Mother Britain

A powerful drug which needs challenging in our society is power. We all crave the hit of hegemony, caressing our veins and pumping our minds with a sense of pride. A sense of pride that our community is above yours. When dangerously jingoistic attitudes merge with a supposed existential threat it equates to hatred. Racist drivel gives man a drive in his life to defend his so called identity. Terrorist attacks, famine in East Africa and an incredibly talented soul singers death should awaken society.

Canadian-Somali rapper K’naan said it best when he said: (there is a) ‘famine in the belly, famine in the soul' in the world today.

Inevitably, the human psyche fears change, the fear of the unknown is played open until an open society becomes closed. The bearded big brown elephant in the room is exploited to such an extent that anything unrelated to elephants becomes irrelephant.

Fear feeds the flame of anger on both sides as fundamentalism becomes fashionable as youngsters join either the 'EDL' or 'Islam4UK.' The youth crave an identity, whether it's to redefine their own nationality or to rely on a dogmatic politicized version of faith.

Persian poet Jalal-Ud-Din Rumi best understood the clash of identities long before politicians from right to left are having this discussion:

"Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, sufi, or zen.

Not any religion or cultural system.

I am not from the East or the West.

I do not exist."

Some are adamantly against 'labels' however the truth is, it's a subjective concept, problems only arise when we enforce labels on others. The words ‘backwards’ and ‘modern ‘ have no meaning in a society where the precedent is on the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ narrative. Fundamentalists of all spectrums enjoy drumming the exclusivist mentality; of ‘We’ are the best.

When politicians can relate to the right-wing terrorist Breivik it worries me and when Cameron laments multiculturalism it worries me even more.

Recently, we (Words Apart Youth Poetry Collective) made a short film entitled: Mother Britain, due to premier at the Noble Sage Art Gallery in East Finchley in a few weeks. The film used the tools of poetry and parkour (free-running) to discuss the identity of young people in Great Britain. An extract from the film - a poem entitled 'Dear Mother Britain' brings a similar message to Rumi's plurality: 'From Jerk City to Curry Hut, 2 for 2 to fufu, Black magic and voodoo, pure hearts and blessed souls.

London the diverse dungeon full of Irish, Jamaicans, Kurds and Serbs. Micra's and Bentley's drive past, radio changes from kiss to choice, she offers the choice to choose or lose, Cos Britain takes as much as it gives. And because my identity in this place is everything. And Nothing.'

During the process of making the film we all recognized that we were so grateful for the freedoms we had here but we wouldn't necessarily describe ourselves as just 'British.' Interestingly, some us would call ourselves ‘British’ others said African, Jamaican, Yemeni or Pakistani. But more importantly, we still connected as one group of British youngsters trying to change the world for the better. We were all trying to make humanity more inclusive; we recognized this inclusiveness through our commonalities. The idiosyncrasies which divide people can unite people like having an aggressively inspiring Pakistani or African Grand-mother.

Indeed we are words apart from one another but our souls are eternally intertwined. Hopefully our stagnating world realizes the danger in dehumanizing one another and that imbedding false prejudices in people’s minds will not end well.

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