MORNING

Naivasha, Kenya, the only way I can describe it is how Wangari Mathaai- feminist, environmentalist, pan Africanist and Nobel Lorient winner- does ‘Then- 1977- the land was still largely virgin, full of Acacia trees and giraffes and antelopes, and Zebras. Since that time, however a huge flood of settlers from the highlands has come into the area and begun cultivating crops. As a result, the wildlife has disappeared, trees have been cut, streams regularly dry up, and the whole area is quickly becoming a desert.’ Re- forestation has taken place through time though and this beauty is gradually coming back. I was visiting Naivasha for UHAI’s CFCS V- a conference for the African LGBTI community and friends held annually to discuss current issues in the community and ways to achieve equality and equity.

Naivasha, Kenya. Photo by http://www.planetware.com

During the cocktail party in the evening I met Morning, and we started having a conversation about the first day at the conference, what he liked what I didn’t like and so on and so forth. He also informed me that he was a man with Tran’s experience. I was curious to know which country he was from, I didn’t want to ask since we all had tags with our names and nationality written. He’s didn’t indicate one. Naturally, I inquired and ‘heaven’ he said. I assumed he said it due to his religious believes and I was curious to know he’s denomination. See, in my country freedom of religion is a constitutional fundamental right although at times it isn’t respected by state and non-state actors unlike In the African context- which we are- where it was valued and respected. We have diversity in religion in Kenya, some forbid there followers from giving handshakes, while others forbid followers from taking modern medication or any for that matter but to pray and wait for a miracle. I asked him whether he said this due to religious beliefs, he laughed and noticed that I was determined to find out where he was from. He told me he was stateless but was born and brought up in Burundi. I brood over his situation and I couldn’t comprehend the stigmatization and discrimination he probably faces as a stateless African man with Trans experience from a country experiencing civil unrest.

Statelessness, how can I describe it? A feeling of not belonging, a longing for home, a feeling that you're a stranger everywhere you go, like when you talk no one can understand you. I’m not stateless but if I was I’d probably be feeling this. The UNHCR estimates that about 10 million people are stateless globally with only 3.5 million actually accounted for credibly- so this isn’t definitive statistics. In sub- Saharan Africa the number of stateless persons currently totals to 721, 303 according to data collected from 4 countries out of the total 47 that also have widely varying estimates, statelessness is then bound to affect more than double the number of persons currently accounted for in sub- Saharan Africa and maybe more. A stateless individual is not entitled to particular rights more so rights that only citizens of a country can enjoy. 

In my country for instance, the stateless persons of the Nubian and Makonde communities cannot have identification documents like an ID or passport, thus automatically can neither vote or run for public office, cannot travel abroad, opening a bank account is impossible as well as finding employment even after graduating from college or university- where these institutions require provision of identification documents for one to join. As a result they have been subjected to poverty and the likely hood of facing double the discrimination a regular Kenyan may face from authorities or citizens alike (like the Nubian of Kibera- Africa’s largest slum.)

Others are bound to statelessness by the virtue of their ethnicity- like the Kenyan Arab and Somali communities, the world speaks little of them, states show little effort to address their plea and citizens hardly notice them or are just silent. Ten million stateless people globally which includes 1.5 million or more in sub- Saharan Africa face what the Nubian and the Makonde face every day or even more and others just by the fact of their ethnicity just like the Arab and Somali communities of Kenya.

So try to imagine someone who faces further discrimination on the basis of their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity like Morning. The silence is loud. Eden Schwartz, a 12 year old stateless boy wrote in his poem Invisible, Indifferent;

‘… I saw you, but you did not see me…

I would have died and you would not have seen me,

Because I was different from you,

You could not have seen me.’