All for a cause
The second World Refugee Day Festival in Egypt hinted at a growing public awareness of the challenges facing refugees in the country, writes Gamal Nkrumah
When the world's crashing about your ears, your friends and family far away back home, nothing restores your sanity so much as a friendly gathering with lots of food and music. At least, that is what the refugees at the 2003 World Refugee Day Festival say.
Barbara Harrell-Bond, acting director of the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Programme (FMRS) at the American University in Cairo (AUC), delivered the welcoming address with a stinging critique of an advertisement for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Cairo Times. "Egypt is a host nation," Harrell-Bond told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The picture depicting refugees sitting next to tents is inappropriate. In Egypt there are no camps for refugees and no refugees in Egypt live in tents," Harrell-Bond said. "The advertisement might have been well-intentioned, but it defeats the purpose of highighting the refugee situation in Egypt," she added.
Harrell-Bond stressed that the vitally important point to remember is that the refugees contribute tremendously to the local economy. "The refugees pay exorbitant rents and do not live in tents as depicted by the unfortunate advertisement," she explained. "The UNHCR advertisement is very inadequate for raising awareness about refugees. The advertisers must be more sensitive to local needs and perceptions which influence the way in which refugees are viewed by the host society."
This year's cultural and musical extravaganza was sponsored by UNHCR Regional Office in Cairo, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the Office of the Equal Opportunities and Affirmative Action (EOAA) and the Student Activities Office at the AUC together with FMRS.
Better organised and attended than last year's event, the 2003 World Refugee Day Festival highlighted a number of key features in the lives of the refugees. Most important is that their lives are constantly in a state of flux. They are stateless and on the move, yet they cling tenaciously to their identities. The festival has become an annual window of opportunity for the refugees, a day when they can display their artistic and creative talents. Some faces were familiar from last year's event, but there were many new faces -- artists and the audience -- and children eagerly participated, joining in the dancing, playing games and running excitedly about.
High profile events such as the World Refugee Day Festival help focus public attention on the plight of the refugees in Egypt. "This year we've had more Egyptian students and young Egyptian volunteers wanting to assist the refugees in any capacity," Christy Ferguson, founder of the AUC group Student Action for Refugees (STAR) told the Weekly.
The World Refugee Day Festival offers refugees in Cairo an opportunity and space to represent themselves and their cultures by sharing their talents with Egyptian society," Ferguson said. "I am glad to see people enjoying themselves, while learning something new about the challenges facing refugees in Egypt," she added.
The Ethiopians, like migratory birds, were gone. I recalled a member of the Ethiopian Refugee Committee telling me at last year's World Refugee Day, "We benefit from legal aid, and especially how to fill application forms." Now, I understand better, how important his words were. The Ethiopians I had met last year at the World Refugee Day festival were today dispersed throughout the world, some settled in Canada, others in the United States and Australia. Legal aid had enormous ramifications for their lives.
But, not all stories have a happy ending. Some of the Ethiopian dancers who thrilled the crowds at last year's festival with their artistry must have been deported. We do not have exact figures. There are an estimated 5,000 Ethiopian refugees in Egypt today, a new wave having replaced last year's Ethiopian refugees.
Indeed, the Ethiopian Refugee Committee in Egypt had organised a trip for members of the Ethiopian community in Cairo to visit St Catherine's Monastery and a neighbouring seaside resort in Sinai. An emerging feature of refugee communities in Egypt today is that they are organising themselves into viable groups that cater for their members' social and recreational needs. Likewise, the refugee communities try to improve the skills of their members so that their employment and income earning opportunities are enhanced. These groups now tend to focus on training programmes that familiarise the refugees with the kind of work that they may be able to get, and actually assist them in finding suitable jobs.
More people attended the 2003 Word Refugee Day Festival in comparison with last year's event. While last year an estimated 500 people showed up, there were an estimated 1,000 people in attendance this time. The World Refugee Day Festival clearly showed that caring for and identifying with refugees is no longer the exclusive domain of Westerners residing in Egypt. Egyptians of all walks of life are taking a keen interest in the challenges that face people seeking refuge in their country.
The ambiance was festive and there was less of the "controlled chaos" that characterised last year's event. The stands of refugee arts and crafts were better stocked and more extensive. Palestinian stalls selling Palestinian costumes and garments, embroidery and other crafts vied for public attention with Sudanese paintings, beadwork, jewelry and wood carvings. The drawings of a lone Afghan painter were on display, albeit not for sale.
This year's World Refugee Day Festival in Cairo was characterised by the marked increase in the number of Egyptian volunteers who participated in the organisation of the activities along with the refugees participants and performers. This year, there were 25 Egyptian volunteers -- including UN volunteers -- who work with the refugees in an forbidding office context. This is the first time that they are meeting the refugees outdoors, in a public place intermingling with them and sampling something of their cultures. The event helped put a human face to the refugees who sometimes are dismissed as mere numbers. It was interesting to see the UN volunteers socialise with refugees. Ordinarily, the refugees dread the ordeal of being quizzed by UN officials as their entire futures rest on the result of these interviews.
Kasia Grabska, assistant to the FMRS director, told the Weekly that the biggest success over the year was a remarkable improvement in the access of foreigners in general and refugees in particular to Egyptian courts. "Our office has a number of outreach activities and we have been especially impressed with the number of Egyptian lawyers, judges and academics who have come forward with queries about refugees and ho have expressed a keen interest in helping refugees," Grabska told the Weekly. "We have organised a number of events including a conference of judges and legal practitioners from various Arab countries to discuss the refuge situation in the Arab world." Grabska, a Polish national who has been working for FMRS for just over a year, also added that the FMRS has had a follow-up seminar looking specifically into what Egyptian judges can do to help the refugees from a legal standpoint.
The event was overwhelmingly a Sudanese affair. But, the Palestinians made a strong showing with powerful performances by the Palestinian Red Crescent Dabka Troupe and poignant singing by the Abad Al- Shams, or Sunflower, choir.
A Sudanese girl holding up a Palestinian flag danced on stage to Sudanese rhythms and sang along in Palestinian accented-Arabic with the Palestinian groups. Southern Sudanese ethnic Dinka dances enchanted the crowds. The war-whoops and leaps of dancers depicting warriors with mock spears and toy shields held the crowds enthralled. Towards the end of the evening people intoxicated with the pulsating tunes of the Sudanese singer Assem Al-Tayeb jumped onto the stage and, with total abandon, many shivered in frenzied shimmies and others, as though entranced, swayed in a more restrained fashion to the inebriating beat. An unmistakable feeling of euphoria spread infectiously through the crowd.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 26 June - 2 July 2003 (Issue No. 644)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/644/li1.htm