Refugee Boy tells the story of Alem Kelo, a boy forced to flee the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Originally a novel by Benjamin ZephaniahA British writer and poet who drew on his experiences of racism and his Jamaican heritage., published in 2000, it was turned into a play by Lemn Sissay in 2013. Both Zephaniah and Sissay, the children of migrants to the UK, have said that the story speaks to some of their own experience in making a home in Britain. Brought to London by his father, who then returns to Eritrea, Alem lives at first in a children’s home, and is then adopted by a foster family, the Fitzgeralds. Alem struggles to adjust to his new life, and the violence and racism that he experiences in Britain is paralleledCompared, held up against. to the violence in the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict. When Alem’s mother is killed in Eritrea, his father returns to be with him in London. As they struggle for asylumWhen a state agrees to shelter somebody who is fleeing dangerous circumstances. The right to asylum is protected in international law by the 1951 Refugee Convention. and experience the indifference of the British courts, Alem and his father argue about what the best way to guarantee their safety is. Mr Kelo wants to appeal to the courts, while Alem thinks that rallying the local community together will do more. At the final moment of the rally, Mr Kelo is murdered, and the play ends with Alem still lost, looking for the North Star.
Refugee Boy
Refugee Boy tells the story of Alem Kelo, a boy forced to flee the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Originally a novel by Benjamin ZephaniahA British writer and poet who drew on his experiences of racism and his Jamaican heritage., published in 2000, it was turned into a play by Lemn Sissay in 2013. Both Zephaniah and Sissay, the children of migrants to the UK, have said that the story speaks to some of their own experience in making a home in Britain. Brought to London by his father, who then returns to Eritrea, Alem lives at first in a children's home, and is then adopted by a foster family, the Fitzgeralds. Alem struggles to adjust to his new life, and the violence and racism that he experiences in Britain is paralleledCompared, held up against. to the violence in the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict. When Alem's mother is killed in Eritrea, his father returns to be with him in London. As they struggle for asylumWhen a state agrees to shelter somebody who is fleeing dangerous circumstances. The right to asylum is protected in international law by the 1951 Refugee Convention. and experience the indifference of the British courts, Alem and his father argue about what the best way to guarantee their safety is. Mr Kelo wants to appeal to the courts, while Alem thinks that rallying the local community together will do more. At the final moment of the rally, Mr Kelo is murdered, and the play ends with Alem still lost, looking for the North Star.
World's deadliest war is also the least-known
The play is set during the Ethiopian and Eritrean war that was fought from 1998-2000. Eritrea was formerly a part of Ethiopia until a separate war in 1993 resulted in independence. The two countries share many cultural ties, and yet they have fought each other often. As recently as 2023, a civil war within Ethiopia claimed many lives. In the play, and in Zephaniah's novel that Sissay adapted, the 1998 to 2000 war is portrayed as a fight that takes place between people who should be family. Mr Kelo himself belongs to a group that campaigns for African unity. Rather than say he is Ethiopian as opposed to Eritrean, he says he is an African. Throughout the play/novel, people are urged to be kinder to their neighbours, and their family - to be more like brothers and sisters. We see all kinds of different families, from the dysfunctionalNot working properly. family of Sweeney to the chosen family formed by the children in the children's home. Ruth, the English daughter of the foster family that takes Alem in, the Fitzgeralds, says at one point in the rally to grant Alem and his father asylum, We are all brothers and sisters. It is clear in the play/novel that this is not true, but that it ought to be.
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There are two kinds of violence in Refugee Boy, and they are shown to be linked. The first is the violence that Alem has already experienced during the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and the second is the violence he faces in London. The play shows the violence in the past as a series of flashbacks; these are triggered by the violence that he encounters in London. Everything in the play is connected, and part of the point is that violence in one place doesn't just stay in that place. The political organisation that murders Alem's mother comes to Britain to go after his father too. Alem pulls a knife on a mugger to defend himself partly because he has seen Sweeney do the same thing, but also because he is scared as a result of what he's gone through in East Africa. And there is also the violence of the court, which does not hurt anyone directly, but which, by denying Alem and his father's asylum claim, puts them in danger. Violence in the play is not a single action but a tangled web.
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Alem's mother is Eritrean and his father is Ethiopian, which is why he is called a "mongrel" by one of the soldiers who terrorises his family. A fixed sense of identities like this is shown in the novel to be disastrous. It becomes a source of cruelty, causing war in Africa and racism in Britain. These are, again, shown to resemble each other. The Eritrean solider calls the Kelos a dirty dog. The Ethiopian soldier says mongrel, and he and Sweeney both refer to Alem as poison. We see in all of these metaphors an insistence on purity - diseases and dogs are considered unclean. However, identity is not so straightforwardly a bad thing. Alem is proud of his Ethiopian and Eritrean family. He speaks Amharic and Tigrinya, as well as English. He is capable of finding himself in all of these languages. His father campaigns for African unity, and Ruth wants to ensure that Alem is part of a new family. Throughout the play, an identity is a good thing when it allows you to embrace change, rather than cling on to certainties.
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The 1998-2000 war was devastating. Hundreds of thousands of people died, and many more were forced to leave their homes. And this refugee story is not unique to this war. Benjamin Zephaniah was keen to show the horrors of what refugees had been through in order to bring home their humanity. The story is not about their suffering but the way people react to it. Zephaniah himself was the child of migrants from the Caribbean, while Sissay, who adapted the novel, was born to Ethiopian parents in Britain. They both knew first hand the difficulties their families faced coming to the UK, and the difficulties they faced staying. And they wanted to remind us that these are stories of resilience. Throughout the play, horrible things happen to Alem and his family, but Alem keeps going. He finds pleasure in the culture of his new country, such as the novels of Charles Dickens, and he organises a rally to get people's support to let him stay. The play ends with a question, "Can I?" Alem asks in a flash back. The reader hopes he might because they see the strength of his spirit.
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Much of the action of the play takes place in a care home. We see the difficult lives of Mustapha and Sweeney, as well as of Alem. The question of who we ought to care for and how, is one of the biggest in the play. In Britain children sent into care often face great challenges even into adulthood, and the system of care is shown to be uncaring. The impersonal care is contrasted not just with Alem's family, but with the Fitzgeralds. They do not always manage to help Alem, or make the right decisions, but they care. It is the act of caring that matters most, and which helps to offer hope in the play. The court system does not care about the war, referring to it as a mere border dispute, and they do not care about the murder of Mrs Kelo. The play suggests that if our care could reach further, it might go some way to stopping the violence in the world.
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Keywords
Benjamin Zephaniah - A British writer and poet who drew on his experiences of racism and his Jamaican heritage.
Paralleled - Compared, held up against.
Asylum - When a state agrees to shelter somebody who is fleeing dangerous circumstances. The right to asylum is protected in international law by the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Dysfunctional - Not working properly.
- Someone who is important due to their rank or job.
Refugee Boy
Glossary
Benjamin Zephaniah - A British writer and poet who drew on his experiences of racism and his Jamaican heritage.
Paralleled - Compared, held up against.
Asylum - When a state agrees to shelter somebody who is fleeing dangerous circumstances. The right to asylum is protected in international law by the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Dysfunctional - Not working properly.
- Someone who is important due to their rank or job.