Part One
Anita Susuri: If you can introduce yourself and tell something about your origin.
Burhan Kavaja: My name is Burhan Kavaja, I was born on May 9, 1943. Officially I’m registered on May 20 because my father was late to register me and they told him, “You are very late, we have to fine you.” He said, “Then register him on May 20.” My parents were Hajrullah and Xhevahire. Hajrullah was a
craftsman, a tailor, who had his own shop for 65 years. Actually, when we wanted him to stay home, to not work, he said, “I can’t not open my shop even if you give me gold.” He was a hard worker, zealous, and very honest. My mother was a housewife who raised four sons and three daughters. One of her daughters, Shivizati, died at 21 years old. The rest of us were educated, clean, we are thankful to our mother Xhevahire. Three of my brothers and one of my sisters are still alive.
It is very interesting because the movements of the Kavaja family were from Kavaja to Prizren, Topxhiu, Qerkaxhiu, then when they went to Gjakova, they were called Kovaçi, when they came in ‘42, ’43 in Prishtina they were called Mustafa, the name of my grandfather. After they insisted on officially writing them as Mustafić, my father decided to write Kavaja based on his origin. In 1951, the surname on the official page of Yugoslavia was changed from Mustafa to Kavaja. We’ve had this name ever since. As a graduate engineer, I have worked in many countries, later I will also present the history of my work. Primary education …
Anita Susuri: We’ll talk about your education later, I want to talk about your parents more. Where did your father have his shop?
Burhan Kavaja: My father had a shop in Mitrovica, near the Mitrovica market, for a very long time. As I said, he had the shop for 65 years, even when he couldn’t work, he went there. Recently, the last 15-16 years of his life, he traveled from Prishtina, after me and all my brothers moved from Mitrovica to Prishtina, he lived with my third brother, Ramadan. He had a harmonious life, a life which his visions were what contributed to that harmony. He never insisted for us to be neighbors, on the contrary, he asked each of us to be in four corners of the city, not to be near.
But, that wasn’t a reason for us to not eat breakfast together every Sunday. Since we’re Muslims, we spent Eid together each year when my parents were alive. But, on Sundays it felt like a wedding because we each had our family, each had our obligations, sometimes we had more income from a dry cleaner our family had in Mitrovica, we would split the income in four ways. And that enabled us to have a solid life, without obstacles. But, our education had obstacles.
I finished primary and high school in Mitrovica, then the Technical High School was opened, I continued there. I was the number-one student at the Technical High School, but not the first one to graduate, I graduated later. However, it enabled me to be a student at the University of Belgrade in Belgrade, where I graduated six months ahead of schedule. There was a problem with the diploma and I needed a special permit because I didn’t need to register for the ninth semester to graduate. However, everything was arranged and I graduated in Belgrade with excellent grades.
I finished the third-degree school in Zagreb, I had prepared for my Ph.D… it’s interesting, I want to tell you, I didn’t do my thesis defense. Because I had prepared a special field of safety technique at the Labor Institute which was in Nis. Before defending my thesis, they conditioned me to give them a project somewhere around twelve thousand marks, money for the Institute. I was the general director in Hani i Elezit at that time, at the cement factory, and it seemed absurd to me to give them twelve thousand euros for a project, because before that, we had established the Labor Institute in Obiliq. And I was one of the people who had contributed to the establishment of that Institute and to give them twelve thousand euros, it seemed absurd to me, even though they canceled my doctorate and since then I didn’t receive a doctorate. However, this was not a reason not to continue other educational, scientific, and engineering activities. I would like to tell you a little about my work history.
Anita Susuri: Before we continue to work history…
Burhan Kavaja: Yes.
Anita Susuri: I want to ask you because it’s important, you were born in ‘43, so during the Second World War, do you have childhood memories, what was it like after the war ended? What was the environment you grew up in like, where you played or went to school? Because it was a hard and overwhelming war, what kind of consequences did it have where you lived? In your family?
Burhan Kavaja: Yes, yes, since I was a child basically born during the war, because the war was still going on. I remember because my father at that time… he told because I was one year old, I don’t remember, he carried his sewing machine to Zhabar, a village near Mitrovica, and he worked there until Mitrovica was liberated, on November 23, ‘44. My whole childhood was connected to my parents’ activities (smiles). As a child I would go help my father every day, I remember as a five-six year old I would step in a wooden crate to help my father iron the clothes he had sewn. So, I didn’t have a childhood with games, with playfulness.
