SHINING A LIGHT

“Suddenly all went black.” At the age of eleven editor Faaeza Jasdanwalla-Williams was struck by a milk lorry whilst walking home in Mumbai, India. The accident resulted in Faaeza losing most of her vision, changing the course of her life entirely. With support from her family, Faaeza was able to pursue her passion for education and eventually, with a determined independence, Faaeza moved to Aberystwyth, Wales to study a Masters and then later PhD. It is here she remained, even becoming a Welsh speaker to better integrate into her adopted homeland.

Faaeza’s story is one unique strand of many that make up the tapestry of diversity in Wales. Inspired by her own journey and by the UN International Decade for People of African Descent (finishing 2024), Faaeza set about uncovering other individual and insightful stories from everyday immigrant, migrant and refugee women now living in Wales.

Despite a growing library of immigration stories being published, Faaeza recognised that these often came from writers or celebrities and that, although having their own importance in the conversation around immigration and refugees, many everyday women’s voices were being overlooked and underrepresented.

Through funding from the Books Council of Wales, Faaeza recruited two contributors, Chinyere Chukwudi-Okeh (a Nigerian now living in Swansea) and Mohini Gupta (originally from New Dehli and former Aberystwyth Charles Wallace Fellow) to gather stories from across Wales with the mission to highlight the expansive experiences of immigrant, migrant and refugee women.

Twenty-five stories were collected from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Japan, China, Algeria, Uganda, Kenya, Namibia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and Nigeria, each uniquely different from the next.

“Almost all the refugee women that have contributed their stories, have talked about the deep anxiety and worry they felt after they sought asylum here, in relation to the need to find a job and earn a living for themselves and their families. The incessant rhetoric that is fed to us about refugees not contributing to the system, seems to be entirely misguided, when considering the set of stories from refugee women in this anthology.” Faaeza Jasdanwalla-Williams

From exploring queer identity to crossing dangerous waters in small boats, Many Roads brings to the forefront the stories of strong, courageous, inspiring and enterprising women which will undoubtedly surprise and challenge the reader.

A foreword from Professor Charlotte Williams, renowned for her significant work in championing black and minority ethnic history in Wales, commences this truly remarkable collection and reinforces its relevance as a book of our time.

Following in the footsteps of Seventy Years of Struggle, We Are Displaced and Gathering, Many Roads is vitally important to the conversation over migration, personalising the “stop the boats” rhetoric and humanising the refugee plight. By providing unique and previously unseen accounts from women not already in the public eye, Many Roads offers readers and academics essential testimony that will be cemented in our history for decades to come.

“We are safe now. There are no more forests, swamps, camps, prisons, or death. But we remember it all. My children remember everything.” Parma, Fear and Courage, Many Roads

Many Roads will be publishing on 24 October 2024 and, in partnership with The National Library of Wales, Honno will be holding a launch party at 5pm on 29 October 2024 at The Drwm, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth and this event will also be live streamed.

Arriving in bookshops 24 October 2024

Praise for Many Roads

“Many Roads is an impressive collection of stories portraying the pathos of women who bravely speak of their displaced lives, shattered dreams, and hopes for the future.” Professor Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya, PhD, FRAS

“Poignantly personal yet profoundly political. Nobody will read this book without their consciousness having been expanded.” Ken Booth, Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), Professor Emeritus Aberystwyth University

“Many Roads explores the individual stories of women from twenty African and Asian nations who have made their homes in Wales. Some came as refugees; others as students; others again to find a place where they could prosper. All faced the pains of loss and adjustment and all have been determined to contribute to their new communities.” Andrew Whitehead


Additional Information

Many Roads aims to highlight the marginalised voices of refugee women as well as celebrate the lives of immigrant and migrant women in Wales. The experiences and stories of these women show the several hurdles that many have had to overcome, and are still overcoming in some cases, including racism, in order to forge a new life in a new home.
The publication of this anthology will partly contribute to the events that mark that UN International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-24), while also recognising the struggles and experiences of women from various countries in Asia.

EDITOR: Faaeza Jasdanwalla-Williams is an historian of early modern Ottoman women, having completed her PhD from Aberystwyth University. She went on to teach a module on Ottoman history at the University for 10 years. She simultaneously continued her secondary research on the African Diaspora in India. Her interest in the latter field emerges from the desire to research the history of her maternal ancestors who migrated from Eastern Africa (from the area around what was then Abyssinia) to India in the late medieval period. Migration and immigration (she herself is an immigrant in Wales) are therefore, subjects close to her heart.

CO-COMPILER: Chinyere Chukwudi-Okeh originally from Nigeria, is currently resident in Swansea and is closely involved with the African Association there, which is not limited to aiding African people, but also helps asylum seekers and refugees from other countries

CO-COMPILER: Mohini Gupta, originally from New Delhi, India, is currently a Doctoral candidate at Oxford University working on pedagogy and language teaching in India and Wales. She has been closely connected with Wales since she won the Charles Wallace Fellowship at Aberystwyth in 2017.