Paper short abstract:

In this ethnography of white water rafting in the ethnically homogenised town of Foča we explore the submerging and resurfacing of the violent pasts of eastern Bosnia's waterways.

Paper long abstract:

As it did so, albeit in violent ways during war water now plays a central role in the post-war reconstruction of eastern Bosnia's borderlands. For example, the rivers where ethnic Others were drowned and disposed of are now rebranded as sites for experiencing the near death thrill of white water rafting. In this ethnography of rafting in the erstwhile majority Muslim and now majority Serbian town of Foča we explore the strategies deployed by hosts and the complicities between hosts and guests to render submerged the rivers' pasts. However, we describe also how these pasts resurface in unpredictable ways that, ultimately destabilise the town's dominant narratives of post-war reconstruction.