Mamobo Ogoro on effective bridging in the digital age
Mamobo Ogoro is a social psychologist, social entrepreneur, activist, artist, Forum Advisory Board member, and the founder of Gorm Media, a start-up social impact digital media company with a mission is to unify communities across cultural, social and political divides. Fuelled by both her personal experience and her academic background studying prejudice, intergroup conflict, and dual cultural identity, Mamobo says she is on a personal mission to unify the world. The Democracy and Belonging Forum’s Evan Yoshimoto met with Mamobo to discuss her work with Gorm Media, bridging in the digital age, and why we should continue working to bridge even when there is an unequal distribution of power.
What does belonging mean to you?
For me personally, belonging is where I can be myself, my whole self. Where I feel like my voice matters, and who I am and what I have to offer (or not) is valued. It is not conditional or based on arbitrary things such as skin color or age, but where my soul sits comfortably. To me, belonging is like home.
Gorm Media’s mission is to unify across differences and advance belonging for marginalized communities through digital media, events and training programs that capture the stories, nuances, and experiences of individuals who want to unify across divides. Why do you think bridging across differences is an important element to building belonging for marginalized communities in Ireland?
Having volunteered and worked in migrant related charities for years, I started Gorm Media as I saw a gap in engagement. Underrepresented communities were very insular, and the communities that were most vulnerable were in echo-chambers where there was little cross-cultural engagement. This not only breeds frustration in underrepresented communities who do not feel valued, listened to or lack belonging, but also in majority groups who may lack the adequate knowledge of the human experiences of these groups, which can bring about mistrust, prejudice, othering and in extreme cases acts of hate. This has been ever more exaggerated in online spaces where we are seeing the rapid growth of far-right agendas.
As a social psychologist, I’m completing a PhD on identity construction and how systems of inclusion and exclusion affect migrants and their belonging to Ireland. One key indicator to reducing prejudice in the literature is “positive intergroup contact” or effective bridging.
Positive human encounters across lines of difference is one of the most effective ways to lower prejudice and allow people to build empathy, reconcile, see the humanity behind different experiences and build social cohesion. While facilitated direct in-person experiences are best, intergroup contact can be achieved indirectly through storytelling & education. That’s where Gorm Media comes in.
We are a platform on a mission of unity across lines of difference and we share stories, educate and create engaging content of people from diverse communities and conversations of people bridging on social issues. We believe that media and social media is a powerful tool for bridging and through the amplification of different voices, we can build empathy among our listeners and viewers and through that advance belonging for marginalized communities.
How does your personal experience as a bridger and your academic background in prejudice, racism, and dual cultural identity inform your work at Gorm Media?
Since childhood I have always felt between two worlds and quite frankly never felt like I belonged fully. Being from a migrant household in Ireland in a time where there were no migrants, and then being queer in a traditional African family, I always navigated spaces where I had to connect the dichotomous worlds I lived in. And so the bridging began. I grew so curious as to why people hate and were prejudiced and chose to enter the world of psychology to find out.
From there, I learned more about the psychological processes of an academic that cause polarization, hate, and division, and also recommendations to mitigate them, bridge, and bring about social change. It was also at this time where I grew sick of the elitism in the academic world and wanted an avenue to spread this knowledge more widely. So Gorm was an avenue in which I was able to merge the personal and professional experiences as a bridger into a social enterprise that now unifies across differences through entertainment, experiences and education.
I’d love to hear more about your pilot project, "This is ‘Them’", which aims to see through the lens of everyday people of different communities in Ireland via a series of recorded tasks which ultimately allow them to critically engage in issues pertaining to their community. I’m looking at Gorm Media’s YouTube page right now and seeing videos that discuss Islam, bi-raciality, and whether or not Black people can be racist. How did this project begin? And why do you think it’s important for people of different communities in Ireland to share their own stories with the public?
This is ‘Them’ began as a pilot project for Gorm as a way to bring about indirect intergroup contact for Irish audiences to see communities that they may not see on the daily. It began through the support of the UL Foundation where we won the prize for “Best Social Innovation” for a student project.
For example, it is not widely known that 1 in 8 people in Ireland are from migrant backgrounds, and these stories (especially those not related to racism) go untold in our country. This creates a single narrative for communities who have so much more to them. So we set out to make the stories of different communities public so that audiences can gain more perspective and know that there is always more to “them”. The project has grown so much since then and we are always looking for new partners and contributors to share their story.
One question that continues to come up at the Forum is how can we effectively bridge when there is an unequal distribution of power along the lines of race, gender, class, etc. Why should we focus on bridging when there is an unequal distribution in power? And how do you (or Gorm Media) approach this?
Focusing on power, who holds it, who does not and how to navigate it is crucial in bridging, and firstly, we work in a bottom up and top down level to tackle this. If those in power are not aware of their position and how to navigate it (in a diverse environment), unjust systems will remain the same and the ‘othering’ of communities will prevail. Likewise, if traditionally ‘othered’ communities are not emboldened and empowered to use their voice, there is likelihood of learned helplessness.
So Gorm works on two levels. One, we equip leaders and people in positions of power through our evidence based research and training programs to become “Unifiers”. We focus on intercultural competence which is the ability to function, navigate and lead teams across lines of difference. In these we not only grapple with how power plays a role in how they may bridge, but how they can use their power in bridging. Two, as mentioned above, we empower through our impact project(s?) that work first hand with diverse communities and also facilitate recorded conversations of bridging in action, coming 2023.
From this we believe that we can meet in the middle and model ways for effective bridging in the digital age.
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