Ep. 96: Tracing Ancestral Threads: A Journey from the West to Sierra Leone with Alya Harding

Our history of migration spans across the world. Join us as we journey with Alya Harding, a community organizer and PhD student, who shares her heartfelt exploration of Sierra Leonean Creole/Krio culture and her personal quest to uncover her Trinidadian roots. We examine the historical migrations that have woven a diverse Creole culture, bringing together Africans, African Americans, and Afro-Caribbean individuals in Sierra Leone. Alya's narrative of growing up in post-civil war Sierra Leone, paired with her newfound connections to her Caribbean heritage, paints a vivid picture of identity and belonging within the African diaspora.

This episode offers a thoughtful reflection on the complex layers of Creole culture, as seen through the lens of "roots versus routes" by scholar Paul Gilroy. We discuss the spiritual connections that bind African and Caribbean people, bolstered by historical movements such as the Haitian Revolution. The conversation also critically examines the romanticized idea of "returning" to Africa. We challenge the commercialization and exclusivity of this concept, advocating for genuine engagement with local communities and learning from past social movements. Alya enriches the dialogue with her personal anecdotes, and together we explore the enduring quest for freedom within Black communities worldwide. Dive into these narratives and gain access to further resources on the Strictly Facts podcast website, as we continue to explore these essential themes in our ongoing series.

Alya Harding, is a community organiser based in East London, concerned with issues of gender-based violence, migration, and agency. Alya’s activism and academic pursuits are deeply influenced by her early childhood in post-civil war Sierra Leone, shaped by the resilience of her Krio heritage and the richness of creolised cultures. She is particularly drawn to storytelling as a means to explore the tensions between theory and practice, grounded in a feminist approach that reimagines identity and freedom at the intersections of race, gender, and empire. Alya’s PhD research through an intergenerational discourse seeks to explore feminised migratory survival modes through the family pathology of African female headed households across Britain. In particular, examining how these practices affect their children, especially how they have shaped their daughters’ views on identity, belonging and healing.

View the Strictly Facts Syllabus for more resources on this episode.