Stories of Uganda:
Transnational composite cultural memory as educational foundation
July 2021
‘We have to connect ourselves to our memory - it is not a call to return to a specific state of being, it links yesterday, today and tomorrow.’
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, 2008
Installed in the James Hatcham building for the MA Art and Learning exhibition is a small clay wall or shelter. On one side of it sits a collection of clay objects and on the other side, a cushion, headphones and Mp3 player - an invitation to sit and listen. Whilst you are listening to the sound (six minutes looped) you are provided with clay, in case what you hear lends itself to you making.
The words that you hear and the objects that are on show were given and created by two families of Ugandan heritage. Each family, living in London, worked with air drying clay whilst they discussed memories and stories of ‘back home’. This exercise aimed to explore how our sense of belonging ‘elsewhere’ might bring more security into the classroom as we build towards a more inclusive, representational curriculum and society.
At a smaller scale, it aimed to bring together family to discuss directly a subject that is often taken for granted, is consistently there but not focused on or held together by everyone in one space. Each object below references a thought, a memory, a story, a response to conversations.
The work in the MAAL exhibition is my response to the objects below and the stories that were given to me.
Thank you to Jackie, Blessing, Godwill and Abigail, to Matt, Aloysius and Juniper for their generosity, memories and stories. Thank you to Aida for her time, sharing tales of childhood back home.
