Meheba – The Community

Meheba is one of the most interesting culturally fascinating places I have been. In one day, I would bike to a Rwandan community to have a meeting, then I would stop by the Congolese market to take food back to my Block that was inhabited by Angolans and Zambian school teachers. Needless to say, it was a bit overwhelming at first to try to get used to all the different cultures and try to keep up with greeting people in the correct language!

Meheba is divided into 8 different Blocks, each with its own culture, personalities and stories. Sometimes the Blocks are made up of refugees from only one country, but other Blocks are classified more by social status and have refugees from all over Africa. In Meheba, there were refugees from DR Congo, Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, Sudan and Somalia. Registration of all the refugees in Meheba was happening around the time I was there, so refugees were coming from all over Zambia to make sure they were officially registered. I even helped register a few of the Somalis when UNHCR was short-staffed.

From my time in each of the communities and through my work with the FORGE advocacy agency, where I would help one of the FORGE Project Managers listen to refugees’ stories and try to direct them to the right source of help, I learned so much about African culture and history, specifically the effects of colonialism, of each country’s struggle for independence, and of the many problems of corruption. If you’re interested in reading more about history Sub-Saharan Africa, I’m posting a list of books you should check out that have been extremely helpful for me.

xoxo