What do you know about Bosnia and Herzegovina?
BiH has been ruled by many different peoples. From the Illyrians, to the Romans, to the South Slavs, to the Ottomans, to the Austro-Hungarians, to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, to the Independent State of Croatia, to Yugoslavia, to a bloody war that gave it its independence, BiH is today a place where cultures, ethnicities and religions coexists. I wish I could say peacefully…
It’s impossible to understand what’s going on today without knowing a bit more about the country’s ethnicities. Since the arrival of the South Slavs in the 7th century, they started to grow apart, under the influence of different religions: Islam, Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity, developing into today’s Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs.
Well, Yugoslavia put them all under the same roof, an experiment that was a ticking bomb. Until it exploded. Everyone wanted independence. But BiH was trapped between Croatia and Serbia. To put an end to the war, a peace agreement was sign. BiH would be an independent country, composed of two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, inhabited mostly by Bosniaks and Croats, and the Republika Srpska, populated mostly by Serbs. However, the nationality of all three ethnicities is Bosnians. I know, it’s horribly confusing. And it gets worse!
The presidency of the country is tripartite, which means a three-member body that collectively serves as head of state: a Serb elected by Republika Srpska, and a Bosniak and a Croat elected by the Federation. A three-headed monster, like in mythology, the one that ends up eating its own body. Literally, a nightmare to reach any important decision. Never looking to the well-being of the country as a whole.
The saddest thing is that all three ethnicities are South Slavic people, and have a very similar cultural, linguistic, and historical heritage. However, emphasizing the differences is deeply ingrained, every nation having a strong sense of its own national identity.
It’s quite a lot to grasp, but trust me, it’s one of the most fascinating places you can visit. And yes, those are goats on an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere in rural BiH.
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