100 Voices #AllAgainstRacism: Sandrine Ndahiro – "Just because I was Black, my Irishness was always questioned"

Sandrine Ndahiro,
Activist, Writer & Artist

I’ve experienced having a dual identity, being Rwandese and Irish. Whether it was school or social media – just because I was Black, my Irishness was always questioned. That was something I really struggled with, and from time to time I still struggle with it, even though I’ve been here since I was ten.

I co-directed and co-produced a documentary called Unsilencing Black Voices, which we released last year. We got twenty people across Ireland to talk about a specific moment of racism in their lives. We wanted to centre Black voices and normalise talking about racism in Ireland, which is still such a taboo topic. I’m now in the process of making my second documentary, on exploring the different shades of Irishness, which I’m hoping to release next year.

Recently, we published an online literary and cultural magazine, Unapologetic, which I co-edited and co-founded. It features art, poetry, personal essays and academic essays – all talking about different social issues in Ireland. The majority of it is about centralising marginalised communities here.

I’m trying to reshape the narrative, and show how marginalised voices and migrants are contributing to different aspects of society, including the literary and cultural landscape in Ireland.

I definitely feel hopeful, because there are so many new, creative projects that are coming out, which are moving away from that homogeneous view of Irishness as just white.

This contribution featured in Part 1 of 100 Voices: #AllAgainstRacism. Read Part 2 in the current issue of Hot Press:

Special thanks to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission for their support in this project.