All posts tagged: diaspora

The weight of the Three Lions: Football, colonialism, diaspora | World Cup 2026

The weight of the Three Lions: Football, colonialism, diaspora | World Cup 2026

Published by Sam Flores

When England takes on Ghana, a former British colony, there is something you should pay attention to. Watch Kobbie Boateng Mainoo, one of the most talented young players in all of football, then watch Brandon Thomas-Asante, Jerome Opoku and Antoine Semenyo. All four of these young men share very similar backgrounds and stories. All four born in England, socially and culturally shaped by English football, all with Ghanaian heritage. Yet only Kobbie Mainoo plays for England, while the others play for Ghana. Things like this make me question my allegiances. They make me wonder who I should truly root for. But we will get to that. This is for the keep-sports-out-of-politics crowd: Many of England’s 26 players are sons or grandsons of people from Caribbean and African countries. Most of those countries are former colonies of the British Empire. Football has never been just a game. It has always been a mirror. Research from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford has revealed that nearly a quarter of the 1,248 players selected for national …

Iran diaspora watches World Cup game with protests, support

Iran diaspora watches World Cup game with protests, support

Published by Sam Flores

Ahead of the tournament, taking place across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, FIFA outlawed the lion-and-sun flag at matches, saying it violated the organization’s code of conduct prohibiting “banners, flags, fliers, apparel and other paraphernalia that are of a political, offensive and/or discriminatory nature.” Many Iranians at the match, eager to express their views publicly, ignored the policy. Nour was among them, proudly posing with a lion-and-sun flag from the stands. “The regime has taken away so much from Iranians,” Nour said. “But I don’t believe that me going to the game to show my pride in being Iranian means I support every player, or everything they stand for … Our love of being Iranian surpasses everything else.” Nour said she understands why members of the diaspora struggle with whether to support Team Melli. “Everyone’s decisions are informed by their pain and trauma,” she said. Ultimately, however, she decided the regime doesn’t “own our culture or our joy. We do.” The roars each time Iran surged forward suggested she was far from alone. And across …

Mixed emotions among diaspora as Iran begins World Cup campaign

Mixed emotions among diaspora as Iran begins World Cup campaign

Published by Sam Flores

Tonight, Iran begin their World Cup campaign against New Zealand in Los Angeles. It’s a match taking place under unprecedented conditions. For the first time in World Cup history, a host nation is at war with one of its participating teams. That conflict is shaping everything around Iran’s presence in the United States: from strict restrictions on where the team can be based, to divisions within the Iranian diaspora itself. Source link

Artist Poignantly Recounted the Salvadoran Diaspora Dies

Artist Poignantly Recounted the Salvadoran Diaspora Dies

Published by José Betancourt

Muriel Hasbun, a multidisciplinary artist whose practice poignantly recounted the effects of El Salvador’s civil war and the migration and exile of its diaspora, died on May 13 from ovarian cancer in Silver Springs, Maryland. She was 64 years old. The news was confirmed by art historian Tatiana Flores. “A beloved member of the DC art scene and a leading advocate for Salvadoran and Central American artists in the diaspora, Muriel’s loss cuts deeply across many communities,” Flores, who curated an exhibition of Hasbun’s at Rutgers University, told ARTnews in an email. “I mourn the passing of a dear friend, her unrealized projects, and the memories that die with her. We left much work unfinished.” Related Articles Working across photography, video, and installation, Hasbun often looked at themes of memory and migration, loss and exile with a poetic sensitivity that recounted her familial and personal history. She was born in 1961 in El Salvador to Antonio Hasbun Zamora, who was of Salvadoran and Palestinian Christian descent, and Jeannette (Janine) Janowski, who was the daughter of …

Ahead of Nairobi summit, France highlights youth, innovation and ‘huge diaspora’ investing in Africa – Spotlight

Ahead of Nairobi summit, France highlights youth, innovation and ‘huge diaspora’ investing in Africa – Spotlight

Published by Sam Flores

In the run-up to the Africa Forward summit in Nairobi, Mark Owen is pleased to welcome Éléonore Caroit, France’s deputy minister for Francophonie, International Partnerships and French Citizens Abroad. France is seeking to expand and transform its relationship with the entire African continent, Caroit explains. Africa Forward, France’s first summit in English-speaking Africa, is reflective of a series of new initiatives that are “not limited to former colonies” but rather “a forward-looking relationship that is based on youth, and based on growth”. France’s deputy foreign minister presents a vision of French diplomacy grounded in what she highlights as “balanced, equal-based partnerships”. The language is striking because it openly acknowledges the historical burden of “Françafrique”, while simultaneously insisting that a generational and strategic transformation is underway. “We have radically transformed our relationship with African countries,” she states, arguing that contemporary France must “look at our history right in the eye” while also learning to be less “apologetic” and more forward-looking. Especially given that “Africa is the fastest-growing continent”. She also addresses the tensions surrounding France’s contemporary role in Africa. …

