Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

“Transcending the Space of Marginality”

The Audacious Search for Power and the Transformative Agency of Liberian Residuals in Oru, Southwestern Nigeria

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Change

  • 59 Accesses

Abstract

The Liberian Civil War of 1990 resulted in a huge number of refugees moving to different parts of West Africa. The Oru refugee camp in Ogun State, Nigeria, was one of many camps created in the region by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to offer temporal accommodation for Liberian refugees until normalcy returned to their country of origin. After war ended in 2003, UNHCR failed to decongest the camps in West Africa despite introducing three durable solutions to protracted refugee situations. In 2012, the Nigerian government closed Oru refugee camp following UNHCR’s termination of the refugee status for Liberian exiles. This closure led to their eviction to a nearby uninhabitable bushy location where they were exposed to vulnerability without international protection and humanitarian aid. Even though termination of refugee status exposes residuals to vulnerability, not much of the extant literature explores their afterlife outside camps. The research engages Alex Honneth’s theory of recognition as a theoretical framework. The research utilizes ethnographic fieldwork and mixed instruments to gather focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with 29 participants. This methodology unravels how Liberian residuals have transformed the former uninhabitable space to a cultural colony and an economic hub, even as their daily mobilities, livelihoods, and thrusts continue to influence contiguous communities and cities. The research findings show that from a position of vulnerability and later discontentment with their location in a new space of marginality, Liberian residuals deploy their cultural agency, economic resourcefulness, social capital, and diaspora network to contest the space and resources previously enjoyed exclusively by their Oru host.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adebayo, K. (2014). Demography and social stratification of refugees at the Oru Refugee Camp, Ogun State, Nigeria. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 4(26), 28–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adeleke, O. (2014). An exploratory study of survival strategies of the refugees at Ijebu Oru: Desirability of credible government policy and supports. African Journal for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, 17(3), 133–144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agier, M. (2014). Un monde de camps [A world of camps]. La Découverte.

    Google Scholar 

  • Akinfenwa, G. (2016, February 21). Oru Stranded Refugees: We have been abandoned. The Guardian Newspaper. Retrieved from: https://guardian.ng/sunday-magazine/oru-stranded-refugees-we-have-been-abandoned/. Accessed 10 Aug 2019.

  • Bakewell, O. (2010). Some reflections on structure and agency in migration theory. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(10), 1689–1708.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barbero, I., (2012). Orientalising citizens. Oecumene: Citizenship after orientalism [online]. Retrieved from: http://www.oecumene.eu/research/orientalising-citizens.html. Accessed 7 Oct 2019.

  • BenEzer, G., & Zetter, R. (2014). Searching for directions: Conceptual and methodological challenges in researching refugee journeys. Journal of Refugee Studies, 1, 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernardot, M. (2015). Displacing and housing the undesirables: Sociology of Forced Housing. Recueil Alexandries: Collections Esquisses.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bidandi, F. (2018). Geopolitics, political violence, and identity: Perspectives on the great lakes region in East Africa. Peace Studies Journal, 11(1), 52–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blunden, A. (2007). Honneth’s “struggle for recognition”. Ethical Politics. Retrieved from: https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/works/hegels-spirit.htm. Accessed 10 October 2019.

  • Crisp, J. (2002). Protracted refugee situations: Some frequently asked questions. Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit. UNHCR, Geneva.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crisp, J. (2003). No solutions in sight: the problem of protracted refugee situations in Africa. Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, UNHCR, Geneva (Working Paper No. 75).

    Google Scholar 

  • Crisp, J. (2016). An end to exile? Refugee initiative and the search for durable solutions. In R. Jolly & M. Askwith (Eds.), The UN at 70, and the UK: Development cooperation, humanitarian action, and peace and security: Lessons from experience and policy recommendations (pp. 119–125). Institute of Development Studies (IDS).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dako-Gyeke, M., & Adu, E. (2015). Challenges and coping strategies of refugees: Exploring residual Liberian refugees’ experiences in Ghana. Qualitative Social Work. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282206159_Challenges_and_coping_strategies_of_refugees_Exploring_residual_Liberian_refugees%27_experiences_in_Ghana. Accessed 12 Oct 2019.

  • De Haan, M. (2011). The reconstruction of parenting after migration: A perspective from cultural translation. Human Development, 54(6), 376–399. https://doi.org/10.1159/000334119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diken, B. (2004). From refugee camps to gated communities: Biopolitics and the end of the city. Citizenship Studies, 8(1), 83–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diken, B., & Laustsen, B. (2005). The culture of exception. Sociology facing the camp. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dubernet, C. (2001). The international containment of displaced persons: Humanitarian spaces without exit. Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Etzold, B. (2019). Auf der flucht: (Im)mobilisierung und (Im)mobilität von Schutzsuchenden. Flucht: Forschung und Transfer (State-of-Research Papier No. 04). Osnabrück, Bonn: IMIS; BICC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Etzold, B., Belloni, M., King, R., Kraler, A., & Pastore, F. (2019). Transnational figurations of displacement – conceptualising protracted displacement and translocal connectivity through a process-oriented perspective. TRAFIG Working Paper, 1(5), 1–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghena, H. (2016). Between home and exile a reading of the exilic experience of the Iraqi Poet Adnan Al-Sayegh. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 7(3), 100–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghosh, F. (2008). Lower benefits to the refugees in denmark: Missing recognition?. Social Work and Society International Online Journal. Retrieved from: https://www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/94/383/. Accessed 16 January 2020.

