BRANKO GOLUBOVIĆ (Šabac, 1968) is best known to the general public as the frontman of the Šabac punk band “Goblini”. He founded this band in 1992, together with Alen Jovanović, Vladislav Kokotović and Zoran Jovanović. They issued nine albums, and they held successful concerts all over former Yugoslavia. After their Zagreb concert in 2001, they decided disband, due to the private obligations of the members. Soon afterwards, Branko Golubović, a graduate agricultural engineer, decided to dedicate himself to humanitarian work. He lived and worked in peace missions in former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Georgia, Ethiopia and Jordan.

In the second half of the 1990s, together with Stevan Marinković, he was the author and presenter of the radio show “Black Dwarf Ritual (Ritual crnog patuljka)”, broadcasted by Radio 99 (Šabac Radio II Programme).

“Goblini” reactivated in the summer of 2010, and have since then been one of the most important Serbian and regional bands.

After the book Letters from Afghanistan, Golubović published a book of autobiographical prose entitled Crumpled Thoughts (Izgužvane misli) (Dallas Records, 2018).

For the four years that I spent in Afghanistan, almost fifty humanitarian workers lost their lives, and a dozen was kidnapped. During the four years, I developed immense respect for the people living and working in Afghanistan. Believe me, there is no money that can cushion the blow of being thousands of kilometres away from home, family and friends… Humanitarians are mostly young, bursting with energy and belief in what they are doing. It is this belief that motivates them, not allowing them to be detracted by the negative things they encounter at every step.

IVAN TOMAŠEVIĆ, actor and director, principal drama artist of the Šabac City Theatre. He received a number of awards and accolades for his work. Independently from his engagement in the Šabac Theatre, together with actress Aneta Tomašević, he founded an independent theatre troupe named “Scena Maska” in which he facilitates theatrical exploration, as he acts, directs and engages in pedagogical work.

STRAIGHT-FROM-THE-SHOULDER TRAVEL GUIDE

Apart from presenting a country in the manner of a travelogue, as controversial as Afghanistan itself, in his letters, Branko Golubović offers something more: an authentic, insider’s look at the often perilous everyday existence. Yet his depiction is ironic, immediate and with a dose of healthy humour.

From his punk rock days spent in the band “Goblini” right down to his peace-keeping days spent in Afghanistan, Branko Golubović preserved his energy, anarchist attitude, his resolution to utter straight-from-the-shoulder truths and to write without mincing his words. Regardless of whether he speaks of cafés, strange nutritional habits that you must obey as a foreigner, or in a manner of a tourist guide points your attention to cultural heritage, climate characteristics, or relationships between sexes, or eventually turns to more provocative subjects of opium, hashish, weapons, political situation and endless armed conflicts (in the author’s words, there are nine wars raging in Afghanistan!), Golubović never loses sight of the situation’s complexity and the paradoxes inherent in both his peace-keeping role and Afghanistan as a country. The most valuable feature of his letters lies exactly in this characteristic and honest perspective on such topical subjects: in writing this unusual travelogue, Golubović uses facts, without embellishing them, or making them more dramatic, but he also provides a deeply personal description of the environment and circumstances he found himself in.