Somali Village in Colonial Bradford
In May 1904, the Great Exhibition in Lister Park showcased Bradford businesses, art and culture, and featured a standout exhibit: the Somali Village. Within this village, 60 Somali individuals, including men, women, and children, resided in a walled compound for six months.
In this fascinating event, Fozia Bora tells the stories of some of these Villagers – often polyglot cosmopolitans, and Bradford’s earliest-known Muslim community – who speak from the past through the recovery of written, oral and photographic archives.
About the Historian
Dr Fozia Bora
Professor Fozia Bora teaches and researches pre-modern Muslim and Islamic history at the University of Leeds and in 2021, received the University of Leeds’ Women of Achievement Award. Bora is the author of Writing History in the Medieval Islamic World and has contributed to research on Bradford’s 1904 Somali Village. Bora’s current work explores the migration, settlement and acculturation narratives of Bradford’s Muslim communities.
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