Author: Yordanos Almaz Seifu

Mengedegna (The Traveller) Addis Ababa Pages 359 price 100 birr

The series of xenophobic attacks targeting Ethiopians and other African national immigrants in South Africa has been in the news recently. Incidents of shootings, vehicle torching, and shop lootings in the country’s commercial capital, Johannesburg, have been widely reported. However, there is little in the way of a general survey of the situation of Ethiopian immigrants and refugees in South Africa. A new book written by a long-time observer strives to fill that void.
The book, entitled Mengedegna (The Traveller), effectively accomplishes the task, examining the experience of being an Ethiopian immigrant and refugee in South Africa, through memoirs, interviews and a sampling of historical and, sociological perspectives. Yordanos has managed to evoke the stories of Ethiopians who risked everything or made impossible journeys to reach South Africa, a place perceived as “the new promised land of possibilities.”

The author, alumni of a European Master’s in Migration and Intercultural Relations, travelled from Ethiopia to South Africa to conduct his ethnographic research and stayed there for about two years. He also carried out his research in Ethiopia by talking to potential migrants, returned migrants, brokers and smugglers, experts, and politicians. The result is a book that provides detailed background and varied experiences, and perspectives of Ethiopian immigrants and refugees in South Africa, the smuggling routes across different countries, the everyday struggle to establish their own identity and finding a place in their new country.

The book has four grand chapters. The first chapter recounts the author’s trip to South Africa for the research and his impression of the country. Here he also provides the political and economic context of South Africa, particularly that of Gauteng Province, the most populous province in South
Africa, which encompasses Pretoria, Soweto and Johannesburg. The author relates how the province has come to become a magnet for immigrants from Ethiopia and across Africa. Chapter two focuses on the life and trajectory of a certain Ethiopian political immigrant, in a way that shows the journey for many other Ethiopian immigrants following different routes and transit countries such as Kenya, Mozambique or Swaziland and their arrival in South Africa. The encounters with border police, immigration officers and public officials in transit countries and the litany of abuses they endure are also depicted. A more detailed treatment of the disparity between the newly arrived and pioneer migrants, the multitude of risks and daunting challenges they encounter in the settlement processes, and adjustment to new culture follows in chapters three and four.

Yordanos reviews the background of migrant movement in Ethiopia and the first wave of Ethiopian immigrants who began to trickle into South Africa. Ex-military members who started to arrive a few years after the end of apartheid in South Africa and the end of the military regime in Ethiopia were among the first wave. As South Africa introduced a more open approach to immigration in the context of the country’s skills and investment needs in 2000, many more followed down in the pathway. Those who found employment opportunities and achieved relative financial success started sending remittances back home. “Their apparent success has motivated other youths, thus creating a feedback loop among former migrants, return migrants, and potential migrants as is stipulated in the social networks theory of migration,” the author writes.

Nowadays most of the Ethiopian immigrants in South Africa originate from the southern part of Ethiopia, particularly from the towns and rural areas of Hosanna and Durame. “Though young people from this area joined the wave of immigration relatively late, they take the lion’s share today,” the author explained. Following a period of political instability in Ethiopia after the 2005 national election, more and more young people from the stated areas made their way to South Africa. The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa with the prospect of work in its booming economy has also attracted others, the book states.
Many of the young Ethiopians who set off to Johannesburg in these waves of migration find themselves in the neighbourhood in the north-eastern of Johannesburg called “Jeppe,” (the ‘Ethiopian Quarter). It is a neighbourhood with dense business activities and a number of specialist shops that sell retail products, ranging from fresh and processed foods to textiles, clothing, cosmetics, and cheap Chinese merchandise. The chronicle on how Ethiopian immigrants themselves have primarily created and expanded the area over a 20-year period is particularly fascinating. That story goes back to the time when black South Africans started entering this part of the city without a pass after the end of apartheid and the white residents who previously monopolised the commerce started fleeing. It was during this period the newly arrived Ethiopian immigrants started transforming what were “unused and underutilized office buildings into a plethora of small shops and stalls.”
More than a place of trade, today the area has become an Ethiopian enclave where many social institutions take place and where “Ethiopians bring to these spaces a strong sense of tradition as well as centuries-old institutions that are recreated in the host society.” They gather there to find home products, to exchange the latest political news, to drink coffee prepared in the traditional ceremony and to be able to talk in their own tongue.

