An award-winning graphic novelist who migrated to the UK from Tripoli, a Pulitzer prize finalist from the Philippines and a director who sought refuge in the UK from Iran are among the animators showcased in an exhibition at Soas University of London, which explores migration through animation and comics.
The Stories of Migration exhibition marks 12 years of PositiveNegatives, a non-profit organisation based at Soas that transforms academic research into visual stories. It is showing a series of videos that tell the stories of migrants from countries including Yemen, Iraq and the Philippines.
The overarching animation, The Story of Migration, uses hand-drawn and digital techniques to portray migration from the perspective of those living in the global south, challenging dominant narratives from the global north. The seven-minute video is among 15 animations and comics on show.
The video, a collaboration between PositiveNegatives and the migration research hub Mideq, says that the story of migration historically has largely been written by politicians, media and researchers in the global north. “It’s time to decolonise this narrative. It’s time to rip up the story and write a new one based on new questions, new concepts and new ideas. One that focuses on the migration in the global south and is written with people living and working in the global south.”
Founded by Dr Benjamin Worku-Dix, PositiveNegatives emerged from his experiences as a photojournalist and a UN communications officer during the 2004 Sri Lankan tsunami and subsequent conflict.
“I was frustrated by traditional reports in the media that felt like they were published one day and the next day just shelved,” Worku-Dix says. “Comics and animations allow us to delve into emotional spaces and tell stories that statistics simply cannot convey.”
Below, we take a look at five animations featured in the exhibition:
Life on the Move
The film tells a series of stories from the Horn of Africa, including that of a Yemeni-born woman of Somali heritage who is forced to flee with her family. They spend three harrowing nights on a boat built for 40 people but carrying 350. The animation depicts a map of Yemen tearing apart – a metaphor for the conflict that began in late 2014, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Other refugee testimonies featured include that of a man who decides to return to Somalia after 25 years in Finland. He opens a dialysis clinic to serve Somalia and neighbouring countries.
The animation took at least a year to create, Worku-Dix says, because its content underwent a process similar to that of a peer-reviewed article. To make the characters in the animation look authentic, the team collaborated with students from Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia to create 3D models.
Prof Laura Hammond, who led the research behind the project, says: “We wanted to effectively show that the region has a much more complicated migration story than most people realise.”
Into Our Own Hands
Nora, a woman displaced in Iraq, flees Islamic State-controlled territories with her family, ending up in Kirkuk, a city in the Kurdistan region of north-eastern Iraq. She joins a collective led by women, empowering herself and others through education and community-driven initiatives. The story highlights her resilience and hope amid displacement. “In the face of destruction, we find strength in rebuilding together,” she says.
The artist behind the script and illustrations is Asia Alfasi, an award-winning graphic novelist who migrated to the UK from Tripoli with her family aged seven.
“As an Arab Muslim woman myself who’d lived through war, I felt a deep connection to Nora and her family, realising that a shared background and true empathy would retain as much nuance and connection to the characters as possible,” Alfasi says.
Dear Habib
Habib is an Afghan boy who journeys to the UK alone at 14. The animation explores his struggles as an unaccompanied migrant, transitioning into adulthood while navigating trauma, cultural displacement and systemic challenges. Directed by Majid Adin, who sought refuge in the UK from Iran in 2016, the film highlights Habib’s resilience and determination to build a new life despite adversity. “The journey has made me stronger, but it also made me feel lost,” says Habib, who is a co-producer on the project.
Adin became a political exile in the UK after he was briefly imprisoned in Iran because of the cartoons in his blog. He spent six months in the Calais Jungle before arriving in England in a refrigerated van in 2016. In 2017, he won a competition to produce an animated music video for Elton John’s song Rocket Man. “It was my first professional animation job and a truly incredible experience,” he says.
Among the many stories researched, Habib’s resonated with Adin the most. “Firstly, I could communicate with Habib in Farsi, our shared mother tongue. We also come from geographically and culturally close regions, which created an immediate sense of understanding.”
Tita Nurse
The animated story of a Filipina migrant is told through the eyes of her nephew. Tita Nurse sends him and other family members gifts in boxes “from a cold land of black forests” in Germany. “My mother finds her sister’s warmth in the soft slippers sent in her favourite colour. My grandmother inhales her blessing shared in boxes of perfume. She’s living there so that we can have a better life here,” the nephew says.
The character is called Tita Nurse because, as the nephew explains, “she spends her days caring for strangers so she can care for us”. Created by 2024 Pulitzer prize finalist Renren Galeno, the story follows as the nephew eventually embarks on his own journey to support his family. Galeno is based in Davao City in the Philippines.
“Everyone [in the Philippines] has or knows of some version of Tita Nurse,” Galeno says. “I grew up with two incredible aunts who live and work abroad. Their balikbayan boxes were always something to look forward to, along with the hours-long Skype calls that followed.”
Unstoppable Beat
A Haitian migrant struggles in Brazil as he fights for his right to work, own a home, and reunite his family. With a lack of legal rights, housing, and the trauma of being separated from his loved ones, he refuses to give up on his dreams. “Even if the world turns its back on me, my heart will keep beating,” says the unnamed man.
Dr Toni Cela, the researcher who shaped the film’s nuanced use of Haitian culture, says the story drew on research conducted by Mideq teams in Brazil and Haiti.
She says it was important for the film to use traditional music derived from the vodou religion and use vèvè symbols. “[We] embedded vèvè symbols in the film on the drum and in a more subtle manner by illuminating a vèvè tattoo on the elderly man who is seated on the street.”
Stories of Migration runs until 22 March at the SOAS Gallery, 10 Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG. Entry is free
