External publications

Essentialism and the making of African refugees

Jaji, Rose
External Publications (2021)

published on africasacountry.com, 01.04.2021

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Historically, African refugees were capable of political participation even to the point of building vibrant states in the new lands they fled to in precolonial Africa. The migrations triggered by the Mfecane in Southern Africa, often discussed as part of precolonial state-building, are historical refugee movements by people who, in hindsight, moved because of “well-founded fear of persecution” enshrined in the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention. As breakaway factions that fled Nguniland in present-day South Africa settled in new areas, they built new states, exemplified by the Ndebele State founded by Mzilikazi and his followers in present day southern Zimbabwe.

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