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أهلا و سهلا
Welcome to the SWANA American Activism and Community Building Archive
What is SWANA?
SWANA aka Southwest Asian/North African is a term used to describe a region more commonly referred to as the "Middle East." It typically references the areas spanning from Morocco all the way to Afghanistan. As you will learn more about on the Project Description page, this archive is all about reframing the narrative on SWANA Americans away from orientalist perspectives to portrayals we find truer to us and our communities. Part of that project necessarily includes rejecting the Western construct of the "Middle East" (Middle of where? East of where?), and adopting decolonial phrasing to describe our community and origins (SITE: https://swanaalliance.com/about)
To Our Fellow SWANA Americans...
We are so happy to have you here and hope you join us in our efforts to share the stories of our community from our own perspectives. We encourage you to interact with the collections on display -- annotating, translating, and even suggesting additions to the archive. We envision this as a communal project that challenges Western hegemony by amplifying our voices and offering alternative narratives to counter American propaganda about our people.
“Our role is to widen the field of discussion, not to set limits in accord with the prevailing authority.”-Edward Said, Orientalism (1978)
To Our Non-SWANA Siblings...
We hope you take this as an opportunity to set aside any preconceived notions about our community and learn from us (rather than the news or white politicians ) about our community -- its richness and vast diversity. We invite you to listen to our stories, our losses, and our triumphs in this country and hope that you can come to identify any hidden biases you may have so that we may build stronger alliances and move forward together with a common goal of liberation and equity for all.