Flight to Freedom: Somali Bantu Refugees Travel from Kenya to America's Heartland

In the 1880s Bantu tribespeople were torn from their homelands in southern Africa and shipped to Somalia as slaves. Always targets of discrimination, they disproportionately fell victims to violence when the Somali government disintegrated in 1991. Even in refugee camps they were persecuted by fellow Somalis — robbed, raped, and forced into hard labor. Repatriation attempts to their original homeland failed.

The U.S. State Department granted asylum to 15,000 Bantu Somalis, paving the way for this Muslim tribe to leave behind forever the Kenyan refugee camps where they have languished for a dozen years. With this announcement, one of the most primitive civilizations on earth prepares to assimilate into one of the most advanced.

The Bantu Somalis relocate to the U.S. throughout 2004. This photo essay follows the Mukomwas, a young family of four, from the barren plains of Kakuma, Kenya, to suburban Chicago.

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