the war and the connected grievances. However, they also seemed to agree that the narration of such history was a very sensitive issue. Especially the historical claims to the area of Kosovo by all parties involved in the conflict make the issue of history even more complex. On the one hand, if told correctly, the remembrance and retelling of history might enable individuals as well as communities to move forward. On the other hand, certain narrations of history might stir up negative and unresolved emotions and undermine the potential for reaching sustainable peace. 

 

Just as our interviewees highlighted the need to know one’s history in order for them to move forward into creating a new future, they indirectly touched upon the matter of hope. The matter of EU integration and especially the growing discontent and frustration towards the connected issue of the ‘moving goalposts’ set by the EU seem to both reveal a sense of deprivation of an envisioned future. Regarding this, deprivation of a future, or at least deprivation of a particular vision of that future, seems to go hand in hand with the denial of hope. 

 

Considering Kosovo’s current situation and its ongoing state of relatively inflammable tension seems to shine light on the fact that the current debates about, for example, visa liberalization and EU integration, are not the primary issues. 

 

Namely, carefully listening to the interviews with youth reveals that the underlying issue seems to be the relatively arbitrary granting and taking away of hope by the international community, and the growing resentment within Kosovo of being unable to build a sustainable and peaceful future upon the foundation of hope. 

 

Furthermore, the patronizing attitude of the international community offering to ‘fix’ the young state of Kosovo but ultimately failing to actually do some fixing has created lingering feelings of resentment. We have learned that a wish to create and build a future is fundamental in the world of conflict resolution. However, sometimes we seem to forget that to enable individuals and communities to dare to wish for such a future, a sense of hope is needed. Just like the issue of history that I mentioned earlier, we need to humble ourselves and let people create their own hope, and dare to be taken by the hand and led by these people towards a situation of peace.