An African Presence in Europe: Portraits of Somali elders

Africans and Muslims, photography and cultural studies – these are the subjects and objects of this cultural-political intervention combining humanist portrait photography, collaborative ethnography and oral history. The Somali Elders Project is located outside of the academy, in a community-based arts and educational centre in Cardiff, Wales. It is a mode of socially-concerned research, photography and representation in which marginalized voices, images and experiences are brought to the fore – with the subjects’ active participation. This polyvocal essay, combining text, voices and images, reflects on the project and suggests that it might provide a useful model for work in African cultural studies.