Subverting Alienation  

Subverting Alienation
With Moro Yapha (Migration and Human Rights Advocate, GM/DE), Stella Nyanzi (Activist, Poet and Digital Rights Defender, UG/DE), Nyima Jadama (Activist & Moderator, GM/DE). Moderated by Mo R. (Project Lead, Tactical Tech, EG/US/DE).
This panel explores the pivotal role of media and technology in raising awareness and fostering community bonds among migrants and refugees. It discusses the challenges faced by migrants in Germany, Europe and beyond, and how the process of gaining agency can shift the focus from 'being a migrant' to 'becoming a citizen'. Through their individual stories, speakers will also illustrate the power of media and self-advocacy in combating systemic alienation and oppression.
Reflecting on his personal migration journey from The Gambia to Europe, Moro Yapha recounts how the lack of communication tools initially limited connectivity. This experience inspired the creation of a Facebook group in 2014 to document the perilous journey to Europe and highlight human rights abuses faced by migrants, especially those from sub-Saharan Africa. The group aimed to share untold stories, search for missing persons, and raise awareness of the struggles and exploitation faced by migrants in Europe. Motivated by the need for self-representation, Moro Yapha became a migration and human rights advocate, leveraging online platforms to challenge prevailing narratives and promote migrant voices. In 2016, this advocacy led to the co-founding of Wearebornfree! Empowerment Radio, the first self-organised African radio station in Berlin and Potsdam, now known as Kangkiling Radio. The station serves as a platform for raising awareness, empowering black music and cultures and building community among African migrants in Europe. Additionally, Moro has worked for seven years as an intercultural mediator at Fixpunkt e.V, supporting undocumented sub-Saharan Africans with health, legal, and social services.
Stella Nyanzi is a dissident poet and activist from Uganda working at the intersection of women's and LGBTQI+ rights, labour rights, freedom of expression and research, digital democracy and civil rights. She is currently a fellow of the PEN Centre Germany's Writers in Exile Programme and the Center for Ethics and Writing. Nyanzi has been arrested and charged several times for her political poetry in Uganda. Digital platforms have always played a key role in her activism. #Photo4AsylumDignity is a nascent campaign based on her recent cases in the Bavarian criminal court and administrative court. She photographed 3 security guards uttering hate speech which comprised racist, sexist and homophobic national stereotypes against a Ugandan asylum seeker in an asylum shelter in Bavaria. When they threatened to call the police, she uploaded their photograph on her Facebook timeline. Police officers confiscated her phone, opened up a section 201 case against her, forbade her to enter the premises, and escorted her off the grounds. A few weeks later, she received a house ban from all asylum and refugee shelters in Bavaria. Based on the two criminal and administrative cases, she started organising Ugandan asylum seekers to speak out against the dehumanisation they face in asylum shelters
Through her work on media literacy and the empowerment of refugees, migrants and women, Nyima Jadama developed her career in Germany as a TV presenter, moderator and media trainer. She left The Gambia in 2015 and dedicated herself connecting marginalised communities worldwide. After an initially difficult journey, bureaucratic hurdles and various work experiences, she founded the 'Bantaba Academy' for migrants and refugees and hosts 'Nyima's Bantaba' and 'Unfiltered Podcast' at the media organisation ALEX Berlin, giving migrants and refugees a voice to discuss their problems and tell their stories. Initially she joined ALEX Berlin as a trainee, but since 2020, she runs her own programme. Nyima describes that the word ‘Bantaba’ comes from her home language Mandinka, which is spoken in some parts of West African countries. Bantaba is a large tree under which the community in The Gambia gathers to discuss the concerns of society. With her programme, in which culture, migration and empowerment are discussed, Nyima talks about migration with migrants - and not without them, as is often the case in the media. Topics range from the direct participation of refugees to countering hate speech against migrants. The podcast 'Unfiltered Bantaba' was added in September 2023. Guests talk about stories that matter to them. Today, she is developing a media literacy project in The Gambia with the r0g agency. Through the creation of a Media Field Guide, she is empowering young women to be active in the media sector and to move from a state of oppression caused by cultural barriers to an awareness of their role in society.
Hacking Alienation
www.disruption...
#DNL33 #HackingAlienation