“We have spilt an ocean of blood for the brotherhood and unity of our peoples and we shall not allow anyone to touch or destroy it from within.” Josip Broz Tito 1962
The summer of 1989 was spent in Yugoslavia studying in each of the republics as part of the Fulbright program of the U.S. Department of Education. We found ourselves learning about the divisions and differences between the republics, republics that had been their own countries at one time or another.
After WWII, Josip Broz, known as Marshall Tito, resisted Stalin to create an independent, unified socialist country bringing together the disparate small countries. Tito died in 1980 and the country was left without its influential leader.
Nine years after his death, Tito’s portrait, though faded, still hung in front of classrooms and in the display windows of shops. The earlier country/republic identities, suppressed for the sake of unity, were reasserting themselves.
The small country of Yugoslavia held two republics that were Roman Catholic (Slovenia and Croatia), three that were Orthodox (Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia), and one that was Muslim (Bosnia/Herzegovina). Their lore, music, dance, folk costumes and customs reflected their locations: Slovenia in the north as Alpine; Macedonia in the south, Grecian; Serbia as Eastern European.
Yugoslavia’s official governmental language was Serbo-Croatian, a spoken language with minor dialectic elements. However, in writing, the Roman Catholic republics used the Latin alphabet, the Orthodox republics used the Cyrillic alphabet. First graders mastered their native alphabet, then, in second grade mastered the second alphabet. As a result, both alphabets were used interchangeably in the country. In Bosnia, the daily newspaper printed alternating pages in Cyrillic and then Latin.
The precious unity of Tito’s Yugoslavia experienced its worst challenges as the republics and the country borrowed unwisely and in 1989 inflation was run away at 1000%. What does 1000% inflation do to everyday life? I experienced it firsthand one day.
With my little book of bus tickets, I boarded the bus and dropped a ticket into the box. The bus driver called me back and wasn’t happy with my pointing to my ticket. An English speaker called out, “It takes two tickets today.” I dropped another ticket into the box and took a seat. Prices double without warning.
As our study took us across the country, I tried to purchase a flag of Yugoslavia, but no Yugoslav flag was available anywhere. There were lots of flags of the individual republics.
The differences continued stark as I learned about cilim (chillum), the national handicraft of hand-woven rough wool rugs and mats. Each republic’s weavings reflected their unique colors and patterns, different from any other republic’s weaving.
A poem resulted.
Within two years, Slovenia and Croatia would become sovereign nations again.
CILIM
Yugoslavian tapestry,
Fabric of a culture.
Bold design, brilliant color,
Tightly-woven, coarse.
“A Dalmantinski cilim,” says a master,
Trained eye sees revealing details
Unnoticed by this admirer.
Room-sized rugs to miniature pads,
Handwork for sale along the road,
At street stalls, in fine shops.
Market economy presses on cilim
As vendor persists
“And what would you pay, madam?”
Cilim in the Crossroads
Fading, foot-worn
Threads fray at color changes,
Resisting connections.
Inflation dissolving precious knots
That hold patterns in place.
Cilim of the People
Bearing the imprints of history,
Consuming fires of ancient hatreds.
Human warp and woof,
The fiber of this brotherhood,
Slav and more.
Can cilim endure?
Judy Harris is well established in Northern Kentucky life, as a longtime elementary and university educator. A graduate of Thomas More, she began her career there in 1980 where she played a key role in teacher education and introduced students to national and international travel experiences. She has traveled and studied extensively abroad. She enjoys retirement yet stays in daily contact with university students.