International Gallerie Magazine - Volume 19 No.1, 2016, MIGRATION

In this issue

A quick look at what has been recorded of Homo sapiens originated around 200,000 years ago, as fossils found at Omo Kibish in Ethiopia, verify that we have migrated through many moons and seasons, through wars, destruction, rehabilitation, and reinvention.
Such cruel irony then, that a civilisation having evolved from the earliest migrants in Africa, some 60,000 years ago, have “black”-listed their progenitors in our race-ridden world. The migration was believed to have been propelled by climate change.

In Kolkata: An Island Of Afghans

“…‘O Kabuliwala! Kabuliwala!’ and the two friends, so unequal in age, would subside into their old laughter and their old jokes…” so wrote Rabindranath Tagore in 1892, in his short story in Bengali, Kabuliwala, about a man from a distant land –– Afghanistan –– living in Calcutta [now Kolkata]. Since then, Kabuliwala has been translated into many Indian and foreign languages with cinematic adaptations and theatrical performances. While until a few decades ago, “real” Kabuliwalas were a common sight on the streets of Kolkata, as in most cities of north, west and central India, stereotypes have formed an ambiguous image of these people today. Moska Najib and Nazes Afroz, two journalist-cum-photographers, co-document the Kabuliwalas of Kolkata, tracing the social transformations within this community over the past 100 years. Shifting fates and cultural integration is intimated in Najib’s [An Afghan herself] own approach, as she articulates how the past accompanies migrants, either scribbled on a piece of paper, in a passport, in memories, and often in their changing geographies. Therefore, while Najib the photographer, scans her own Afghan identity, Afroz is in search of a people and a city [Kolkata] that was once his home.

2 mins

African Elites In India

Nowhere else in the world did Sub-Saharan Africans wield power over non-Africans for as long as they did on the Indian subcontinent. Migrant Africans rose to prominence in India as rulers, nobles, statesmen, soldiers, and merchants, or who came as servants, slaves, eunuchs, or concubines in the courts of Indian monarchs. They were known as Habshis and Siddis. Karnataka has the largest concentration of Indian Siddis, but African elites were found elsewhere in the Deccan, Gujarat, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Delhi and Bengal. ‘African Elites in India’ edited by Kenneth Robbins and John McLeod released by Mapin Publishing, is a profound study of the Siddi community, its origins and migration to the Indian subcontinent and its historical legacy. Here, Kenneth Robbins shares some of his reflections on the book.

4 mins

Jhumpa Lahiri. And The Lure Of A Language

This is a love affair that literally travels beyond boundaries. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri’s passion for the Italian language is intriguing as she was born in a Bengali family and her mother staunchly claimed and nurtured her Bengali space all though her 50 years in the U.S. as a migrant. Born in London in 1967, she emigrated to the U.S. with her parents; and even as she embraced the adopted land, Lahiri remained a nomad at heart. Her devotion for Italian took her with her family to live in Rome for a few years. Her recent book, In altre parole/In Other Words emerged from there. An autobiographical narrative in Italian, it is a reflection on the learning of a language, an enigmatic belonging to it and the power of reinvention. Having written it for the last few years, Lahiri feels an exhilarating transformation, almost like being reborn. Professor Ombretta Frau traces the journey of language and a migrant soul.

3 mins

Favianna Rodrigues. A Voice To Be Heard

Daughter of Peruvian migrants to the United States in the late 60s, Favianna Rodriguez, born in 1978, is an artist, activist, and a force to be reckoned with. Raised in East Oakland, California, after graduating from Hunters Lane High School in 1996, she received numerous scholarships and studied at the Berkeley University of California. Favianna’s earliest mentors were artists and movement leaders in the Chicano and Black Arts Movement. She uses her perspective as a child of migrant workers growing up in a high-crime area to forge her identity as a feminist and activist. While growing, not having witnessed positive images of women of colour in the media, later inspired her to work around issues of equality, race, interdependence, youth activism, and sexuality. When Rodrigues is not making art, she directs CultureStrike, a national arts organisation that engages artists, writers and performers in migrant rights. In 2009, she co-founded Presente.org, a national online organizing network dedicated to the political empowerment of Latino communities. In 2012, she was featured in a documentary series by Pharrell Williams Migration is Beautiful, which addressed how artists responded to failed immigrant policy in the United States. She currently lives and works from Oakland, California. Favianna Rodriguez shares her journey with us.

3 mins

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International Gallerie Magazine Description:

A Journey of Ideas
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