Harambee - All Pull Together

Harambee, a Swahili word meaning ‘pulling together’, represents TADAT’s call to collective action. The Harambee Podcast explores the unspoken narratives of immigrants of African descent in Finland. The podcast aims at creating a space where lived experiences, frustrations, joyous moments, connections and aspirations, meet and are pulled together to cultivate a Voice for ‘speaking up and out’. The Voice will make for greater intercultural and transcultural foundations in Finnish society.The Harambee podcast, featuring guest interviews every month, sets the stage for conversations on what it means to be part of and included in Finnish society. The podcast unearths knotty topics on democratic participation, civic participation, ‘democratic trauma’, student integration, amongst many other issues. Delivered with lighthearted humour, Harambee is where the small voices are finally given air in Finland.Think Africa Democratic Action Team produces the Harambee podcast.The team’s story started with the itch to be part of a solution to the problems faced by Africans, Afro-Finns, anyone with African blood flowing in their veins in Finland.In looking for a solution, the team came across the Sitra Lab 3.0 call for applications. The team saw it as a chance to look at the bottlenecks to democracy from the lens of people of African descent; this then birthed the Think Africa Democracy Action Team (TADAT). The three founding members of TADAT are originally from Liberia, Ethiopia and Nigeria, bringing a combined diversity and expertise to finding solutions to the problems at hand. Our commonalities & strengths come from having multiple identities and identifiers in Finland such as ‘immigrants’, ‘Africans’ 'foreigner' and 'internationals,' and sometimes ‘refugee/asylum seekers’, making us a triple force in writing the narrative in our way while reconceptualising and renegotiating our space in the Finnish society. With this understanding, we aim to collate our experiences and those of others in the same positions, curate meaningful conversations and create dialogue (s) aimed at forging a better path for immigrants of African descent in Finland.At Harambee, we take a knowledge-based approach to participation and inclusion in Finnish society. We open up dialogue and bring to the spotlight crucial issues that affect the everyday lives of immigrants, especially those of African descent. Academicians, politicians, media, and everyday people will have the floor to impact change we all want to see in Finland - a vibrant, all-inclusive Finnish society. The episodes run between 40 - 50 minutes. Hosts: Feven Abegaz, Omotomilola Ikotun and Cucu Wesseh Produced by: Think Africa ry Music and Editing: Ondi Madete