Manchester-based African-led Arts and Cultural organisation, Amani Creatives CIC will be delivering an exciting project over 18 months to explore and gather naming traditions and heritage from the Congolese and African diaspora community in and around Manchester.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded a £77,457 grant for the project, thanks to money raised by National Lottery players.
The ambition of the project is to uncover and record naming stories from the African diaspora community, create portraits that explain this heritage as an exhibition, presented physically and digitally, to share the heritage further afield as well as archive the information for future generations to access.
The project aims to engage people around Manchester from the African diaspora, connect with our international partner DRC Museum to support in translations and explaining the heritage, and add to the Manchester Archives and RACE Archives to extend their representation of ethnically diverse heritage that makes up the population around Manchester.
The project will be spread over 18 months and aims to:
- Recruit volunteers to interview people in the community and collect their sayings and narratives
- Train volunteers in oral history recording, supported by Ahmed Iqbal Centre’s oral history experts
- Create documentation of the project including photographs, portraits, videos and audio recordings
- Share the heritage through a mixed digital and physical photo exhibition at Manchester Central Library, a printed and animated booklet, with a celebratory launch event. The exhibition is scheduled for October 2025
- Archive the documentation with Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre archives at Manchester Central Library
- Involve local African diaspora groups around Manchester
- Involve the community of African artists in our region already connected to Amani Creatives
- Involve individual African residents in our region already connected to Amani Creatives
About Amani Creatives
Amani Creatives is a dynamic, African-led arts organisation based in Manchester. Amani Creatives showcases the beauty, diversity and complexity of contemporary arts and culture from the African diaspora through a range of professional and community development services. Further information: https://amanicreatives.wordpress.com/
About The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre
The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE centre is a specialist library focusing on the study of race, migration and thinking about race; anti-racist activism and the fight for social justice. The centre is located in Manchester Central Library. Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre, Lower Ground Floor, Manchester Central Library, St Peter’s Square, Manchester, M2 5PD. Find out more: https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/aiu-race-centre/
For more information contact Ruth Allan on 0794 651 7470 or email: [email protected]