An oil lamp

Sofina: This is a children’s food container transformed into a lamp. There was a time when this was the only way of getting some light into the house.

Abdul Noor: This kind of item can be used with paraffin, but in the times when paraffin wasn’t around people still burnt lamps like this, but with fish oil. There are lots of fish back home so they would collect the oil from fresh fish and burn it in the lamps.

Habib: This reminds me of my childhood. I don’t know where this exact one originated but this is not Aladdin’s wonderful lamp, this is a very crude lamp made from an old milk can. In Bangladesh when I was a child  –  I’m from a poor family –  my mother had one, there were two of these in the kitchen, which used to be a separate, small sort of house.

These are made by people in the market, they tend just to use thick tin plates to make them, but this one is made from recycled tin which is much more innovative. And we didn’t use industrially made wick like this one, we used recycled cotton.

I am a bit surprised that it has found its way into the British Museum!

Abdul Noor and Sofina, Bengali Men's Group
Habib, The Bridge Project