Imposed Identities : Review of the movie "We are all Neighbors"

The documentary “We are all Neighbours” has shown how people change during the war and show their real character. The documentary starts with two neighbors who have a friendship of 40 years drinking coffee together and talking about whatever it happens they will not end their friendship at any cost. This was the moment when there were shelling and firing just 4 kilometers away from the village. In this situation, no one could predict that these two friends from different religious groups (Muslim and Catholic) will someday stop contacting each other, act like strangers and even become enemies. When the documentary progresses we can see the destruction of their decades long friendship due to fear of each other. The military presence in the village injects fear in both of the friends. They now do not want to contact each other or visit each other because they fear the friend may perceive her as a spy. This very fear not only keeps them in distance but it also makes both of them very hard to fulfill minimum friendship norms. Then, attitudes towards the neighbor change and the trust is shattered. The concept of “us” and “them” predominantly occupies the mindset of the people. From this point neighbors start killing neighbor, some flee to other parts of the country to find safe land for themselves, and some hide to escape death. The last scene of the movie shows the catholic woman who did not necessarily seem to be unhappy for what happened. She was feeling a sense of security after her ethnic belonging group was dominant or the winner (Christie, 1993). The movie confirms the Nordstrom view that in such circumstances civilian people ally themselves with one of the warring faction in order to defend themselves and their property and the ethnic belonging of their old friends of other communities and they start making new friends in their own community (Nordstrom 2004:181-182).

In addition to this, other books and movies also re-affirm how identities are imposed or how people try to get an affiliation into a certain group in the midst of the conflict. The movie “Sarajevogänget” shows that a young man is compelled to join the armed force (Gandini, 1994). Kolind also describes how the political elites stir up ethnic divisions and fear among the people so they could manipulate them and remain in power (Kolind 2007: 125). “We are all neighbours” also presents how a co-existing multi-religious and multi-ethnic society was divided up by fear into different groups for which Croatian soldiers were responsible.

Similar situation is described by Finnstrom about Uganda. He explains the conflicts in Uganda are a result of imposed identities on the people (Finnstrom 2008: 68). He further explains that the imposed identities in Uganda are not static but rather dynamic. It is a process where the criteria of defining “us” and “them” are always changing. So, friends and foe may change with respect to time. However, the political elites have been able to reinforce and highlight some factors which create a clear distinction between the groups to achieve their political will. He then reveals that the people in Acholiland were known as fighters from a long time but he questions the surety that this identification of Acholi people was not invented or forced (Finnstrom 2008: 79).

Finnstrom adds, the people of Uganda are somehow compelled to choose sides. To remain neutral is to become an enemy of both the warring parties. So, must of the people there choose to live in refugee camp under conditions like they are not allowed to leave the camp. They are even threatened to support the government in order to receive the humanitarian aid which is their only way of survival (Finnstrom 2008: 135). In Uganda, both rebels and the national army force children to join their force. It is done mostly against the will of the children but there is no one to spare them from such situation. This makes children to bear a new identity of an army or a rebel or a soldier (Finnstrom: 220).

Finnstrom also gives another identity of young people in Acholi land. These young people are working and making their identities as resistors against young children joining the army or against any type of forcibly imposed identity (Finnstrom 2008, 33).

On the other hand, Kolind argues about the existence counter-discourse. He explains that people do not only try to judge others with their ethnic identities. They also sometimes reject the idea of stereotype and do not blame the certain group for the actions of an individual. Instead they use terms like decent, non-decent, urban-rural, political-non-political etc. People try to create new identities for an individual with respect to the situation which helps to breakdown the ethnic distance between the people and helps people to make inter-group contact much easily. The categorization of actions and persons in relation to decency and non-decency instead of ethnicity can also function as an important tool in facilitating interaction with people of different ethnic backgrounds (Kolind 2007, 131).





References:
Movie:
Christie, Debbie (1993) We are all Neighbours, ITV, by Tone Bringa, seriers ”Disappearing Worlds”.


Books and Articles:
Finnström, Sverker (2008) Living with Bad Surroundings: War, History, and Everyday Moments in Northern Uganda, Duke University Press: Durkham and London
Kolind, Torsten (2007) ”In Search of ‘Decent People’: Resistance to the Ethnicization of Everyday Life among the Muslims of Stolac”, in The New Bosnian Mosaic: Identities, Memories and Moral Claims in a Post-War Society, ed Xavier Bougarel, Elissa Helms & Ger Duijzings, pp. 124- 138, GBR: Ashgate Publishing Group: Abingdon, Oxon.
Nordstrom, Carolyn (2004) Shadows of War: Violence, Power, and International Profiteering in the Twenty-First Century, University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles