Writer, painter and cartoonist, Zulfikar Zuko Džumhur (1920-1989), should receive a memorial plaque in Herceg Novi, where he lived for 20 years. The writer is famous for saying: "There are cities that hold your soul because they have a past. Herceg Novi has both soul and history", reports Vijesti on April 4, 2018.
The decision to set up a memorial plaque should be taken by the members of the Herceg Novi local parliament at a session scheduled on Thursday.
The initiative for a memorial to the famous writer is more than two decades old, and four years ago it was rebuilt when it was signed by 14 newspaper intellectuals, writers, painters, and journalists. Among them was the famous Montenegrin painter Vojo Stanić and writer Miraš Martinović, who also live in Herceg Novi.
"Finally, after addressing the many setbacks that had been shifting the Herceg Novi authorities for the past twenty years, and who had no sense or desire to have Zuk Džumhur mark their city where, as his permanent residence, he spent many years, he will finally have a memorial in Herceg Novi - the city he loved, the one he spoke about, where he recorded many shows and wrote numerous articles," Martinović said.
Martinović points out that, as someone who initiated the initiative, he only has words of praise for the current government with President Stevan Katić, who has "shown goodwill for this but also for other actions.
There is still not a decision about the location where the memorial plaque of Zuko Džumhur will be implemented. The initiators suggested that it be near the former Herzegovina café, at the Herzegovinian market, where Džumhur spent hours talking to his friends and acquaintances.
Zulfikar Zuko Džumhur, a travel writer, painter and cartoonist, was born in Konjicu on September 24, 1920. He came from an old, respectable Ulemanian family and finished elementary school and lower secondary school in Belgrade, where his father worked as Imam, and higher Gymnasium in Sarajevo in 1939.
Zuko began studying law, but he moved to the Academy of Fine Arts and finished in the class of Petar Dobrović. He published the first drawings in the People's Army in 1947, and since then, he worked as a caricaturist and illustrator in "Hedgehog", "Borba", "Politika", "Oslobodjenju", the magazine "Danas", and NIN as a permanent contributor and editor. He published more than 10,000 caricatures. He wrote scripts for several short films and created 35 theatre scenes. Over the last ten years, he worked for Sarajevo Television as scriptwriter and host of the series "Hodoljublje". Džumhuro's versatile giftedness and wit were greatly expressed in many media, but he was most memorable for his drawings, caricatures and travelogues. The first book of Džumhur, a great collection of the travelogues "Necrolog in one bazaar", was released with a preface of Ivo Andrić.
Zuko died on November 27, 1989, at the hotel „Plaža“ in Herceg-Novi. They say that he said to his woman, "I'm going now, Vezira," grabbed her hand and died.
He was buried two days later in his native Konjicu.
This article was translated from an article by Slavica Kosić on Vijesti.me Zuko Džumhur receives a memorial in Herceg Novi
