User:Hmusovich/Avdo Musovich

Haji Avdo Musovich was a notable Montenegrin sailor and Vice president and longest serving committee member of the New Zealand Muslim Association.

Early life
Avdo Mušović was born in Rasavo, Montenegro, on 26 January 1919, the son of Hamo Mušović and Bega Mušović (Muslić). His family were descended from a Turkish governor of the territory, the Sandžak of Novibazar (a former Ottoman district currently divided between Serbia and Montenegro) during the Ottoman period. His mother Bega died only three days after his birth. His uncle on his mothers side, Began Muslić, took him to his village of Sahovici (now Tomasevo) where he was looked after by his mothers sister Sedva Sahović, amongst her own children. Avdo's father soon remarried, to his dead wifes cousin, Naja Muslić, with whom he had 3 more children.

At the age of five in 1924, Avdo was a witness to the Šahovići massacre, where hundreds of men were killed by a mob of Orthadox Christians. His Godfather, a Postmaster, gave a warning and Avdo's father and uncle (fathers brother) escaped into the woods, while Avdo was hidden in the postmaster's loft. A 1992 Auckland newspaper interview detailed his account of the massacre:

"I saw blood everywhere. Terrible. And I started screaming. One woman came over and said ‘You little devil. What are you doing here? The people are mad’. And with a stick she gave me a hiding and she took me back to the post office."

After the massacre Avdo moved to Blijelo Polje with his Father and Step-Mother and their children.

Avdo was a troublemaker as a child, and he was once caught attempting to steal fruit from his uncle Selim's orchard so he ran away to the main bridge and dived off into the river Lim to escape. The rivers current took him to Brodarevo, just over the border into Serbia. In Bijelo Polje his family organized a search however with no luck they assumed he must have drowned. Avdo decided not to return to Bilje Polje for fear of punishment but as he was contemplating his choices an army convoy drove past so he spontaneously jumped onto the back of one of the trucks. He got off the truck in Niksić, Montenegro, where the convoy had been heading.

In Niksić he found the marketplace where he scavenged for food and made some friends with local children, one of these children told his father about Avdo. The father recognized his surname as that of the locally famous Hamza Mušović, Captain of Niksić in the days of the Turkish Empire (in fact Avdo's third great uncle), and so he let Avdo stay with them once he heard that he was an orphan. He stayed there for about a month before he got into a fight with one of the sons and decided to leave.

Avdo somehow made his way to way to Trebinje, Herzegovina, which was a good 50km away from Niksić. There, exhausted, he fell asleep on the roadside. He was found by Nazif Rasulović, a local, who took him to his house and fed him. He stayed with Nazif and his family for around 2-3 months before, like in Niksić, he got into a fight in Nazif's son and moved on. From there he walked all the way to Dubrovnik in southern Croatia, about 25km away.

Family Life
Avdo Musovich married Sadika Dilberović from Mekavci, Herzegovina in 1950 and they had three children: Miralem, Remzi, and Suad.

Death
Avdo died on November 16th 2001 at his home aged 82, because of a long illness.