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David Lammy: Tribes
Date/Time: Friday 3 February 2023 17:30-18:30
Venue: Al Baraha II, InterContinental, Dubai Festival City
Language: English
Session No: 183
David Lammy was the first black Briton to study at Harvard Law School and practised as a barrister before entering politics. He has served as the Member of Parliament for Tottenham since 2000. Today, David is one of Parliament’s most prominent and successful campaigners for social justice. He led the campaign for Windrush British citizens to be granted British citizenship and has been at the forefront of the fight for justice for the families affected by the Grenfell Tower fire.
In 2007, inspired by the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and looking to explore his own African roots, David Lammy took a DNA test. Ostensibly he was a middle-aged husband and father, MP for Tottenham and a die-hard Spurs fan, but his nucleic acids revealed he was 25% Tuareg tribe (Niger), 25% Temne tribe (Sierra Leone), 25% Bantu tribe (South Africa), with 5% traces of Celtic Scotland and a mishmash of other unidentified groups.
Both a memoir and a call-to-arms, his subsequent book Tribes explores both the benign and malign effects of our need to belong. How this need – genetically programmed and socially acquired – can manifest itself in positive ways, collaboratively achieving great things that individuals alone cannot. And yet how, in recent years, globalisation and digitisation have led to new, more pernicious kinds of tribalism.
Join us to hear David Lammy’s fascinating and perceptive reflections on not only the way the world works but also the way we really are.
This session is moderated by Hareth Al Bustani
As you plan your day at the Festival, please take into consideration that it takes between 30-60 mins to commute between the Intercontinental, Festival City and Mohammed Bin Rashid Library.
