When the world underwent a lockdown, the first thing that most people did to engage themselves was to turn towards artists. Art became an integral part of helping people get through the pandemic while people were strictly not allowed to meet friends or even families due to social distancing and risk of catching the Coronavirus.
Artists and their efforts to entertain us from home across the globe will always go down in the history of this pandemic as a saving grace for coping with the emotional and mental stress that comes with the solitude of quarantine life. But where do artists go to seek solace while saving the world in the pandemic through art forms? Actor and comedian Abdullah Afzal lost his mother during the pandemic and found comfort in religion. He spoke to Asian Voice about his experience through the pandemic, the need to take mental health more seriously as Asians, and other issues he strongly feels about.
Afzal said, “The lockdown actually gave me an opportunity to do more in terms of content online and social media. My normal day was so busy before, that what I was putting online was very limited and I found myself wanting to do more while I was at home. I was putting out content maybe once or twice a day for the first few weeks of lockdown. It was the response that I got that kind of made me think that why have I not been doing this all along because people have been appreciative of the content that I was putting out and I felt more needed, more important than I have ever felt before.It was nice because obviously when you come from an Asian Muslim background, going down the career path that I took was exactly not looked up to firstly. So the first time in a while I felt that I was doing something that was actually important to people. I've got so many messages from people. Someone sent me a message saying she had a premature baby and she was in depression and that she stumbled upon one of my videos and it made her laugh and kind of gave her a tickle. These kinds of messages make you feel needed and that you got your place in the community in the world.” He said that during the lockdown, he has been planning in terms of where the money is going to come from now, but in actual terms, he said, “Spiritually, I feel great”.
Speaking about what the Asian community needs to do to help each other during these times, he said, “I think our community first as a whole has been through a lot of experience in terms of hardship and struggle. From our ancestors to now, it has always been a struggle in terms of my parents coming over here, the racist sixties and seventies and feeling quite low here. At that time it was a lot harder than it is now. The arts stream is a lot more unbalanced.”
He feels that the BAME community is resilient in striving through hardships. “The one thing I would say for our community is that the people are very good at making sure that money is still coming in. Our community has found ways around but they've got shops opened, found ways of working here and a got businesses opened. Whether it is the taxi drivers or the doctors and nurses, all there are busy saving lives.”
“I just feel that this is a huge moment for the Asian community to show how important we are to this country because one of the things you know is that the beginning of the Covid-19 cases, the doctors and nurses who passed away were mainly from BAME background and that an incredible thing is that there are people out there who have an agenda. The Covid-19 pandemic has really allowed them to show how important we are to this country and that we truly are British,” he added.
We also asked Afzal to comment on how the mental health of artists like him is during these times and what they need to keep going. Afzal said, “I think there's a lot of support and talk about mental health when it comes to our industry, but I think it's a lot less when it comes to our community. If you go home to an old school aunt and say to her that I am suffering from depression, she will say there is nothing wrong with you. She'll say in my time we couldn’t even say this to anybody. Their intention is not to help you but more about what is there to be depressed about. And I think that's something that needs to change.”
