Graphic Narratives and Conflict: Contextualising Safe Area Goražde

In the May of 1993, a little town along the river Drina by the name of Goražde, was declared a “safe area” by the UN. In the midst of the Bosnian War (1992-96), with Serb nationalist forces prepared to do whatever it may take to realise their vision of the “Greater Serbia”. The root of the conflict back to the 19th century, when ethno-religious communities of the Balkans rose against the Ottoman Empire, thoroughly marinated in the ideas of nationalism and creation of a national identity. The necessary “other” was created when assertions of the many communities there - Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Albanians - overlapped in this diverse region, not quietened until the communist regime under Josip Broz Tito established complete control after the Second World War. After a quiet of three odd decades, old hostilities resumed when the chants of “Brotherhood and Unity” fell silent after Tito’s death, resulting in violence that was afflicted upon physical, economic, social, psychological, cultural and many other aspects of individual and collective existence.

The Yugoslavian War is infamous for large-scale ethnic cleansing, manifested as genocides, crimes against humanity, breaches of international conventions, etc. However, what is less covered is the ground-level aspect of the war; so far, many academic papers, journals, documentaries, etc covered only as much of the towns and cities and people living in them as was required to put larger politics in perspective. However, with the release of Safe Area Goražde in 2000, the cold detachment in the majority of this literature from the realities of those who lived through the war was challenged as the dominant mood of the narrative. This visually engaging and well worded account of the in habitants of the town of Goražde during the Bosnian War, as presented by Sacco, dismissed the pretensions of the distant political commentators based off their living rooms around the world. The uncertainty of their fates in the midst of the war, the memory of loss and hardships and many other sentiments, emotions and disturbing personal experiences; crimes becoming more real than just numbers; rapes becoming more than just violation of a body; hunger, pain, deprivation, etc; all were brought a little too close to the comfort zone of the international community which was prepared to forget about the war.

Joe Sacco visited Goražde in 1995-96 along with the UN Peacekeeping convoys which carried rations to the town, as the war was de-escalating. Yet their future, as Sacco writes, was “by no means certain”. Political negotiations and trade-off of areas between the Bosnian Republic and Serbia at the Dayton Peace conference left Goražde wondering what is bound to happen to it. Based along the Drina, with other safe areas such as Srebrenica and Zepa fallen and most of the eastern Bosnia taken over by Serbs, in the midst of the war, the question that Sacco chased was, how did this town manage to survive? What did its survival mean? In doing so, he traces the life of a town, of its people in the times of war, their memories, the impact upon how they start to perceive things, and so on. An essential part of these exploration is the medium he has chosen; that of graphic novels. It is appropriate to begin with how Sacco views himself in this narrative. He understands his position as an American journalist and the accessibility, or the lack of it that it allows him. The access to information of multiple parties allows him to construct a thorough narrative. He also understands how “much more than a few kilometres he was separated from them”, allowing him to develop sensitivity towards how the realities of the war were shaping their lives.

Robert Hayden, regarding the insubstantial, shallow scholarship on the Bosnian war, writes, “A Bosnian joke from the 1990s told of a Western scholar coming to Sarajevo, and when asked about the purpose of his visit replying: ‘I am writing a book about Bosnia’. ‘Oh, that is nice; and when did you arrive here?’ ‘Yesterday’. ‘And when are you leaving?’ ‘Tomorrow’. ‘And the title of your book will be . . .?’ ‘Bosnia Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow’.”The literature produced on the war was massive, but historical, political contexts, perceptions, grass-root dynamics of the civil society, media etc, were superficially covered. In his graphic non-fiction, Sacco builds the context textually and visually to set out a strong foundation for the following story throughout the book, building itself in a non-linear manner, parallel to his own accounts. Sacco is known for his other works, such as Palestine, where too, he follows this pattern of narration where facts and stories run parallel.

