Written & Photography By: Thomas Ercoli, Global Photojournalist

Deep in the arid landscape of Namibia sits a microcosm of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Osire. A refugee camp that has an ever-growing population of Congolese refugees. Nowadays, there are growing tensions between tribes, all who have fled killing, kidnapping, and rape in the DRC. UNHCR food supplies, if the residents are lucky, will barely keep families fed before they get their next supplies. The food each individual receives consists of maizemeal, salt, sugar, rice, beans and meat. While food is in high demand, fuel, too cook the food, is in even higher demand, some of the children steal firewood from surrounding farms to help their families cook. With little to no economy in Osire, poverty-stricken refugees find ways to provide and survive. Many women find their way two and a half hours to the capitol of Namibia, Windhoek. While in the city it is not uncommon for refugee woman to partake in the legal practice of prostitution. Others go to the capitol and work odd jobs to hopefully earn a little bit of money to help their families until the next food resupply.

Osire wasn’t always like this. It used to be more of a community, less tensions, improving relations with the UN and other NGOs, and even held onto a sense of hope. That was back when Ricky Umba was the community leader in Osire. Ricky was described as a dark, fat, jolly Congolese man who believed in community. Ricky, a man from the Luba tribe in the Democratic Republic of Congo, preached unity amongst all in Osire. It is said Ricky would take a call from anyone at any time of the day, and do what he could to assist anyone in need.

I sat down with Ricky over a quiet dinner. He was as described. A tall, dark Congolese man, but rather quiet upon approach. After an exchange of pleasantries and ordering, we began to talk. He was open and honest at every turn. Each story told had a singular theme, Ricky wants to help his community. Period.

Ricky came by himself to Osire refugee camp after fleeing from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The year was 2001 and Ricky was just 26 years old and knew no English at all. As he sat in front of me, with great control of the English language, it was easy to see how far he had come. Not only in his language, but in his ability to help those in his community. Having fled DRC with no family, Ricky really found a new family in the community of Osire.

In 2008, at the age of 33, Ricky became the leader of his block. A block in Osire is a section of refugee homes. There are a total of 8 blocks in Osire refugee camp and another area that inhabitants of the camp call “Canada.” “Canada” is where mostly the newest arrivals ended up living, at least temporarily. When Ricky was voted to be the leader of the block, he become the voice of the block and the voice of his neighbors. This job was not taken lightly. He embraced it so deeply that in 2012 he was voted as the camp secretary. Ricky’s devotion and desire to help everyone in Osire ended up leading to him being voted as the refugee president of the camp in 2014. He would be re-elected three times and served as refugee president until 2022, a true testament to the impact he had on people within the camp.

It wasn’t always easy “being the voice for people crying.” It lead to a lot of butting heads with leader of the UNHCR in Osire. These confrontations and fights never deterred him. Come hell or high water it seemed Ricky would find a way to help provide. During his time as the refugee president of the camp, there was sponsor money through donations to UNHCR, that helped build economic and recreational programs in Osire. Economically, Ricky helped set up a chicken farm. This community chicken farm produced chickens and eggs to sell in the capitol of Windhoek. Along with the chickens, Osire established a tilapia pond and at its peak was producing 6,000 sellable tilapia to bring income to the people of the camp. A community vegetable garden was created and was being expanded up until Ricky was ousted from being president in 2022. All of the programs that were in place focused on the people in the community and building their skills to provide. At it’s height, there were businesses buying vegetables, fish, chicken and eggs in bulk from the refugees. Outside of the economic gains there was also a refugee soccer team that was created. Through the use of sponsorship money, the team was able to compete at the highest recreational tier in Namibia. The team was provided transportation out of Osire to play teams around the country.

