Power geometries of encampment. The reproduction of domination and marginality among Somali refugees in Kakuma

Abstract

My article is concerned with the reproduction of power differentials among Somali refugees in Kakuma refugee camp, in Northern Kenya’s Turkana County. By examining how the spatial organisation of the camp mirrors, and amplifies, pre-existing inequalities, it discusses the importance of refugees’ social relations crossing, and blurring, the boundaries of the camp. Based on interviews and focus group discussions with refugees and humanitarian personnel in the camp and in Nairobi, this paper builds upon Adam Ramadan's spatialising approach to the refugee camp and Doreen Massey’s notion of ‘power geometry’ to empirically contribute to the debate on space, biopolitics and the reproduction of inequality. In doing so, it describes how, in Kakuma, Somali entrepreneurs, mostly from Darood and Hawiye clans, leveraged their social networks to gain better access to the connectivity infrastructure of the camp, thus consolidating their position of economic dominance while entrenching the dependency and marginality of Somali Bantu, a community with a history of socio-economic exclusion within the Somali society. This article argues that relations of power are entwined to the materiality of the camp, showing that the plan of Kakuma has been shaped by the rush of resourceful Somali entrepreneurs to secure privileged access to the connectivity infrastructures of the camp, such as the main road and the telecommunication network. The control of these infrastructures through which goods, money and information circulate has thus contributed to reproducing pre-existing power relations.