Nsukka Dejee! · Nsukka Cultural Association Glasgow & environs
Your kin are found abroad. We are the people of the Nsukka hills, making a home together by the Clyde.
Wemyss Bay, June 2026Glasgow --:--Nsukka --:--From late March to late October, both homes keep the same hour.
Here in Glasgow
We are Nsukka people, and those married into Nsukka families, living across Glasgow and its surrounding towns.
Our members work shifts in the NHS, in care homes, in universities, in warehouses and behind the wheel. Many of us are raising children a long way from the grandparents, aunts and neighbours who would have shared that work at home. The Association exists so nobody has to do it alone.
We are a registered Scottish charity (SC052702, since 2023), run entirely by volunteers. Our byelaw names two purposes: to promote the advancement of our members, and to promote togetherness, unity and friendship among them. Everything below grows from those two lines.
There for life’s significant moments
When a baby arrives, or a family marks an anniversary or another milestone, we turn up to celebrate with them. When a member loses someone they love, we visit, sit with them and mourn alongside them. In joy and in sorrow, members are there to help the family carry the moment.
Talks at our meetings from members who have walked the road: housing, jobs, schools, the NHS, and how things work here. Newcomers are signposted and never left to work it out alone.
Walks, family days and our first community trip to the Firth of Clyde. The Scottish outdoors is part of our home now, and we want every family to have it.
Ikorodo dance, Igbo words for the children, cultural dress, folktales, and food brought from home kitchens to share at every gathering.
Gatherings
Meetings, parties, welfare visits and, this summer, our biggest gathering yet: four days away by the sea.
Twenty families, three nights. Babies to grandparents. Most of the children had never met; most of the adults had not sat together for years. The trip was built around wellbeing: morning walks along the coast, sport, swimming and play, and evening circles where members could talk honestly about the weight of work, parenting and distance from home.
Photographs by NCAG members. Every family gave photo consent at registration.
Most loved
Not the pool, not the arcade: a walk. Anyone who wanted joined a group walk each morning, mixing all ages. More members named it their highlight than anything else, and many have asked for it to become a regular fixture.
Most needed
Separate evening circles for men, women and young people. Members brought real problems: shift work and childcare, parenting across two cultures, isolation, money. They heard from others who had been there, with our own community's doctors and nurses facilitating.
Still going
The children now have their own supervised group chat and keep in touch. More members have stepped forward to help organise what comes next.Next time we'll ask our own cooks to feed us, keep families closer together, and find a room for everyone in the evenings, because members told us so.
With thanksThe Wemyss Bay trip was funded by The National Lottery Community Fund through Awards for All Scotland. Thank you to everyone who plays.
A family affair: every household brings something from home and we share it. Members are voting on the date (7 or 14 November) in the WhatsApp group.
In person in Glasgow, with some online. We open with prayer, share news and welfare matters, and hear from members on life in Scotland. Food and drink come from whoever can bring them.
Four days, twenty families, 101 people. See above.
Our end-of-year celebration for families, with gifts for the children.
In their words
On the last evening at Wemyss Bay, members sat down outside their caravans and told us what the weekend had meant.
It's been house to office, my wife, my kids. Last night I came back to the caravan at one in the morning. That never happened since I came to Glasgow, and I came home with so much happiness. I collected more than fifteen numbers from people I'd never met, though we come from the same region.
The pressure of work and taking care of children was really on me. I was losing it. Coming here to unwind and be with my community has really helped. From zero to ten, I'm at 9.9. My son only comes home to sleep; he's always off with his new friends.
It has been work, school, work, school, all the way. This weekend gave us time together as a family, and with families I had not seen for years. It is so memorable that one cannot forget it easily.
My youngest, about seven, was telling me this afternoon about the friends he had made, happily reciting their names. The older ones have swapped contacts too. It will be a point of connection for all our families.
It was lovely to see our son making so many friends. With everything going on, it's very important for us to stay together and support each other.
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“For many many years I've not gone on a group trip. This was something special.”
Ngozi U.“They made new friends and learnt a few new words from our language.”
A parent“I enjoyed hanging out with the children and other people my age.”
A young memberWhere we come from
Nsukka sits on a plateau of rolling hills and grassland in the north of Enugu State, south-eastern Nigeria. The land is red laterite, and on market days its roads fill with yellow peppers and yams. Its people are Igbo, with a speech and a set of festivals all their own. The Nsukka zone spans six local government areas:
In the village square of Lejja lie hundreds of blocks of iron slag left by ancient furnaces. Archaeologists have dated iron-working there as far back as around 2000 BC, placing it among the earliest iron-smelting sites in Africa.
The great masquerade festival of the Nsukka area, held in cycles of several years. Ọmabe spirits are believed to come from the hills to guard the community and keep moral order, before they depart again.
The festival music of Nsukka, played alongside ogwume, adabara, igba mangwu and ogelle. At Wemyss Bay it filled the park, and the Ikorodo dance showcase was one of the highlights of the weekend.
Uli is the Igbo art of spare, flowing lines once painted on skin and walls. At the University of Nigeria, Uche Okeke and fellow artists made it the root of a modern movement, the Nsukka School; El Anatsui later taught there. The line marks on this site are drawn in its spirit.
Nigeria's first indigenous university opened at Nsukka in October 1960 under the motto “To restore the dignity of man”. For generations of Nsukka families it has been the heart of the town.
Fragrant, fiery and famous across Nigeria. Nsukka's yellow pepper is the taste of home in our pots of ofe and our pepper soup, and a favourite gift to carry back from a trip home.
Nsukka Dejee!Nwanne di na mba!
Call and response, written into our byelaw. The reply means “your kin are found abroad”, or, more loosely, “you are never alone away from home.”
Standard Igbo. Ask an elder how it's said in their village.
Executive Committee
All volunteers, elected by the members, and all reachable at any meeting.
Alongside the Executive, members volunteer on sub-committees set up for special tasks and events. They take on the detailed work behind the scenes, so that everything runs smoothly.
Join us
Membership is open to everyone. Anyone can join as an affiliate member and take part in all our activities.
Full membership is for adults living in Glasgow and its environs who are from Nsukka or connected to it by marriage.