Home Stories with Manchán Magan

In this episode Manchán speaks with Tika from in a town in the southern part of Malawi, Blantyre. Her happiest memories are of her secondary school and the beautiful places they visited, ‘like Mount Mulanje which translates in the local language as ‘you don’t go there’, as people believed there were ghosts there that used to take people. This is because you need a guide there, or you won’t easily find your way back.

She speaks the national language in Malawi, Chichewa, and a local language, ‘Tumbuka, which makes me feel connected to my tribal village in the northern part of Malawi. There was no electricity or television there, but life was so much fun compared to living in town, as grandmother would tell us stories, and everyone would do things together. In the village you have the privilege of not having to buy food, but of growing it yourself. People didn’t have proper jobs; they’d sell their farm products and then buy whatever products they might need. Whereas in town you are buying everything.’

Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.

In this episode Manchán sits down with Fortunate from Zimbabwe. Fortunate grew up in a village in a mountainous region of Zimbabwe with many dangerous snakes, ‘All the mambas that you've ever heard about are in those mountains: black mamba, green mamba, white mamba. And we've got baboons - when we plough our maize they come to steal from us.’

She insists that snakes aren’t dangerous, ‘sometimes when you go to the field to cultivate with horses you might step on a snake, but they realise it’s a mistake and they won't bite you. They will flee. But if you really attack it it will bite, and even follow you, and kill you.’ She says that a small child can touch and play with a very poisonous snake ‘but the snake will not bite that child’.

She has fond memories of harvest parties when ‘all the villagers would come together. They would kill cattle and we would eat a lot and celebrate the summer season.’ They’d also offer prayers for a good harvest, and for suitable rains. This communal aspect of life in Zimbabwe suffered under colonisation, and Fortunate sees a similar impact in Ireland, though ‘the Irish are still very social. They have come together to support me, through thick and thin.’

Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.

In this episode Manchán speaks with Ivann from from the Guatemalan city of Quetzaltenango. He had to flee his home when drug cartels moved into the region. ‘It's close to the border with Mexico and five or ten years ago terrorists with guns set up in the area with drugs, and it changed everything, especially for the kids. Now it is very dangerous.’

His grandmother spoke the traditional Mayan languages K'iche' and Katchiqua. She mixed aspects of Christianity with Mayan practise. ‘In springtime we used to pray to a god of rain to see how the corn was going to grow up in the land. A Mayan god can be all of nature, or one tree, or a lake or mountain, or the clouds. God is everywhere.’

He misses teaching and is ‘focused on trying to be a teacher here in Ireland, and maybe even teach about Mayan culture or Spanish culture here. Since this country is doing so much for me why can't I contribute in return?’

Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.

In this episode Manchán speaks with Lwandise from Zimbabwe. Lwandise comes from a small farm of cattle, sheep, goats and other animals in Matebeleland South, Zimbabwe. His family also ‘grew grains so that we can feed our families throughout the year until the next rains.’ His father practised polygamy and so Lwandise had five siblings from his mother’s side and twelve from his father’s. Everyone was reared as part of the one family, ‘boys have their own rooms and girls have theirs, regardless of which family. It was a very good way of being brought up as there is always someone in the house for you. There is always a mother. In the village the more you are as a family the healthier you are, the more you can do and the more you can produce.’

He misses life back home, but it's just not safe for him there. For his life in Ireland, he wishes that he be recognised ‘regardless of my race or skin colour. That is my greatest hope.’

Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.

In this episode Manchán has a chat with Nididi from Nigeria. Ndididi is from the eastern part of Nigeria from a village ‘that is like a city also, as all the amenities of the city are there. My own village even has a university. There is a big thick forest there, and a river, and a market and schools. There is electricity also. It is very beautiful.’ Their local market is renowned and people ‘from other cities, far and wide come to do their market there. People bring many foods and some people trade by barter. They might bring crayfish, and if they don't have money, they will exchange it for something else.’

She lived with her grandmother ‘in a traditional mud house, and even when my father was going to build a new house she refused, saying that this was the house that my husband build for me and so that's where she lived till she died.’

