Video | Loraine Masiya Mponela – 'Dear British People': Poetry, Refugees and the Hostile Environment

[Ambrose Musiyiwa]

Dear Colleagues,

On June 21, as part of Refugee Week, the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series hosted an online poetry session with Loraine Masiya Mponela, a migrants' rights campaigner and poet.

In this video from the event, Mponela shares poems from her latest poetry collection, My Accent (Independently published, 2026) and addresses the personal and societal challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

She details the personal toll of navigating the UK asylum system, including the uncertainties of waiting for decisions, the experience of homelessness, and the financial hurdles of applying for citizenship. 

In addition, she reflects on the impact of far-right rhetoric, the use of dehumanizing language by politicians and media, and the anxiety caused by recent anti-asylum seeker and anti-migrant violence in places like Belfast and Southport.

Mponela defines the role of poets in times of crisis as one of reflection and bringing clarity to complex social issues. She emphasizes the importance of speaking up despite fear to raise awareness and support others, and highlights how peer and refugee and migrant support groups are essential for survival and mental well-being when facing state-imposed violence and isolation.

See also, "What do Asylum Seekers and Refugees Make of Far-Right Violence in the UK? Pt. 1" (CivicLeicester, 29 September 2024).

ABOUT THE SERIES

The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series is volunteer-led and is organised by Forced Migration and The Arts in association with CivicLeicester and the migrants' rights collective, Regularise.

The series was inspired by the Africa Migration Report: 2nd Edition (African Union and International Organisation for Migration, 2024), and has open calls for poems (40 lines or less) and short prose (100 words or less) exploring:

• African and African diasporic migration and (im)mobility,
• how African and Asian refugees are being left to drown in the English Channel, and
• Edward Nkoloso, Afronauts and the 1960s Zambian Space Programme.

We take the African diaspora to include all people of African descent in all the ways they define themselves, e.g. African, African American, African Asian, African Brazilian, African Canadian, African Caribbean, African Italian, African Latino, African Palestinian, Afropean, Afro Turk, Black, Black British, Black Canadian, etc.

The series is currently not in receipt of funding from any source.

To cover some of the costs associated with the work, we have a crowdfunding appeal. 

Any support you can lend us around this and in spreading the word about books in the series will be most appreciated.

Kind regards,

Ambrose Musiyiwa

Coordinator, Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series

Ambrose Musiyiwa | Coordinator, Forced Migration and The Arts (Blog), Journeys in Translation (Journal Article; Video Playlist), and The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series (Concept Note; Call for Submissions; Video Playlist; Funding Appeal) | (Ed.) [New Book] Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (CivicLeicester, 2024. Co-edited with Munya R from the migrants' rights collective, Regularise); Welcome to Britain: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (CivicLeicester, 2023); Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (CivicLeicester, 2020)