‘Sarajevo is not what it used to be’: Ex-Sarajevan Serbs and their ambivalent relationship to their place of origin

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates the striking ambivalence of people who left reintegrated Sarajevo en masse after the Bosnian war and have still retained a connection to the city. While ex-Sarajevans identifying as Serbs have cultivated a strong emotional relationship to their place of origin and have maintained various temporal, material, and political linkages with the city, they have completely ruled out the idea of returning physically. By addressing their ambivalent relationship with their place of origin, this study posits that ex-Sarajevans do not embrace the idea of returning to a ‘point fixed in space’, but rather harbour a utopian dream of returning to a ‘point fixed in time’. Rather, it argues that instead of mourning the place itself, ex-Sarajevans truly miss the previous forms of sociability, which no longer exist in the post-war milieu.