45 pages • 1 hour read
Benjamin ZephaniahRefugee Boy
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Impact of War on Individuals and Families
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, racism, anti-immigrant bias, and the emotional distress of refugees related to familial separation and loss.
Refugee Boy explores The Impact of War on Individuals and Families through Alem and Mr. Kelo’s struggles during the Eritrean-Ethiopian War. Alem experiences isolation, discrimination, and dehumanization due to the war and only begins to find healing because of the support of the good people around him.
In Eritrea and Ethiopia, Alem and his family experience discrimination because they are a multiethnic family. They know they will not be free from discrimination in either country, but as the war continues, their suffering increases. When they live in Ethiopia, Alem’s mother’s job fires her because her coworkers do not want to work with an Eritrean, and Mr. Kelo’s coworkers encourage him to leave her. When they move to Eritrea, Alem experiences violence because of his multiethnic identity, with boys from school attacking him and telling him they will “kick all the Ethiopian blood out of [him]” (35). Zephaniah shows the dehumanization to which Eritreans and Ethiopians subject Alem in the two Prologues when soldiers from both militaries tell Alem’s parents that he is a “mongrel.” Mr. Kelo and his wife fear that the continued violence and discrimination against Alem will cause him to become bitter and callous, which is why they leave him in England. Although Alem escapes the physical danger of the war, he does not escape the trauma of separation from his family and homeland, eventually losing both his parents to the war.
The Eritrean-Ethiopian War destroys the Kelo family through Alem’s mother’s death and Mr. Kelo’s murder, which seems politically motivated because his death occurs outside the EAST offices. Alem has trouble processing the brutality of his mother’s death when he learns that she “was found hacked to death” (223). However, since he still has his father, he finds a way to compartmentalize her death to a certain extent. When Mr. Kelo is murdered, however, Alem completely falls apart because he has lost the only other member of his immediate family. Alem’s conversation with his father before he dies shows him that the only way to keep his parents alive is to honor their dreams of a peaceful, united Africa. While the war destroys his family, his refugee status also teaches him the value of solidarity as he builds new alliances with his foster family, friends, and fellow refugees. By leaning on these new connections and speaking out against injustice, Alem finds that glimmers of light can be found even amid war’s destruction.
Resilience in the Face of Adversity
Throughout the novel, Alem shows Resilience in the Face of Adversity, remaining strong despite the continuing trauma of the war, his grief, and issues with his asylum status. With the help of their friends and family, Alem and Mr. Kelo focus on the role of education and peace in confronting their struggles, drawing on their community to maintain their strength.
Education is a valuable tool of resilience for Alem. Once Alem settles in with the Fitzgeralds, he embraces school and his education, knowing the sacrifice his parents made to get him to England. Committed to expanding his knowledge, Alem sets a goal to read every book in his room at the Fitzgeralds’ house. He takes his education seriously because he knows that “school [is] preparation for the future […] and he ha[s] no intention of going into the future unprepared” (118). Despite his experiences of war, persecution, and precarity, Alem focuses on the future and the hope it brings because it is the only way he can heal from his past. Although Alem does express depression and sadness throughout the narrative, he always decides to press on, even refusing to take more than a few days off from school because he knows he can create a stable future by applying himself to his studies.
Alem’s resilience and determination to fight for a better future transform him as the novel progresses. This transformation becomes particularly evident when the Home Office denies the Kelos’ application for asylum, prompting Alem to fight the decision. Even though Mr. Kelo teaches Alem that “the law of the land must be respected,” Alem tells his father that they still “have a right to life […] and sometimes these judges and adjudicator people get it wrong” (232). After spending time in England and seeing the mistakes the asylum and immigration systems make, Alem knows that he and Mr. Kelo must advocate for themselves for the British immigration system to view them as humans. This emphasizes that education also comes from lived experience; because Alem has dealt with the asylum system, he understands its flaws. This point is also reinforced by the adjudicator’s ignorance about the danger the Kelos face in Ethiopia and Eritrea; because he has never experienced the war, he cannot understand how severe the situation is.
Instead of letting the system break their spirits, Alem and Mr. Kelo decide to rise above it and advocate for peace in Eritrea and Ethiopia, as well as equal treatment for refugees who come to Europe in search of safety. Above all else, Alem uses his resilience to advocate for “a culture of peace” so that future generations will not have to experience the same discrimination and hardship that he and his father faced (261).
The Challenges of Asylum Systems
Alem’s experiences in England underscore The Challenges of Asylum Systems. Although Alem comes to England to seek asylum, the system often treats him like a criminal, revealing the fallibility of the British immigration system.
From the moment Alem arrives in England, authorities treat him with suspicion. His experiences reveal the ever-present racism and anti-immigrant bias of asylum systems. In particular, the screening Alem undergoes soon after his arrival is dehumanizing and makes him feel like a criminal forced to prove his innocence. The default view of refugees as potential criminals is reinforced when Mr. Kelo is sent to a detention center—essentially a prison—even though he hasn’t committed a crime. Alem starts to think that it might be better for him to leave than stay where he’s not wanted. These large-scale challenges are reinforced by interpersonal violence in the narrative, such as the bullying Alem endures at the children’s home and the harassment Alem and his friends experience at the protest.
Alem and Mr. Kelo’s asylum hearings also reveal how the government questions and minimizes asylum seekers’ lived experiences. The state representative wants to make Alem’s situation seem less desperate, claiming that Alem “faces no personal threat if he were to be returned to his country” (143). However, the state representative speaks from a place of safety and privilege, and he and the adjudicator both refuse to listen to the reality of war that Alem and Mr. Kelo have faced personally. The narrative shows a government that is generally hostile toward asylum seekers and aims to send refugees back into dangerous situations.
Although Alem initially believes that the British system will help him, he soon learns that many are inclined to believe that he is nothing but “a refugee beggar” (121). The lack of empathy he experiences shocks him, and the newspaper clippings he saves reveal the systemic nature of this anti-refugee bias. However, characters and organizations in the story show that many will fight for him, from the Fitzgeralds to the hundreds of people who join the rally in support of the Kelos. This shows that while the system is difficult for asylum seekers, the possibility of change remains.
After his father’s murder, the adjudicator “take[s] into account the appalling tragedy” and grants Alem asylum (282), revealing that the only thing that keeps Alem in England is his father’s tragic death. This highlights the system’s shortcomings, as it takes an irreplaceable loss for him to gain the safety of asylum. Although this tragedy makes the court empathize with him, Alem knows that England will continue to view him as a burden, no matter what talents he has to offer. Alem decides to prove to those around him one thing: “I am not a beggar, I am not bogus” (285). Instead, Alem feels compelled to honor his parents’ memories and fight for peace and equality, hoping that his goodness will reveal his humanity to anyone who tries to reduce his self-worth because of his refugee status.
