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Crnoturci

Črna Gora

Husein Bašić

What is a poor human creature in this side of the world? A snail on a way that is not its own, a bird on the branch that is not its own. He has no time to look at what he leaves behind, and he has already stepped into someone else’s. That is the first step of a refugee, the shortest one, but the one giving the bitterest of pain. Afterwards it is followed by losing oneself and the darkness.

The novel Crnoturci of Husein Bašić deals with one of the ancient themes of world literature – the exodus. But the exodus that is the subject of Bašić’s interest is not burdened with a mythological aura of a biblical prototext but is focused on a particular episode of the Montenegrin history of the end of the 19^th century – departure of Nikšić Muslims from their homes after the “fall of Nikšić”, i.e. its merger to the Montenegrin state in 1877.

In the changed geopolitical circumstances, the Muslims of Nikšić embark on a long, uncertain journey into the mythical land of Karabakh. Two brothers, Jašar and Jakub Kuč, leave a choice of who will go and who will return to fortune. Pulling a longer straw, Jakub Kuč, with his family, continues his journey. The novel Crnoturci actually represents a painful chronicle of a refugee being abroad, between dream and reality, his journey from his native threshold into the unknown. In the manner of a skilled storyteller, Bašić recounts an ancient story about the departure and the uncertain fate of the refugees who leave behind the graves, a whole world, culture and identity, which disappear with their departure.

Husein Bašić was born on 1 February 1938 in Brezovice, near Plav.

He published collections of poetry Od sunca ogrlica (1970), Bestražje (1972), Prošle noći (1974), Utra (1979), Jato u nevidjelu (1980), Breme (1986), Uzma (1986), Glasovi s vode (1987), Kad su gorjele Božije kuće (1994) and Čuma (1997), books of stories Neviđena zemlja (1973), Trpija (1984) and Vjetar s Prokletija (1985), novels Tuđe gnijezdo (1980), Krivice I and Krivice II (1986), Kolovrat (1993), Crnoturci (1996), Pusta vrata – Krivice III (1998) and a cycle of novels Zamjene 1−5 (Tuđe gnijezdo, Kapija bez ključa, Kosti i vrane, Pusto tursko and Bijeli Azijati) (2000).

He received numerous awards including the “Isak Samokovlija” Award (1973), the July 13th Award (1981), the Charter of Kulin Ban (2005)… He was included in numerous anthologies of Montenegrin and Bosnian literature.

He was the President of the Writers Association of Montenegro and the member of the Montenegrin PEN Centre, the Montenegrin Society of Independent Writers and the Duklja Academy of Sciences and Arts.

He died in Podgorica on 3 November 2007.