HARARE, Zimbabwe — When Yves Tshimanga arrived in Zimbabwe in 2002, fleeing from brutal wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he was hopeful that peace would soon be restored. That would have allowed him, his wife, mother, two brothers, a sister and three children to safely return to their home country.

But more than two decades later, Tshimanga, now 53, not only has had four more children in Zimbabwe, but is now also grandfather of five. Hope of ever returning home has faded. The wars that he fled are not showing any signs of coming to an end.

Growing up in what was once known as Zaire, where his father was a school headmaster, Tshimanga’s family enjoyed life of relative comfort, freely sharing their time between urban and rural areas and enjoying the Christmas festivities with relatives and friends each year. For at least two weeks, they would go around the country — from town to town and from village to village — hugging and chatting with people who were dear to them.  

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“Now there is no village to go to, no relatives and friends to visit. Life is now just the routine of this shop,” a saddened Tshimanga told Religion Unplugged from his shop in downtown Harare. In Zimbabwe refugees and asylum seekers who have capital and skills are allowed to look for opportunities outside camps.

The homesickness that Tshimanga feels is a hard fact of life for tens of millions of exiles like him around the world who are unable to return to their home countries because of the grave dangers that await them there should they would dare return. These refugees range from journalists to political activists, LGBTQ+ people, environmental rights campaigners, writers, victims of religious persecution and many others who not only cannot return home, but in some cases also have to walk with their backs firmly to the wall and sleep with one eye open.

Growing plight of refugees

For 49-year old Pierre, a Rwandan refugee living in Zimbabwe’s Tongogara Refugee Camp, there is also no convivial place to return, having fled the African coountry during the 1994 genocide that killed nearly a million people.

With most of his family members having been rounded up and killed and their land taken over by a rival tribal group, he first fled to Kenya, before moving further south. He ended up in Zimbabwe in 2003, having covered thousands of miles mostly on foot. 

“Yes, I may feel homesick especially around this festive season when I see locals going home to meet with relatives and friends but the reality that I have since accepted is that there is no longer place called home for me to return to,” said Pierre, a father of five who would only reveal his first name to Religion Unplugged. “This place is now my home.”

Tongogara Refugee Camp, some 260 miles (420 kilometers) southeast of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare is home to more than 12,000 refugees from about half-a-dozen African nations. The refugees range from new arrivals that are fleeing from worsening terrorist attacks in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province to Burundians, Congolese and Rwandans that fled their homes following wars decades ago.

Some of them have hopped from one refugee camp to another to avoid forced repatriation to home countries they feel are too dangerous for them to return. In the case of Rwandans like Pierre, some “come and see, go and tell” visits — organized by the Kigali administration in partnership with the United Nations High Commission for Refugee to assure them that their homeland is safe — has yielded limited success. 

Africa, where wars and civil unrest have plagued the continent, is home to most refugee camps that are spread throughout more than 30 countries. Kenya alone is host to the world’s four biggest refugee camps, a place teeming with refugees from conflicts in the Great Lakes region, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan and others. Asia, meanwhile, has about a dozen nations currently hosting refugees in various camps, the Middle East about 10 refugee host countries, while Europe has 17 countries hosting refugees.

Most of the world’s 110 million refugees and other displaced people can only watch with envy every year as citizens of the host countries wind down their business to prepare for festivities associated with the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays.

For most of these people, whom fate has condemned to life in the camps, any form of getting together with family and friends in familiar environments is something that they can only enjoy in their dreams because to them the little camps are now their whole world. 

Studies have shown that refugees suffer from a wide range of traumas in their home country and during their journey to other nations. However, the mental health problems resulting from violent conflicts, such as post-traumatic stress disorders and disaster-induced depression, can be compounded by problems induced by the conditions of refugee camps and the homesickness resulting from the realization that there could be no home to ever return to.

Experts said mental health concerns within displaced communities include stress about one’s home country, isolation from support structures and loss of personal identity and agency. These consequences are worsened by the daily stresses of displacement and life within camps, including lingering risks of violence, lack of basic services and uncertainty about the future. Women and girls living in camps, for example, are in constant fear that could be exploited or suffer sexual violence.

Finding solace in the church

It is Sunday evening at a home Waterfalls, a middle-income suburb of Harare. Packed inside the rented house are Congolese refugees and their families. Being cheered on a large television screen is Robert Kayanja, a charismatic Ugandan pastor who regularly conducts sermons, especially for Congolese refugees in his country.

“Some of you when you remember home, you cry … [but] everywhere you are, you can have heaven on earth, anywhere you are, you can have God work for you, so don’t you be intimidated, don’t be frustrated. … Your God is real,” the preacher bellowed to cheers from those packed inside the crowded home. “Come on Congolese, get your music into the Holy Spirit … start singing into the Holy Spirit and you will see how your life will change! In Africa, no one can sing like Congolese.

“Congo,” Kayanja added, “is the richest country in the world in terms of minerals and natural resources, but what the devil has done is to cause Congolese to fighting and killing each other … having war every time, having no peace, having no joy because the devil said, ‘stop singing, wherever you go, just be quiet, live underneath the table, you are refugees, you don’t have God, look at who you are … sometimes you don’t even have what to eat!’ But from today, in the name of Jesus, stand tall, love God with all you heart, serve God with all your heart, praise God until he angels come and free you!”

Messages like this are just what the refugees need. Churches play a critical role in keeping hope alive in camps. They offer a welcoming, safe and supportive community, along with a life-giving worldview to people who have suffered the loss of all things, including their place in the world.

“We meet regularly in homes to follow these sermons,” said Pacifique Tsoumou, 54, the Congolese owner of the home where the gathering was taking place.

“It gives us a feeling of being home,” Audrine, his wife, added. 

At the Tongogara camp, there are more than a dozen churches and a mosque for the refugees to choose from. However, because Swahili is usually the primary language of most of these refugees, followed by French, the language barrier makes local churches less popular with most refugees. 

“The advent of social media has brought relief for us,” said Danis, 34, a Burundian refugee who would only give his first name. “At least we are able to have sermons in Swahili or even in our own Kirundi language.”  

These church services are streamed online, allowing them to learn and follow worship songs in their own language.

Virtual connections to home

At the same time, the advent of social media has provided some relief to some of these displaced people. Phones have made it possible for some of them to get in touch with relatives and friends scattered around the world as well as to closely follow developments taking place there.

Nonetheless, these virtual experiences can never be enough substitutes for in-person visits and hearty family get-togethers.

According to various research, social media have become a vital bridge linking displaced people around the world. These platforms have become an indispensable source of information for uprooted communities and are relatively cheap and easily accessible to them. In addition to the relief that online church services have brought, most refugees suffering from homesickness try to console themselves by marrying among their own, teaching their children their home languages, music, fashion, foods and other cultural items that they can cling on to.

Christmas in May

Asked how they celebrate Christmas, most of the refugees said the festivities largely mirror those in the West, except for few local variations, since they had once been European colonies.

An estimated 10% of Congo’s 80 million population, however, profess to be members of Kimbanguism, an independent African-initiated Christian church that is distinct in both its religious tenets and its political outlook from the mainstream churches like the Catholic and Protestant ones that dominate the central African nation.

For some members of the Congolese refugee community like Didier Ndinga, 44, the December festivities mean little. As a members of the Kimbanguist Church, their Christmas is celebrated on May 25, the day their own version of the Messiah was born.

“That is our Christmas,” Ndinga said, “not this one.”

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Cyril Zenda is a Christian and an African journalist and writer based in Harare, Zimbabwe.