Inua Ellams on Migration

06/20/22 • 33 min

When we migrate, can language help us feel at home? And how can words make us feel unwelcome? How does migration affect the ways we communicate and express ourselves in writing, poetry, performance?

In this episode, Lemn is joined by poet and playwright Inua Ellams to listen to some highlights from the British Library Sound Archive and explore the relationship between language and migration.

Inua Ellams wrote the Barber Shop Chronicles which sold out all its runs at the National Theatre in London. His recent show ‘An Evening With An Immigrant’ tells the story of ‘escaping fundamentalist Islam, experiencing prejudice and friendship in Dublin, and drinking wine with the Queen of England, all the while without a country to belong to or place to call home.’

Recordings in the episode in order of appearance:

Madhohu Rammutla performing Kgerere (Planting time). This piece is part of the Stanley Glasser Collection and the recording was made in Sheshego, South Africa in April 1975.

British Library shelfmark: C1671/6

A County Kerry Irish fiddle recording which is part of the Terry Yarnell Collection

British Library shelfmark: 1CDR0008122

A recording from 2012 of poet Kei Miller reading ‘The Only Thing Far Away’ from his collection 'Writing Down The Vision: Essays & Prophecies'.

British Library shelfmark: C1532/12

Mohlao Rapetswa performing the piece Kara (Buttermilk.) The recording was made in Ramokgopa, South Africa, in March 1975.

British Library shelfmark: C1671/3 C1

An interview with Mervyn and Elsie Maciel. The interviewer is Jill Chapman and it was recorded in January 1990. The recording has been digitised in Bristol by the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project.

British Library shelfmark: UBC034/103-104

Gilli Salvat describes her memories of arriving in England from India shortly after partition in 1948. The interview was recorded in 1986 by Allegra Damji. It’s part of a Hall-Carpenter oral history project which recorded gay and lesbian testimony in the 1980s/1990s. The collection has now been digitised by the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project.

British Library shelfmark: C456/40

Aragón C. L. Gabriel performing Paras in April 1981 in Cusco, Peru. The recording is part of the Peter Cloudsley Collection.

British Library shelfmark: C9_52 S1 C3

An interview with author Andrea Levy from 2014- this recording was part of the National Life Stories’ project, Authors’ Lives and the interviewer was Sarah O’Reilly.

British Library shelfmark: C1276/59

When we migrate, can language help us feel at home? And how can words make us feel unwelcome? How does migration affect the ways we communicate and express ourselves in writing, poetry, performance?

In this episode, Lemn is joined by poet and playwright Inua Ellams to listen to some highlights from the British Library Sound Archive and explore the relationship between language and migration.

Recordings in the episode in order of appearance:

Madhohu Rammutla performing Kgerere (Planting time). This piece is part of the Stanley Glasser Collection and the recording was made in Sheshego, South Africa in April 1975.

British Library shelfmark: C1671/6

A County Kerry Irish fiddle recording which is part of the Terry Yarnell Collection

British Library shelfmark: 1CDR0008122

A recording from 2012 of poet Kei Miller reading ‘The Only Thing Far Away’ from his collection 'Writing Down The Vision: Essays & Prophecies'.

British Library shelfmark: C1532/12

Mohlao Rapetswa performing the piece Kara (Buttermilk.) The recording was made in Ramokgopa, South Africa, in March 1975.

British Library shelfmark: C1671/3 C1

British Library shelfmark: UBC034/103-104

British Library shelfmark: C456/40

Aragón C. L. Gabriel performing Paras in April 1981 in Cusco, Peru. The recording is part of the Peter Cloudsley Collection.

British Library shelfmark: C9_52 S1 C3

An interview with author Andrea Levy from 2014- this recording was part of the National Life Stories’ project, Authors’ Lives and the interviewer was Sarah O’Reilly.

British Library shelfmark: C1276/59

Previous Episode

Sophie Willan on Home

Which sounds transport you home? Lemn is joined by BAFTA award-winning writer, actor, comedian and creator of the BBC’s Alma’s Not Normal, Sophie Willan, to ask this question. Together, they listen to stand-out recordings from the British Library Sound Archive (see credits below) to investigate what home means to us.

