The Liliesleaf Trust UK collaborated with Newington Green Meeting House (NMGH) to celebrate refugee week on 23rd June 2022, bringing together members of London’s diasporic communities for an evening of Intergenerational conversation around themes of exile, identity and community.
As an introduction to the evening, Amy Todd from NGMH reminded us of the historical significance of the setting; forward-looking and firmly engaged with social justice. In the past, the Newington Green Meeting House was the home of dissenters. Dissenters were those who rejected the Church of England. Because this implied a rejection of the monarchy, dissenters were not given full civil rights – they could not take civil office or attend university. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the congregation’s drive for social justice continued with inter-faith projects in the 1950s and the campaign for equal marriage rights in the early 21st century.
The evening started with the screening of Yannick Oho Bambe’s thought-provoking film ‘When Humanity Knocked on Our Doors,’ which shed light on the experience of refugees in Calais. As he introduced his film, Yannick, the film’s Director, told us he always admired “radical lovers,” those activists willing to participate in social changes. In his film, the radical lovers are those volunteers working in the “Calais Jungle.” Whether setting up a temporary school, bringing food, clothes, or cooking, they were united through their willingness to help and make a difference. Throughout the film, people navigate between trauma and hope. One volunteer highlighted the Western paradox, claiming that people live in a civilised society when they are uncivilised towards refugees. The screening was followed by a Q&A session with Yannick (pictured below).
The evening brought together attendees and panellists in an intergenerational conversation. The panellists were Teodora Kosanović (film-maker and photographer), who came to the UK as a child during the war in former Yugoslavia, Anna-Zohra Tikly (author and activist) daughter of South African activists, and her son, Ishmael Tikly-Young, and Fernanda Milán (who joined by zoom), from Guatemala who was the first transgender person to be granted asylum in Denmark.
Moderated by Liliesleaf Trust UK’s Research and Content Lead, Nadia Joseph, the conversation converged around the ideas of safety, belonging, and home. Anna-Zhora, explained that when her father, South African exiled activist Mohammed Tikly came to the UK as an exile, racism was quite present – visibly and emotionally – in British society. However, she and her family felt a sense of belonging with the exiled South African diaspora, predominantly based in North London, and within the British activist community. Her son, Ishmael, then spoke about what this meant for him in terms of legacy and regards his sense of identity today. Fernanda explored themes of safety; she came to Denmark as a refugee from Guatemala and whilst felt safe from the immediate threat she experienced in Guatemala she also suffered prejudice and abuse on arrival before settlement and making new friends and family in Denmark. Teodora pointed out how safety came from the goodness of individual people rather than the state, a sentiment which resonated deeply with all the panellists. Finally, the panel discussed the notion of home and explored how a home is not necessarily defined as a physical place but more as an idea of care or community. The audience participated in a wider discussion with the panelists and this raised how anti-racist struggles are deeply intertwined with socio-economic struggles and that true inclusion means access to full participation across all aspects of society.
Throughout the evening, those different voices showed us that refugees cannot be considered a mass but are individuals with their own stories of trauma and hope. This intergenerational conversation also demonstrated that issues which refugees and migrant people encounter thread throughout history and continue today.
Written by Alinta Sara, Heritage and Community Engagement Manager, July 2022
