by Susan Kuklin
1400s: Tutsi people, also believed to be from the Great Lakes region of West Africa, settle in East Africa and establish themselves as the rulers.
1500s: The kingdom of Burundi is established.
1890: Kingdoms of Urundi (Burundi) and Ruanda (Rwanda) become part of German East Africa.
1916: The kingdoms of Ruanda and Urundi are conquered by British and Belgian troops during World War I. After the war, they become a Belgian mandate.
1962: As separate nations, Burundi and Rwanda gain independence from Belgium.
1972: The Tutsi-led government in Burundi massacres approximately 100,000 Hutus.
1988: In violent confrontations between the ruling Burundi Tutsis and majority Hutus, more than 150,000 people are killed. Tens of thousands of refugees escape to neighboring countries.
1993: Melchior Ndadaye is elected the first Burundi Hutu president in a democratic election. Five months later, he is assassinated by Tutsi soldiers. In revenge, the Hutu massacre 300,000 Tutsis.
1994: Cyprien Ntaryamira, a Hutu, is appointed president of Burundi by the national assembly. He appoints a Tutsi as his prime minister. President Ntaryamira, along with the president of Rwanda, is killed in a plane crash two months later when they are returning from peace talks. This sets off a wave of massacres between the Hutu and Tutsi.
2004: U.N. forces establish peacekeeping operations in Burundi.
2017: The International Criminal Court begins an investigation into suspected crimes against humanity.
“Afghanistan Timeline.” History Timelines. Accessed December 5, 2018. http://www.datesandevents.org/places-timelines/02-afghanistan-timeline.htm.
“History of Afghanistan.” History World. Accessed December 5, 2018. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad09.
Dwe, Eh Taw, and Tonya Cook. “Karen Refugees from Burma in the US: An Overview for Torture Treatment Programs.” HealTorture.org. Accessed December 5, 2108. https://healtorture.org/sites/healtorture.org/files/PowerPoint%20Karen%20Refugees%20From%20Burma%20webinar.pdf.
Falcone, Daniel. “Myanmar and the Karen Conflict: The Longest Civil War You Have Never Heard Of.” Christopher Newman University, Reiff Center blog. January 18, 2016. http://reiffcenterblog.cnu.edu/2016/01/myanmar-and-the-karen-conflict-the-longest-civil-war-you-have-never-heard-of.
“A Brief History of Modern Sudan and South Sudan.” Water for South Sudan website. Accessed December 5, 2018. http://www.waterforsouthsudan.org/brief-history-of-south-sudan.
“South Sudan Profile – Timeline.” BBC News. August 6, 2018. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14019202.
Tchie, Andrew Edward. “Understanding South Sudan’s Political Crisis.” The Wire. May 2, 2017. https://thewire.in/external-affairs/understanding-south-sudans-political-crisis.
“History.” Yezidis International website. Accessed December 5, 2018. http://www.yezidisinternational.org/abouttheyezidipeople/history.
“Yezidi Genocide.” YezidiTruth.org. Accessed December 5, 2018. http://www.yeziditruth.org/yezidi_genocide.
“Burundi History Timeline.” World Atlas. Accessed December 5, 2018. https://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/africa/burundi/bitimeln.htm.
“Burundi Profile – Timeline.” BBC News. December 3, 2018. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13087604.
“History of Burundi.” History World. Accessed December 5, 2018. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad25.
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. New York: Knopf, 2013.
_______. Half of a Yellow Sun. New York: Knopf, 2006.
Budhos, Marina. Ask Me No Questions. New York: Simon and Schuster/Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2007.
Bulawayo, NoViolet. We Need New Names. New York: Little, Brown, 2013.
Cao, Lan. The Lotus and the Storm. New York: Penguin, 2014.
Cather, Willa. My Ántonia. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918. Reprint, New York: Dover, 1994.
Craig, Charmaine. Miss Burma. New York: Grove, 2017.
Gyasi, Yaa. Homegoing. New York: Knopf, 2016.
Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. New York: Riverhead, 2017.
Kwok, Jean. Girl in Translation. New York: Riverhead, 2010.
Matar, Hisham. The Return. New York: Random House, 2016.
Mbue, Imbolo. Behold the Dreamers. New York: Random House, 2016.
Minot, Susan. Thirty Girls. New York: Knopf, 2014.
Murad, Nadia. The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State. New York: Tim Duggan, 2017.
Nguyen, Viet Thanh. The Sympathizer. New York: Grove, 2015.
Park, Linda Sue. A Long Walk to Water. Boston: Clarion, 2010.
Roy, Arundhati. The Ministry of Upmost Happiness. New York: Knopf, 2017.
See, Lisa. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. New York: Scribner, 2017.
Yousafzai, Malala. We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World. New York: Little, Brown, 2019.
To learn more, volunteer, or donate, the following websites are solid places to start. Descriptions are taken from or based on the organizations’ mission statements.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
“The fundamental constitutional protections of due process and equal protection embodied in our Constitution and Bill of Rights apply to every person, regardless of immigration status. . . . The ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project is dedicated to expanding and enforcing the civil liberties and civil rights of immigrants and to combating public and private discrimination against them.” https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights
Human Rights Watch
“Human Rights Watch’s Refugee Rights Program defends the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced people worldwide. We respond to emergencies as well as chronic situations, focusing especially on documenting government efforts to block access to asylum, to deprive asylum seekers of rights to fair hearings of their refugee claims, and to the forcible return of people to places where their lives or freedom would be threatened. We conduct on-the-ground investigations to speak with uprooted people and document abuses against them. We take our findings directly to policy-makers and the media as we advocate for governments to improve access to asylum, to stop forced returns, and to ensure that all migrants are treated with dignity and regard for their basic human rights.” https://www.hrw.org/topic/refugee-rights
International Refugee Assistance Project
The International Refugee Assistance Project “organizes law students and lawyers to develop and enforce a set of legal and human rights for refugees and displaced persons.” https://refugeerights.org
International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee “responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and regain control of their future.” https://www.rescue.org
Lutheran Family Services
Lutheran Family Services has branches across the U.S. The Nebraska branch’s mission is to “express God’s love for all people by providing quality human care services that build and strengthen individual, family, and community life.” https://www.lfsneb.org
National Immigration Law Center
NILC is “dedicated to defending and advancing the rights of immigrants with low income.” https://www.nilc.org
The Refugee Law Reader
The Refugee Law Reader: Cases, Documents and Materials is a comprehensive online model curriculum for the study of the complex and rapidly evolving field of international refugee law, covering Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The Reader is for professors, lawyers, advocates, and students across a wide range of national jurisdictions.
www.refugeelawreader.org/en/about-the-reader.html
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
“UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better futur
e for refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people.” http://www.unhcr.org
World Food Program
“WFP is the leading humanitarian organization fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. As the international community has committed to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition by 2030, one in nine people worldwide still do not have enough to eat. Food and food-related assistance lie at the heart of the struggle to break the cycle of hunger and poverty.” http://www1.wfp.org
Yazda Global Organization
Yazda is a multinational association that began after the Yazidi Genocide in 2014. Yazda’s goal is to “build a stronger Yazidi community that can socially and culturally integrate into the U.S. and to preserve the Yazidi culture at the same time.” https://www.yazda.org
Copyright © 2020 by Susan Kuklin
Map illustrations copyright © 2020 by Scott Schiller
Cover photograph copyright © 2020 by Susan Kuklin
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First electronic edition 2020
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number pending
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