Novelist Salman Rushdie once wrote that the experience of uprooting, disjuncture and metamorphosis that is the migrant condition is also a metaphor for the human condition.
The inevitable path of such uprootings is the intermingling of hitherto unfamiliar peoples and a metamorphosis that comes from new and unexpected combinations of human beings, cultures, ideas, politics. We are drawn to stories that tell of such uprootings, whether they be from migrations or from the ongoing effects of colonization processes, because through these stories we can experience struggles for co-existence, for recognition, for forgiveness, that define our humanity.
These stories suggest the possibility of living alongside others who are different, learning from them, creating new worlds with them, offering new versions of what it means to be human. We call these ‘mongrel stories’ because they speak to the idea of change by conjoining, of openness to others, of surprise, unpredictability, delight in exploring the unknown, including the stranger within.