Escape from Lubumbashi: A Refugee's Journey on Foot to Reunite Her Family

Adolphine is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who fled her home in 1996 to be reunited with her husband in Cape Town. Her journey was filled with terror and despair, and highlights the vulnerability of women and children in times of war and unrest.

Format: Hardback
Length: 117 pages
Publication date: 06 October 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This is the true story of Adolphine, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who was twenty-two when she had to flee her home in the war-ravaged DRC in 1996. She walked thousands of kilometers across Southern Africa to be reunited with her husband Sepano in Cape Town after two years of a desperate search. Her incredible journey to escape the ruinous rule of Mobutu Sese Seko was filled with many moments of terror and despair, every country having its own share of xenophobia. She told the writer, the retired national tracing coordinator of the International Red Cross's Restoring of Family Links program in South Africa, "I felt as if the earth had teeth, I felt its bite when I was fleeing through Africa...".

Her story is a powerful, intimate account of belonging and the anguish of displacement, of settling and being uprooted, and how a deeply troubled household navigates this across time and space. Her story strongly highlights the vulnerability of women and children in times of war and unrest.

Print editions are not for sale in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Weight: 410g
Dimension: 246 x 174 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032567488