Funding from Connect World  NGO’s Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund

Collaboration with writer Rotimi Babatunde         

Visual Arts 

The visual aspect will involve working in Lagos and Abuja and visiting slums like Maroko and Amukoko, alongside Rotimi, to contrast against neighbouring community of Victoria Island, a fortress for the rich, where we will carry out research and collect footage on video. Some of the families of Nigerian asylum seekers living in Ireland will be interviewed to see how life is going for them in Nigeria and past projects which Fiona has carried out in Dublin with their relatives or siblings can be shown to them to give them a sense of life in Ireland for Nigerians.

Literature

The literary one will deploy a wide range of genres, including vignettes, short fiction, brief non-fiction pieces, poems and flash drama. These broad rubrics will guide the writing:

1. Contemporary migration from the third-world to the first world as a whole, placed in the context of world history over the past few centuries (colonialism, the world wars, etc).
2. The long-time links between Nigeria and Ireland (the Irish catholic missionaries in the colonial era, the literary connections, etc). Likewise, under this category fall social correspondences (including spirituality, storytelling traditions, the importance of Guinness stout to drinking culture, and other profound and/or droll parallels) between both countries.

These categories are not mutually exclusive; they will overlap repeatedly in the writing.

Outcomes of Pathways of Movement:

• A documentary called ‘Pathways of Movement’ and text ‘Ajegunle Abridged’ written by Rotimi Babatunde.

• Links were made with several professional, artists, individuals and organisations including Femi Kuti (Son of Fela Kuti), Suzanne Wenger (Who has since passed away), P.W. (Irish construction company) and Guinness. (Relationships with contacts will remain and be developed.