Singing was always a major force in her life. ‘My dad was an organist, and my husband is also one.  My children and I sing a lot. Singing is part of us. When you are happy you sing, you can also use singing to stop crying, as when you are singing you can’t be crying.’ Mostly they sing and play Christian music, but also high-life, which is highly percussive vibrant form of Nigerian music ‘It’s very happy music. You’d be jumping and dancing. Us women, use our waists to dance, so that are waists are shaking. Western people use their legs.'

Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.

In this episode Manchán speaks with Noma from Zimbabwe. Noma, a model, grew up in rural Zimbabwe, tending cattle and growing vegetables and cereals. At age twelve she moved to South Africa with her parents and ‘was exposed to many things there. We used to go to the library to study, and play netball, and go swimming.’ There was more freedom than with her grandmother but still, ‘I prefer my grandmother’s way because the respect was there. In a rural area when you meet someone you greet them, you help your neighbourhood, but in a township you let your neighbour do whatever.’

The sense of possibility and lack of bribery is something she values in Ireland; that people will help without demanding something in return. ‘Here, the sky is the limit. We can still fulfil our dreams. I can do the things I wanted to do back home that I didn’t get a chance to do.’

Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.

In this episode Manchán has a chat with Adam from Morocco. Adam comes from Safi, a Moroccan coastal town famous for its seafood barbecues. ‘Everyone in the city knows how to swim and how to fish, and the sardines we catch are known throughout Morocco.’ He tried cooking fish from Irish rivers, ‘but it’s not the same’.

He works in a barber shop in Athlone and has made good friends. He says the Irish are similar to Moroccans in that both are easy going and like to joke. The main difference is that ‘the Irish get drunk while the Moroccans get stoned’. He’d love to go home, but life isn’t safe for him there and he realises that he might never get back. 'It's hard. After five years you miss your family a lot. I used not to think about it, but now I miss my mum. I see her getting older.’

He wishes people here would remember that most direct provision residents are entirely alone. ‘Maybe if they try to get closer to us it's better. I have no family. When I go home I'm all alone.’

Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.

This episode Manchán sits down with Kemi from Nigeria. Kemi, grew up in Igarra Eclo State in rural Nigeria before moving to a city after her mother died when she was twelve. Her town is famous for its natural beauty, with vast rocky outcrops amidst glistening streams. It’s also known for an edible land snail that is a sought-after delicacy. ‘The snail can be as large as a sausage inside a shell that is as big as an orange.’

She speaks four languages as well as English, ‘Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and my own language. Each language is like getting into a different character.  When I speak Igbo you get into their character, I act like them, I talk like them. When you speak the Hausa language, you because more like Arabs, as that’s the language from the Northern, Islamic part of the country.

She is ‘constantly shocked when people are surprised that I speak English. I tell them that we learn it in school. She is also amazed when people assume she doesn’t know how to operate modern devices. ‘Some of us are here because of safety issues, not because we don’t use a computer, or speak English or drive a car.’

Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.

In this episode Manchán speaks with Feza form the Democratic Republic of Congo. Feza, is from Bukavu in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where her mother, step-brothers and sisters still live. She has fond memories of ‘my grandmother who used to cook beans mixed with cassava leaves and we’d have it with rice, and of the wonderful smoked fish from Lake Kivu.’ She used to love swimming in the lake and going to visit Virunga National Park there the mountain gorillas live. 'We used to go in school holidays or on a Sunday. We’d organise a picnic. In the beginning seeing the gorillas was scary, but they are actually nice.' She hopes to return there, but ‘Up till now there is still violence. Women are being raped.’ She herself experienced some traumatic things, but now ‘in Ireland I have hope. Ireland has given me hope.’

Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.

In this episode Manchán again sits down with David from South Africa. David was born in Lompopo province, South Africa into a family descended from kings and so who were regularly consulted for guidance and justice. He learnt from his father and uncle that ‘everyone must come to a point where they compromise. When this is implemented, the results are wonderful. They transform the entire community to good from bad.’

Having worked alongside Mandela at conferences with the ANC, David is passionate about community development and conflict resolution, ‘If Irish people want to know me they ought to give me a task that involves uniting people. It’s a gift I have, to talk to people who have been fighting and killing each other.’

He is now studying social studies in Westmeath, and is keen to work in the community where he can be of service. ‘I wish God sends me somewhere where there is huge need, so that I can make impact among the poorest people. I hope that I can identify something that will be able to bring a change for them even if they are no resources.’

Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.