The Intimacies of Restitution: Reinscribing the Dadaab Refugee Camps

Abstract

Abstract: In a consideration of restitution through the work of Edward Said, this article examines a critical archive of artworks that carry out acts of countermapping, of "drawing" the Dadaab refugee camps, free from any agenda to restrict or control the free migration of people. The Dadaab refugee camps, in northern Kenya near the border of Somalia, have been for much of their existence the largest-ever refugee-hosting site administered by the UNHCR. The settlements have been drawn and redrawn, by architects, by humanitarians, by aerial photographers, and by satellites. The works of art in this article—by Deqa Abshir, AbdulFatah Adam, Elsa MH Mäki, and Cave Bureau—reinscribe the Dadaab refugee camps by "drawing," renarrating them with altogether different aims. This article discusses the work of these concerned artists in light of Said's reflections on academic freedom, made in Cape Town in the wake of the struggle against apartheid, in the article "Identity, Authority, Freedom: The Potentate and the Traveler." This critical archive of works enables conceptualizations of restitution. This article examines the intimacies of restitution through these distinct critical acts of reinscribing the Dadaab refugee camps.