The only special amusement at that time were the so-called tačkicat, which were coupons which were given for food, in those coupons there were also coupons for chocolates. That was my fun, the best food during childhood. Often, when my father didn’t have much work, we slept without eating dinner. However, since we were many children, we would think of that as a kind of harmony, joy and (laughs) when there was nothing to eat, we would still lift our spirits up and spend the night easily.
I started school at five years old. Back then, there was the cooking school, I remember I had a teacher who… I will never forget her. She was Enis Presheva’s sister, who taught me in the first grade. After her there was Vilma Shkreli and I finished primary school with extraordinary teachers. They didn’t have the same education as teachers do today, but they were everything to us {shakes his head}. Until we could write beautifully, they didn’t let us pass the first grade.
So, I finished primary school with teachers who were enthusiastic and had aspirations for young generations of Albanians to get educated, I am thankful. And those generations created a youth in Mitrovica who held all the technical, technological, educational, and cultural achievements in their hands.
Anita Susuri: How do you remember Mitrovica at that time, what was it like?
Burhan Kavaja: (Deep sigh) I think Mitrovica was a special city. With an industry, the mine, foundry and objects of plants, which no other city in Kosova had. Actually it was a city of miners. As children, when people got their salaries in Trepça, since those two-three days were a mess to get supplied with food, or clothes since most of them worked in Trepça. Trepça was a city which experienced everything from English colonies. It had a pool, tennis fields, ball halls, it had everything in Stari Trg and Zveçan and also Mitrovica.
There was a cosmopolitan youth and there were all those who initially didn’t even have nationalist background. Later on it started, it is true that at that time, according to the statistics I saw later, 73 percent in Trepça and other productive organizations were of Serbian nationality. With the change of this structure, there was jealousy, unbearable situations were created that took the direction of nationalism.
Anita Susuri: Are we talking about the ‘50s?
Burhan Kavaja: We’re talking about ‘47, ‘48, ‘50 and then later ‘60s. The English had left the tennis fields and the pool when they left here. So in ‘44-’45, and only Germans inherited those, they knew how to use them. The English worked in Trepça from the year ‘48 [‘28] to ‘41. In ‘41, the Germans came….
Korab Krasniqi: ‘28 until ‘41 right? 1928 until ‘41.
Burhan Kavaja: Yes. Let me tell you a story (smiles) that might be a bit historical. After the imprisonments and such, I was in England and I went to the English parliament and asked, “Why don’t you take your shares that you have in Trepça?” To be honest, I wanted them to belong to the British and not Serbs. The English parliamentarians said, “Sir, we will look at these and we will meet after a couple of days.” After a couple of days we met, they told me, “We have no income there. We don’t have any capital, because in the ‘50s it was paid by the former Yugoslavia.”
Later I read literature that Tito had paid all those obligations of the English, of course under pressure and they had also given up their shares that they had in Trepça, Yugoslavia had paid them all . And for the first time I had the opportunity in that parliament, although I was in Trepça, but I never saw the history of covering the expenses of the shares that Yugoslavia made for Trepça.
Anita Susuri: I wanted to ask you about Mitrovica, what kind of city it was, its appearance after the Second World War, did you notice the damage, how do you remember it?
Burhan Kavaja: Very good question because it stimulates my nostalgia (smiles). Mitrovica with two large rivers, Sitnica and Ibar, in addition to having amazing cleanliness, enabled the youth, the children to learn swimming. To experience all the benefits that rivers give, the rivers that flow through Mitrovica. Mitrovica had a Dom [Srb. house] of Culture, in the ‘50s, ‘60s, there were societies that dealt with folklore, music, but there were also clubs that organized radio broadcasting and photo clubs. Fortunately, at that time, I was in all those clubs both as photo-amateur and as radio-amateur, because in Mitrovica all of them were organized, in the years of the ’50s.
Anita Susuri: Was this through the school, or you were engaged individually?
Burhan Kavaja: No, through the city. Within the city they were organized as clubs, they were financed partly by the Municipality, partly by the participants there. It was something that I believe other cities in Kosovo didn’t experience at that time. No, Prizren. Prizren was an extremely good city, rich, with culture, but Mitrovica had its industry, it had income, it had the opportunity to develop cultural-artistic life in every aspect.
Anita Susuri: I know that the Ibar Bridge was demolished several times, rebuilt, do you remember how it was then?
