Ethnomusicology Forum
ISSN: 1741-1912 (Print) 1741-1920 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/remf20
Archives and Access: Reaching Out to the Somali Community of London's King's Cross
Emma Brinkhurst
To cite this article: Emma Brinkhurst (2012) Archives and Access: Reaching Out to the Somali Community of London's King's Cross, Ethnomusicology Forum, 21:2, 243-258, DOI: 10.1080/17411912.2012.689470 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2012.689470
Published online: 29 Jun 2012.
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Archives and Access: Reaching Out to the Somali Community of London’s King’s Cross Emma Brinkhurst
As an oral society with no official written language until 1972, Somali history and cultural knowledge are predominantly stored in the memories of individuals and the concept of a physical repository such as a sound archive is alien within Somali culture. Following Somalia’s civil war and the dispersal of over two million of its people, a Somali community has developed in the King’s Cross area of London, which is home to the British Library (BL). As neighbours, the Somali community and the BL are geographically close but ideologically distant. However, facilitating engagement between Somali residents of King’s Cross and archival recordings from Somalia held at the BL has demonstrated the potential of proactive archiving to contribute to ethnomusicological research methodology, to elucidate and impact upon diasporic and collective memory processes, and to benefit diasporic communities. In this article I will highlight the capacity of archival recordings to unlock embodied memories and reconnect those who have been subject to dislocation with aspects of their past identities, arguing that proactive archiving has the potential to contribute to the diasporic process of belonging to multiple locales. I will explore the challenges of collaboration between an institution such as the BL and an orally-founded refugee community, looking at the significance of key sites and individuals in the transmission of information.
Keywords: Sound Archiving; Somalia; Oral Traditions; Memory; Belonging; Diaspora; Applied Ethnomusicology
Emma Brinkhurst is a doctoral candidate in the Music department at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She is currently writing up her PhD, which is an Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award in association with the British Library. Her research focuses on the continuation of oral traditions in the Somali community of London’s King’s Cross and community engagement with sound archives. Correspondence to: Emma Brinkhurst, Department of Music, Goldsmiths College, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK. Email: [email protected]
ISSN 1741-1912 (print)/ISSN 1741-1920 (online)/12/020243-16 # 2012 Taylor & Francis http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2012.689470 244 E. Brinkhurst Introduction Home to three major railway stations, King’s Cross has historically been a place of arrival. However, it is not just tourists and commuters whose journeys terminate here: the area is home to a multitude of migrant communities drawn by the avail- ability of affordable housing. The second largest migrant community in the area is the Somali community. The first Somali family reportedly moved to King’s Cross in 1991, the year of southern Somalia’s collapse, and the community rapidly grew as more and more people fled the civil war. As a recently established refugee community lacking infrastructure, Somalis in the borough of Camden are described as ‘‘‘hitting all the buttons’’ as a community likely to experience prejudice and a high degree of social exclusion’ (Khan and Jones 2003: 57). Public perception of Somalia is influenced by the media, which frequently associates Somalis with piracy, terrorism and war. Less publicised is the celebration of Somali people as a ‘nation of bards’ (Andrzejewski and Lewis 1964: 3) with a vast oral heritage. With nomadic pastoralism forming the backbone of Somalia’s economy and culture and no official written Somali language until 1972, knowledge has been passed on orally from generation to generation. Pastoral poetry is central to Somali oral tradition, utilised as a persuasive force, a historical record, a means of attack or reconciliation in times of conflict, and a medium for transmitting news and information. As such, poets have historically wielded great power and held prominent positions within Somali society. Although unaccompanied pastoral poetry has characteristic melodies and rhythms according to genre, it is largely conceived in poetic rather than musical terms*with a distinction between song and poetry first appearing in the second half of the twentieth century when the term ‘song’ was applied to modern hees, a new genre of sung poems accompanied by musical instruments.1
Perceptions of the British Library by its Somali Neighbours In King’s Cross, recordings of Somali poetry and song can be found amongst the four million audio recordings preserved at the British Library (BL). These include a series of recordings made by John Low between 1985 and 1986 in the Lower Shabeelle Region of Somalia,2 which represent a diverse cross-section of musical styles including work songs, social dances, lullabies, classical pastoral poetry and popular town music. The Andrzejewski collection3 is comprised of 94 acetate discs made by the linguist Bogumił Witalis Andrzejewski in Somalia between 1950 and 1951, which feature linguistic materials such as words and sentences connected with the study of Somali phonology and grammar, as well as stories and proverbs. There are also
1For further information regarding genres and characteristics of Somali poetry and song, see Andrzejewski and Lewis (1964) and Orwin (2003). 2British Library reference numbers C27/12 C27/28. 3British Library reference number C1388. Ethnomusicology Forum 245 recordings of songs from Somalia within the AV King collection,4 recordings made in Somalia for the British Colonial Office featuring crowds, conversation, music and street sounds,5 and recordings of performances at WOMAD by Somali artists living in the diaspora, such as Maryam Mursal, K’Naan and members of the former Somali state-supported group Waaberi.6 The oldest Somali recording in the BL’s collections was made by Zonophone in Nairobi between 1927 and 1931 and features a Somali man performing a gabay*the most esteemed genre of Somali pastoral poetry.7 Despite the close proximity of the Somali community to the BL there has until now been no engagement with the Somali recordings preserved there. I perceive several reasons for this. Firstly, a lack of understanding amongst the Somali community regarding the BL and the role that it serves. As an oral society the concept of a physical archive is alien, with Said S. Samatar asserting that in Somali culture ‘the only libraries or reference materials men have are their memories’ (1982: 5). Coupled with this is a lack of awareness that resources pertaining to Somali heritage exist at the BL. Suspicion of large national institutions, often cited as a characteristic of the Somali community as a result of government corruption in Somalia, may also contribute to a lack of engagement with the BL. This was evidenced by the attitude of a Somali community member in King’s Cross who had been searching for a recording made in Somalia by the BBC. He stated: ‘BBC recorded but I don’t know where they hide it’, revealing his distrust of such institutions (Mr Hassan, personal communication, Cromer Cafe, King’s Cross, 3 March 2011). Perception of the BL by its Somali neighbours is elucidated in a poem by Abdullahi Bootan Hassan, a local Somali cafe owner and poet. His poem ‘Kormeer’8 is a sung map of King’s Cross that refers to the BL as the place where ‘the family of Corfield [...] keep their history’ (Abdullahi Bootan Hassan, interview, BL, 26 October 2009). Given that Corfield was commander of the British Camel Constabulary, famously defeated by Somalis in colonial times, Abdullahi’s poem associates the BL with colonialism, reflecting and perhaps even perpetuating a sense of separation between the Somali community and the BL.
Proactive Archiving The potential for archival recordings to contribute to the formation of individual and group identities has been observed, particularly in situations of displacement or disruption of oral tradition. Robert Lancefield argues that ‘recorded traces of a communal past can be invaluable to people struggling to craft their own self- reinvention in new locations’ (1998: 48). Archival recordings may communicate
4British Library reference number C1/159. 5British Library reference number C881/77. 6British Library reference numbers C203/1347 (K’Naan), C203/726 (Maryam Mursal), C203/654 (Waaberi). 7British Library reference numbers 1CS0080219 S1 and 1CS0080219 S2. 8Kormeer is a Somali word translated by Abdullahi as ‘to visit, to come’. The poem’s title is also a play on words as it sounds similar to ‘Cromer’ and the name of Abdullahi’s cafe in King’s Cross (prior to its closure in April 2011) was the Cromer Cafe. 246 E. Brinkhurst hidden voices, revealing alternative narratives to those published in written histories. Anthony Seeger states:
the oral traditions, songs, and other spoken word traditions collected by scholars and housed in archives represent the perspectives of the vanquished, the less powerful, and the non-literate [...] through their oral traditions another history may be discerned, and they may enable communities to create a future based on their own past. (2002: 44)
The importance of collaboration with heritage communities has been asserted by scholars such as Linda Barwick (2004), Carolyn Landau (2010), Noel Lobley (2010), Jesse Ruskin (2006), Anthony Seeger (2002), and Janet Topp Fargion (2009). Lobley’s sound elicitation work with urban Xhosa communities in townships located near the International Library of African Music in Grahamstown, South Africa, demonstrates the need for innovative methods of embedding archival recordings into the every- day routines of heritage communities, even in situations where the archive is geographically close to the community. Ray Edmonson states that ‘the only limit to proactive access is imagination’ (2004: 20). However, proactive archiving can be subject to numerous challenges and barriers. In this article I will explore the practicalities and benefits of building a relationship between the Somali community in King’s Cross and the BL. I will also reflect upon the potential of archival engagement to affirm a sense of belonging for individuals in the diaspora, considering Tina Ramnarine’s assertion that music in the diasporic imagination is ‘about establishing a space of belonging perceived in multi-local terms’ (2007: 19).
Building Relationships with Somali Women in King’s Cross Initiating a relationship between the BL and local Somali women found me in some unexpected situations as I endeavoured to engage with women during their day-to- day routines. Somali women in King’s Cross form a hidden section of a marginalised community, predominantly associated with the private domain of the home. In order to meet Somali women I attended a mother and baby group and a health awareness group held weekly during term time at community centres in King’s Cross. I participated in workshops about heart disease, diabetes and depression with Somali women before chatting to them about songs over coffee, and talked about recordings across the sandpit with young Somali mothers at the mother and baby group. As trust and familiarity developed between myself and the group members our interactions gradually progressed from conversations to recording songs together, with the women happy for these recordings to be preserved and made accessible by the BL. At the mother and baby group I found that conversations were frequently interrupted by the need to attend to young children, and women often arrived late, disappeared early or did not come at all depending on the necessity to attend appointments or stay at home to look after children when they were ill. With a high proportion of absent husbands and the breakdown of the family networks that were Ethnomusicology Forum 247 a source of support in Somalia, young Somali mothers are typically restricted in their movements and limited in terms of free time available to them. Time and flexibility on my behalf were fundamental to the development of relationships and it was apparent that recording and listening sessions would only be attended if built into regular activities. Finally, after several postponements due to illness, double-bookings and adverse weather conditions, women from the mother and baby group joined me at the BL for two group listening sessions. Organising the sessions was a somewhat lengthy logistical process in which various BL personnel were involved: the room had to be booked, recordings digitised and transferred to my SoundServer9 playlist for listening, security passes obtained and practicalities of access, both physical (unlocking of rooms) and technological (acquisition of information technology log-ins), ironed out. I also prepared colouring activities for the children and took refreshments for the group*which on several occasions I distributed to Big Issue sellers around King’s Cross when sessions were cancelled at the last minute. Prior to the listening sessions I walked to the community centre to meet the group, keeping a careful eye on the weather as rain was likely to deter the women from venturing out. After gathering the children together our slow-moving procession of pushchairs set off down Judd Street and I experienced the short walk to the BL from a new perspective. Helping Amiina guide her three young sons across four lanes of traffic as we negotiated the busy Euston Road, I appreciated the amount of time and energy that must be consumed by caring for a large family, often unsupported, in an unfamiliar environment, and the subsequent lack of opportunity to participate in communal music activities that were part of everyday life in Somalia. At the start of my work with the mother and baby group it was noticeable that discourse about song and musical habits was difficult to instigate, with women frequently telling me that they did not remember or did not know anything about songs, or pointing me in the direction of someone else who, I was told, had a greater knowledge. However, listening to archival recordings of women’s work songs and popular songs from Somalia at the BL stimulated reminiscence and revealed a wealth of knowledge and memory regarding Somali song, dance and culture, as if the practicalities of everyday survival in a new locale overshadowed such memory* although not forgotten it was difficult to access and articulate.
Evoking Embodied Memories In ‘a world where many are disconnected from their pasts’ (Climo and Cattell 2002: 36) anthropologists and ethnomusicologists have argued that memory is retained in bodily practice. Charles Keil writes that: ‘somehow muscles remember: once a bike rider, always a bike rider; once a drummer or dancer, always a drummer or dancer [...] The nervous system is all of one piece and so is the learning,
9SoundServer is a system that enables BL readers to set up a playlist of archival recordings and listen to them at computer terminals in the reading rooms without the need to make a listening appointment. 248 E. Brinkhurst remembering, expressive person’ (Keil and Feld 1994: 56). During our listening sessions, engagement with archival recordings stimulated the expression of memory in myriad physical ways. For example, one woman who was due to give birth later that week enthusiastically demonstrated the dance that went with a celebratory song from the John Low collection for when women had finished building a nomadic house.10 Recordings were met with other bodily responses from the group such as clapping, ululation, joyful facial expressions, laughter and singing along. The instantaneous physical responses demonstrated by the women affirm Bob Snyder’s assertion that ‘Implicit memories are [...] quickly and automatically recallable, without conscious effort’ (2000: 73). He goes on to observe that ‘conscious effort often impedes the use of implicit memory’, thus articulating the phenomenon that had caused me difficulty during my initial attempts to engage the women in conversations about song. Furthermore, Snyder states that ‘Implicit skills are usually expressed through some sort of performance, rather than recollection’ (ibid.). The women reacted with particular enthusiasm to songs from the domestic setting that would have had significant physical elements in their original performance contexts, such as pounding songs and lullabies sung from mother to baby during times of physical closeness. Whilst listening to a pounding song recorded by John Low in Somalia in 1986,11 two of the women stood up and demonstrated the interlocking pounding action that the song would have accompanied. They then went on to recall a wealth of contextual information regarding this type of song performance. For example, Seinab stated: ‘without singing they cannot do it because it’s not easy! I remember, yeah’. Farhiya explained that such songs would be improvised on the spot, expressing current concerns:
It’s a way of communication. The emotion they are [feeling] at that time, any time, whatever it is, if it is drought, [...] if there is rain, if there is no rain they talk about ‘there is no rain these days’, there’s no milk ...
Farhiya and Seinab recalled that song in the domestic context served as a form of communication and expression and provided a medium for women to voice concerns and emotions that they would not ordinarily have the opportunity to express.12 Farhiya went on to link this past form with her present situation by improvising an imagined dialogue airing her worries about her impending visit to Somaliland. Such responses highlight the interconnectedness of physicality and emotion in the song forms remembered by the Somali women. Steven Feld highlights the capacity of singing to connect physical and emotional states, writing that ‘Sound, hearing, and voice mark a special bodily nexus for sensation and emotion because of their coordination of brain, nervous system, head,
10British Library reference number C27/13 S1 C8. 11British Library reference number C27/18 S2 C6. 12For further details regarding the use of work songs to express marginalised voices within Somali society, see Johnson (1995) and Abokor (1993). Ethnomusicology Forum 249 ear, chest, muscles, respiration, and breathing’ (1996: 97). He goes on to state that ‘Voice flows by resounding through the human body, feelingfully connecting its spatially contiguous physical segments, resonating so as to sensually link and stress the whole’ (ibid.: 104). At the BL, bodily re-enactment of memory through physical responses to the archival recordings realised emotions, re-connecting participants ‘feelingfully’ with aspects of their past identities from which they had become disconnected in the diaspora.
Tapping into the Somali Oral Network For Somali men in King’s Cross the Cromer Cafe on Cromer Street was, until its closure in April 2011, central to social life. The cafe was a place where Somalia was evoked through smells, tastes and sounds, with Somali language heard loudly and constantly. Through many hours spent at the cafe drinking sweet coffee, chatting and observing the movements and interactions of the mainly male clientele, I gradually became part of the cafe’s social life, with customers knowing my name and even giving me a Somali name: one customer suggested that I should be known as Amiina as it sounded similar to ‘Emma’ and was his mother’s name. Within the cafe familial terms were used that perpetuated a sense of belonging as well as indicating status. For example, when a respected elder called Khalif entered the cafe on one occasion I was told ‘this is your father’. On another occasion the cafe’s owner Abdullahi introduced me to a customer by saying ‘she is my sister’. The repeated enactment of familial relationships at the cafe produced a surrogate Somali family in the aftermath of forced dispersal and created a sense of belonging, which I experienced personally. My adoption into the Cromer Cafe society helped bridge the divide between the information systems of the Somali community and those of the BL. With the exchange of knowledge and news a constant ongoing phenomenon at the Cromer Cafe it was a significant physical site in the Somali oral network. As well as the projection of current affairs via the loud and ever-present television or radio, word of mouth provided a particularly efficient means of disseminating information, with the Somali greeting ‘Is ka warran?’ [‘What is your news?’] heard repeatedly at the cafe. Omar, a regular at the cafe, explained that in Somalia when families went on a journey they would stay with other families along the route. He compared the cafe with a tree under which the families would sit and share information, such as news about marriages and livestock (personal communication, Cromer Cafe, 7 December 2010). Given its status as a hub for knowledge exchange I felt that the Cromer Cafe would provide an ideal location in which to share archival recordings from the BL, thus inserting them into the everyday lives of customers and the Somali oral network. Crucial to the success of such a project, however, was collaboration with the cafe’s owner and poet, Abdullahi Bootan Hassan. Abdullahi’s poetic practice combines Somali poetic genres that are most probably hundreds of years old with lyrics rooted in present-day King’s Cross. With many of his poems inspired by discussions carried 250 E. Brinkhurst out in the Cromer Cafe his work embodies the community that was created within the cafe space. Abdullahi’s prominent position within the King’s Cross community is reminiscent of the role historically played by pastoral poets in Somalia. Boobe Yusuf Duale highlights the significance of poets within Somalia’s oral network, stating:
Before the advent of modern telecommunications, poetry and poets effectively constituted the most important ‘media network’ for the traditional Somali pastoralists. Poetry filled the role of newspapers and radios, spreading the news from one place to another. The poet could instigate war and spread peace. (Duale 2010: 263)
In King’s Cross, Abdullahi occupies a liminal position with his poetic practice linking diverse people, times and locations. Perceived as an ambassador for the Somali community in King’s Cross, he described the Cromer Cafe on one occasion as his ‘embassy’ (personal communication, Cromer Cafe, 1 April 2011). Having visited the BL with me several times to make recordings of his poetry Abdullahi was familiar with the BL’s World and Traditional Music section and was an invaluable advocate and mediator. Enthusiastic about the idea of a pop-up archive at the Cromer Cafe, Abdullahi agreed to lead the session and to publicise it via word of mouth.
Creating a Pop-up Archive at the Cromer Cafe After setting a date for the listening session Abdullahi and I arranged a listening appointment at the BL in order to decide which recordings we should play. Abdullahi selected a range of recordings that included classical genres of pastoral poetry, work songs, a well-known popular song and linguistic recordings. Although copyright restrictions are a potential barrier to playing archival recordings offsite, in this instance the process was straightforward because of the age of most of the recordings. Restrictions are in place regarding the use of recordings made by John Low, but an ongoing relationship between the BL and Low made it easy for me to contact him and request special permission to play the recordings that Abdullahi had chosen. Low responded with enthusiasm, stating: ‘of course I would be only too delighted for you to use the recordings you’ve listed [...] for the listening session in the cafe. It’s the best possible use for them’ (email, 12 February 2011). With permissions in place and recordings saved as WAVE files on my laptop, we were ready to take the archive out into the community. Having handed over responsibility for publicising the session to Abdullahi*a nerve-wracking relinquish- ing of control*my only uncertainty was whether the community was ready to engage with the archive. I arrived at the cafe an hour before the session was due to begin in order to set up my laptop and speakers. Learning from past experiences with the women’s groups I had also allowed plenty of time in case we had to telephone cafe customers to remind them about the session. I arrived to find the cafe packed with men and had to squeeze through the crowd of customers to get to the table by the window where I had planned to set up my equipment. I asked one of the men why Ethnomusicology Forum 251 there were so many people there, thinking that some kind of special meeting must have taken place. ‘We’re here for the recordings’, he responded, ‘where is Abdullahi?’. Somewhat flabbergasted by the number of attendees and their enthusiastically early arrival I began setting up with much advice from the assembled customers as to the best position for the speakers in order for the recordings to be heard by all present. Following Abdullahi’s arrival and words of introduction in both Somali and English, we began by playing the oldest recording, the gabay recorded in Nairobi. In contrast to the usual noise and bustle of the cafe, the recording was received with reverential silence and the listeners leaned forward in order to be as close to the speakers as possible. Throughout the listening session, the reactions of the assembled men were noticeably different from those of the women during listening sessions at the BL. The men responded to the recordings in a manner that was more verbal than physical, with each song stimulating discussion amongst the group. They analysed the words and debated the meaning of different songs, observed changes in language use and critiqued the sound quality and skill of the performers. Such discussion recalled a description by Andrzejewski and Lewis of the listening habits of pastoral Somalis around the time of Somali independence:
in the tea-shops of trading posts in the far interior pastoralists from the Haud eagerly listen to the competing radio voices of Cairo, Moscow, and London, as well as to local Somali broadcasting stations, and compare the relative merits of popular songs [...] with the older forms of verse from which these have developed. (1964: 32)
I was particularly surprised by the listeners’ enthusiasm for a linguistic recording from the Andrzejewski collection that featured a list of words simply recited in turn, demonstrating the use of particular word endings. Chorus-like, the men repeated the words in response to the recording. It transpired that the reason for the men’s interest was that the speaker was Muuse Galaal, Andrzejewski’s research assistant and an esteemed Somali poet and scholar, who is now dead. Through the archival recordings listeners were able to experience Galaal’s voice, which evoked memories of a respected figure and recalled the past with intimacy and immediacy. Later, whilst listening to recordings of songs from the AV King Collection, Abdullahi recognised Galaal’s voice once more, stating with excitement: ‘I think this voice is Muuse Galaal’. Abdullahi went on to describe the emotion he perceived in Galaal’s tone of voice, saying: ‘it is like a sadness voice [...] when you feel in [a] bad mood you can sing like this [...] the mood, [the] feeling, something is happening, drought, war*this kind of voice’. As well as capturing and recalling a historical figure, this recording presented a musical aesthetic that communicated a particular meaning to the assembled listeners. As such, the archive served to perpetuate emotional affect that might otherwise be lost. Through the listeners’ verbalised responses a dialogue with the past was established. During the playback of a gabay from the John Low collection one listener repeated the final word of each line, a gesture of affirmation traditionally made by 252 E. Brinkhurst audience members during the performance of poetry in Somalia. Through critiquing performances and affirming performers’ words through repetition the listeners engaged and interacted with the recordings, awakening past performances and giving them a new significance in the present moment. Discussion of poets and poetry is an important aspect of Somali oral tradition that keeps individuals from former times alive in the public memory. Abdullahi elucidated this, stating:
The poets we [still] believe they are alive because [even if] the poet [died] one hundred years ago or two hundred years ago, still we recall [them], ‘who make this poem?’ all the time we are talking about and [...] the people they talk about the person [as if] he is still alive. (Interview, BL, 14 June 2011)
He went on to say that poets are unique in this regard, explaining that when a dead person’s name is mentioned Somalis would ordinarily say ‘Allah forgive him’ but that this is not the case when people refer to poets who have died. Abdullahi said: ‘It is [like] the person stays somewhere else in the world’. He then stated: ‘Sometimes if you don’t remember [the poet] for weeks maybe [there is] some dust on his name but then when you say it he becomes alive again ... never die’. The potential impact of archival recordings upon present lives was articulated by a listener called Mr Hassan, who asserted that hearing recordings from the past can inform present perception of self, stating: ‘It is good to listen to what had happened long ago, then you will know where you are, how far you’ve gone, that’swhyyou must listen to these recordings’. Mr Hassan had a personal link with a recording of a popular song entitled ‘Geedi Shaambow’,13 having grown up in the coastal town of Barawe where the recording was made, and recognising a former friend of his, nicknamed ‘Idi Amin’ because he was a soldier, as the singer. Mr Hassan expressed immense surprise that a recording of his friend was housed at the BL, exclaiming: ‘Idi Amin is my friend, I [knew him] personally’. Mr Hassan had lost track of Idi Amin in the exodus from Somalia and did not know his current whereabouts: ‘maybe Europe, maybe America, maybe Somalia, maybe East Africa’. He went on to explain that he had been searching for a recording by Idi Amin on the Internet for some years. The listening session at the Cromer Cafe began to foster a relationship between Somali men in King’s Cross and the BL, with four participants approaching me at the end to ask how they should go about accessing the BL and asking for my contact details so that they could meet me onsite for further listening. Abdullahi played an important ambassadorial role, explaining the procedure of registering for a readers’ pass and announcing, ‘anyone who wants to register, bring your proof of ID’. The session also demonstrated the importance of the listening context in engag- ing community members with archival recordings. During our preparatory listening appointment at the BL, Abdullahi and I had listened together in a small listening carrel in the Rare Books and Music reading room. The experience was solitary,
13British Library reference number C27/14 S1 C8. Ethnomusicology Forum 253 listening to recordings through headphones, and slightly awkward given the cramped space of the carrel and the lack of soundproofing, which meant that any conversation had to take place in low voices so as not to disturb readers. Following the listening session at the cafe, Abdullahi compared the two experiences, stating:
I [went] once to the British Library but how I enjoyed it today I didn’t enjoy it when I was there [...] we have a discussion here [...] the people they discuss it, what they think [...]it’s really enjoyable to know.
In pre-war Somalia, men would gather in cafes to listen to and discuss radio broadcasts. Suleiman M. Adam recalls that in the early days of Radio Hargeisa, ‘local programmes went over the air between 5:00 and 6:00 pm daily, and at this time most of the towns’ males population congregated in [...] tea bars or community centres, their ears glued to the sets’ (2001: 8). This tradition continues in present-day Somalia with people gathering to listen to the radio or watch television if they do not have personal access to one. During conversations at the Cromer Cafe customers recalled listening to and discussing poetry in Mogadishu’s cafes. As such, the Cromer Cafe provided a familiar and comfortable context for listening to archival recordings. The opportunity to listen together as a group facilitated discussion, which progressed naturally as customers arrived and departed during the course of the session. In comparison, many aspects of listening to recordings at the BL may, to Somali men, seem unnatural, complicated and potentially disempowering. For example, in order to gain access to the reading rooms where listening appointments take place, individuals are required to provide two forms of ID, complete an online form and explain why they wish to use the BL’s resources. After this they must lock away belongings and adhere to the rules of the reading rooms by carrying permitted items in a clear plastic bag, which is subject to inspection by security personnel. Although these procedures are understandably intended to protect the collections housed at the BL, I suggest that listening sessions designed in collaboration with communities would result in more appropriate and beneficial experiences, ultimately contributing to the accessibility of archival recordings.
Continuing Relationships*Visiting the British Library with Mr Hassan A few weeks after the listening session at the Cromer Cafe I received a telephone call from an unknown number. ‘Emma!’, the caller exclaimed, ‘It’s good to hear your voice. It’s Mr Hassan from the cafe!’ He went on to apologise for the delay in contacting me, explaining that he had lost my number and had had to ask Abdullahi for my contact details. After two years of chasing up community members I was heartened by the effort that Mr Hassan had gone to in order to get in touch with me. Furthermore, he wished to meet me at the BL in order to listen to more of the Somali recordings*the first time that a community member had initiated a listening session. 254 E. Brinkhurst A week later I met Mr Hassan outside the BL and guided him through the process of registering as a reader. Over the telephone Mr Hassan had told me of his particular wish to hear a recording of his former friend Idi Amin playing the flute. I had highlighted three such recordings and we began by listening to one of these, a song entitled ‘Laac’.14 As we listened to the flute’s first notes recognition registered on Mr Hassan’s face*this was the sound he had been seeking over the years. Laughing with pleasure and surprise Mr Hassan gave me a thumbs up followed by a high-five, two uncharacteristically extravagant gestures for a man who is typically reserved and self-effacing. Pausing the track a few seconds later, he exclaimed ‘it is very emotive’. At the end of the song Mr Hassan reflected upon the feelings evoked by the music, stating:
It makes me emotional, you know, evokes me, you know, in a way I cannot ...I’m lost for words ...it’s good, it’s good, it’s good yeah. It’s good, not very sad. In a way it’s sad but, you know, because of how the flute sound touches me it makes me, you know ... it’s uplifting experience. It’s reviving I can say.
We went on to listen to the rest of the recordings from the John Low collection that featured Idi Amin, as well as excerpts from the AV King Somali recordings. Mr Hassan’s reflections after the listening session suggested that hearing recordings from Somalia had had a transformative effect. He felt that ‘listening to something from the past, it makes you experience ... like born again’. Mr Hassan’s responses affirm Martin Stokes’ notion that ‘music can be used as a means of transcending the limitations of our own place in the world, of constructing trajectories rather than boundaries across space’ (1994: 4). Hearing the archival recordings of songs from his home town transported Mr Hassan away from King’s Cross back to the environment in which he grew up: ‘When I listen to these songs I feel, you know, being there not here ... it makes me young, teenage, going to middle school, being with my friends, youngsters. It’s a fantasy world’. He articulated the emotional effect of this, stating:
I feel good and excited because I listened to something which I didn’t listen to for a long time. I feel ...being home, being with my parents and my brothers and sisters and my friends, my neighbourhood, and all the environment. Surroundings, who I am, relationships, everything, you recall everything you forget in the past.
Experiencing snapshots from his past through archival recordings affirmed Mr Hassan’s sense of place in the present, reminding him of his Somali heritage. Reflecting on this he stated:
It [helps you to have] a good relationship with the past, you know, history and culture. When you live in another country, another society or another culture, it makes you feel better. Some people may feel nostalgic or homesickness [but]
14British Library reference number C27/14 S1 C3. Ethnomusicology Forum 255 you feel at home when you listen [to] something from your [...] culture. It’s really good.
For Mr Hassan, and the other listeners at the Cromer Cafe, the archival recordings held at the BL represent a valuable part of Somali heritage thought to be lost. Prior to the listening sessions Mr Hassan believed that such recordings must have been destroyed during the civil war. He stated: ‘I didn’t expect to listen to these songs. [For a] long time I couldn’t even believe that I would find these songs. It’s a great chance for me today to have these recordings here in the British Library’. Engaging with the recordings changed Mr Hassan’s perception of the BL: he expressed enthusiasm about returning, not just to listen to recordings but also to access written materials relating to Somali culture, stating: ‘I would like to come as many times as I can. I will come time and time again to listen to Somali music, Somali poetry, as well as Somali literature’.
