The Khirkee Talk Show was a collaboration between the Khirkee Storytelling Project and Khirkee Voice, to create a space for open and honest dialogue between the Khirkee locals and the Africans living in Khirkee, who might cross each other often on the street but don’t get to talk to each other.
The first day began with Yves Tabidje from the Ivory Coast welcoming tons of curious questions from the Khirkee locals ranging from his country’s spices, music, and politics to frankly discussing racism against people from African countries in Delhi. The locals, in turn, loved telling him about their regional dishes, movie stars and took an interest in learning about the reverse dowry system in the Ivory Coast where the girl’s family goes to the boy’s for weddings!
Over multiple chai shots and a session of grooving to ‘Lollypop Lagelu’ on the street, biases began to be put out in the open to be questioned and discussed over the next two days. Locals of different age groups, genders and socio-economic backgrounds began to open up about their perceptions of their African neighbors while African nationals began sharing their experiences of living in the city over the last few years.
We hope to continue these conversations on a monthly basis, so do watch this space for more!