Recurring conflict with black South Africans and fear for their safety take up a significant bit of the narrative. As the author explained, many migrants from Hosanna started up substantial tuck shop operations (small food retailers) after the 2010 World Cup. Most of these tuck-shops are found in the townships, and the South African shop-owners accuse Ethiopian immigrants of breaking competition law. The accusation, it seems, is legitimate as respondents who responded to the survey acknowledge that the products they sell in their shops are cheaper than the prices in their local counterparts. The author cites this as one of the reasons that magnify the frictions between the Ethiopians and South Africans.

One strength of the book is its focus on the stories of individual migrants, the challenges that come with being a stranger to the new community and language. Most of the immigrants speak limited English, making it difficult for them to get basic services, mainly law enforcement, health care, and education. Stories of the immigrants’ feelings of displacement from their homeland, relatives, and friends while they strive to recreate a sense of home in an unfamiliar place are told in an evocative way. While some follow siblings, friends or relatives, most come without ties and are left stranded. The longing for home and loved ones that are associated with celebrations are often traumatising.
Yordanos also explores other complexities such as the pressure for the immigrants to appear more successful than they are and send remittances to their families even when they are not in a position to do so. The power of gossip and speculation back home means one’s reputation and status could be ruined if one failed to send remittances. Such sentiments are also manifested in the habit of sending wedding videos and photographs that are intended to prove the financial and material improvements of the migrants. The effect is to paint a rosy picture about life in South Africa; something that unfortunately gives a deceptive picture for those who stay back in the country. Those materials are exploited by profit-seeking criminals to recruit potential migrants. The smuggling business is a complex network that often operates in underground, involving a wide network.
The smugglers are a key factor in expediting migration into South Africa and driving the migrants into making dangerous journeys. We come to learn from the book about a harrowing incident when the migrants took a boat along the Indian Ocean rim in order to avoid being caught in difficult transit countries, such as Kenya and Tanzania. “We were a group of about 120 migrants travelling on the Indian Ocean rim. The boat we were travelling on suddenly started to wobble and a furious shark emerged from under the boat and nearly overturned it. As if he is throwing a stone, the captain throws away my friend to the shark. The boat immediately calmed down. I was terrorized! … When we approached the coast, the captain said ‘you Ethiopians are lucky; we usually sacrifice around ten people to survive the sharks.” Unfortunately, this definitely is not an isolated incident. Whether on land, in the water, many perish in transit countries, before reaching South Africa. “Even for many of those who made it, it is only the beginnings of their sufferings,” the author writes.

What are the effective responses to address the situation? The author does not pretend to have all of the answers. The absence of legislation to address the smuggling of migrants means that smugglers can continue committing the crime with little fear of being brought to justice. Giving priority to investigating higher-level smugglers could have a strong deterrent effect on organized criminal groups, Yordanos agrees. However, he says, smugglers are only one part of the transnational social networks and they don’t function as independent entities. There are always accidental brokers or opportunists who are ready to respond to market forces, eventually joining in existing criminal networks or forming a different one. The associated system of corruption that became an integral part of the social network means that even “immediate friends or close relatives who finance and/or host newly arriving immigrants, at times, involve in the smuggling network,” the author writes. The network could also at times involve fortunetellers, spiritual leaders, and pastors at the sending end in southern Ethiopia who put pressure on migrants and their families to immigrate to South Africa, the country dubbed as the “Promised Land.”

The book is translated into English by Hiwot Tadesse as “Wayfares: Travel Journal.”

Effective responses will require holistic, and long-term approaches that would consider those issues and address aspects of the underlying social, economic and political pressures that fuel the crime, as the author reminds us. For anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the subject, this is a timely, well-crafted contribution. The presentation of facts and arguments is clear, unadorned by needless and pointless rhetoric.

Main photo: Johannesburg’s inner-city photo Yordanos Almaz

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