This week, we're revisiting some of our favorite episodes from 2024. This episode first aired on June 6th.
Aamna Modin She was a young rookie reporter when she received her first overseas assignment. She had been sent to Calais to write about the “jungle'', an informal refugee camp made up of people attempting to cross the Channel in search of a better life in Britain. She was nervous about doing a good job, but as she wandered through the chaotic maze of tents with people cooking on bonfires, she began to feel strange and uneasy.
It wasn't just the sadness of the stories she was hearing, it was more like deja vu. When she told her mother about the trip, her mother asked a question that surprised Amna. Why does she want to go to a refugee camp when they risked everything to escape it themselves? The question left Amna confused as she realized she had suppressed her own memories of her childhood in a Kenyan camp and how her family fled to the UK.
Helen Pitt We hear how that moment, and reporting on the Black Lives Matter movement, made Amna realize that she had a complicated relationship with her identity as a refugee. Now a regional correspondent for the Guardian, Amna visits Somalia and the refugee camps where she once lived, unearthing her family's stories and reminiscing about her own childhood, in an attempt to understand what it means to her. Explain how you started piecing together your memories.
As the refugee crisis shows no signs of slowing down and the word “stop the ship” becomes increasingly harsh, Amna tells Helen what she wants people to understand about the lives of many refugees. and how political discourse influenced her life.
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