Who am I?

Further Info

This story was created at a workshop for young people from St Pauls and Easton who are researching their African heritage. The project is called “Adisa”, a word meaning “Each one to teach one” or “One who makes meanings clear”.

The workshop took place over 3 days at the Full Circle Family Learning Centre in St Pauls and was led by Dani Landau with support from Folake Shoga, Alan Cabey, Michaela Alfred-Kamara, Sylvia Vincent, Aikaterini Gegisian and Paddy Uglow, and Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Transcript

[R’n’B music plays throughout, “B R I S T O L”]

Who am I? My name is Charlene Una Price. I’m 16 years old and I come from Bristol.

I’m dual-heritage: my mum is black South African and my dad from England. Before 2006 I didn’t really know who I was and what my identity was. All I knew was that my main background was South African.

I wasn’t really told about my family background because my mum left home when she was young, due to problems that were occurring.

In May 2006 I decided to know more about my identity. It was time to take a trip to South Africa and meet my family, to find out their background and also mine.

While I was there I felt a sense of home and belonging. It felt like this was where I was supposed to be.

Since leaving South Africa, I have become part of a youth group which has run workshops on African background and your own personal identity.

As a result of my identity-finding, I have decided to change my last name to my original family name. That’s my story.

Credits

All media created by the story author, or permission obtained, used under copyright licence.