War threatens again in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dayton accords which were signed in December 1995 put an end to the conflict, but they did not bring together the different populations. And for 26 years, the ethnonationalist parties, which govern Bosnia, have continued to fuel divisions in order to stay in power. Today, the different Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian communities often do not share much in their daily lives.
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The example is particularly striking in Mostar, this city in the south of the country whose old Ottoman bridge had been destroyed by Croatian forces in 1993. Today, the city is still politically cut in two by an invisible border, that of the old front line, with the Catholic Croatian side on one side and the Bosnian, Muslim side on the other.
Some organizations try to bring together the inhabitants of the city. And one of the few success stories among the many international projects that have tried to overcome these divisions is a school of rock. It is called the “Mostar Rock School”, or rather as it is called here the “rock chkola”.
In this music school, the atmosphere is very relaxed, and above all there is no room for discrimination: the only thing that matters is the music and a certain rock spirit. “Here, there is no division. We are all the same and we are here for the same reason: because we love music and we all love making music. It is thanks to music that you learn to associate with different people” , explains Sara for example, who started a career as a singer thanks to this music school.
To undermine the communitarian discourse, the school has a very particular recipe. Whether they come to school to learn drums, vocals or guitar, all students must take group lessons called “band sessions”. These are, in fact, courses where they form rock bands with the objective of playing two songs on stage after 40 days. After this concert, the students must form a new group and therefore adapt each time to new musicians and other personalities. At 28, Semi is one of the leaders of this very popular program: “Upon arriving at our house, some students wondered: but why do people talk about these divisions all the time? In fact, everything is fine now, we work well together.”
“Young people don’t have as many prejudices as their elders. They know there was this war, but it’s been over for thirty years. The new generations think completely differently.”
Semi is one of the heads of Mostar Rock Schoolat franceinfo
In ten years of existence, the Rock school has trained more than 1,000 musicians from all over the city, and above all, it has established itself as one of the centers of cultural life for the youth of Mostar.