When Abdusalam Abajabal ran from his home in Jimma, Ethiopia at 14 in 1995, his country accounted for about two-fifths of the world’s total refugee population. Thousands of Ethiopians streamed out due to the political oppression, famine and war.
“There was no work opportunity, there was no food, there was no life,” said Abajabal, now 36 and living in New York City, where he settled after a long and arduous trek that included his walk through all of Yemen, being captured and tortured in prisons of Eritrea and Saudi Arabia, and survival in a Kenyan refugee camp.
The journey he takes these days are through his memories and experiences of family and heritage in Ethiopia. Abajabal idealizes Mahatma Gandhi and believes in his thought that a nation’s soul lies in the hearts and soul of its people. While living in New York, he misses home and the element of sharing that his Ethiopian culture embraced. He wanted to create a community on these values, and so in 2012, he founded Oasis Jimma Juice Bar in Harlem. A health food center where people from different cultures and nationalities convene to share their experiences over a fruit smoothie or powerhouse salad.
In the time that Abajabal made his way to the big apple, situations have changed drastically in Ethiopia. With migrants coming in from countries like South Sudan and Somalia, Ethiopia is now among the top ten of countries receiving the most refugees according to the UN Refugee Agency.
“It’s good that the situations are changing,” said Abajabal. “I have met some people who went to Ethiopia before coming here and they tell me it is getting better from when I left.”
After fleeing his house as a teen, Abajabal worked in mines located between the Ethiopian and Sudanese border. He was soon fired as he was too young and couldn’t do keep up for the arduous and tedious labor that the work demanded. Showing resiliency from the beginning, Abajabal pressed on. “I realized the shortage of the work opportunity there, and then I decided to create my own work,” he said.
Abajabal started cooking for the mine workers.
A year later, war broke out between two ethnic groups in the region. He lost his friends and had to run away for survival.
Voyaging around through multiple cities in search of work opportunity, Abajabal tried to escape to Yemen on a fishing boat with a few other companions. Little did he know that the route from Horn of Africa across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea to the shores of Yemen was the busiest and the deadliest route in the world at the time.
As they went farther from the land, the water got rough and their boat started falling apart. A powerful wave struck the boat in the middle of the night and the motor stopped working. Abajabal recalls that the smuggler temporarily fixed the motor before it completely broke off after going a few meters into the waters. The salinity of the sea water caused severe rashes and breakouts on their skin which made their survival challenging. “There is no communication, no satellite, there was nothing to help as we wandered in the middle of the sea,” he said.
After four days, a few seamen came for rescue and took them to Eritrea, where Abajabal said, the Eritrean guards jailed and tortured them before sending them to Yemen.
A few weeks later, he made another attempt to get to Saudi Arabia, eventually walking about a thousand kilometers across Yemen. He stayed there for few years, working multiple small jobs to earn enough so that he can move to even better place eventually. He then went to a refugee camp in Kenya and resided there for 5 years, working whatever jobs available and helping other people in camp as well. Due to his community service efforts at the camp, people started knowing him and he eventually found his passage way to the United States.
Finally, in April 2005, Abajabal arrived in New York City. Since then, he applied to get refugee status multiple times before he was legally granted in 2012.
“I thought all my problems are solved, I’m in New York City, that’s it. I’m done, my life is changed,” said Abajabal.
But the reality was overwhelming. The first few months were depressing because there was no connection with the people.
“The culture was very different, very individual,” he said. “I came from a place where we all talked to each other, lived together, and shared whatever we had, but in New York City, it was so difficult.”
“As human beings, we have been living together for a long time and that for me is like sharing. For me, one is no rich or poor. Back home where people had no resources, they should have been greedy, but they were sharing and so generous. Here, we have the money, food, we have a lot of houses, but people still reserve a lot for self,” said Abajabal.
He deems New York as a desert where he got lost the first few years. He found his own oasis in the middle of what he considers a ‘culturally barren land’.
Abajabal’s thought process is emblematic to the Ethiopian culture and complimentary to the countries changing approach towards the refugee crisis. The country contributed the most to the refugee crisis decades ago. In 1990, there were over 1.34 million Ethiopian refugees in the world according to the World Bank Indicators. The rule of armed forces by the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police and Territorial Army, commonly referred to as ‘The Derg’ and the 1983 famine which lasted 2 years and led to the death of more than half a million Ethiopians, were the main causes of Ethiopia’s vast refugee community. That all transformed in past 20 years, following the change of administration in Ethiopia. The present government established an open-door policy toward refugees as a gesture of gratitude and an act lined with political considerations and calculated to benefit the countries reputation internationally, as intended by the countries government.
Today, Ethiopia’s open-door policy stands in contrast to many other countries, that are adapting strategies resisting refugee migration. In fact, it is one of the largest recipient of refugees in the world according to the United Nations.
Ethiopia hosts refugees from several conflicted countries such as South Sudan, Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea and Burundi. Its total refugee population now exceeds 800,000 which is the highest number in Africa, and the sixth largest globally.
According to a statement by Ato Zenynu Jamal, Deputy Director for the Ethiopia’s refugee division, to the UNHCR, “Previously Ethiopia’s policy was just based on caring for and hosting refugees in the camps, but this current shift is amazing to see. It shows that our consistent commitment to neighbors fleeing conflict, human catastrophes and natural disasters will continue.”
Abajabal acknowledges the countries efforts. He attempts to inherit the prospective and wishes to recreate the approach to honor his traditional and cultural values to the best of his abilities.
“I can go to any home in Ethiopia, knock on the door and say that ‘I’m from this place, my day has ended and I don’t have a place to sleep’. They’ll say you’re welcome and even offer you their bed and food,” said Abajabal. “And it is the same on my apartment, I always have guests. I don’t charge them, they eat food with me, they sleep, they share.”
Rasika Rane 