Project news
Please see updates on project website:
The MIDEQ Blog launched earlier in 2020 with a series of articles by the UofG MIDEQ team:
- 31 August 2020: Researching multilingually: meeting, greeting, eating
Prof Alison Phipps reflects on greeting colleagues in mother languages, a tiny effort at equity and courtesy, and the importance of placing oneself in the position of linguistic vulnerability.
- 19 August 2020: Se anomaa entua obua da: 'The bird that does not fly does not eat'
Does your culture have textiles that tell migration stories? Naa Densua Tordzro introduces the concept of 'Se anomaa entua obua da' or 'The bird that does not fly does not eat' by highlighting its use in Ghanaian wax print designs.
- 19 August 2020: Two part series on Hamadzi, Memory as Silence
By Dr Gameli Tordzro
Memory in Sound, Silence and the Compassion of Music
Do you have memories that have migrated with you from one place to another? From one language to another? Are there any memories you know you keep because they have never found expression in another language?
Memory, Language Learning and Remembering a Forgotten Language
Have you ever discovered that words in your mother tongue occur in new languages you have learnt? Have you had memories you thought were no more existing awaked by a new sight and sound? Dr Gameli Tordzro writes how as he migrated the languages he used migrated into the silent spaces in his memory.
- 19 August 2020: three-part series on 'expressions of travel'
sezvazviri (literal); midziyo (items/objects); and zvirevo (proverbial)
By Tawona Sitholé
(1) Mazwi e Nzendo: Sezvazviri (literal)
In this offering Tawona Sitholé turns, and returns, to his mother tongue (Shona) to explore expressions to do with the movement of people. These mazwi e nzendo (expressions to do with travel) are from his own memory and also from several long, long-distance calls with his youngest ancestor – his elderly mother.
(2) Mazwi e Nzendo: Midziyo (items/objects)
What are your own language resources? What item/objects describe or influence your own sense of journey?
(3) Mazwi e Nzendo: Zvirevo (proverbial)
Known sayings (idioms) offer something more intangible to our reflections on migration. What idioms describe or influence your own sense of journey?
- 19 June: Ŋutefe Ʋɔdriba (Memory Dragon)
Researcher-artists begin introducing some concepts from traditions outwith those which are more normally associated with the discourse of migration studies or intercultural communication in the academic literature. In this post Dr Gameli Tordzro introduces his concept of the ‘Memory Dragon'
- 8 June 2020: hekani pa ruwaré
Tawona Sitholé introduces the concept of the ruwaré. In Shona it is a rockface, and any traveller who finds themselves here, not least one who is also migrating, finds no tracks or visible path to follow.
- 8 June 2020: Objects series: Burkina Faso
A conversation between Bonayi Hubert Dabiré and Alison Phipps, we hear Dabiré describe the objects he has chosen first of all in his mother language - ‘sa langue maternelle’ - Bambara, then describes these in French, his working language.
- 4 June 2020: Vessels, Thread and Cloth
In a series of reflections and writings the researchers in work package 11 (WP11) offer a gallery of objects which act as levelers for human beings in their needs for food, water, and clothing.