Kenyan scholar Dr Natalya Din-Kariuki has launched a book aimed at helping migrants understand and appreciate art and culture.

Titled Crossings: Migrant Knowledges, Migrant Forms, the book was launched on Tuesday. Dr Din-Kariuki said it will help readers conceptualise culture and society, and explore how different art forms—such as music, photography, and theatre—interact with migration.

The book also captures how food, cultural boundaries, and anticipated changes manifest across different cultures globally.

“We’re really thinking about how the knowledge that migrants bring with them changes all of us—changes the people migrating, and changes the societies and cultures they travel to,” she said during the unveiling held at the British High Commissioner’s residence in Nairobi.

According to Dr Din-Kariuki, the book includes contributions from about 38 experts, particularly from the civic and activism space. It is co-edited by Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture Subha Mukherji and Bishop Rowan Williams.

“Our main aim was to get people thinking differently about migration—to move away from the stereotypes and headlines often seen in public discourse and the tabloids, and instead appreciate migration as something that humans have always done,” she added.

She said the team was motivated by a desire to foster a sense of community, solidarity, and belonging.

The book draws on the knowledge and experience of various activists, artists, scholars, and migrants with diverse backgrounds.

Irungu Houghton, Amnesty International’s Executive Director and a contributor to the book, urged the audience to rethink migration not as a threat but as a defining part of the human experience, particularly within Africa.

Houghton noted that the book serves as a reminder that movement is not just a headline or a statistic.
“It is history. It is family. It is power,” he said.

Co-editor Dr Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, said the idea for the book emerged at a conference in Cambridge in 2019.

“The editors discovered a shared interest in bringing together academic and historical studies of the ways in which cultures, knowledge, art, music, cuisine, and individuals migrate from context to context, alongside the lived experience of migrants from various backgrounds. The result was a memorable and distinctive collaboration, in which a real diversity of voices could be heard,” Williams said in a message delivered by High Commissioner Neil Wigan.

The launch, hosted by British High Commissioner Neil Wigan, brought together diplomats, academics, creatives, and civil society leaders for an intellectual discussion on migration.

Among those in attendance were strategic communications expert Gina Din, Supreme Court Judge Isaac Lenaola, former Attorney General Githu Muigai, UN Resident Coordinator Dr Stephen Jackson, Belgian Ambassador to Kenya Peter Maddens, former CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge, outgoing Commissioner for Refugee Affairs in Kenya John Burugu, and Zahra Moi, spouse of KANU Chairman Gideon Moi.

Dr Din-Kariuki is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.