Our Stories
Life Inside a Refugee Camp - 1972 Burundi
If you were to ask a young Burundian refugee where their home is, they would say Burundi. But many of the hundreds of Burundian refugees living in West Michigan have never set foot there. For the young who were born into a refugee camp and their families, life has been a journey of survival, sparked by genocide in 1972.
In 1962 the people of Burundi gained independence from Belgian colonizers. Ten years later, in the spring of 1972, age-old political struggles for inclusion, representation, and power between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority culminated in the genocide of an estimated 200,000 people; and another 150,000 people fled to neighboring Tanzania, Rwanda, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). For many families, this was the beginning of life away from home, and the struggle for life in a refugee camp.
According to a young Burundian refugee who is now making a home in West Michigan, life in a Tanzanian refugee camp was “very hard,” and there were “lots of problems in the camp.” When a refugee completes the long foot-journey to the camp, they meet various aid agencies, namely the UN, Red Cross, and Oxfam International. They give them a ration card, a tarpaulin, water access, and plot of land.
“They try to help the best they can, but people cannot get things that they need. Rations for two weeks are never enough. Maybe lunch but no breakfast, sometimes lunch no dinner.”
Leaving the camp is also prohibited, not only intensifying the nostalgia for home, but also making the attempt to gather firewood for cooking a challenging and dangerous endeavor.
“It was very hard to get firewood where I was. People would search for wood, and trouble would happen. Sometimes they would violate women; sometimes they let the dogs on the refugees. If you leave, you choose trouble to get something that you need to survive.”
For 35 years families lived in camps, sometimes fleeing one to make ends meet in another. Then one day in 2007 the aid agencies gathered thousands of the descendants of 1972, and told them they were going West.
“Even me, I was happy to hear. Everyone talked about how the life will be, and lots of people thought it would be a good life in relation to the camp. But when you sit and think, it was sad to have to split up with friends, to leave Africa.”
Without a home to go back to, the “Burundians of 1972” were forced to make the decision of a new life in an unknown world, or the known struggle in a refugee camp. Parents made the difficult decisions for their children under the age of 18, and in the end most people traveled to a place they had only been told about weeks before.
Since 2007, the United States received over ten thousand Burundian refugees, mostly from Tanzanian refugee camps. West Michigan is a receptive hub. Many work in the restaurants around town, in the factories that produce our goods, and for companies whose services we use everyday.
Many Burundians have learned a new language, connected with new friends, and integrated themselves into West Michigan culture while sharing with it their own. Yet still the challenges continue. Hundreds of thousands of refugees live in camps throughout Africa. For those living in West Michigan, attempting to work, pay rent, adjust to a brand new culture, and learn English is challenging, yet the resiliency and hope is strong. If you are interested in connecting with the “1972 Burundians” living in West Michigan, contact the African Community Center at 616.248.3552, or e-mail the staff at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Story by: Brian Quarrella
For more information on Burundi and its culture and history, check out the following list of references:
CIA World Factbook: Burundi
Burundi Fact Sheet
The 1972 Burundians
Case Study: The Burundi Killings of 1972
