Refugee Boy

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, racism, anti-immigrant bias, and the emotional distress of refugees related to familial separation and loss.

Refugee Boy explores The Impact of War on Individuals and Families through Alem and Mr. Kelo’s struggles during the Eritrean-Ethiopian War. Alem experiences isolation, discrimination, and dehumanization due to the war and only begins to find healing because of the support of the good people around him.

In Eritrea and Ethiopia, Alem and his family experience discrimination because they are a multiethnic family. They know they will not be free from discrimination in either country, but as the war continues, their suffering increases. When they live in Ethiopia, Alem’s mother’s job fires her because her coworkers do not want to work with an Eritrean, and Mr. Kelo’s coworkers encourage him to leave her. When they move to Eritrea, Alem experiences violence because of his multiethnic identity, with boys from school attacking him and telling him they will “kick all the Ethiopian blood out of [him]” (35). Zephaniah shows the dehumanization to which Eritreans and Ethiopians subject Alem in the two Prologues when soldiers from both militaries tell Alem’s parents that he is a “mongrel.