Mukul and Ghetto Tigers undertakes an oral history project supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund which explores the question ‘Who am I?’ raised by second generation immigrant children whose parents left pre partition India during colonial times and settled in other parts of the British empire including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania. The project investigates what it means for young British Asians growing up in a system with a colonial legacy and explores how the past horrible historic events experienced by their parents and grandparents still affect the lives of young people. This project combines research, creative
use of oral history interviews in theatre, film screening, panel discussions, storytelling at Stanley Arts, Croydon and Crawley Library. The oral histories will be deposited with London Screen Archives and West Sussex Records Office. Training programmes to learn heritage related skills including research, conservation and cataloguing will leave a legacy for future generations.
The project relates to the historical dimension, the colonial set-up in East Africa before the 1970s to the socio-cultural situation of young people with diverse cultural background in today’s UK. Through the viewpoint of a new generation, it investigates questions of ‘identity’ and ‘heritage’. It asks questions such as:
- How do these past horrible historic events still affect the lives of young people whose parents and grandparents once travelled from Africa?
- How do young British people in the 2020s think about the colonial British heritage and view today’s repercussions in our society?
- And especially: How do young people define their ‘identity/ies’?