Michael Lomotey shares the story of growing up between Black, Ghanaian, British, and Jewish worlds, and how memories of Shabbat silence, Hebrew books, and family traditions shaped his sense of belonging.
As a young adult Michael Lomotey worked as a kosher larder chef in London, and moved on to be a farm mechanic in Ghana. Michael is of Ghanaian and English heritage and was raised on the sink estates of East and West Hull, learning resistance, class solidarity and activism there. He’s currently a doctoral researcher in the final stages of his PhD research at the University of Southampton, looking at how climate change impacts upon Black and marginalised communities. Impact is key to Michael, finding solutions that are emancipatory.
Short definitions and terms referenced in this episode:
Explore past episodes that also reflect on language, memory, and identity:
S2E6 – Endangered, Not Erased with Samantha Ellis
S1E10 – British Black Jews - a conversation with Kenneth Awele Okafor
Michael Lomotey’s Dvar Torah For Parashat Tazria-Metzora
Dr Louis Gordon – Scholar of philosophy and Jewish studies; writes on anti-Blackness and pluralism
Dr Dina Lupin - Associate professor whose interests include environmental and human rights law, silencing, and epistemic injustice.
Rabbi John D. Rayner – Liberal rabbi whose writings shaped Michael’s reflections on Judaism as “an attitude to reality”
Lomotey (2024), Antiblackness in Flood Risk in Hull: The Afterlife of Colonialism, in Confronting Climate Coloniality, 2024, ed., Prof. Farhana Sultana.
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