Katherine Lanham a geography student at Oxford University asked the Kushinga Garden to get involved with her research project over the summer.
The idea for the project stemmed from her interest in the City of Sanctuary movement in Birmingham. Supporting refugees and asylum seekers is something she has always felt strongly about.
After reflecting on the City of Sanctuary strapline of developing a ‘culture of hospitality and welcome in the city for those seeking sanctuary’ she started to wonder whether the language associated with hospitality actually did justice to the activities that constitute the movement. Hospitality is generally based upon a notion of a ‘host’ welcoming a ‘guest,’ which has implicit power relations. She wanted to look into some of the projects existing in Birmingham which take ideas of hospitality much further, in ways that are far more empowering for refugees and asylum seekers.
The basic aim of her project was to look at ways in which community based projects involving refugees and asylum seekers start to disrupt the categories of ‘host’ and guest.’ She was also interested in whether the distinction starts to blur as groups of people engage with each other and equip each other with skills and support in a reciprocal manner.
When we received her email, asking for our involvement in the research, she was invited to attend Saturday gardening sessions where she could garden with people and talk to them about their interest in getting involved. People were happy to engage and share their views and ideas and she shared knowledge, time and humour with others in a comfortable way. Katherine is now part of our community for when she has time to join us in the future! Her findings are below:
Kushinga – Perseverance. Strength. Endurance through times of crisis. No name could better capture the essence at the heart of this community gardening project. A sense of perseverance is manifest at a whole host of different levels … It can be seen in the manner through which a culture of exclusion of asylum seekers is contested, as the garden provides a space to combat isolation and to forge new cross-cultural relationships. It exists through the bonds of friendship and support developed amongst those attending the gardening sessions, which help to sustain individuals through the continual challenges they face. It is present in the form of skills determinedly learnt and the range of responsibilities people take on, despite ongoing hardships. Perseverance can also be observed in the gardening methods themselves, with a continual striving to think of innovative ways to maximise space, improve yields and run the garden sustainably.
No two Saturday sessions are the same, but I hope the following thoughts adequately depict the feel of these sessions and provide a sense of the impact that seemingly small decisions or actions can have.
The choice of crops;
The Kushinga Garden boasts a wide variety of different plants and crops, ranging from African kale, to chokeberries, sweetcorn and callaloo! Plants from all across the world are present in the garden, many of which were grown by garden members back in their home countries. For some of the asylum seekers this provides a sense of familiarity and an excitement of, quite literally, being able to have a taste of home. Growing such plants also helps to stimulate and trigger conversations, as they act as visual probes, opening up new avenues for discussion. From around the garden you can often hear shouts of ‘In my country we …’ and a sharing of details about people’s day to day lives before they came to Britain. Rather than the metanarratives you might hear about these countries in the news or the media, conversations centred around the plants give an insight into life and culture at the somewhat more mundane and everyday level, which is perhaps closer to people’s hearts. Whether it be explaining how beans in Malawi are often grown next to the bathroom so that waste water flows straight into the plant bed, or describing the taste of dishes cooked with callaloo, tomatoes and onions in Nigeria … snippets of information and experience are offered up which one would struggle to find elsewhere.
Collaboration with Ryton Garden Organic has enabled some very unusual plants to be sourced and grown, such as a type of rare bean from China. This provides everyone with the chance to experience something new, in addition to helping to cultivate an attitude of openness to learning about and appreciating different cultures. Indeed, the garden serves as a cultural meeting point: it is a hub where many different cultures combine and influence each other in new and exciting ways. The growing of plants not native to this country demands a degree of cultural mixing, so as to ensure their survival here. For example, African kale is commonly grown in Zimbabwe, so the Zimbabweans in the group are able to offer up advice about how and when to harvest, what it should look like and how to tend to the plants. However, this knowledge has to be combined with British methods of growing, in order to adapt this crop from far away to the British climate and slug culture! The technique of propagating and the potting the African kale before planting it in a bed was new and surprising to many people.
A key concept at the centre of the garden is the idea of strength through diversity. The wide range of plants grown here works to provide high levels of resilience, as crops suitable for a range of different conditions exist. This is reflective of the community’s diversity and thus translates into a strong message: high levels of difference within communities need not serve as a weakness, but rather it can provide an even more solid foundation, better able to withstand shocks or uncertainties. Through bringing people together from diverse countries and walks of life, Kushinga community garden benefits from the array of alternative experiences, perspectives, growing methods, crops and ideas. The message is simple: diversity brings resilience.
Identity;
So often in society asylum seekers are portrayed in a negative light, depicted in a cruel and unjust manner by certain media outlets. Damaging myths circulate, suggesting that people come to Britain only to ‘take,’ and that they pose a threat to society. Individuals hence become seen just as a number, contributing to the rising total of asylum applications. What happens in the garden really counters this. Kushinga provides a space to put names and faces to those numbers. Members of the local community have the chance to meet asylum seekers and refugees on a personal and individual level, to hear their stories, to discover their personalities, to learn about their lives and the daily challenges that they have to face. The garden in also an arena in which people gain a glimpse into how much valuable knowledge and experience newcomers to this country have to offer. In many areas of life asylum seekers are forced to engage with complex systems, with which they are often unfamiliar and unsure how best to navigate. In the garden, however, they frequently find themselves positioned as experts, as many have had farming or gardening experience in their home country and can thus draw upon this knowledge to direct and inform others in the garden. This helps to disrupt some of the destructive power relations, which tend to condition the experience of asylum and through which asylum seekers are subordinated. The fact that asylum seekers are denied the right to work and face so many other barriers to societal involvement prevents them from having opportunities to showcase their many skills, talents, ideas and knowledge. The garden acts a space in which all involved can take an active role, and a space where all contributions are valued and respected.