  • Goodwin-Gill, G. (1999). Refugee identity and asylum’s fading prospect. In F. Nicholson & P. Twomey (Eds.), Refugee rights and realities: Evolving international concepts and regimes (pp. 221–249). Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Honneth, A. (1995). The struggle for recognition: The grammar of social conflicts. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Honneth, A. (2007). Disrespect: The normative foundations of critical theory. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kehinde, A., & Aboaba, K. (2016). Analysis of value addition in the processing of cassava tubers to “garri” among cottage level processors in southwestern Nigeria. 5th International Conference of the African Association of Agricultural Economists. Ethiopia: Addis Ababa

    Google Scholar 

  • Kpandji, S. (2016). Liberian government grants nationality to former liberian refugees at risk of statelessness. UNHCR. Retrieved from: http://kora.unhcr.org/liberian-government-grants-nationality-former-liberian-refugees-risk-statelessness/. Accessed 25 Oct 2019.

  • Novak, P. (2015). Refugee status as a productive tension. Transnational Legal Theory, 6(2), 287–311.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ojaide, T. (1998). When it no longer matters where you live. University of Calabar Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olaoluwa, S. (2009). Where do we go from here? Niger delta, crumbling urbanscape and migration in Tanure Ojaide’s when it no longer matters where you live. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 18(2), 175–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olaoluwa, S. (2019). The monotony of natural agency: Human evolution as diaspora discourse (CODESRIA Staff Seminar Series). Noirledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Omata, N. (2012) Struggling to Find Solutions: Liberian Refugees in Ghana. Policy Development and Evaluation Service, UNHCR, Geneva (Research Paper No. 234). Retrieved from: http://www.unhcr.org/4fbb7f075.pdf. Accessed 25 Sept 2019.

  • Omata, N. (2013). Repatriation and integration of liberian refugees from Ghana: The importance of personal networks in the country of origin. Journal of Refugee Studies, 26(2), 265–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Omata, N. (2014). The end of refugee life? Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, 26(3), 394–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Omata, N. (2016). Home-making during protracted exile: Diverse responses of refugee families in the face of remigration. Transnational Social Review, 6(1–2), 26–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peteet, J. (2005). Landscape of hope and despair: Palestinian refugee camps. University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Reliefweb. (2018). Refugees multiply Uganda’s woes. Retrieved from: https://reliefweb.int/report/uganda/refugees-multiply-uganda-woes. Accessed 4 Oct 2019.

  • Rieff, D. (2002). A bed for the night: Humanitarianism in crisis. Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothman, L., & Ronk, L. (2015). This is what Europe’s last major refugee crisis looked like. Times. Retrieved from: http://time.com/4029800/world-war2-refugee-photos-migrants-crisis. Accessed 13 Nov 2019.

  • Ruchi, L. (2017). Durable solutions for protection of refugees and their correlation with social and economic rights. International Journal of Law, 3(1), 40–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rygiel, K. (2012). Politicizing camps: Forging transgressive citizenships in and through transit. Citizenship Studies, 16, 807–825.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Said, E. (2000). Reflections on exile. Reflections on exile and other essays. Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Senayon, O. S. (2009). Where do we go from here? Niger delta, crumbling urbanscape and migration. When it no longer matters where you live. T. Ojaide. Nordic. Journal of African Studies, 18(2), 175–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A., & Vaux, T. (2003). Education and conflict. Department for International Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, F., Roberts, B., Luitel, N., Upadhaya, N., & Tol, W. (2011). Resilience of refugees displaced in the developing world: A qualitative analysis of strengths and struggles of urban refugees in Nepal. Conflict and Health, 5(20), 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, S. (2005). Suspended spaces: Contesting sovereignties in a refugee camp. In T. Hansen & F. Stepputat (Eds.), Sovereign bodies: Citizens, migrants and states in the postcolonial world (pp. 312–332). Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, S. (2015). ‘We Wait for Miracles’: Ideas of hope and future among clandestine Burundian refugees in Nairobi. In E. Cooper & D. Pratten (Eds.), Ethnographies of uncertainty in Africa (pp. 173–191). Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNHCR. (2003). Framework for durable solutions for refugees and persons of concern. UNHCR.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNHCR. (2019). Global trends: Forced displacement in 2018. UNHCR. Retrieved from: https://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2018/. Accessed 5 Oct 2019.

  • UNHCR/World Bank. (2016). Forced displacement by the Boko Haram conflict in the Lake Chad region.

    Google Scholar 

  • Welter, F., & Nadezhda, A. (2012). Researching trust in different cultures. In F. Lyon, G. Mollering, & M. Saunders (Eds.), Handbook of research methods on trust (pp. 50–60). Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yacob-Haliso, O. (2016). Intersectionality and durable solutions for refugee women in Africa. Journal of Peacebuilding & Development, 11(3), 53–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for African Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Tosin Samuel Durodola

Authors
  1. Tosin Samuel Durodola
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tosin Samuel Durodola .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Durodola, T.S. (2022). “Transcending the Space of Marginality”. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87624-1_149-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87624-1_149-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-87624-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-87624-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation