I'll Still Be Here When You Return

Irpinia follows the journey of young West Indian dreamer Dudley as he makes his way to England in the 1960s. At 24 years old, Dudley boarded a ship named Irpinia in search of a better life in England, the so-called motherland. Now 86, Dudley reflects on the exciting journey at sea and the harsh reality that lay ahead of him.

Jameisha Prescod’s exploration of the legacies of medical colonialism in Suriname and its attempts to classify and control black bodies centres the experiences of Afro-Surinamese and Maroon communities living in the Netherlands, including the voice of poet Carina Fernandes. Foregrounding personal responses to illness, spirituality, and medicine, Prescod reclaims health as a practice of memory and care where survival alone is understood as a radical inheritance.