City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp by Ben Rawlence (Epub)

Description

To the charity workers, Dabaab refugee camp is a humanitarian crisis; to the Kenyan government, it is a ‘nursery for terrorists’; to the western media, it is a dangerous no-go area; but to its half a million residents, it is their last resort.

Situated hundreds of miles from any other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of northern Kenya where only thorn bushes grow, Dadaab is a city like no other. Its buildings are made from mud, sticks or plastic, its entire economy is grey, and its citizens survive on rations and luck. Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became a first-hand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land, getting to know many of those who have come there seeking sanctuary. Among them are Guled, a former child soldier who lives for football; Nisho, who scrapes an existence by pushing a wheelbarrow and dreaming of riches; Tawane, the indomitable youth leader; and schoolgirl Kheyro, whose future hangs upon her education.

In City of Thorns, Rawlence interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in the camp and to sketch the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped there. Rawlence combines intimate storytelling with broad socio-political investigative journalism, doing for Dadaab what Katherinee Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers did for the Mumbai slums. Lucid, vivid and illuminating, City of Thorns is an urgent human story with deep international repercussions, brought to life through the people who call Dadaab home.

User’s Reviews

Review “Rawlence has written a book that just might change the world or, at the very least, awaken readers to one criminally forgotten corner of it.” —Booklist Starred Review –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I have worked with resettled refugees in the US and NZ, and with war-affected families in Uganda, so I am very familiar with the memories they cannot escape. Ben Rawlence does an excellent job of capturing the rawness of life in Dadaab. Especially in this time during which unknowledgeable citizens spout off judgmental stereotypes about refugees, this book can enlighten readers about the terrible conditions they face.

⭐ Excellent, interesting, and easy to read. I’m a teacher in a school with many Somali refugee students and while taking Somali classes through community ed. the teacher (who was from Dadaab camp) recommended it. I think the book and Rawlence’s experiences with the people in the book help most of us who have minimal knowledge of the situation gain some perspective on the refugee experience and the many challenges we never think about. It’s hard to imagine growing up and living in an area the geographical size of New Orleans with 400,000+ others and no building permits near war torn areas where no one wants you, not the Kenyan government or the largely controlled territories of Al-Shabaab. Google image Dadaab to get an idea of what the camps look like. If you want to gain some perspective on the situation in Somalia and refugee experiences in general, this is a must read!

⭐ I completed this book left with a feeling of profound sadness. This was an eye-opening account of what these people endure on a daily basis – war surrounding them, lack of food, privacy, the elements, and stuck right in the middle of the inevitable tug of war regarding politics. This should be required reading. Just this week my church sponsored a family of 13, I believe, who had been living in a refugee camp for 19 years. They now have housing thanks to members of the congregation who answered the call for assistance. The culture shock will be something they will all have to come to terms with, but I can only imagine their joy.

⭐ I will briefly add my praises to those of [almost] everyone else. We simply cannot understand the world we live in without an intimate and heartfelt acquaintance with the material covered in this book. There may be other ways of acquiring this understanding, but this is among the very best. We come to know and care about these people, their lives, and their interactions–a necessity, of course, if we are to understand ourselves. Absolutely superb.

⭐ A presentation by Mr. Rawlence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival motivated our book club to select this book. It’s an excellent work on the plight of Somalian migrants to Kenya in the biggest refugee camp in the world. It also illuminates the dilemma of immigrants and refugees worldwide It should be read by everyone who is concerned about this crisis of humanity which has been invisible to the western press. It must certainly be read by all European and African policymakers on immigration.

⭐ Ben Rawlence makes the life in the Dadaab camp and the characters of its occupants come alive with incredible descriptions and attention to detail. Reading in the comfort of ones home it is difficult to come to terms with the difficulties and complications of weather and politics that the inhabitants must endure. Although while reading it was tempting to give up, by the end, although feeling helpless to aid them, I was satisfied to have followed these resilient people through their stories and devoutly wish that politics, religion and weather will allow these people to return to their homes in peace. I judged three stars rather than four as the book is a very demanding read.

⭐ For me, it is hard for me to read on my iPhone with the Kindle app, but it is still an interesting book. I would buy it in paper form instead, though. I think it is easier to flip real paper pages back and forth than to flip virtual pages back and forth. That is just my preference and has nothing to do with the content other than I like to go back and look at the maps as I read about the various places. I imagine that my students and/or their families have had similar experiences to the people in this book and I think it helps me to understand them better. I wish everyone would read it whether they work with refugees or not.

⭐ This is the first review I have ever written on any anything. This book has changed me and made my world larger in understanding who Jesus says my neighbor is. I love the way this book was written, it does give you facts, but more importantly it gives you real people living in this nightmare and trying to survive and hold on to hope. It made me cry for the horrendous acts of oppression and evil people are capable of doing to each other without a conscience of what their doing.It made me realize that people without hope are people in danger of committing horrible acts against humanity to survive. I gave this this book 5 stars because I can never be the same after reading it. Being changed for the good of my fellow man is what makes any book worth reading.

⭐ Never have I gotten to know refugee camp residents so well as in this book. I am not an aid worker so I haven’t had real-world experience, but as far as what you can get from a book this is the best I have read. I have read other books written by aid workers that describe the experience for them, but Ben Rawlence has made this book 98% about the story of the refugee camp residents – from their perspective. He evidently got to know the people he wrote about very well and very meticulously documented their stories. He then tells their stories very well. He also had each of the people review what he wrote about them (or actually read to them what he wrote) to make sure that his description of their suffering, joys, frustration, pain, and thoughts were all accurate. If you want to know what really goes on in a refugee camp, (and some of the international forces that drive the camp policy), and what compels a people to take refuge in a camp (and to leave it) this is the best book you can read.

⭐ A rare glimpse inside Dadaab, perhaps the largest of the many refugee camps in the world, in eastern Kenya. It focuses on the day by day lives of several people living in the camp. It also describes some aspects of camp operations. This book will provide an essential background for anyone from a developed country who wants to support, plan projects for, or engage with refugees in camps.

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