Refugees cling to the only home they know

Mutumwenu Kasimona is one Angolan refugee who doesn’t want to go home. He says he is home.

Born in Zambia to a mother who fled the Angolan civil war in the early 1970s, 29-year-old Kasimona has lived his entire life with thousands of other Angolan refugees, who on arrival at Africa's oldest refugee camp were provided with 2.5 hectares of land.

Since the signing of a ceasefire in 2002 that ended almost three decades of bloodshed between the MPLA ruling government and the UNITA rebels, about 370,000 Angolans have voluntarily returned home from exile across southern Africa. Thousands more, including Kasimona, don’t want to go 'home', vowing they will never be forced to return to a place they have never known.

"My mother went back in 2001, but I am not going back because it is not ok on that side," Kasimona said. "I was born here, my life is here and my business is here in Zambia. How can they make me start again?" he asked. "And what will become of my property?"

A four-year programme of voluntary repatriation has seen about 65,000 Angolans safely return home from camps dotted across western Zambia. The programme, run by the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM), is scheduled to wrap up at the end of this year, when Angolans will lose their refugee status. More than 25,000 Angolans remain in Zambia - many have expressed a strong desire to stay for good.

The situation recently took a violent turn when a number of Angolan refugees living at the Nangweshi camp, in southwest Zambia, protested their removal to Mayukwayukwa, 350km away, by burning their houses, frightened and angry at being forced to leave the only home they have ever known.

But Kasimona – defying the image of the helpless, penniless refugee - has a lot more to lose than a house if he is repatriated to Angola. The entrepreneur started a business at the Mayukwayukwa camp in 1998 when his uncle gave him a gift of 25,000 Zambian Kwacha (about US$6). With the money, he started selling sugar under a tree. Six years later, he runs a cluttered shop he built himself, selling eggs, clothes, soap, fabric and hundreds of other items to the large refugee community.

"Sometimes the foreign volunteers who work at the camp want bread or pasta and I can get it for them," Kasimona said proudly. "I have so many things here in my shop and I can’t take them to Angola because they only let you take so much baggage...If the things in my shop aren’t going, I’m not going either."

Kasimona’s situation is not unique. Thousands of Angolan refugees living in Zambian camps have been there all their life – some have families, some have businesses and one man living at Mayukwayukwa has even bought himself a 4x4 truck. Although most say they are eager – if a little nervous – to return home, a hardcore group cling to the hope Zambia will eventually acquiesce and accept them as citizens.

"My husband was killed in the fighting and I came to Zambia with nothing," said refugee Esther Sapalo. "I don’t want to go home yet, maybe next year, but maybe not. I’m not ready and I’d like to stay," she said.

When asked why they fear returning home, many refugees say they will only set foot in Angola again when the country returns to democracy with free and fair elections.

The United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, was scheduled to revoke refugee status for Angolans in September this year, but the decision was delayed until December. It may be extended a few more months to allow time to airlift the remaining Angolan refugees home.

Despite the prospect of another delay, the lifting of refugee status is inevitable and the IOM, along with the Zambian and Angolan governments, are encouraging all remaining refugees to return to Angola as soon as they are ready.

"We have already closed one camp in Zambia to encourage the Angolans to return home and though we know some don’t want to go, they will simply have to," said Soko Kububa, the Zambian government’s refugee officer at the Mayukwayukwa camp. "Although some have been here for 40 years and some have never even seen Angola, no provision has been made for these people to stay in Zambia and become citizens."

But he held out hope for those who desire to stay, saying that if the numbers are small enough, an amnesty might be granted. The IOM does not encourage the Angolans to stay, but suspects that a small number – especially those who are sick - might be allowed to remain in Zambia.

"Whatever the refugees choose to do, the IOM wants them to be as self-reliant as possible," said IOM’s Zambia spokeswoman Elizabeth Barnhart. "We visit with them individually and speak to them about the trip back to make the transition as easy as possible...There is always potential for conflict, but all parties are working together to avoid it."

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