4.7 CONCLUSIONS

Reflections on Otherwise

Our work with SADACCA has left us with many lessons and a desire to continue contributing. Their work in the Bantu Archive Programme as a way to tell their story in their words is inspiring and a testament to the need to continuously challenge narratives and formal, conventional ways of archiving history. We believe that counter-archives can be a tool that strengthens and further visualises the presence and contribution of a community within a larger context.

The need for these types of tools within diasporic communities, where issues of identity and displacement are at play, is crucial to further anchor these communities to a sense of belonging and a notion of home. Therefore, our project has centred around how to further empower the ongoing construction of the Bantu Archive Programme by weaving, expanding, and exposing its work. We hope the outcomes proposed in this report complements the current synergies between SADACCA and its partners and provides a platform that bridges generations.

Sheffield is a city that is growing and evolving. During our time in the city, we witnessed a number of construction projects that, with their deafening noise, let us know that the city is continuously changing. How will the different communities that make up Sheffield grow and evolve within this changing urban tapestry? This is for the people of Sheffield to decide, and we believe that the BAP is an excellent tool to ground the African-Caribbean community in its rightful place in Sheffield.

Weaving, expanding, and exposing this tool can serve to further the recognition of their presence within the city, making their on-going legacy and contribution to Sheffield sound louder than any new construction site, allowing them to continue growing and evolving in a city that is doing the same.

Fig 23. Conceptualisation of Weaving and Story Telling as Urban Regeneration (Source: Authors)