Last week I briefly touched on Congo when I told you about meeting sweet "Mary". Columbia, MO has a large refugee population, largely in part because of the welcoming and supportive nature of mid-Missourians. We often get refugees who were settled in other cities but who hear about Columbia from friends and family. As a result, many of these families move to mid-Missouri.
One of the questions I asked during my interview process was about the countries of the refugees supported by the City of Refuge. I had never even heard of some of the countries mentioned. Others were so familiar because of coverage in the news media. Because Eritrea was one of the countries unfamiliar to me; I thought that today I would tell you about one of our larger populations of refugees in Columbia.
To give you a bit of background, there were 15,067 Eritrean refugees admitted to the U.S. between 2008 and 2016. I was a bit ashamed that I had not heard about this country before my interview, especially since so many of its citizens were now my new "neighbors". The first thing that I did was to find a map of Africa and visualize where it was on that continent. (Yesterday at church I was challenged to become more aware of world geography during this age of Google Maps when it is so easy to rely on Siri to help us navigate.)
Eritrea is a small country and is slightly larger than the state of Pennsylvania. The population is about 6 million people, which is less than the population of New York City (approx 8.4 million). The pie chart above illustrates the different groups of people represented by this country. In addition to the individual languages spoken by these groups, many people may speak English, Arabic or even Italian.
As with any culture, religion is also represented in Eritrea. About half of the population is Muslim followed closely by Eritrean Orthodox. The pie chart above illustrates the percentages and religions of this country. Christianity was established along the coast around the 4th century; it spread to the highlands where it was embraced by the Ethiopian highlanders. I personally have wondered if the rapid spread of Christianity was a result of the story about the Ethiopian eunuch as told in Acts 8:26-40 KJV. It is a fascinating story about a Christian named Philip who is sent by God to talk to an Ethiopian man. The man was described as "a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship". A man of this prominence and social stature could easily influence his countrymen, even if just by example. However, at some point he had been introduced to Christianity previous to his meeting with Philip based on his reasons for visiting the country of Israel. Later, the rise of the Islam religion along the coast in the 7th century pushed the Ethiopian Christians up into the highlands.
Agriculture is one of the most important resources of this country and it accounts for about four fifths of the nation's economy and livelihood. Some of the animals that they raise are sheep, goats and camels. When possible, depending on the limiting factors of soil, erosion, and plateau terrain, Eritreans try to grow crops. Some of the crops grown are sorghum, millet, and teff (an indigenous cereal).
Eritrea's manufacturing was severely damaged by a generation of war, so the prosperous industries promoted during the Italian rule were destroyed. The country now has light manufacturing and it is mostly related to the agricultural industry. There is salt mining and the hope of petroleum discovery in Eritrea.
So why are there Eritrean refugees? Eritrea was ruled by the Italians, but after WWII things started to churn within this country. A nationalism movement grew and two groups of people started to fight within Eritrea as well as fighting with Ethiopia. There were power struggles and violent crimes which caused a stagnant economy. Finally things settled down and Eritrea captured the all elusive independence it craved. However, it came with a price; war had ravaged Eritrea's economy and displaced a flood of people. Rights and freedoms were now in danger and often violated. The relationships with neighbors had improved by this point but the UN was now involved because of the many human rights violations like slavery, torture and murder. Some of these activities were labeled as crimes against humanity.
Now Eritrea is one of the most repressive countries on our planet and is often called "the North Korea" of Africa.
A refugee is someone who has been displaced by war or violence and cannot be reasonably resettled near their place of origin for those reasons. All efforts are made to resettle them as close as possible to their place of origin but sometimes safety does not permit resettlement to happen. At that point, refugees are placed in other countries. This process is long and complicated; it may take up to ten years! It often necessitates living in a refugee tent city where modern conveniences are a luxury not afforded.
If you would like to read more about the Eritrean refugees, their country and their stories, click here to read the official website of the American Team of Displaced Eritreans. You can also read more about Eritrea here on Britannica's website.
And of some have compassion, making a difference: Jude 1:22 KJV
All opinions expressed here are solely mine and are not a reflection of the opinions of the
Americorp VISTA program or of City of Refuge in Columbia, MO.
Comments
Post a Comment