Belonging to King’s Cross As well as connecting listeners to former places and identities, I suggest that archival engagement can enhance the diasporic process of belonging to new environments. A further outcome of the listening session at the Cromer Cafe was the potential re- invention of old songs and their subsequent re-insertion into the present-day oral network via Abdullahi’s poetic practice. Particularly inspired by the rhythms of a cattle song and a pounding song from the John Low Collection, Abdullahi stated his intention to compose new words for these songs that would reflect the environment of present-day King’s Cross. Retaining their original rhythms and melodies, Abdullahi plans to teach his versions of the cattle and pounding songs to local school children in future Somali arts workshops. I suggest that collaboration with practicing artists such as Abdullahi is one way in which archival recordings can become embedded in the everyday activities of communities, thus contributing to the continuation of oral tradition. Furthermore, through Abdullahi’s work with the wider community as well as Somalis in his workshops and performances, songs from archival recordings may reach across cultural divides, contributing to cross-cultural understanding and raising the profile of Somali culture in the diaspora.
Conclusions Community engagement with archival sound recordings has illuminated shifts in collective memory processes within a marginalised diasporic community. Following Jan Assmann’s distinction between ‘communicative’ and ‘cultural memory’,itis apparent that communicative memory*that which ‘lives in everyday interaction and communication’*amongst Somalis in King’s Cross has been affected by trauma, dislocation and marginalisation (J. Assmann 2010: 111). Assmann states that ‘a change of frames brings about forgetting; the durability of memories depends on the durability of social bonds and frames’ (ibid.: 111). The frames within which 256 E. Brinkhurst communicative memory processes took place in Somalia have changed in the new locale and certain aspects of Somali culture and identity have consequently been forgotten. However, it seems that archival sound recordings, as objects of cultural memory, have the potential to stimulate communicative memory, with recordings activating physical, emotional and dialogic processes of remembering when inserted into the everyday. For Somali community members in King’s Cross, listening to archival recordings unlocked buried memories and re-connected listeners feelingfully with former times, environments and people, thus re-affirming a sense of belonging to Somalia. Aleida Assmann asserts: ‘the historical archive helps us to position ourselves in time; it affords us the possibility of comparison and reflection for a retrospective historical consciousness’ (A. Assmann 2010: 106). This was realised by community engagement with archival recordings, which stimulated a dialogue with the past, breaking down temporal barriers and impacting upon present under- standing of self. Central to this process was the collaboration between two distinct institutions of cultural memory*the sound archive as a physical repository, and the Somali bard in the form of Abdullahi Bootan Hassan. Archival engagement also has the potential to impact upon sense of belonging to new environments. Through the poetic practice of listeners such as Abdullahi, Somali songs captured in archival recordings may be reinvented and projected into the public domain, communicating and affirming a dynamic relationship between past and present, Somalia and King’s Cross. Furthermore, community collaboration can enhance the representation of diasporic cultures in institutions such as the BL. For example, recordings that I have made with Somali community members and deposited at the BL provide snapshots of present-day life in the King’s Cross Somali community and have the potential to impact upon notions of identity and belonging amongst future generations. Given these outcomes I suggest that archival engagement can inform the ‘complex geographies and temporalities of belonging’ highlighted by Ramnarine (2007: 12) that overlap within diasporic communities. I suggest that disempowered, displaced communities such as Somalis in King’s Cross have the most to gain from archival engagement. However, the transient nature of the community and its lack of infrastructure mean that time, trust, tenacity and cultural understanding are required in order to facilitate such engagement. The recent closure of the Cromer Cafe has further contributed to the isolation of the Somali community, making it even harder to reach. Ongoing community collabora- tion remains essential in order for the BL’s Somali holdings to continue to develop and become more representative of and relevant to the Somali community. In line with Topp Fargion’s notion of ‘holistic preservation’, defined as ‘the facilitation of the continuation of tradition’ (2009: 76), I believe that sound archives have the potential to contribute to the continuation of Somali oral tradition following dislocation. However, long-term commitment is required in order to embed archival recordings within social life and empower heritage communities to own, develop and engage with archival collections. Ethnomusicology Forum 257 Acknowledgements I am grateful to my PhD supervisors Professor Stephen Cottrell and Dr Janet Topp Fargion, and to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding my doctoral research. For the valuable part they have played in my research I wish to thank Abdullahi Bootan Hassan and the customers of the Cromer Cafe, and members of the King’s Cross Somali women’s groups. Thanks also to John Low for allowing his recordings to be used during the pop-up archive, and to all those at the British Library who have assisted me during the course of my research.
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