“Make up Your Own Mind about Gavrilo!”

Abstract

Drawing on recent scholarly critiques of dominant Balkanist understandings of memory work in post-war societies and focusing on individuals as active managers of transmitted memories, this article illustrates the dynamic nature of how the Sarajevo assassination and Gavrilo Princip are remembered in Sarajevo. It offers ethnographic insights into the everyday effects of power struggles between popular and official memories and responds to calls to explore affective states brought about by the politicization of the past in particular settings. Without denying the importance of memory in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina, it nevertheless points to the relevance of exploring uncertainty, doubts, disinterest, and silences for ethnographic research on memorialization processes in post-conflict societies and beyond.