SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Oral tradition and archival engagement among the Somali diaspora in London

Notorious for war and piracy, Somalia is also celebrated as a nation of poets with a vast oral heritage.  Emma Brinkhurst’s PhD research explored the ways in which Somali song, music and poetry have continued, evolved and adapted in the King’s Cross area of London, which has become home to an increasing number of Somali residents since the early 1990s when Somalia’s civil war escalated.  This presentation will feature examples of Somali community members renewing, constructing and expressing sense of belonging to different locales and group identities through composing, listening to and performing song and poetry.  It will also consider the potential of sound archives – specifically the British Library’s World and Traditional Music section, which neighbours the Somali community in King’s Cross – to support the continuation of oral tradition and impact upon individual and collective memory processes within diasporic communities.

Emma recently completed her PhD at Goldsmiths, in association with the British Library.  Her research was supported by a Collaborative Doctoral Award funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.  Her work focused on the continuation of oral traditions in the Somali community of King’s Cross. Through her doctoral research she facilitated community engagement with archival sound recordings at the British Library.  From 2003-2007 Emma was Project Manager for the arts education charity Create.