Creating space in a ‘naked city’: violence and identity in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya

In the past decades, violent conflict has caused large numbers of people to flee their homelands. Policy debate and refugee studies have concentrated on the question whether refugees should return to their homelands or integrate in the host society. Both approaches assume that refugee camps are temporary settlements. Refugee camps have therefore been characterized as non-lieux, non-spaces organized according to the functionality of humanitarian operations (Turner 2002). By imposing these policy-oriented views on refugee camps, the dynamics of building life in the camps remain hidden and refugees are likely to be perceived as passive recipients of aid. This research steps away from the idea of temporality and views refugee camps instead, following the recent suggestion of Agier (2002), as naked cities, as early urban settlements. Refugees in this perspective are considered active settlers that come to the camps for different reasons and stay for different and often repeated duration. Starting from the notion of naked cities, the research shall concentrate on the question what role violence and strategic non-violence plays in the ways actors create space and forge identity groups in refugee camps. The research will study the everyday life in Kakuma refugee camp in the Turkana region of Northern Kenya. The camp was established under the authority of UNHCR in 1992. Its 84.000 inhabitants are from 9 different countries and 40 different ethnic groups (UNHCR 2002: 45). The largest groups are from Somalia and Sudan and smaller numbers from the Congo, Ethiopia, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. The experience of violence underpins the decision of people fleeing from their home-countries. It is lived experience, meaning that past experiences with violence are incorporated in present identities, perceptions and patterns of interaction. There are many violent disputes between ethnic groups in camps, exacerbated by an abundance of small arms and the recruitment of fighters to join armed groups in their home countries. While acknowledging the complex nature of violence among refugees, this study suggests that violence can partly be understood as a social practice in the forming of identities and the creation of spaces. The proposed research will focus on how the refugees are settling in Kakuma refugee camp: how they order the camp by forming identity groups and creating space, using violence and other strategic actions in doing so.