Swain, Spencer;
Lashua, Brett;
Spracklen, Karl;
(2025)
'Don't forget the juicy fruits': khat-chewing, diaspora, and identity amongst young British-Somali men in the North of England.
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10.1080/1070289X.2025.2579402.
(In press).
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Abstract
This ethnographic study examines how young British-Somali men in Northern England utilize khat-chewing as a cultural practice to negotiate hybrid identities formed by migration, marginalization, and transnational belonging. Drawing on 18 months of fieldwork, the research reveals how khat consumption within mafrish spaces functions as a ritual of cultural continuity, enabling participants to maintain symbolic ties to Somali heritage while navigating British urban life. These practices challenge binary notions of identity, illustrating how diasporic youth construct fluid, contextual selves that blend Somaliness with Britishness. Khat-chewing emerges as both a coping mechanism and a form of resistance, offering a sense of belonging amid experiences of exclusion, Islamophobia, and racialization. The study highlights the agency of young migrants in shaping diasporic spaces and identities, contributing to broader debates on hybridity, glocalization, and the politics of cultural expression in postcolonial Britain.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | 'Don't forget the juicy fruits': khat-chewing, diaspora, and identity amongst young British-Somali men in the North of England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/1070289X.2025.2579402 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289x.2025.2579402 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Social Sciences, Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, Khat-chewing, migration, identity, diaspora, leisure, youth, REFLEXIVITY, MIGRATION, FOOTBALL, STATE, SPORT |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10217041 |
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