This event is exclusive to Friends of Tortoise
Celebrated author, podcaster and musician Musa Okwonga was born in the UK after his parents fled Uganda and Idi Amin’s dictatorship. As a young black man and second-generation immigrant in a working class town, Musa wasn’t your typical Eton College student, but he spent five years there in the 1990s and recounted his experiences in ‘One of them’, a deeply personal and unflinching memoir which engaged with much wider questions about pressing social and political issues: privilege, the distribution of wealth, the rise of the far right in the UK, systemic racism, the ‘boys’ club’ of government and the power of the few to control the fate of the many.
What was it like growing up in the UK as a second-generation immigrant in the 1980s and 90s? Musa’s complex relationship with the UK – what he calls gratitude, mixed with horrifying moments of institutional racism like the murder of Stephen Lawrence – took another turn with the rise of UKIP and anti-immigrant anger, ultimately leading to the UK’s vote to leave the EU.
Join us for this special Tortoise Interview with Musa, where we explore the immigrant experience, how the UK treats those who set up home there, and why racism is boring.
editor and invited experts
Liz Moseley
Editor
Musa Okwonga
Author, podcaster, and musician