In this episode, Awa sits down with Lavin Ousi, a returning guest from Season 1, to explore what it means to navigate Kurdish identity without a state formally recognised under international law, and how culture, language, and community hold that identity together beyond borders. The episode reflects on the complexities of “statelessness,” and the ways Kurdish identities are continuously shaped through everyday acts of self-determination, self-validation, and self-legitimisation.

JINGLE
“Niamey Nights”, Bamako Bae, Shutterstock, ⁠⁠https://www.shutterstock.com/music/track-1221135-niamey-nights⁠

CONTRIBUTORS
Host: Awa Sow
Guest: Lavin Ousi
Editor: Awa Sow

In this episode, Awa returns to conversations with guests from the first three episodes of season 2, weaving together their reflections to explore what drives us in life, and how that can take different forms across our work, our lives, and the ways we make sense of the world.

JINGLE
“Niamey Nights”, Bamako Bae, Shutterstock, ⁠⁠https://www.shutterstock.com/music/track-1221135-niamey-nights⁠

CONTRIBUTORS
Host: Awa Sow
Guest: Luke de Noronha, Tariq Brown, Fuad Busoir
Editor: Awa Sow

In this episode, Awa is in conversation with Fuad Busoir about love – what it means, how it is recognised, and whether it’s something felt or practised. Moving between romantic relationships, friendship and family, they reflect on the ways love shapes how people relate to one another, to space, and to themselves. Along the way, they sit with questions of accountability, intention, and whether love can ever be separate from politics – or if it is always quietly structuring the worlds being built.

REFERENCES

Davies Jr., Akinola, dir. My Father’s Shadow. 2025. Drama film.

Hooks, Bell. All About Love: new visions: Bell Hooks. William Morrow, 2000.

Jenkins, Barry, dir. If Beale Street Could Talk. 2018. Film.

Nash, Jennifer C. "Practicing Love: Black Feminism, Love-Politics, and Post-Intersectionality."Meridians 19, no. S1 (2020): 439-462.

Prince-Bythewood, Gina, dir. Love & Basketball. 2000. Film.

JINGLE
“Niamey Nights”, Bamako Bae, Shutterstock, ⁠⁠https://www.shutterstock.com/music/track-1221135-niamey-nights⁠

CONTRIBUTORS
Host: Awa Sow
Guest: Fuad Busoir
Edited by: Awa Sow

In this episode, Awa sits down with scholar Luke de Noronha to question what borders really do in our everyday lives. From citizenship and belonging to the politics behind “migration crises,” they explore how borders shape who belongs, who is welcomed, and who is framed as a threat.

JINGLE

“Niamey Nights”, Bamako Bae, Shutterstock, ⁠⁠https://www.shutterstock.com/music/track-1221135-niamey-nights⁠

REFERENCES

Bradley, Gracie Mae, and Luke De Noronha. Against borders: The case for abolition. Verso Books, 2022.

Robinson, Cedric J. Forgeries of memory and meaning: Blacks and the regimes of race in American theater and film before World War II. UNC Press Books, 2012.

CONTRIBUTORS

Host: Awa Sow

Guest: Luke de Noronha
Edited by: Awa Sow

In this episode, Awa speaks with spoken word artist Tariq Brown about using poetry to make power visible. They explore how he transforms complex, often academic ideas – from capitalism to systemic oppression – into poetic, thought-provoking verse. It’s a conversation about heritage, awareness, and the poet’s role in illuminating systems of oppression.

JINGLE

“Niamey Nights”, Bamako Bae, Shutterstock, ⁠⁠https://www.shutterstock.com/music/track-1221135-niamey-nights⁠

REFERENCES

el-Kurd, Mohammed. 2025. Spoken remarks at the Closing Plenary of 25 Years of Human Rights at LSE Conference: Subverting Human Rights: Left, Right, and Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, May 16, 2025.

Poetic Unity. https://www.poeticunity.org.uk/

CONTRIBUTORS

Host: Awa Sow

Guest: Tariq Brown

Editor: Awa Sow

Diaspora Diaries is back for Season 2 👀
Here's a moment to revisit what this space is about — and an invitation to step in. Now powered by Transmission Roundhouse.

The first season of Diaspora Diaries is coming to a close.

Thank you for listening, reflecting, and being in conversation with us. We'll be taking a short summer break — but we’ll be back soon with more voices, more stories, and more to reflect on.

Season 2 coming soon. Stay tuned. 🌍✍🏽

JINGLE

“Niamey Nights”, Bamako Bae, Shutterstock, ⁠⁠https://www.shutterstock.com/music/track-1221135-niamey-nights⁠

CONTRIBUTORS

Host: Awa Sow
Edited by: Awa Sow

In this episode, Awa and Ellen discuss European identity building and memory politics, highlighting how national narratives shape collective memory. They emphasise the selective remembrance of historical events, and its impact on national identities. Together, they examine the silencing of racialised people’s histories and experiences within discourse on national identity and how this, in turn, plays a role in the rise of xenophobia and far-right ideologies.

REFERENCES

Halbwachs, Maurice. On Collective Memory. University of Chicago press, 2020.

Lind, Jennifer. “Memory, Apology, and International Reconciliation.” Asia-Pacific Journal 6, no. 11 (2008): e21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1557466008007936.

Rafael, Vicente L. The promise of the foreign: Nationalism and the Technics of Translation in the Spanish Philippines. Duke University Press, 2005.

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Silencing the past: Power and the Production of History. Beacon Press, 2015.

JINGLE

“Niamey Nights”, Bamako Bae, Shutterstock, ⁠⁠https://www.shutterstock.com/music/track-1221135-niamey-nights⁠

CONTRIBUTORS

Host: Awa Sow

Guest: Ellen Sow

Edited by: Awa Sow