14. Džemil Hodžić - Finding Light in the Dark

My guest today is Džemil Hodžić who was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was only nine years old when the war started in 1992. In this episode, Džemil describes in intimate detail the hugely traumatic and emotional experience of watching his brother, Amel, killed by a Serb sniper while playing in the street. As such, this episode may be quite disturbing to some listeners.

Having survived the war, his experiences inspired him to launch the ‘Sniper Alley Project’ in 2019. The mission and goal of the project was initially to find photos of his brother. However, since its inception, it has grown immensely and today, together with the help of other survivors, his aim is to establish a database to record and archive the life of his brother as well as the lives of thousands of children who experienced the war in Sarajevo. By collecting photos of the Siege and preserving the memory of survival through the eyes of children, Džemil seeks to tell those long stories that have been forgotten as a way of preserving the truth.  

Some of the topics we covered include:

• ‘Normalcy’ of life under siege in Sarajevo
• Coming to terms with death and eventually opening up about his own trauma
• Murder of his brother
• Remembering and memory
• Life after tragedy
• The ‘Sniper Alley Project’
• The power of narratives
• Importance of preserving history
• On forgiveness

I was deeply moved and impacted by this conversation, and I thank Džemil for his openness and courage to be vulnerable.