African Voices: The Stories of the Lands oral history collection

Celebrating African stories in Tāmaki Makaurau

This month we celebrate the rich heritage and influence the African Diaspora has had, and continues to have, in Tāmaki Makaurau. You can learn about it and discover amazing stories with African Voices: The Stories of the Lands, our new oral history collection funded by the Creative Content initiative.

Image from left to right: Mahad Yusuf, Tina Bonsu Maro, Boubacar Coulibaly, Dr Love Chile, Lema Shamamba.

A community-led oral history project

This project had a ground-up and holistic collaboration, genuine commitment and regional relationships. With the assistance of a Cultural Advisor, we discussed the idea and if the project would be beneficial for the community. 

After aligning expectations and the project goal it was decided that only people born in Africa would be interviewed for this project. We chose people from different ethnicities and age groups. Trying to reflect the impacts they had in different areas.

Stories from the African diaspora in Auckland

Boubacar Coulibaly

Boubacar Coulibaly from Mali talks about his strong connections to his heritage. Also discusses the creation of African Film Festival. Discusses how the African community has changed since he has been in New Zealand. He talks about creating an ethnic soccer tournament in the 90’s, Somalia and Rwanda war and Zimbabwe bringing increasing immigration leading to African soccer competition.

Request to listen to Boubacar Coulibaly's interview 

Mahad Yusuf

Mahad Yusuf, Somalian born reflects on New Zealand culture and his Islamic faith and describes his life living in Mt Roskill. He gives examples of the dual cultural experience of migrants and his work to support migrant youth. He mentions his involvement in American hip hop and describes how he was able to connect with other students at BEST Pacific.

Request to listen to Mahad Yusuf's interview

Lema Shamamba

Lema Shamamba from Bweremana, Democratic Republic of Congo, talks about becoming a refugee and being an artist and community leader in Ranui, Auckland. She describes her escape from danger in Goma, her difficult years in Uganda, and eventually receiving support to resettle in New Zealand.

Request to listen to Lema Shamamba's interview

Dr Love Chile

Dr Love Chile from Nigeria, discusses his PhD studies and work as a researcher, his networks which support the integration of African refugees. Dr Chile talks about the early African immigration to New Zealand and the communities that worked in the creation of the African Association of Auckland in 1996. He also talks about a community magazine called Africa focus from 2000.

Request to listen to Dr Love Chile's interview

Tina Bonsu Maro

Tina Bonsu Maro has Ghanaian and Cook Island heritage, reflects on her involvement in Miss and Mr Africa and highlights the many ways her community contributes to Auckland through local groups, centres, sports, and radio.

Request to listen to Tina Bonsu Maro's interview

Community voices behind the collection

The commissioned interviews were done by people of the community. The Curator of Oral History and Sound Archives, Sue Berman, offered an Oral History Professional development.

How to access the African Voices collection

If you are interested in listening to the interviews, you can request them via the 'Contact us' text box directly in the Kura database record: 

African Voices - Stories of the Lands Collection

Portraits celebrating African identity and culture

To accompany the interviews, we commissioned a photographic collection. The photographer who did the portraits, Synthia Bahati, is also a person from the community. She captured beautiful portraits of our storytellers wearing some of the traditional dressing attires. 

The storytellers chose where and how they wanted to be captured and the result can be seen here and in our Heritage Photograph Collections. 

Copyrights may apply, please contact Auckland Libraries to check usage conditions.

Image references: 

• Boubacar Coulibaly. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1966-005. Photographer Synthia Bahati. 
• Mahad Yusuf. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1966-024. Photographer Synthia Bahati.
• Lema Shamamba. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1966-016. Photographer Synthia Bahati.
• Dr Love Chile. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1966-012. Photographer Synthia Bahati.  
• Tina Bonsu Maro. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1966-030. Photographer Synthia Bahati.