Smajo in the media
Smajo is available for interview, broadcast appearances, podcast conversations, and media commentary. To discuss a potential appearance or request an interview, please get in touch with Smajo’s team.
/MEDIA
Smajo has written and been featured in national and international print and online media.
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The Bosnian War took everything from me – my home, my dad, uncles, and friends. Everything I once knew.
Read the full article here.
The Bosnian War took everything from me – my home, my dad, uncles, and friends. Everything I once knew.
Read the full article here.
How do we find our purpose in life? Some find their purpose through trial and error, meandering through life until they find what it is that makes them tick.
Read the full article here.
I was seven, and living in my hometown village of Barane, when the siege of Sarajevo by Serb forces began.
Read the full article here.
I visited Buckingham Palace last week to receive an O.B.E from King Charles III. I was named in the New Year honours list for my work on genocide and Holocaust education.
Read the full article here.
40-year-old Newcastle local Smajo reflects on his own family's journey to the UK, where he moved as a refugee, as he aims to dispel some of the 'myths' surrounding immigration.
Read the full article here.
A lecturer who survived the horrors of the Bosnian Genocide has warned not to be complacent and ignore lessons from the past.
Read the full article here.
When a teacher and her class learned a Bosnian song to welcome nine-year-old refugee Smajo, it changed his life. A moment of music, compassion and belonging that still resonates 30 years later.
Read the full article here.
Smajo on stage, on screen, and in conversation.
Watch & Listen
Teasing out the threads of nationalism that led to war in the former Yugoslavia.
Watch here.
A Bosnian refugee from the North East spoke to Scott Makin about fleeing the Balkans War.
Listen here.
Keynote address at the Holocaust Memorial Day Ceremony, City Hall, London — January 2025 (from 37 mins).
Watch here.
Smajo Beso shares his journey as a survivor of the Bosnian genocide and his experience as a refugee in the UK.
Listen here.
Books, Research, documentaries, Podcast & ideas
Research
Smajo is currently completing a PhD at Newcastle University on the Bosnian diaspora in the North East of England, the community he has lived in, and helped shape, since arriving as a refugee in 1994.
Drawing on oral histories with Bosnian refugees, their descendants, and the people who helped resettle them, the research is among the first to capture these stories in depth. It is being conducted in partnership with Discovery Museum and Tyne and Wear Archives, with the first public exhibition planned for July 2026.
The books
Smajo is currently writing two books.
The first is a literary memoir, the story behind the keynotes, told in full for the first time. It begins in Bosnia in 1992 and ends in Newcastle, tracing the arc of a childhood defined by war, genocide, and displacement, and the long journey back to belonging. It is the book that could only be written now, thirty years on.
The second draws on conversations with people across the world who have found their why, what gives their life meaning, how they found it, and what happens when they live by it. It is part exploration, part testimony, and part practical guide to the most important question any human being can ask themselves.
The podcast and documentary
Smajo is developing a podcast and documentary series exploring the same territory as his second book, the question of meaning and purpose, and the people who have found their answer to it under the most extraordinary circumstances.
Media enquiries
Smajo is available for interview, broadcast appearances, podcast conversations, and media commentary. To discuss a potential appearance or request an interview, please get in touch with Smajo’s team.
Email: contact@smajobeso.com
© 2026 Smajo Beso OBE