Big fleas have little fleas,
Upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so, ad infinitum.
Upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so, ad infinitum.
I
first came across the Siphonaptera in the preface of an ecology textbook I studied
during my pre-med year over 30 years ago, and it stuck with me ever since. It
is a nursery rhyme, sometimes referred to as Fleas (siphonaptera is the biological
term for the order of insects to which fleas belong). The nursery rhyme is
reported to be based on an 18th century satirical poem by the
Anglo-Irish writer, Jonathan Swift.
I had cause to reflect on this rhyme during a
recent visit to one of our refugee camps. I have written in earlier posts in
this blog about the situation in the refugee camps in Kenya. What I have found
most distressing about the situation isn’t the ill health, the malnutrition,
the often inadequate access to the essentials for life and survival; it’s the
lack of power to decide how to live their lives. Not being able to decide where
you live, what to eat, where to go; having all the basic day-to-day decisions
that all of adult humanity take for granted outside your sphere of influence is
the most disempowering position an adult can find themselves in. So, I was
rather unpleasantly taken aback to learn that the universal truth captured in
this nursery rhyme also applied in the camp. I speak of socio-cultural
hierarchies and discrimination amongst refugees within the camps.
I’m not just referring to the segregation and
discrimination between refugees from different countries; that is well known.
The Somali, Sudanese, Ethiopians, and the Congolese are all mutually
distrustful of each other. There’s also animosity between the different peoples
of South Sudan; just because you’re now living in a refugee camp doesn’t mean
that the differences responsible for the civil war back home disappear. These
known prejudices are bad enough and I know that the agencies operating in the
camps are working hard to address them. But I was particularly struck by the
attitude in one of our camps towards a specific ethnic minority on the camps,
the Somali Bantu as they are known.
Before my latest trip to the camp, I had never heard
of Somali Bantus. They were taken by 19th century Arab slave traders
from the area that now make up modern day Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi to
work as slaves in the farms in modern day Somalia. They are discriminated
against in Somalia and sadly, that discrimination has followed them into the
refugee camps.
Some
background: NGOs working in the camps are encouraged to employ qualified staff
from amongst the refugees to help deliver the support programmes on the camps.
These staff receive a small stipend. The refugee support programmes on the
camps could not be delivered without the involvement of these workers. Many of
them have qualifications from their countries of origin relevant to the work
they are employed to do; many others are trained to deliver specific services on
the camps. The vast majority of them are excellent at what they do and are an
invaluable resource. While the level of payment is extremely small, they gain
by acquiring new skills that could serve them well if they return to their
countries of origin or are resettled elsewhere and the little payment does
offer some autonomy that other refugees may not have. The agencies that employ
them gain by having staff who are part of the communities they serve, who understand
the culture and speak the languages of the refugees they serve. This is very
important for effective and efficient delivery of the assistance programmes on
the camps and for building relationships between the NGOs providing services in
the camps and the beneficiaries.
In reviewing the health experience of the residents
of the camps, I met with some of the staff, to explore some of the concerns
identified from my work. Some pockets of significantly poorer health indicators
identified were in sectors of the camps occupied by Somali Bantu. I was struck by the dismissive and derogatory
comments made by some about the Somali-Bantu, some going as far as to suggest
they couldn't be helped!
I raised this with the agencies concerned who
filled me in on the level of discrimination faced by the Somali Bantu, even on
the camps and the particular challenges posed by their long experience of being
excluded from educational opportunities. I learned that even on the camps, some
Somali Bantu continue to work for other Somali refugees as domestic help. I
learned from online resources that Somali Bantu women are at increased risk of
rape, even within the camps!
I am pleased to report that the agency I work with is
aware of these issues and is working to address this. A priority will be to
address the prejudices amongst the incentive staff we employ and to activity
seek to employ Somali Bantu in these roles.
So back to the Siphoneptera; even in the most
extreme of circumstances as in a refugee camp, little fleas will find lesser
fleas and so ad infinitum…
You can find out more about the Somali-Bantu from
the following resources:
·
This excellent blog post http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.co.ke/2013/09/somali-bantu-people-hardworking.html