Burhan Kavaja: Of course, of course. The Ibar Bridge is one of the bridges of that time, a special bridge, made out of metal. It was built partly with forging, which was narrow, but it had its own characteristic that, when the horse carriage passed, the whole bridge shook from the horses’ legs movement (smiles). It was a special characteristic and as children we used to go to the bridge and hang out there and see how the bridge is moving, how the bridge is shaking. Of course, there were places on the bridge where we swam as children, Gjana, it was part of Kekiqi, Kekiqi mill. I want to give you a very short story about the Kekiq mill.
It was a mill with extremely great historical values, built before the war, and after the war it was completely demolished because no one maintained it. When I was in “Sharr” of Hani i Elezit, I proposed and brought the decision to help with the construction material from “Sharr” in Mitrovica for the construction of the Kekiq Mill, that mill was a special story for us. And the nostalgia for the time when we went for Shëngjergj with shelne, and there we also took the stinging nettles, these are the things a person experiences once in a lifetime and never again, you can just remember them.
Anita Susuri: Are shelne flowers, a game, what?
Burhan Kavaja: Shelne…
Anita Susuri: For people who don’t know (laughs)
Burhan Kavaja: Look… shelne are… I think they’re called like that in Albanian also {shrugs}. Like those {point behind} there.
Anita Susuri: Willows?
Burhan Kavaja: Willows, willows. This is it (laughs).
Anita Susuri: (laughs) So we’ll understand…
Burhan Kavaja: Yes, yes.
Anita Susuri: Okay, I wanted to ask you something about your dad’s shop, because it seemed interesting to me, of course, you remember who came there to tailor clothes, were they people of the highest rank or who were rich, or …?
Burhan Kavaja: At that time, mostly those who were in positions, or employed at Trepça, tailored clothes. After a short time, they all decided to buy their clothes abroad. Because they thought my father tailored old-school clothes. Therefore, he continued with his craft and over 80 percent of the villagers got their clothes at my father’s shop.. He was a craftsman who… I think he was the third in all of Mitrovica at that time, and he was a skinny, tall and very hardworking man (smiles).
One Sunday I insisted on going to go see the game. Mostly because I didn’t want to leave him alone in the store, but I also needed a little fun at the time. He decided and came with me, we went there, we were watching the game when some jevg[1] children {shows the height of the children with his hand}, they were collecting all the excess that had fallen when they built the stadium, they were collecting it with buckets and they were taking it home. My father saw them, he said, “Burhan, they are doing this for idare [survival] and I’m here watching the game! You stay here, I’m going.” (laughs). He left me at that stadium.
Korab Krasniqi: Which game was it?
Burhan Kavaja: Well, at that time, they played Trepça, Rudar, a game… Trepça was also in the fourth league. It was a football league which in that part of Serbia won a lot. Since we were in the same leagues as Serbia, Kraljevo, Kragujevac, and Belgrade.
[The interview cuts here]
Burhan Kavaja: I can say that at that time with no national differences, there were common entertainments. Fortunately, I lived near where I worked in Mitrovica, in the center of the city at the House of Armata and in the House of the Armata dance courses were organized twice a week…
Korab Krasniqi: Is this building now a museum?
Burhan Kavaja: I don’t understand?
Korab Krasniqi: The House of Armata, is it a museum today, are we talking about that?
Burhan Kavaja: No, it was demolished.
Korab Krasniqi: It was demolished.
Burhan Kavaja: It was demolished. In the House of Armata, dance classes were held twice a week. And as children, we used to go there, we were participants in those dance courses. But, two other days of the week, there were musical instrument courses. Those who knew, there were Tumbaku brothers, they were Serbs, all of them practiced and later they were in the elite of instrumentalists, who represented Mitrovica both in Kosovo and outside Kosovo.
So, there was a cultural-entertaining life, surprisingly much bigger than now. Perhaps the condition and the low standard of living have somehow enabled everyone to socialize and be in some way the same {move hands parallelly} to attend all those courses. As has been the case, for example, with other cities, our youth knew how to dance, knew how to have fun, we had the theater. In other words, Mitrovica had a cultural and artistic life in the ‘50s and ‘60s, which was an example for other areas.
Anita Susuri: Did you go to the theatre as a child?
Burhan Kavaja: Yes, yes. Not only did I go to the theatre, but I also took part in plays. Of course in the background (smiles) but I was part of that theatre. I remember Don Quixote and some other plays which were funny at that time.
