Culture Club

So er…what is culture? Easy, right? It’s uh…you know, your history from your native country, or your religion, or those funny things your grandparents do, like shout into the mobile phone, or tell you to "slow the volume down" on the TV. I’m a third-generation British Sikh guy with roots in India, Pakistan and Tanzania, I grew up listening to mostly R’n’B and soul, and I’ve only ever watched one Bollywood film (Lagaan if you’re curious). So, as I’m sure for a lot of you reading this, there’s a lot that defines you as a person. And as we all discovered over those few months, "culture" isn’t really a definitive word. It’s very subjective for each individual, but brings together all these things that I just mentioned, and many more.

For group 21, we all appreciated the immense cultures that our parents and grandparents had brought with them to this country, and we really did want to highlight that. Some ideas, like an all-out fashion show, jumped out at us, but they felt a bit stereotypical. We wanted to really get to the core of what culture meant to us. It wasn’t just a generic term to be broadly presented to the public. We chose to highlight quotes from great historic leaders like Gandhi, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., have original poetry about the problems faced by embracing our cultures, and show the audience a slideshow of all our families and important moments in our lives.

We also realised however, that for people of our generation, culture no longer exclusively means what has gone before, but what is going on now, in Britain. Being "British" is such a complex issue these days, for Anglo-Christians and incoming migrant communities alike. Is it tea and crumpets, or waving the flag at an England game, being white, or living in a democracy? The face of Britain has changed so much because of our forefathers and the cultures they brought with them to this country. Some people don’t like this change, some people love it. I personally can’t -- and don’t want to -- imagine British culture without curries, corner-shops open on Sundays, British soul music, Notting Hill Carnival, Chinatown, and all those different languages I hear on the tube to work.

So, I feel British culture is a subjective thing. Which music you listen to, which films you watch, or what language you speak -- it all helps define your British culture. Strangely enough, British culture has been heavily influenced by American culture, so it truly is becoming one giant melting pot.

And how did the show go? Well, we got a lot of variety: from Bollywood dance to some unique Chinese calligraphy. An energetic Nigerian wedding and Indian twist on the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" theme were contrasted with some beautiful poetry and a performance of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song. The slideshow worked really well despite technical hiccups, and we finished off with a cat-walk set to Michael Jackson’s "Black or White". The range of music highlights how we were able to marry the contrasting old and new cultures into one show. Luckily for us, our cultures are very rich, joyful and even entertaining, and consequently the show was a lot of fun. It was a real celebration of us, our families, and our histories. And just to give you a taste, here are a couple of lines from that original poem by Hussein Farook:

For some, their answers lie at their roots,

For others, it’s that they’ve become different fruits.

It’s not a question of finding the key

Instead about embracing who you want to be.

Accept the past and acknowledge your difference,

Or forever be shackled without an acquittance.