Watermills were an important link for centuries in the survival power of flowing water and were driven by waterwheels, and millers grinded wheat day and night for usury (part of the flour belonging to the miller, payment of milling). Today, the once unavoidable architecture of every neighborhood along the river or a larger stream is almost relegated to oblivion.
The owner of the last watermill on the river Fojnica in the neighborhood Buci near Visoko, which was known for its large number of mills, Milica Džafić told Fena about the business of milling, on its involvement in the era of industrialization and of the value of the mill in the war.
Džafić started to work in the watermill towards the end of the 1990’s, and lived by the mill for about 20 years. The tradition of Džafić’s family continued. Her husband was killed during the conflict in B&H, and Džafić and her four children decided to operate the watermill, which is over 100 years old.
She said that the watermill on the left bank of Fojnica on the road towards Visoko-Kiseljak was bought by Nazif Džafić, the father of her father-in-law Nezir, from the state, in the former Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During that time, as she recalls the stories of her father-in-law, the watermill was a cooperative mill that had employees, and which was taken care of by members of the state security. They monitored the grain inputs and outputs.
(Source: Fena)
