Wanderers on the face of Africa

Abstract

nnHERE are more than 1-2 million refugees in Africa. This gives Africa the A highest ratio of refugees to total population of any continent in the world. With one out of every 360 persons on the continent a refugee, the problem is of enormous consequence, and in 1976 the burden to individual African countries has become considerable. Most governments in Africa and over sixty international agencies and private organizations are engaged in efforts to alleviate the situation. Yet despite the obvious importance of the topic there have been relatively few studies dealing with the refugee problem in Africa. Moreover, most observers have concentrated on either the political, ecological or economic upheavals that have led to the mass movements of persons across international frontiers, or have focused on the ethnic clashes which have spawned not only refugee movements but continuing intra-national tensions and dislocations. Few have explored the complex nature of the problem or identified the various reasons why solutions are so hard to find. This study focuses on the current refugee situation in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana and in particular on those refugees who have come from southern Africa, including South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Rhodesia and Lesotho. In 1975 there were approximately 38,000 refugees in Zambia, including 22,000 from Angola, 10,000 from Mozambique and 6,000 from Namibia, South Africa and Rhodesia. This total included nearly 2,000 new refugees from Namibia who arrived in 1974 and early 1975. There were nearly 100,000 refugees in Tanzania, including 45,000 from Burundi, 14,000 from Rwanda and the rest from Mozambique, South Africa and Rhodesia. In Botswana, there were 4,500 refugees, 4,000 of them from Angola and the rest from South Africa,