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Paper short abstract

This ethnographic performance tells the story of King (pseudonym), a Rwandan refugee in Hong Kong, and how he uses music to make meaningful connection between the past and the future, righting what was wrong in his life, and his world.

Paper long abstract

What does it mean for a Rwandan refugee to stand on stage and sing? This 15-minute ethnographic theater performance draws on long-term ethnographic fieldwork with African asylum-seekers and refugees in Hong Kong since 2012. The performance tells the story of King (pseudonym), a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, and his self-making project as a musician in exile. Living in enforced destitution, denied legal access to employment and money, and stuck in an uncertain wait for resettlement, King relies on music – and performance as a singer – to make meaningful connection between the past and the future, righting what was wrong in his life, and his world.

The narrative goes beyond assessing how music could address refugees’ trauma or improve their well-being, and asks how a refugee experiments with music to restore his identity and meanings of life in the aftermath of genocide and in forced displacement. Inserting himself into different spaces and communities that afford him access to music production and performance, King’s structural vulnerabilities nevertheless impact his interactions with the NGOs, local HongKongers, white expatriates, and fellow Africans he depends on to make music. His transnational obligations also make every dollar he puts into music an ethical dilemma.

The ethnographic performance is also an invitation to consider multi-modal ethnography in practice. How may anthropologists use theater to interrogate “what does it mean to be human”?