KCHR, NORKA-Roots to launch project to map migration profile of Keralites in Africa

The Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR) in collaboration with NoRKA-Roots has launched a pioneering research initiative titled “Mapping the Migration Profile of Keralites in Africa.” The project aims to document, study, and preserve the historical and contemporary migration experiences of Keralites across African countries.

Kerala has a long and vibrant tradition of global migration, and while the Gulf region has been widely studied, the migration histories of Keralites in Africa remain significantly under-documented. This project seeks to fill that gap by creating a comprehensive migration profile through archival research, oral histories, community engagement, and digital documentation.

The project also assumes significance against the backdrop of the fact that Keralites have lived and worked in several African nations for generations—as traders, professionals, skilled workers, entrepreneurs, and cultural intermediaries. Their contributions have shaped not only diaspora communities abroad but also Kerala’s social and economic fabric back home. However, many of these histories remain scattered, undocumented, or at risk of being lost forever. The project will bring together personal narratives, photographs, letters, memorabilia, institutional records, and community memories to create a lasting archive of Kerala’s Africa connections.

The initiative is crucial for preserving the lesser-known migration histories of Keralites in Africa, understanding Kerala’s transnational ties beyond the Gulf, recording intergenerational diaspora experiences before they disappear, and building a scholarly and public resource on Kerala-Africa relations.

The outcomes of this project will also have wide-ranging value for Kerala’s cultural, academic, and policy landscape, including strengthening Kerala’s global heritage; supporting policy and diaspora engagement; educational and research contributions; cultural preservation and public memory by collecting stories and family archives; and digital archives and future collaborations that will create a digital repository which will support future research, exhibitions, publications, and Kerala-Africa cultural collaborations, according to a statement.