Making Home Away

So I sat them down and told them: the five of us are here, me, you and your father, wherever the five of us are, that place should be your heaven.
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The British Academy
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University of Reading

Zaynab

Current 'Home' Jordan
Tags
CampDifficultyFood
Extremely hot and dry desert conditions in Al Azraq refugee camp, 2019. Image by Yasmine Shamma

For Zaynab, the harshness of camp life is linked to taste:

"Nothing has a taste. I don't like it here.  Water is the biggest issue in the camp. It tastes so bad."

This video, produced as part of the British Academy Virtual Summer Showcase, features the Making Home Away Project lead, Yasmine Shamma, explaining how Arabic coffee is made, and its significance within social relations within the refugee camp.  Coffee is central to the host-guest relationship within Syrian culture, and hence featured heavily within the field research conducted as part of this project.

Exterior of a restarant in Al Azraq refugee camp, 2019. Image by Yasmine Shamma

 

YASMINE SHAMMA

This extract is from an interview conducted by YASMINE SHAMMA during 2019 as part of the British Academy funded ‘Lost and Found: A Digital Archive of Migration, Displacement and Resettlement’  project’s Making Home Away archive.

Maha

Current 'Home'
Jordan

Layan

Current 'Home'
Jordan