Memory Matters: Material Culture, heritage and identities in the UK African Diaspora

This project, funded by the HLF, is coordinated by Dr David Garbin (School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent) and Dr WG Pambu (CORECOG, Congolese refugee organisation in London) in partnership with the British Museum and CH@K. The project ‘Memory Matters’ will explore the link between identities, heritage, material culture and diasporic memory among the Congolese community in the UK, part of these ‘new African diasporas’ (Koser, 2003) who have developed in the 1990s in Europe and North America. The project has two main aims:

The first aim of the project is to document the ways in which multiple notions of ‘home’ are constructed and reconstructed in the context of the diaspora among both Congolese first generation migrants/refugees and young people. A focus on material culture, the ‘stuff of the diaspora’ (Crang, 2010) will provide insights into migration trajectories, diasporic lives, memories and identities. The idea is to explore and map the intersecting horizons of migration, mobility, and material cultures (Basu and Coleman 2008 see also Miller 2010). Through interviews about the use of objects and items of memory which have been used or collected in the British context or in the African context, before the arrival of Congolese migrants and refugees, the project will be able to reconstruct and archive memories and histories, linking objects to journeys and emotional/sensorial experiences. A focus on the temporal and spatial circulation of material culture will enable an understanding of the wider transnational social fields within which material culture and heritage are transmitted and exchanged ‘in motion’.

Main research questions:

  • How are identities in diaspora constructed, contested and maintained through material culture?
  • What is the role of intergenerational transmission in the constitution of a diasporic collective memory?
  • Can diasporic memory be materialised in circulating objects?
  • How are ethnic, gender and generational categories negotiated in relation to diasporic identity and memory in the British context?
  • How do second-generation youth relate to the ‘institutionalised’ notion of heritage and the space of the museum as a postcolonial mnesic site?

The second aim of the project is to engage in capacity-building activities with young volunteers who will be introduced in heritage work and who will, in turn, reflect about issues belonging and memory in relation to their cultural identities and social lives in multicultural Britain. Activities will be organised with the British Museum the main heritage partner and will consist of visits and focus groups. General aims of the projects in terms of participation and learning:

  • To engage British African youth in researching their material and immaterial heritage
  • To train and help young people gaining skills in research, heritage work and audio-visual techniques with the help of our academic partners and experts
  • To document and promote the notion of ‘common heritage’ in the multicultural borough of Newham, London
  • To make young people access heritage and history activities and institutions through visits and workshop involving our heritage partners
  • To produce long-lasting outputs and items through text and audio-visual archiving

For more information, please contact Dr Wa Gamoka Pambu, or Dr David Garbin.