© 2002 by Oxford University Press
Refugee Voices
Home and Homelessness: The Life History of Susanna Mwana-uta, an Angolan Refugee
1 Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford
In the first part of the life history Susanna is living with her family or married nearby. She shows herself to be a very strong-willed individual: she rescues her sister's orphaned baby despite the advice of her elders, and when her husband neglects her she leaves him. In Part Two she marries a Portuguese trader called Zuze, a fascinating tale of cross-cultural encounter, but also her first tangible step beyond the circle of kin and community that has been home. By the third part of the life history she has been displaced across the border into Zambia, and is in the refugee settlement, Meheba (see Map 1). There are plentiful fish and wild animals, she distils and sells a spirit called lituku, she feels ‘at home’. But at the same time she has a new consciousness of ‘Angola’ as the place where she belongs, and, with many others, she repatriates in 1975. In the fourth and final part we hear about her return to Angola and how she has to flee once more (the story above). She and her husband Chihango manage to settle in a Zambian border village. They would now willingly relinquish any claim to being Angolan, but the discourse of nationality has become too strong and they are forced to relocate to Meheba. Chihango divorces her. She has no one and nowhere to go to. She is dangerously alone.
Received November 2001. Revised March 2002.