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Archives and Access: Reaching Out to the Somali Community of London's King's Cross

As an oral society with no official written language until 1972, Somali history and cultural knowledge are predominantly stored in the memories of individuals and the concept of a physical repository such as a sound archive is alien within Somali culture. Following Somalia's civil war and the dispersal of over two million of its people, a Somali community has developed in the King's Cross area of London, which is home to the British Library (BL). As neighbours, the Somali community and the BL are geographically close but ideologically distant. However, facilitating engagement between Somali residents of King's Cross and archival recordings from Somalia held at the BL has demonstrated the potential of proactive archiving to contribute to ethnomusicological research methodology, to elucidate and impact upon diasporic and collective memory processes, and to benefit diasporic communities. In this article I will highlight the capacity of archival recordings to unlock embodied memories and reconnect those who have been subject to dislocation with aspects of their past identities, arguing that proactive archiving has the potential to contribute to the diasporic process of belonging to multiple locales. I will explore the challenges of collaboration between an institution such as the BL and an orally-founded refugee community, looking at the significance of key sites and individuals in the transmission of information.