Kushinga garden became the first official ‘Mother Garden,’ part of a regional mutual-aid initiative, which seeks to build a network of food projects growing and sharing useful plants, skills and resources with one another. Members of Kushinga are able to engage with other local gardening groups in this exchange, making contact with an ever-widening circle of people. Trips are also organised to places such as Ryton Organic Gardens and Coombie Abbey Country Park. Through engagement in these food and plant networks, people attending Kushinga garden start to be seen by others as ‘gardeners,’ rather than simply as refugees or asylum seekers. Their identity is not defined and determined in such an anonymised manner, but rather in these networks their identity is as a member of the Kushinga community. It helps to reinforce the message that there is more to an individual than simply their legal status.
Cultivating skills;
Clearly, attending Kushinga garden helps people to learn many horticultural skills, whether that be how to propagate plants, knowing how and when to harvest crops or trying out new methods of watering. Skills development, however, stretches beyond the immediate remit of gardening, into numerous other areas of life. When expressing his vision for the project, Felipe was quick to emphasise that decision-making power should not be concentrated solely at the ‘top’ layer of management. Currently being developed is a system of smaller working groups, in which, depending on individual interests and attributes, people can become part of ‘sub-committees’ to help with the organisation of specific elements of the project. These include a gardening committee, a food and events committee and a publicity and networking committee. Whilst in their early stages, the hope is that sharing responsibility amongst a wider group of people will not only make the project more socially sustainable, but will also increase everyone’s sense of ownership over the project. This ethos of empowerment draws upon a principle of mutual involvement, with individuals more willing to be invested in the projects because of their ability to shape and direct what goes on. Participation in working groups help to foster skills related to project management and negotiating fairly with others.
One Saturday this summer a group of teenagers partaking in the NCS Challenge Programme visited the garden, which provided ample opportunity for all involved to chat to, and practise their English with, those from different backgrounds and of different ages. Social skills are being developed all the time at the garden, whether through working as a team to construct the polytunnel or through conversing over a cup of tea and a biscuit. The skill of teaching others and passing on knowledge is also being continually nurtured. This host of social skills are all highly adaptable and applicable to all sorts of circumstances and situations beyond the confines of the garden. The confidence and capabilities gained through involvement in gardening activities serve to equip people in often subtle and unanticipated ways.
A space of wellbeing;
The garden appears to serve a dual purpose. Whilst at a first glance the primary purpose may appear to be cultivating a productive and sustainable garden, I believe the second aim, of providing a space of ‘wellbeing,’ is equally compelling and valuable. Kushinga offers a space for individuals to simply ‘be’ – there is no pressure to perform certain tasks or to achieve a certain amount when you attend the garden. You will often notice people just sitting quietly, or perhaps chatting to another person, on the bench in the garden, watching others partake in activities. When you arrive at the garden there is no one telling you what you have to do. Rather, you have a degree of freedom to get involved to the extent to which you feel comfortable on any given day. A lot of asylum seekers who come to the garden are living in a state of anxiety, burdened and overwhelmed by worry, often about things over which they have no control. The garden has been described by some members as an ‘escape’ and a place of relaxation, where, for those few hours at least, you can focus on something entirely different, distracted for the problems afflicting you. The garden works to contest some of the exclusionary logics of the asylum system in the UK. Being denied the right to work means that asylum seekers find themselves with huge amounts of time on their hands, but limited finances and social exclusion lead to high levels of boredom and isolation. The way in which the garden tries to counter this is captured by one Kushinga member: “For me, the weekend is too long, I just feel so bored, I have nothing to do. If I didn’t have the garden to come to I would be sitting in the house by myself and that is when the negative thoughts start coming and you just feel worse and worse. But if I come here, I am busy, active, outside and I’m able to actually do something. I get to socialise and see people here too. It’s important, you know, to be part of something.”
Becoming ‘rooted’;
The liminal status of asylum seekers, combined with issues such as language barriers and an unfortunate pervading culture of hostility toward strangers, renders it very difficult for those seeking sanctuary to feel as if they belong in local communities. The asylum dispersal system moves people to new places suddenly and unexpectedly, making it hard to feel embedded in any one place. Kushinga garden offers a way for people to become, quite literally, ‘rooted’ here and offers a way into a welcoming community. The visible signs of progress that emerge each week, as the plants grow and develop, provide something very tangible for people to hold onto and from which to glean hope. Whilst it may feel like their lives are on hold as they await their claims to be approved, the garden, of which they are part, continues to blossom and advance. Looking forward to the future Kushinga is seeking to expand links with the local community and to involve more local residents in the project, which will further widen the social networks of asylum seekers and refugees, fostering a greater sense of belonging here in Birmingham.
To conclude;
This gardening project is a way of welcoming asylum seekers and refugees into a community, but it appears to go further than traditional notions of hospitality. No matter how fleeting or irregular your visits to the garden are, where you come from, or how long you have been in the country, you are not treated simply as a guest. Instead, you are immediately seen as constitutive of the community – an integral part, in fact. You, like everyone else, have an immediate stake in the project and are free to fully participate. All who attend Kushinga community garden feel a legitimate sense of ownership over the project and over the garden itself. By your very presence there you are made to feel as if this is somewhere you really belong.
For more info contact: katherine.lanham@hertford.ox.ac.uk
