Refugee Politics: Self-Organized ‘Government’ and Protests in the Agamé Refugee Camp (2005–13)

This article examines the different forms of representation and participation set up by Togolese refugees as a means of organizing life in the Agame´ camp in Benin between 2005 and 2013, and the wave of protests which accompanied their claims to statutory rights during that same period. The emergence of ‘refugee politics’ is considered not as an epiphenomenon, but as an aspiration that is found in numerous camp contexts, and which is indicative of the tensions brought about by the confrontation between refugees and humanitarian organizations. It is in fact a hybrid form of politics, at the crossroads between traditional political representation (electing a president, nominating representatives) and the categorization advocated by humanitarian organizations in an attempt to give an increased voice to vulnerable groups. Furthermore, self-organization by refugees and the instances of insubordination seen in the camps seem to be determining factors in the strategies employed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the organizations running the camps as regards setting them up, withdrawing from them and eventually dismantling them.