At this year’s Bradford African Festival of Art (BAFA), held from 13th to 16th August in Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, creative campaigner and cultural practitioner Ajemina Ogan presented her participatory audio drama Our Culture, Our Pride on Friday, 15th August, at Theatre in the Mill, University of Bradford.
The piece combined warmth, humour, and reflection to explore identity, belonging, and intergenerational pride within the African diaspora.
Written and produced by Ajemina specifically for the festival, the story follows a playful exchange between a Nigerian mother and her teenage daughter living in the UK. When the daughter urges her mother not to wear traditional attire to a party, the mother’s response becomes a declaration of cultural confidence and authenticity. “Our fashion is part of our story,” she says. “It’s who we are.”
Ajemina’s participatory format, which blends audio storytelling with live audience performance, offered festival audiences an unexpected and deeply engaging way to experience connection through art. Audiences first listened to the short audio drama before being invited to take part in a live reading of the scene. The experience turned listening into participation as people stepped forward to voice the characters and share their reflections. “It’s very intentional for me,” Ogan explains. “The listening is only the first part. When people take the script, say the words, and make them their own, something powerful happens. They begin to see themselves in the story.”
As one attendee put it afterwards, the moment felt both affirming and emotional because it mirrored their own journey of finding confidence.
Ajemina sums up her approach simply, participation is the art.
Her background in Theatre Arts and her years of experience using storytelling to amplify lived experiences have shaped this participatory approach. She designs her work as a shared experience that values authenticity, collaboration, and exchange. “When people see themselves in stories, they begin to see their own power,” she says. “Belonging grows when people feel seen and heard.”
In a time when conversations about immigration and identity can feel divided, Our Culture, Our Pride reminds audiences that belonging is built on mutual respect. When people are confident in their own stories, they are better able to connect, listen, and contribute to shared community life. The work celebrates self-acceptance as the foundation for belonging and encourages dialogue around culture, cohesion, and confidence within the diaspora. It also reflects a growing movement in British participatory arts that uses storytelling to bridge cultures and strengthen community cohesion.
Ajemina sees Our Culture, Our Pride as part of her continuing creative journey to build connections between culture, lived experience, and community storytelling. She plans to develop a series of short participatory pieces that continue these conversations, focusing on themes of cohesion, migration, diaspora life, and what it truly means to belong. “You can only give your best when you know who you are,” she says. “That’s where strength, creativity, and connection begin.”
Her contribution to BAFA 2025 reminded audiences that cultural pride is about showing up fully and confidently as yourself. Through participatory storytelling, Ajemina continues to create spaces where people can recognise their own value and voice, building confidence, connection, and community through art.
