Senses of Belonging — The Material Home

Abstract

Freedom from Torture, a London-based charity tending to the psychological needs of refugees who have been tortured, sent out a mailing to supporters which included a dried stem of lavender to demonstrate the importance of the senses to refugees far from home.¹ The herb which was growing in the charity’s garden had triggered memories for one refugee of her abducted son and started her difficult journey towards recovery. The accompanying leaflet states: ‘Some memories can’t be unlocked by words’. Meanwhile, David Mwanaka, a Zimbabwean journalist living in Enfield, north London, embarked on the unusual strategy of placing a classified advert to find arable farmland in the capital so that he could grow white maize, ‘the glorious taste of back home’ (Shaw 2005).² Mwanaka now heads a successful family business in this unlikely location, running a farm shop and selling his crops to other refugees and migrants in London and beyond.