Shqipdona Ademi

Pristina | Date: February 5, 2018 | Duration: 4 minutes

Shqipdona Ademi (1996), student, Skenderaj


Aurela Kadriu (Interviewer), Donjeta Berisha (Camera)

Shqipdona Ademi

Shqipdona Ademi: Shqipdona Ademi, 21 years old.

Aurela Kadriu: Shqipdona, do you remember the summer of 2007? I mean, how do you remember the summer of 2007?

Shqipdona Ademi: The summer of 2007, like all other summers before the declaration of independence, they were filled with news and as children we found that boring. We wanted to go out and play or… But most of the time as kids we improvised games in which we played having a state. We still didn’t know, and we were represented only by the Albanian flag. This was more special, maybe the celebrations of all that happened, which we had at school, were more  special.

Aurela Kadriu: When did you first hear, or when did you realize for the first time that Kosovo will declare independence?

Shqipdona Ademi: Mostly I heard it on television, my parents watched the news. Everywhere they said that, you know, they will declare independence. but we would not believe it. You know, it did not seem like a near reality.

Aurela Kadriu: Did you think, did you think what this independence means, since you were very young?

Shqipdona Ademi: Yes, you know, sometimes I would ask my mother, “Why are we like this, since we have a prime minister, why are we not a state?” Then she would explain that we were at war, that America helped us now. It created some institutions for us, but they’re not ours until we declare independence, we have our own flag, our anthem… These, there wasn’t that, you know, we asked a lot of questions… Maybe from all the questions it was, “When will it be declares?” This was the biggest and as kids we weren’t at all interested in what independence is…

Aurela Kadriu: Where were you on the day of the declaration of independence?

Shqipdona Ademi: On the day of the declaration of independence we were at home. It was a Sunday. I was with my family. As soon as we woke up in the morning we sat in front of the television, I don’t know, I don’t remember if we ate. I think we didn’t, we just stood there until two, when the session of the declaration was held. None of us moved from there.

Aurela Kadriu: And after, after the declaration of independence can you tell us how you celebrated with your family? Maybe details…

Shqipdona Ademi: After the declaration of independence, my father with, they were mostly the men of the neighborhood, they went to Skenderaj, to our city, to celebrate and they did not come back until late at night. And what was special about this day is that all of those who could not go with a car or something walked. So most of the people of the village where we live walked there, and they walked back, you know, at ten at night.

I wasn’t in the city that day but my father tells us that nobody went home without eating the independence cake and that the independence cake had a special flavor and my father says he has never tasted that kind of cake, but maybe it all depended on that day.

Aurela Kadriu: In your family what, what did you talk about that day? What did you hear the most from your parents?

Shqipdona Ademi: In our family after the independence [declaration] there was a lot of silence. Maybe the case that we had in our family, my mother’s brother was killed, she felt sad and we were all silent. Maybe my father mostly went out because he could see my mother sad like that and… I saw that my mother’s eyes were filled with tears but, you know, she always hid them from us. So mostly we spent the independence day in silence, a lot of people called to congratulate us, but the declaration of independence made us feel more hurt than happy.

Aurela Kadriu: Thank you very much, Shqipdona.

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