When hatred against refugees from Syria surfaced in 2015, writer Vesna Evans decided to put on paper her experiences with her parents fleeing the war in Yugoslavia. Although the book Velvet Home, published this year, is based on real life, Evans talks about it as fiction. “My grandmother’s letters touched me more than the memories when I was writing,” she admits. Her grandmother lived the war in Sarajevo from the Grbavica region, where the greatest atrocities were committed.
Vesna Evans, writer | Photo: Tomáš Vodňanský | Source: Czech Radio
“It’s not just about running away from the war and leaving everything at home. It’s also the fact that you suddenly find yourself without a background, everything is weird, and you have to deal with common issues like puberty or difficulty finding a job. At the same time, you don’t understand the local language You don’t have anyone to help you, and you don’t even want to ask for help to avoid deportation. You don’t know the language and that’s why you’re stupid,” writer Evans sums up the refugee experience.
Vesna Evans, writer. Managed by Markéta Kaňková
Vesna Evans, from Sarajevo, formerly Tvertkovic, knows what she’s talking about. In 1993, she fled the war-torn country to Prague with her parents and brother.
She rooted herself well in Prague, quickly learned the language and also quickly found friends – especially those who, like her, left Yugoslavia. “Very early, we were walking around Prague alone and meeting, say, in the subway at Můstok,” she looked back when she was twelve years old.
Evans wrote Velvet Home from the point of view of a teenage girl. She was motivated to recall her own experience as a refugee in 2015 and hate towards immigrants at the time.
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“I was very impressed with the way the whole discussion was about the fact that we shouldn’t accept any refugees because they would take our country houses, everything. I took it personally. I think we can deal with about 1,500 refugees that were talked about at the time, we’re not bad Absolutely. They are people, too,” says Evans, emphasizing:
“You have to realize that most refugees are not here to hang around. They are people who have been able to cross mountains and seas, and perhaps they will be brave. And maybe they have some strength that they can possibly contribute to this country. That is usually the case.
According to Evans, the refugee experience cannot be conveyed, but it can be approximated. And that’s exactly what she tried to do in her book.
Grandma wasn’t fit to be left alive
The village of Vertković in the Czech Republic lacks a broader family background. While the other children went to visit their grandmother, she could only exchange sad messages with her – as well as with her cousins. It was also new to her that she suddenly had to think about who she was.
“Before that I was simply Yugoslavia. I belong to a mixed family, I have Croatian, Muslim and Serbian ancestry, but it was never a problem for us. And suddenly we had to deal with it, and suddenly nationalism started to play a role in everything.”
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At the same time, her grandmother remained in Sarajevo, and sent letters to her family in Prague, but, according to the writer, she could not write everything in them due to fears of reading the letters.
“The grandmother was a Muslim in the Serbian lands. This was the occupied part of Saravij. And the whole war lived there, and even after the war ended, the Serbs were there. It is true that she tried to keep the apartment for us, and did not want to leave. At the same time, not many Muslims remained There, because they preferred to go to the other side. It wasn’t an easy situation. I watched everything, she went through a lot. So maybe leaving her alive was not a good idea.
The bruised soul is inherited
According to her, the war set the entire region back many years. While the economic situation can always improve over time, according to her, it is significantly worse with the human psyche.
“Generations bear scars, a scattered soul is inherited. War is something that is still known here, and I don’t know when it will be equalised. It is difficult and sad. People should avoid war at all costs.”
Even thanks to her experience as a war refugee, Vesna Evans has been helping organizations that have been helping refugees since the age of fifteen. She has experience from the Red Cross, People in Need, and Refugee Aid, and she admits that to this day she doesn’t really know if this job helps her more.
Listen to the full interview in the audio.