From Sophie’s thoughts on Lancashire phrases disappearing, to her memories of growing up in the care system, to a forgotten love of George Formby, the archive inspires a fascinating conversation.

This episode includes historical interviews that express the language and opinions of people recorded at that time.

Recordings in the episode in order of appearance:

A selection of phrases from the British Library’s The Evolving English WordBank. This is a collection of words and phrases, contributed by visitors to the Library’s Evolving English exhibition in 2010/11 who were asked to submit a word or phrase they felt was somehow ‘special’ in their variety of English.

1 - Barmpot - someone who’s very silly (Glasgow)

British Library shelfmark: C1442/1118

2 - Get the messages - to go shopping (Northern Ireland, County Down)

British Library shelfmark: C1442/05498

3 - As wick as a flea - as bright as a button (Oldham, Lancashire) and Dead Hook - a villain (Oldham, Lancashire)

British Library shelfmark: C1442/6017

A conversation about adoption between Swazi and her youngest son Khushbir. The recording was made as part of the Listening Project for the BBC in 2017 © BBC.

British Library shelfmark: C1500/1394/01

An interview with Joe Baxter speaking in 1992 about Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne and the area’s redevelopment in the 1970s with the construction of the Byker Wall. This was recorded by Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums and was digitised as part of the Unlocking our Sound Heritage project.

British Library shelfmark: UTWAM011/3

Sally Poole remembering her childhood in Kent as captured by the BBC in 1999 © BBC, recorded as part of the Millennium Memory Bank.

British Library shelfmark: C900/07623

A conversation recorded in 1978 between two women, Maureen and Pam, shortly after moving into high rise council houses in London. This interview is from a radio series created by the Inner London Education Authority and the BBC. It was found in the London Metropolitan Archives and was digitised as part of the Unlocking our Sound Heritage project.

British Library shelfmark: ULMA005/13

Ilkley Moor baht'at recorded by the BBC in 1940

British Library shelfmark: C604/111 C1-9

Next Episode

Amy Liptrot on the Sea

Where would our language be without the sea? Aground, adrift, the wind taken from our sails.

In today’s episode, Lemn is diving beneath the surface into the British Library Sound Archive (see full credits below) to hear how language, on this island nation, has been shaped by the sea.

To help on his quest, he’s joined by Scottish writer Amy Liptrot, whose 2018 memoir The Outrun won the PEN Ackerley Prize and the Wainwright Prize. In the book, Amy returns to the wildness of Orkney, an archipelago off the northeastern coast of Scotland where she grew up. There, she immerses herself in the sea and the island that she once left, and journeys towards recovery from addiction.

Together, they listen to sea shanties sung in Cornwall; coastguards responding to the aftermath of shipwrecks; tourists enamoured with Orkney’s inebriating charms and more...

Recordings in the episode in order of appearance:

An interview with Violet Bonham Carter recorded by the BBC. The original recording was part of the Aberdeenshire Museums Service John Junner Collection and it was digitised as part of the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project.

British Library shelfmark: UNLS028/254 S2 C3

Coastguards David Jackson and Graham Hale recall responding to the aftermath of a shipwreck. The interview was conducted in St Levan in 2001 and the original recording is held at the Telegraph Museum in Porthcurno and it was digitised as part of the Library’s Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project.

British Library shelfmark: UBC035/7

Farmer Wilfred Keys and fish salesman Thomas Kyle speak in Belfast in 2013 about the superstitions of fishermen. Their conversation was part of the Listening Project recorded for the BBC © BBC.

British Library shelfmark: C1500/0416

Kei Miller reading his poem ‘The Law Concerning Mermaids’ in 2012. The recording was made by the British Library at The Power of Caribbean Poetry – Word and Sound conference in Homerton College, Cambridge.

British Library shelfmark: C1532/12

Sea shanty group The Oggymen performing their version of ‘The Mingulay Boat Song’ at the The Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival in 2017

British Library shelfmark: DD00010583

‘Scapa Flow’ on melodeon performed by Jimmy Leslie. This recording was made in 1955 in St Ola, Orkney and is part of the Peter Kennedy Collection.

British Library shelfmark: C604/1128

A song about Brighton nudist beach performed by folk singer Miles Wootton in 1981 at BBC Radio Brighton. The recording was digitised by the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project.

British Library shelfmark: UTK006/1043