Refugees’ Rebellion. Issah Hassan Tikumah. Balboa Press, 92 pages, ISBN 978-1-50434-536-1
Published: 1 Jul 2016
Refugees’ Rebellion by Issah Hassan Tikumah was first published in Nigeria in 2004. The latest edition was published by Balboa Press in 2015. Review by Elisa Vari, Rights in Exile Volunteer, Oxford.
Although fictionalized, Refugees’ Rebellion is a worryingly realistic account of the struggle of all refugees, and of the shortcomings of international organizations when pursuing the ambitious mandate of protecting them.
With exaggerated tones and irony, Refugees’ Rebellion tells the story of Professor Malinger, a highly educated man who fled the Nanton Republic in search of safety for himself and his family. Arrived in Funcity, the capital of Gushegu Republic, the Malinger family files documents on documents to the Central Authority Refugee Commission (CARC), and is left waiting for days without any support. Professor Malinger was an intellectual in his country, and is now stranded in a hostile place where he is completely powerless. Whenever he tries to protest and fight for his rights, his situation only seems to worsen.
When the family’s asylum claim is finally accepted, it becomes clear that their misfortunes are not over yet. Professor Malinger, his wife, and his son are transferred to a refugee camp, where food rations are scarce, illnesses widespread, and there is no activity or occupation to keep them busy while they wait for their lives to start again.
It is at this point that Professor Malinger’s patience and diplomatic stance are broken, and, together with General Pretender, Lord Impostor and Chief Deceiver, he plots the “Green Rebellion” in order to prove how inefficiently CARC is run and how ill-spirited its officials and representatives are in carrying out the organization’s mission. After the successful revolt, Professor Malinger and his comrades run the local office in the Kumbun Province, and for two months they manage the food supplies and resources as they deem appropriate. Refugees are no longer starved and start to gain weight, and the general mood in the camp is completely changed.
When funds start to run out, however, the revolution comes to an end. Professor Malinger is to be resettled in Naya Republic with his family, and leaves the camp with a last, powerful speech that he addresses to other refugees, and which reflects the unfortunate conditions in which refugees live, what they endure, as well as the strength of character that can result from their struggles if they do not lose hope.
In this short novel, Issah H. Tikumah showed the injustices that are embedded in the current asylum system, and the often absurd bureaucracy that makes the asylum process impenetrable and nerve-wracking even for the most “genuine” refugees. Some of them learn to take these difficulties as a test, but for everyone else, they might never overcome what they had to suffer in order to be recognized as refugees, carrying their trauma throughout their life.
Issah Hassan Tikumah was born in Tamale, northern Ghana. He read philosophy and political science to obtain a BA degree from Australian National University in 1996. He received both his PGDE (2007) and M.Ed. (2009) from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, where he also taught. He now teaches at the University of Cape Verde.
As a writer, he has published more than a dozen books, including novels and essays. Refugees’ Rebellion (2015) and Baptism of Orphanhood (2013) are among his latest novels. Tikumah’s writings center on matters of socio-cultural injustices (with emphasis on the rights of women, children, minority ethnic groups, and refugees), educational reforms in Africa, especially in Muslim communities, and the politics of terrorism. His maiden book, The African God, was published in Nigeria in 2003.
For his critical writings he was expelled from Nigeria in 2010. In 2012, Tikumah was nominated ICORN Guest Writer. His forthcoming book, Africanism, an annotated edition of The African God, is a critical reflection on current affairs affecting African development and identity. Tikumah is the founder-president of Refugee Appeal International (RAIN).