As great as these programs were, none of it came easily. Ricky recounted time and time again how much he would have to pester UNHCR to help provide the sponsorship funds to get these programs started and maintained. An instance that Ricky shared was a time when he was trying to provide new housing to people coming into the community. He said he had to go to the lengths of reaching out to UNHCR in Afghanistan to obtain new housing. Ricky was able to get long term housing units for newcomers to the camp. He was able to get durable housing units and not just tents that he was told fall apart in the matter of a years time. Another story Ricky shared was of a woman who had been kidnapped from the camp. When this happened Ricky had already had his fair share of UNHCR dragging their feet on issues he would bring to their attention. Local authorities often are slow to respond to issues and concerns of Osire refugee camp. Instead of using either of those avenues, Ricky opted to contact UNHCR Pretoria, the regional office, to inform them of the incident. The message got sent to Geniva and representatives arrived in three days. As this all took place Ricky went and told the first lady of Namibia about the kidnapping. Unfortunately, as all of this that took place it further soured Ricky’s relationship with local UNHCR.

Around the same time that this event took place, the day to day of Osire camp was running well. Ricky had recently been re-elected as the refugee president and had also been working in the warehouse for food distribution to the camp. While Ricky was working in food distribution in the camp, I had heard a number of people reminisce on how quickly food distribution would happen, most saying everyone had their food and fuel within two days. As Ricky continued to passionately help people all over the camp, it led to a strained relationship with UNHCR and those above him. Not long after being elected for a third time, he was told he was being removed from the position of refugee president because he was also working in food distribution, and it was seen as too much power for a single person. Ricky accepted the terms and continued his work in food distribution until a new policy was put in place. This policy would ensure other people from the camp were rotated into jobs every two years, including food distribution. However, the policy took immediate effect and Ricky found himself removed from food distribution as well. At the time he had been hearing rumors that people in power were trying to remove him from positions of influence. Once the rumors came to fruition Ricky found it best for himself to find work outside of the camp.

Since his removal as president and in food distribution, the situation in the camp has deteriorated. The programs that were funded by sponsors have been cast aside as Society of Family Health, a UNHCR partner, and UNHCR themselves have cut back on requests for sponsorship funds. The chicken farm has become obsolete along with the production of eggs. The tilapia pond has dwindled and not been profitable. The vegetable garden has been cut back to its original size. The soccer team has been disbanded as well. This has all happened due to the expenses associated with running all the programs. The overhead costs are too steep for these refugee families to front themselves. Between the costs of fertilizer, feed, water, electricity, and the cost of bringing products two and a half hours to the Windhoek, people simply do not have the money to continue the programs that once helped them all so much. All of this comes just a year after Ricky was ousted from his positions of leadership in Osire refugee camp. Jobs have been cut back on. People in the community are not being paid and the economy of the camp as all but halted. The most drastic cut in jobs has been to the work crews that used to tend to replacing and fixing water pipes. Since no one is pushing for sponsorship money, water pipes remain broken due to lack of materials to fix them. Water hasn’t been the only vital need that has been lacking. Food distribution has been inconsistent. When food is distributed now it take up to two weeks for everyone to get their food, and most of the time is has not been the promised allotted amount. 

Ricky believes that many of the individuals elected to represent the people of the camp have a fear of pushing back or asking for things from UNHCR. Their fear is that their resettlement cases might get delayed, or even worse, not scheduled at all. Most of the people in Osire witnessed the removal of Ricky, and he says those voted to represent the community have become “yes people”, just agreeing with UNHCR and other organizations, so that there is no chance their resettlement is negatively impacted. Even as new people have replaced old UNHCR staff, the new one’s have been trained and taught by the old, leading to the new status quo that Osire is facing.

In the year since his removal from the camp Ricky has not lost any trust from the community. He remains the first person people reach out to when they are having problems. He does the best he can from his new position, outside looking in. Whenever I have asked anyone about Ricky Umba, the response is nearly identical. Everyone tells me he is the most trustworthy man, and he really helped everyone in the camp.

Before ending my dinner with Papa Ricky, I asked him if everyone now is fearful of pushing back, why wasn’t he ever afraid. His response, stated very matter of fact, was “I was never scared for me. When I hear people crying, I cannot just let them cry. I have to do what I can so people are happy.

Written by: Thomas Ercoli, Global Photojournalist | tommyj.ercoli@gmail.com