Anita Susuri: What was it like then… because I think there was a special kind of outfit you had to wear if you went to the theatre.
Burhan Kavaja: I don’t know, at that time it seemed everyone looked the same, we all took part. I don’t think there was any difference or division between the rich or poor or the educated or the uneducated people, because we all had roughly the same education. Either we finished elementary school or we had started high school. We know that, even when we started as students at the Technical High School, we had organized Blue Evenings and various other topics in Mitrovica. Mitrovica was a vibrant city. Believe me, people from big cities often came to visit their families, they said, “You have an extremely good life here.” Yes, we had it, we had it. However, when the period of work and the struggle for existence came, all that entertainment was forgotten, those things that were important.
Korab Krasniqi: Mister Burhan, I wanted to take you back if you don’t mind. I wanted to ask you about your mother, Xhevahire, how do you remember her, what was she like?
Burhan Kavaja: Unfortunately, I remember her as a woman who was extremely hardworking and to this day I remember her feet in nallune,[2] red, in the snow, when she washed our clothes. Soaps were rare then, I’m talking about when I was a child, then it was completely different, she had to wash us, clean us, with those clothes that we had. But at that time she didn’t have socks, but with nallune, with red feet in the yard, and nallune were often covered with snow.
I mean it was a story of experience. However, my mother, Xhevahire, never consumed oil. Never in life have they smeared [the oil] of plants because it has been put in their mouths. It happened that when she was invited to dinners or weddings, she ate the bread only with a pepper. Because she didn’t know if they used oil. She only consumed butter when we had it, she lived 96 years. Surprisingly, my father lived 76 years, she lived 96 years. She also fasted during Ramadan, but the characteristic that was surprising for all of us was that she never consumed oil. Is it surprising for you too, or not? [Addresses interviewers] (laughs)
Anita Susuri: (laughs) It is very good, but it seems unachievable for us.
Korab Krasniqi: You told us about your siblings, you said you have three brothers.
Burhan Kavaja: Yes.
Korab Krasniqi: And two sisters, one of them…
Burhan Kavaja: Died. Shivizat died.
Korab Krasniqi: Can you tell us about the dynamics between your sister, brothers?
Burhan Kavaja: Shivizat died when she was 21 years old, in ‘61. We were four brothers and our sister Shukrije, who is now retired, but she worked as a teacher, we all helped our mother. This is where I want to mention what harmony in the family is. We had such a great harmony that when we woke up from bed in the morning, all of us helped our mother make the beds. Of course the mattresses were on the floor {moves his hand as if touching the mattresses} we layed like sardines there. Our little sister was very small.
If we needed to help our mother with something we didn’t call each other by name Ramadan, Rexhep, Orhan but number one, number two, number three, “Help mother. Go help her!” (smiles) There was great harmony. My second brother, Orhan, is now in London with his family, he migrated around 20 years ago. My third brother, Rasimi or Ramda, has two names, he is here, retired, mechanical engineer. He has two daughters, two sons, they’re all okay. They have an average life.
Anita Susuri: Why does he have two names?
Burhan Kavaja: (Smiles) My father went and registered him as Rasim, when he came back my grandmother said, “Hajrullah, you know there’s Rasim Qerkagjiu. How did you name him?” He said, “Well I forgot, let’s name him Ramadan since he was born during Ramadan.” (laughs) Officially his name is Rasim but we call him Ramadan because we had a cousin who was named Rasim Qerkagjiun and my father forgot and… Rexhepi, graduated engineer, he worked at Elektrana, he’s now retired, he has a son and two daughters, they’re all married, children, nephews. They were here in the morning, we ate breakfast together, the nostalgia when we ate breakfast with our parents. My sister Shukria was a teacher, now she’s retired. She was a teacher, we were all educated by my father’s needle.
Anita Susuri: How did you decide to go into this field, did mining attract you because it was the city of the mine or…
Burhan Kavaja: I had been very interested in telecommunications since high school, low voltage. However, Trepça gave scholarships then, the scholarship was what forced me to go towards mining, because there was no financial opportunity to separate from my family and have income for studies, except for scholarships. Scholarships, loans were given to me and it was in a way what I faced as a freshman, as a student.
[1] Evgjit – a member of a group of inhabitants living in different parts of the Balkans, whose origin is associated with Egypt.
[2] Tur.: nalin, a kind of slippers with a wooden sole and a small strap on top.