"Tell Them You're Muslim!" | Growing Up Catholic, Protestant & Black in Belfast

What was it like to grow up Black in Belfast during the Troubles? In Northern Ireland in the late 1990s, religious identity could carry life-or-death consequences: Are you Catholic or Protestant?

Which neighbourhood are you from? Which school do you attend?

To prepare Tamanda for her schooling in Belfast in 1997 - for what was supposed to be a three-month stay that turned into three years - her parents sat her down with anxious tongue-in-cheek advice: "If anyone asks if you're Catholic or Protestant, don't say you're either. Tell them you're Muslim." Entering Hunterhouse College - a mixed-faith school perched right on the boundary line where red, white and blue painted curbs ended and the Catholic neighbourhood began across the traffic lights - she became the only student of colour in the entire school.

In a divided society that ran on instantly categorising people based on religions and political allegiance, nobody had a script for where a Black mixed-race girl belonged. In this episode, Aiwan and Tamanda explore the realities of living through the end of a 30-year sectarian conflict and the beginnings of the peace process.

Tamanda recalls the surreal, triggering experience of watching Derry Girls and realising parts of it had been filmed inside her actual secondary school in Finaghy - from Sister Michael’s office - the exact room where Tamanda was once hauled in front of the headmistress and suspended - to the dining hall where she ate lunch every day. But behind the teenage friendships, romances and school exchanges lay the realities of sectarian division: painted kerbs, flags, bomb alerts, military presence and classmates whose families had experienced devastating violence.

Together, we explore how conflict shapes identity and belonging, the contradictions of Britain's colonial narratives, and how trauma travels across generations. As Northern Ireland confronts contemporary racism and anti-immigrant violence, we ask: What happens when peacebuilding addresses one form of division but fails to equip future generations to understand others? 🎙️In this episode: Life in Belfast (1997–2000): Moving to Northern Ireland in the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement.

School on the Borderline: Hunterhouse College, painted kerbs, Union Jacks and sectarian boundary lines. The Only Black Girl in the Frame: Isolation, boarding-school photographs and being reduced to stereotypes about Africa.

Neither Catholic nor Protestant, But Both: How being Black complicated the sectarian categories through which people understood belonging. Derry Girls and Cultural Memory: Revisiting a childhood shaped by conflict, and how younger generations inherit its legacies.

Britain, Ireland and Colonial History: What we learn — and fail to learn — about empire, violence and national identity. Beyond Green and Orange: Contemporary anti-Black racism, anti-immigrant sentiment and why peace education must move beyond Catholic–Protestant dialogue to include racial literacy. 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: 🔁 Share with someone who wants to hear the untold stories of growing up during The Troubles ☕ Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes.

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