Refugees in Africa

The Geopolitics of Forced Displacement

Bibliographic Data

ID2595149
AuthorsMichael J Schultheis (corresponding author)
Year1989
Volume32
Issue1
Pages3
Publication date1989-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-0206 • E-ISSN: 1555-2462
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/524491
OpenAlexW2082751956
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited17

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel (1986) The consequences of this state of affairs [the division of the world into competing blocks and an arms traffic which knows no borders] are to be seen in the festering of a wound which typifies and reveals the imbalances and conflicts of the modern world: the millions of refugees whom war, natural calamities, persecution and discrimination of every kind have deprived of home, employment, family and homeland. Pope John Paul II (1987: para. 24) Africa is sometimes called “a continent on the move.” But this is not a recent phenomenon. Africans have always been “on the move,” long before any regular contact with Europe. In a vast and sparsely populated continent, people and communities relocated to maintain ecological balance, to seek a more secure environment and to achieve better conditions of living. Almost every region of Africa at one time or another has been affected by various streams of population distribution and redistribution. It is neither possible nor important to define these movements precisely or to delineate their frontiers exactly (for an overview based on archeological and linguistic studies see Devise and Vansina, 1988: 750-93, and Cambridge Encyclopedia, 1981: 57-86). Population displacements and human migrations are neither unique to Africa nor confined to the 20th century. They are the inevitable companions of war, civil conflict and prolonged economic deprivation

Development economics · Displaced person · Displacement (psychology · Economics · Forced migration · Geography · Geopolitics · Political science · Politics · Refugee · African history and culture analysis · African history and culture studies · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Law · Psychology

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