infomatique : photos : Carnivals & Festivals : DUBLIN AFRO CARNIVAL In the last few years the amount of Africans in Ireland has doubled creating a new Irish community. Africans make up a great majority of immigrants to Ireland even though the government figure would not be able to tell the exact amount. It is however a huge community and a very economically viable one as such contributing to the business landscape of Ireland.- powered by SmugMug

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infomatique > DUBLIN AFRO CARNIVAL
%u2018Little Africa%u2019; Parnell Street, food and Afro-Irish Identity.

Keith Spiller, Department of Geography University College Cork, College Road Cork Ireland

Ireland of the late 1990%u2019s is a distinctly different place to that of the late 1980%u2019s, having encompassed the global economy and adopted the %u2018celtic tiger%u2019. The phenomenon of prosperity, which exists, has lead to a reversal of Ireland as a land of emigration to a land of immigration. Irish emigrants have returned to their country of birth during this period and a new aspect to immigration has appeared - the emergence of ethnic populations in Ireland. The recognition of asylum seekers, refugees, immigrants and other nationalities born in Ireland is directing Ireland towards its first acknowledgements of the country becoming a multicultural society. Indeed people like Samantha Mumba with her Dublin accent or Sean Og O%u2019Halpin with his All-Ireland medals, are shifting the stereotypical image of what makes an Irish woman and man. But is De Valera%u2019s Ireland of maidens dancing at the crossroads, or Roman Catholic Ireland, or a white only Ireland about to incorporate a sense of plurality? Most multicultural cities throughout the world have what is considered an ethnic quarter, a "China Town" being the most obvious example. So when the R.T.E. programme @ last T.V. aired a piece on the %u2018Little Africa%u2019 of Dublin, I was intrigued. An area of Dublin, Parnell Street has become synonymous with an ethnic community in Ireland. Through a fascination with the idea of a %u2018Little Africa%u2019 in Dublin I endeavoured to understand what was occurring in Dublin. To comprehend the phenomenon I looked at the location of Parnell Street and the construction of place and identity in this vicinity. Also attempting to understand the importance of food in the transformation of a marginal site of Dublin into a space of multiculturalism. I wanted to explore a new and critical geography, documenting the subjective changes and the integration within an inner city Dublin locality, in the context of previously unexplored contemporary Dublin geography.

infomatique > DUBLIN AFRO CARNIVAL
In the last few years the amount of Africans in Ireland has doubled creating a new Irish community. Africans make up a great majority of immigrants to Ireland even though the government figure would not be able to tell the exact amount. It is however a huge community and a very economically viable one as such contributing to the business landscape of Ireland.

infomatique > DUBLIN AFRO CARNIVAL
This guy was really good.

infomatique > DUBLIN AFRO CARNIVAL
There were two African Music festivals in Dublin on the same day one sponsored by the African community and the other by an African Government (to the best of my knowledge it was Lesotho). I forgot to charge my camera battery so I did not get many good photographs.
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%u2018Little Africa%u2019; Parnell Street, food and Afro-Irish Identity.

Keith Spiller, Department of Geography University College Cork, College Road Cork Ireland.

The Construction of Place and Identity in %u2018Little Africa%u2019

%u2018Little Africa%u2019 is central to the cohesion of the African identity in Dublin; it presents an area now synonymous with a new identity in the city, a marginal region that has initiated a multicultural perspective to the social geography of Dublin. The African Shops on Parnell Street are spaces of African identity, they offer a micro narrative of how Africans conduct and live their lives in a Dublin setting. The shops are places that are African, Irish influences within the shops are minimal and they are places where Africans can express themselves freely. The geography of these shops is a window into the uninhibited construction of African place and identity in contemporary Dublin.

To understand and gain a sense of the African community in Ireland, one must simply enter the shops and a spatial organisation distinctive to an indigenous culture presents itself. Geographical regions within shops are not unfamiliar to geographers, these areas prove interesting in their use of space and can illuminate preconceived regional functions and sociological traits, i.e. in the domestic home the kitchen as the region of practicality and the dinning room as the region of performance and entertainment if guests arrive. In a similar fashion the regions of African shops differ, into what Goffman would describe as the front and back regions.

The front region of the shop is primarily for the act of transaction and the social functions affiliated with this, it is an area for the customer. Within this area an additional divide is indicated by the counter, as Goffman would comment %u2018a moral%u2019 and %u2018instrumental%u2019 division (1959,p110). Items behind the counter are concerned with the personal; hair care products, African cosmetics, African wigs, braids and hair extensions. The items in front of the counter are foods, usually displayed with fresh products towards the entrance of the shop and foods of the condensed, dried or frozen variety towards the back. Paul Lubienga elaborates on product position in the shops:

%u201CHair pieces are kept behind the counter as they%u2019re easy to steal.........the food is in a position for handiness......what people want is to the front of the shops.%u201D

Specific product placement is similar to standard displays in western shops, certain items are positioned to lure people to areas of the shop. However, the African shops differ enormously in the aspect of the back region.

The back region is an integral part of the African shops on Parnell Street, it provides a unique geography to the shops. The back region is usually visible from the front region and sofas, chairs and a coffee table generally characterise the area where people sit and socialize. Yet this region is extremely separate to the rest of the shop, it is a private region where uninvited guests do not enter. The Africans freely eat, drink, smoke and converse in this region, it allows them to socialize in a milieu which is uninhibiting.

In the course of my fieldwork, it became apparent that people arrive at the shops purely to socialize in the back region, by-passing the front area. The consistent ebb and flow of people into the area creates a sense of people checking in to say hello, the often brief but regular social contacts serve to construct communal identity. The back regions of the African shops on Parnell Street are a site that is comparably similar to a social club or a Mediterranean plaza. Areas and sites where people often idly chat and pass the time of day. The identity through constant companionship in the back region is solidified into a common cohesion; the social function of the back region is paramount to the construction of the Africa identity and in what is the place of %u2018Little Africa%u2019.

infomatique > DUBLIN AFRO CARNIVAL
A very attractive little girl.

infomatique > DUBLIN AFRO CARNIVAL
Waiting to have their faces painted.

DUBLIN AFRO CARNIVAL
In the last few years the amount of Africans in Ireland has doubled creating a new Irish community. Africans make up a great majority of immigrants to Ireland even though the government figure would not be able to tell the exact amount. It is however a huge community and a very economically viable one as such contributing to the business landscape of Ireland.