Recorded history, oral history, and narratives are expressed in pages with a creative use of fractured panels and gutters and tiers, and strong lines and strokes capturing the facial expressions, gradients of cross-hatched black and grey shadows setting the tone capture what other media can possibly not capture. Drawing allowed him reconstruction of scenes and situations which were both, as seen by him, and described from memory, and also allowed him the evident freedom of constructing fluidity that an artist practices while visualising and composing scenes, accompanied by thoroughly engaging textual material to enhance the experience of story-telling. This “graphic” aspect of the book comes not just as an “interesting approach” towards non-fiction narrative, but also as a break from the massive body of photographs and video footages, which tend to desensitise the viewer. At the same time, his can present gore, as he did while describing the massacre at Visegrad, without disturbing the viewer, and at the same time, conveying the idea. This form of representation also allows him to be A note can be made about how he draws out his characters, where representation of both the male and the female body is not dramatic, as close a representation as possible without losing the “comic” element. The graphic aspect helps in contextualising events and stringing together parallel facts pertaining to that even that photos cannot capture, for instance, a terrible event of mass-killing of hostages happening along a bridge was illustrated with imagined sentiments from the narratives being given, pulling together details and nature of the narrated story. putting these in perspective that can leave a deeper imprint on us as readers.

The book is divided in several “parts”, where he organises his concerns and covers the major problems and hardships of the people of the town and refugees, students and the youth, women, children, the elderly, the men at the front, etc. Personal narratives are presented with the delicate touch of peculiarities of a routine life, making it easier for readers to relate and empathize. Food crises, stories of genocides and mass graves, neighbours turning enemies, rapes and murders, no medical support, shellings, experience of torture, assault on community identity, were all juxtaposed with one another in a story-like manner, together delivering a strong impact upon the reader. While the war itself was like any other war, the case of Goražde was unique because of its survival not only by chance of favourable political and administrative decisions, but by the resilience that the people displayed, withstanding many assaults on their physical self, their material possessions, their identity, and their vision of their country as they knew it. Even the dozens of Serbs who stayed back out of the many who left, they too retained and remained, despite aggression coming from the local Bosniaks, who felt their fury was legitimate.

Getting down to the grass-root level not only means covering what the material aspects of life were to them, but also something as subtle as how trauma shapes the way they understand words, names of places, distances, people. He writes about how childhood came to be limited to a little candy called ‘bon-bon’; how Drina came to be associated differently by people - as a river butchered bodies were thrown into and as the name of a cigarette brand; the distance between the rest of the world and their little town; the emotional, psychological and metal turmoil, the constant tensions and nervousness; all together characterised life. Sacco, through his graphic non-fictions, not only reimagines the presentation of a narrative, but also shifts the focus from international interests to personal and collective experiences, and the value of psychological trauma. The sentiments as he has recorded avoid glorifications, deifications, demonisation and dehumanisation. The local defence against Serb offensive in Goražde was depicted as a stressful, pyschologically tolling event for those involved, and focused a lot on fears of these more than patriotism or any such overwhelming sentiment. While the book condemns, it is not the “Serbs” who are condemned, but rather the nationalist-fascist streak of Slobodan Milosevic and his idea in general, thus avoiding demonisation of any community.

Apart from all that mentioned above, Sacco has also managed to construct a strong criticism of the peacekeeping forces deployed in the area. While there is no denying that

the UN and other international parties were able to do a lot, there is also a sense of their

helplessness and weakness in situations where they cannot do anything but watch. Srebrenica was a terrible loss, when the lightly prepared Dutchbat withdrew from the safe

area and left the fate of Bosniaks to the hands of the Serbs.

A challenging narrative as it is, it is a narrative nevertheless, with its own problems. While the book itself cannot be criticised for not following objectives it did not set out, the objective the book itself can be reviewed. Goražde was a haven for many who had escaped horrendous situations, and their experiences were thus recorded. However, not enough light was shed on the condition of women in the war. Rapes and sexual assaults as tools of ethnic cleansing was not taken into consideration. Furthermore, enough material produced Bosnians as a response to the war was not considered apart from the individual interviews that he managed to take. While Serb nationalism was spoken of, it would have made the narrative more interesting to understand the reason Serbs of all ranks and backgrounds were so well mobilised and on what bases. Lastly, while the book gives a sufficient idea about what the Bosnian War was about, it fails to set a context for what continued to fuel the sentiments of the communities; the many stereotypes and solidifying perspectives based on these stereotypes.

However, regardless of these little problems that we

re noticed about the book from the perspective of a beginner to the Bosnian War, Sacco constructs an excellent narrative

with lots of enlightening aspects of the war that usually are no covered in most narratives

of the war.

(This review was done for a module in while undertaking Conflict Transformation and Peace Building, in 2016).