Nigerian writer calls on our world to ‘make room’ for refugees

Writer uses World Humanitarian Day platform to reflect on the humanity of each refugee and our role in making the world a better place for all.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Image courtesy of www.wikipedia.org

Award winning Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, recently addressed the annual World Humanitarian Day event in New York. This year’s theme focused on ‘One Humanity’.

During her address, Chimamanda recalled the experiences of her own family in eastern Nigeria when the Biafran War broke out in 1967: “At the time my parents had a stable life…two children, a house, a car and friends…then the Biafran War started. My parents heard the sound of shelling. It was so close and my parents were frightened. They had little time to pack anything and left almost all their belongings behind.”

Her family ended up in another town but it was already crowded and even the refugee camps were full. She recounted how her father knew one person in this town, Emmanuel, but knew that this man’s house would already be full many times over with his own relatives and friends: “My father still knocked on his door. Emmanuel looked at my parents holding-on to their two small daughters, faces shadowed in despair and he said ‘we will make room for you’. I wonder would my parents have survived the war had they not benefitted from that act of kindness.”

Chimamanda went on to highlight how our world unconsciously dehumanizes refugees and spoke of a similar experience she had in Mexico:

“No-one is ever just a refugee. Nobody is ever a single thing. In public discourse today we speak of people as single things. Refugee. Immigrant….this happened me a few years ago when I visited Mexico from the US. They were portrayed (in the US) through a single lens…fleecing the health care system, bringing disease. I remember my first day in Guadalajara….people going to work, laughing, buying and selling. At first I was surprised and then I was overwhelmed with shame. I realized I was so immersed in the narrow coverage of Mexicans that I forgot their humanity. In my language, Igbo, the word for love is ‘ifunanya‘. The literal translation is ‘to see’. It is time for a new narrative in our world where we truly see. Let us tell a different story.”

She reminded those present at the address in New York that the movement of people on earth is not a new phenomenon while she also encouraged all to see the humanity behind each person:

“Remember, we are not just bones and flesh, we are emotional beings. We share a desire to be valued. A desire to matter…we speak of people in need, let us speak of not only what they need but what they love, resent, what wounds their pride, what they aspire to, what makes them laugh. This reminds us how similar we are in midst of differences and we are better able to imagine ourselves in the same situation as those in need.”

Chimamanda concluded by highlighting the humanity shown by Emmanuel to allow her family stay in his crowded house. Though she acknowledged that opening all borders would be impractical, she emphasised how we can all do more:

“Our humanity is that glowing centre in all of us. It is what makes us speak about injustice even when that injustice does not personally affect us. It is what makes us aware that we are better off if our fellow human beings are better off. It was what made Emmanuel, in his cramped house full of relatives, still open his door for my parents and say we will make room for you.  Emmanuel could have said 'no', and would have had understandable reasons to say 'no', but he chose to say ‘yes’ and his reason to say ‘yes’ was his humanity. We can create room for people. It is the moral imperative of our time.”

 See below to watch her World Humanitarian Day address in full.