Mirad: A Boy From Bosnia

Background

Bosnia is an ancient country. It is a land with a remarkable political and cultural history, in which the great religions and powers of Europe have combined and overlapped. In the Middle Ages it formed a powerful independent kingdom. Later it was occupied by Turks and Austrians, and for much of the twentieth century it has been part of the state of Yugoslavia. Close study of a map of Europe shows its critical geographical position on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 marked a turning point in the history of Europe, with the countries of Eastern Europe gradually emerging from the dominance of the USSR. In April 1992 the people of Bosnia voted for independence from the neighbouring states of Serbia and Croatia, and from Yugoslavia. Thus the seeds of war were sown.

Historians, politicians and the Bosnian people themselves are deeply divided about the exact causes of their internal war. Bosnia is a multi-ethnic state: approximately 44% of the population is Muslim, 17% Croatian Catholic, and 31% Serbian Christian Orthodox; there are also small minorities of Jews, Albanians, Gypsies and others. Clearly differences exist. But in the Bosnian war, Muslims, Croats and Serbs turned upon each other – assisted by various external forces – with a hatred and ferocity that has few parallels in the twentieth century.

Beyond the frontiers of the old Yugoslavia, the war in Bosnia has of course thrown up the great and inescapable by-product of war: thousands of refugees have left their shattered homelands to seek a new (perhaps temporary) life in other countries including Italy, Germany, Hungary, Holland, Romania and England.

Mirad, A Boy from Bosnia is a play set amidst the horrors of the Bosnian conflicts and which also skillfully takes its audience into the hearts and minds of those refugees of war. Playwright Ad de Bont is not concerned with the fruitless question: ‘Who is to blame?’ Rather, he wants simply to ask human beings: ‘Why go to war with one another?’

Mirad, A Boy from Bosnia is published by Longman. The book is available from Channel Four Learning. Click on the 'Buy Resources' button above to order from the Online Shop.