Refugees in Africa: The geopolitics of forced displacement

Abstract

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) © 1989, African Studies Association. All rights reserved.