Preservation of our identity in this period of absolute globalization

Writer: Haris Čolić

Identity crisis is rapidly spreading like a contagious disease and all age categories are affected by it. This crisis affects every social class of society, individuals and different groups as well, even entire nations. Identity crisis has spread so much, through every single pore of modern society, both eastern and western, it’s no longer recognized as a potential threat, but as part of our everyday life. Unfortunately, Bosniaks are equally affected by this global phenomenon, and the cause lies in the growing globalization of the youth and the stubbornness of the elderly. The youth is completely left to globalization, and the elderly stubbornly fight windmills. The question arises as to how to preserve personal identity, as well as the identity of our people. The answer is much simpler than it may seem.

Internet has brought us plenty of positive things and the world is now at reach. At first, it was believed that internet will trigger an explosion of knowledge and general education, however creation of this “Information superhighway” had the opposite effect. In addition to overwhelming people with a bunch of false, unimportant, unverified and contradictory information, internet created so-called global trends. Today, thanks to the internet, diversity and pluralism among people is vague, and individualism is slowly evaporating into thin air. Customs, oral and written tradition, clothing and many other features of cultural diversity are fading away, while individuals are transforming into “original” copies.

In February 2017, the rate of natural increase in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was negative: -515. During that month, 1406 babies were born and 1921 persons died. The rate of natural increase was -1450 in 2016, from January to November. Negative rate of natural increase was observed in all 10 Cantons of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Given that the rate of natural increase is negative since serbo-croat aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina, and since younger generations are more subjected to globalization with every new day and that emigration is in increase, something must be done regarding preservation of our culture, tradition and Bosnian language. If this negative tendency prevails, it is very likely that Bosnian language might, in the not-too-distant future, completely disappear. In the report by United Nations, named “World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision”, it’s stated that the population decline, by the end of 2050, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, will be at 19,5%. If to all this we add the fact that the children of emigrants, born outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina, are not so familiar with our tradition, customs, even the Bosnian language itself, it’s quite clear that something must be done regarding this issue.

How, in this time of vague borders between cultural diversities, can we preserve our Bosnian tradition, our cultural identity, Bosnian language and other riches?

Any kind of resistance towards globalization would be counterproductive. Globalization is a phenomenon which can be used as a tool for preservation of identity. One very important feature of this phenomenon, maybe even the most important one, is rapid expansion of English language as a universal communication tool. Because of all those statements about negative rate of natural increase and increase in emigration, the need for preservation of Bosnian language and promotion of our literature, is imposing itself on us. One pristine example of that preservation is The ballad of Hasanaginica that has been translated to more than 50 languages, even by famous writers such as J. W. Goethe, Walter Scott and A. S. Pushkin. That way, The ballad of Hasanaginica was saved from oblivion, and all those translations are a great example of promotion of Bosnian culture, tradition, language, even Bosnia and Herzegovina itself, across the world. Translations of Bosnian and Herzegovinian literature to English are extremely valuable to preservation of Bosnian language. In these modern times, writing both in Bosnian and English language is an imperative, and such use of globalization is an amazing way to present our literary creativity to the world public.

Safvet-beg Bašagić, Alija Nametak, Enes Kišević, Musa Ćazim Ćatić, Skender Kulenović, Hasan Kikić, Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević, Nasiha Kapidžić-Hadžić, Svetozar Ćorović, Petar Kočić, Derviš Sušić, Edhem Mulabdić, Bisera Alikadić, Umihana Čuvidina, Branko Ćopić, Mak Dizdar, Ahmet Hromadžić and many, many other wirters, deserve a wider audience than they already have, and translating and promoting their work would surely contribute to the promotion of our country and our literature. Translating to English language isn’t the only way of preserving the literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosniak writers who live and work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as across the world, should turn to usage of English in promoting Bosnian language and Bosnian literature. Writing in Bosnian and English at the same time, and publishing that work in Bosnia and Herzegovina and across the world, would skyrocket Bosnia and Herzegovina to podium of world literature. That would certainly contribute to the development of literature in our country. Literature is the only reliable way of preserving our history and saving it from oblivion. English language represents a tool that must be used for preservation purposes.

Globalization is a wave that brings many positive and negative changes, but with the right approach, it can be used for many positive things and development. We live in the time of constant changes and many difficult challenges lie ahead of us, challenges like those our literature had faced before. Throughout our history, Bosnian language was endangered and on the brink of ruin and extinction, many times. Thanks to those brave people who were not afraid to step up and accomplish great things, Bosnian language was saved and preserved. Maybe the time has come for us to step up and protect our literature from possible danger, and from all those attempts by neighboring countries, to claim our writers as their own.

Tekst na bosanskom možete pročitati ovdje.

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