This new customizable bowl restaurant celebrates African diaspora food

This new customizable bowl restaurant celebrates African diaspora food

Published by Sam Flores

There are build-your-own-bowl restaurants that encourage customers to make mountains out of carne asada and shredded cheese. Salad bowl shops, places that push bowls filled with Mediterranean spreads and grains, and bowls brimming with açaí under tiles of sliced banana. Dubbed “slop bowls” online, you dig a fork into a sea of colorful but texturally homogeneous ingredients and call it lunch. Restaurant owner Jinell Singletary is familiar with slop bowls. She spent years visiting restaurants that specialized in customizable bowls, but she never felt connected to the food. “I needed something that was going to have nutritional value in a way that was relevant to me culturally,” she said. Head chef Edward Hamilton, left, owner Jinell Singletary and chef Chris Fordham at Urban Comfort Foods Kitchen in Carson. (Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times ) At the time, the former tech industry veteran was doing admin for her aunt’s Los Angeles-based catering company, which provided hundreds of meals for seniors, students and unhoused people. Without any culinary training of her own, she called chef Edward …

Politics of Black hair: why grooming rules are under scrutiny across the diaspora | Colonialism

Politics of Black hair: why grooming rules are under scrutiny across the diaspora | Colonialism

Published by Sam Flores

Last month a Jamaican woman said her teenage son had been pulled from lessons because school staff had deemed his afro hairstyle inappropriate. “The dean of discipline called me to state that my son has been removed,” Michelle Scott said. “You’re telling me that you took him, a fifth-form student, out of classes to go and get a haircut?” The school, Ardenne high in Kingston, Jamaica, denied the boy had been removed from class, but said he had been spoken to about the “alleged infraction”. According to Jamaica’s school grooming guidelines: hair must be neat, clean and well-maintained at all times. Disputes over natural Black hairstyles continue to surface throughout the African and Caribbean diaspora, raising questions about the extent to which grooming rules, rooted in colonial ideas about “neatness”, still shape how Black hair is treated in workplaces and classrooms. This is apparent even in Black-majority countries that were once colonised. Schools in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda continue to require girls to cut their natural hair before they are allowed to …

Nowruz is different amid war, even in the Iranian diaspora : NPR

Nowruz is different amid war, even in the Iranian diaspora : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Nozlee Samadzadeh’s haft sin — a traditional table set for Nowruz featuring symbolic objects. Sarah Ventre/NPR hide caption toggle caption Sarah Ventre/NPR Nowruz — the Iranian New Year — is one of the biggest holidays of the year for Iranians, and is usually celebrated with large parties and get-togethers. It’s an ancient holiday, with pre-Islamic roots, and unites Iranians across religious lines throughout Iran and the diaspora. But this year, Jasmine Nourisamie, one of the presidents of the Persian Cultural Society at New York University, had to make a tough decision: how to celebrate a joyous holiday amidst grief and anxiety. “All of us as Iranians in the diaspora are connected to someone who has either been killed, imprisoned, tortured, raped, disappeared — we all know someone, and it was very much a period of mourning, and it still is,” said Nourisamie. After the mass killing of protestors by the Iranian regime in January, Nourisamie said she saw social media accounts of Iranian activists posting that this year, Nowruz celebrations should be toned down. Many …

France’s Iranian artistic diaspora torn between anxiety and joy

France’s Iranian artistic diaspora torn between anxiety and joy

Published by Sam Flores

Artist Firouz Farman Farmaian, at Trafalgar Square, London, March 4, 2022. KI PRICE/GETTY IMAGES “Being an Iranian woman at such a time means living in a state of constant contradiction,” said Sara Bigdeli Shamloo, an experimental musician who has lived in Paris since 2014. “There is a very real fear for human lives, and at the same time, a kind of almost guilty hope.” Like all Iranians in exile, since the beginning of the US-Israeli strikes in Iran on Saturday, February 28, the young woman has tried to untangle the chaos of her emotions – an odd mix of fear, disbelief and jubilation. “A lot of people, despite the danger, feel that this crisis could offer a way out after decades of violence and suffocation. We are already seeing footage of people dancing in the streets under missile fire. An image nearly impossible to grasp from the outside, but it reveals just how tired people are and how strong their will to live has become after so long.” Back in December 2025, Bigdeli Shamloo had …