In this episode Manchán speaks 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.

In this episode Manchán speaks with Sandra from Zimbabwe. Her home town has a strong sense of communal identity. ‘If one family cooks they say come and eat to everyone. When you are sick you can call your neighbour and they will help you.’ All the female elders were like mothers, aunties or grandmothers to her.

It surprises her how in Ireland people keep to themselves and she regrets that she must call people by their first names, and not just ‘sister’ or ‘brother’. She’d love to go home, but it’s just not safe, as she was active in promoting women’s rights. ‘I am a poison in the country. We used to see our mothers being beaten. We formed a group to educate the girl child that she mustn’t be abused. We were being beaten up, taken to jail, so that we don’t teach the women these things.’

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

In this episode Manchán talks to Oyeyemi from the Yoruba tribe in southwestern Nigeria. ‘To be a Yoruba is a thing to be proud of. We are ready to learn new things and open to new cultures.’ Christianity and Islam are the principal faiths, but a traditional belief known as ifa, based on divination, is still practised. ‘There’s a god of iron, a god of thunder, a god of commerce, and also a god of the river and waters. I think we have the god of the forest too, that people worship and make sacrifices to.’

Each town will have a central altar, and people have smaller altars in their homes on which items like iron objects are placed for worship and blood sacrifices are made. Christian missionaries convinced the Yoruba that Christ had stronger magical powers than their gods and many converted, but Oyeyemi says, ‘In my own community there are still people who practise pagan worship.’ Both faiths emphasise honesty, sincerity and honourable practise. ‘The ifa faith says you must look after nature. You should not cut down trees. You have to respect your environment.’

Oyeyemi is grateful for the role Irish priests played in Nigeria in ‘getting people educated and treated like human beings and also advising against old practices. With all due respect, these are the things that I'd like to see in Ireland again. I want to see the saints and scholars again. I want to see their influence on society.’

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

In this episode Manchán speaks to Sie from Zimbabwe. 'I’d appreciate for Irish people to understand me as a person, not me as an African, or me as a continent,’ says Sie who comes from a village without electricity in a northern province of Zimbabwe called Lubane. She stresses that her family had access to a bore hole for water but other neighbours still fetch it daily from the river. She says it was a difficult life of long trips to fetch firewood and a 6km hike to school each day through the bush, but looking back now on it she says she appreciates many of its positive aspects.

She has fond memories of gathering worms from the mopani trees, which the family dried, then used to cook by soaking them in water, then boiling and frying them. They’re crunchy, delicious and rich in protein.

'The good thing about the village it teaches you your culture, values, a sense of belonging, but we are living in a world that is evolving they still don’t have electricity, still don’t have sanitary system. But I still appreciate what's there. My father still lives in the village.'

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

This episode Manchán talks to Aruna from the Democratic Republic of Congo. ‘I was born in the east of Congo, in a war zone. I grew up in Goma in my mother's family. You’ve got the big mountain in the centre called Mont Goma. On the far side you have the volcano, Virunga. Ngorgongo is the oldest one. Sometimes you see them burning and you have earthquakes.’ Life was hard growing up as his father wasn’t present and his mother’s family were poor. His uncle who was paying his school fees died in the fighting, then his mother died soon after.

He describes having to escape amidst scenes of chaos during the protests to overthrow the dictator, President Mobutu, in 1997. ‘We had to flee. We didn’t know where we were going. Everybody has a small bag and was just going. There was gun-shot &, heavy guns.  My brother got shot and so I went back to the house.’ He eventually went to the capital Kinshasa and then to South Africa seeking work. Life was tough, but he now has been granted refuge status and is living here with his wife and 3 children.

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

This episode Manchán speaks to Pauline South Africa. Pauline is from Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and ‘grew up relatively poor, but happy. I remember my dad let us watch a python eat a dik-dik (small deer) and for seven days we returned to watch it as it lay there digesting. We only ate wild meat when we were growing up. My young brother started to hunt when he was four years old.’

She moved to South Africa and now has five children and nine grandchildren. They lived outside Johannesburg. ‘It was extremely dangerous. My husband was in twelve armed robberies, and we experienced four attempted high-jackings.’

She believes the Irish don’t understand how violent South Africa really is. ‘Horrible things happened to us there, especially to my daughter. It wasn’t easy at my age to make this transition to Ireland, it was the hardest things we ever did, but now, I think, it was the best.’

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

In this episode Manchán speaks with Naledi from Botswana. Naledi grew up in the town of Francistown, Botswana as her grandmother was a teacher there. ‘My mum had me when she was twenty so she went to university, so I had to stay with my grandmother. I remember the times sitting by the gate at the time she came home and I’d be standing there singing songs.

As regards her hopes, ‘I like to work with people, which is why I decided to be a healthcare assistant, to assist people who cannot assist themselves.  I’ve always done homecare as that’s what I’m good at and what I prefer. Because in homecare you assist the person, you don’t do everything for them. I like that it doesn’t take away their freedom.

She describes how jobs are limited for foreigners and so most find it easier to go into healthcare. Most stay there as it is just too difficult to find another job. ’You try to do the easiest and the quickest job, rather than applying for another job and hoping you might get it.’ She remembers feeling boxed in when she arrived in Ireland, ‘I realised I couldn’t do the things I wanted because I didn’t have the qualifications or documentation. You end up settling.'Home Stories was funded by Creative Ireland alongside the county councils of Laois and Westmeath.

In this episode Manchán speaks with Rosemary from Malawi. Rosemary runs a social enterprise called Dignity Partnership that encourages Direct Provision residents to acquire new skills and set up businesses. Her goal is to expand the enterprise and be able to help encourage and motivate more Direct Provision people. She realises she lost so much of her own confidence when she was in the Direct Provision system and sees so many people suffering from trauma and undiagnosed depression and stress.

‘We don’t know what has happened to these people before they came to Ireland.’ She remembers all the anxieties of being in the system, and knowing that at any moment someone could knock on your door and demand to inspect your room. Now living in a rented house in Mountrath she still feels her  heart pumping when the doorbell rings, thinking  she’s going to receive a letter saying she’s being sent back.

She was born in Malawi, but was raised by her grandmother in Swaziland who was active in local politics and hired people to work the fields for her.

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

Ireland has been gifted with a precious influx of people from a range of fascinating and exotic cultures in recent years. Most of them were fleeing some form of trauma and are currently making their way slowly through the Direct Provision system. These new members of our communities offer us a wonderful opportunity to get to know different parts of the world and different cultural practises that are often full of wisdom and new perspectives.

Home Stories is a podcast that aims to help us get to know our new neighbours from Africa, Asia and South America. Each ten-minute episode consists of a short, relaxed conversation with someone living in the Direct Provision Centres in Emo, Abbeyleix and Athlone. Amongst the myriad topics under discussion are pagan faiths, ploughing with oxen, rituals of kingship, traditional languages, polygamy, gospel singing, herbal cures, culinary delicacies and the hopes and dreams these new Irish residents have for their future in Ireland, and the part they would like to play in society.

Amongst the myriad topics we discuss are pagan faiths, ploughing with oxen, rituals of kingship, traditional languages, polygamy, gospel singing, herbal cures, culinary delicacies and the hopes and dreams these new Irish residents have for their future in Ireland, and the services they would like to perform to show their gratitude to Ireland.

”Home Stories” is a podcast funded by Creative Ireland through Laois and Westmeath County Councils. It is hosted by Manchán Magan and the chats were edited by Lauren Varian with music by Brían MacGloinn (of Ye Vagabonds) and Myles O’Reilly.