It was the beginning of a new Albania. Facing west, it hoped, as it always has, to modernize, to reform, to belong.
But it was not meant to be.
(Article published October 18-29 – November 1-8
in "Central Europe Review" volume 1, issues 17-20)
The old Montenegrins, tall as their mountains, their rocky faces ravaged by an unforgiving weather define "osveta" thus:
"Osveta, that means... a kind of spiritual fulfilment. You have killed my son, so I killed yours; I havetaken revenge for that, so I now sit peacefully in my chair."
Milovan Djilas, who helped Tito become Tito and then was imprisoned for trying to be Djilas, wrote in his book "Land Without Justice" (Harcourt, Brace 1958):
"Vengeance – this a breath of life one shares from the cradle with one's fellow clansmen, in both good fortune and bad, vengeance from eternity. Vengeance was the debt we paid for the love and sacrifice our forebears and fellow clansmen bore for us. It was the defence of our honour and good name, and the guarantee of our maidens. I t was our pride before others; our blood was not water that anyone could spill. It was, moreover, our pastures and springs – more beautiful than anyone else's – our familyfeasts and births. It was the glow in our eyes, the flame in our cheeks, the pounding in our temples, the word that turned to stone in our throats on our hearing that our blood had been shed. It was the sacred task transmitted in the hour of death to those who had just been conceived in our blood. It was centuries of manly pride and heroism, survival, a mother's milk and a sister's vow, bereaved parents and children in black, joy and songs turned into silence and wailing. It was all, all."