A university graduate and former UN field staffer relies on his network to reestablish himself away from home.
Jacques was an uncommon refugee, fleeing political persecution with a university degree, UN agency work experience, significant savings, and relatives overseas. After building his businesses in Uganda, he now works to build a community abroad for fellow Burundian refugees in Kampala.
“I sponsored the strikes in Burundi, but I didn’t demonstrate with the strikers. I was usually in the field working with a UN agriculture agency. The government figured out that these people could not be striking all day and survive without someone supporting them. I had been helping the strikers pay for food, things like that, and I heard a few weeks later from a friend that my name was being said in the security services. My friend was from the army, and he said that my name would be on the list of “the disappeared” the next week.”
On December 11, 2015, the strikers attacked a military base to get weapons — the government was armed, and they were not. The strikers lost, and 33 of them were killed. The government started rounding up every young person, and I left the next day, December 12th. I only told my brother — he lives in Canada and works at UNHCR — about the situation and he bought me a plane ticket to Uganda. I hid in a friend’s home for the day, and even though the government was out looking for people, they had forgotten to blockade the road to the airport. I put some Muslim garb on my face to hide from anyone who might know me and flew to Entebbe that day.
Two of the three Burundian respondents we interviewed were able to fly out of the country without government interference. In both cases, this was tied to their ability to access international funds to purchase their flights. It seems that the Burundian government did not expect any of their targets to be able to fly out of the country, possibly because they attempted to freeze the targets’ local assets. In both cases, the international “sponsors” chose Uganda as their final destination on behalf of the refugees, for Kampala’s stability and relative political freedoms.
Jacques and his Burundian counterparts were the only political refugees we encountered during our interviews. They also represent a different class background than the Congolese, South Sudanese, and Somalis we interviewed. Jacques held a university degree in psychology and had worked for a prominent French tarmac company in Burundi before joining the UN agency where he was working just before he fled.
As Jacques noted, he has a brother working for the UNHCR in Canada who helped him flee Burundi. The combination of tertiary education, well-paid employment, and expatriate family members was rare for most of the refugees we encountered, with the exception of the three Burundian political refugees.
“I saved very well —I saved money for my university expenses while working at the French tarmac company and as an Account Manager at a hardware company, so I would work in the day and [go to] school at night. The university in Burundi cost about $400 per month. I also started at [the UN agency] just before finishing university, which helped me cover the costs.”
Jacques had a lot of his savings tied up in Burundian banks when he left the country and employed two different strategies to access those funds. First, he saved 30% of his money in KCB, a large Kenyan bank accessible in many East African countries, so he could access those funds in Uganda. However, the other 70% of his savings were in Interbank, which only operated in Burundi. Jacques couldn’t return to sign for the money, but he was lucky to have a friend who worked at the bank forge Jacques’s signature to withdraw the funds. Jacques’s friend kept 500,000 Burundian francs ($270) and wired the remaining 5 million shillings ($1,350) to Jacques via Western Union in April 2016.
“I tried to start a bar with my savings — Burundians really like to drink. I spent most of my 5 million shillings ($1,350) on the rent and the bar. The biggest challenge was to find a good location. Even though I could afford the rent for a nice spot, because I was Burundian or because I did not know the city, I couldn’t get a place I liked. So, from 2016–2017 I ran the bar in Nsambya, with people from all over as my clients. I would sometimes receive a little trouble from the Ugandans, who did not like drinking at a bar owned by a Burundian.”
Jacques’s bar business ultimately failed, and he lost most of his savings from Burundi when the business went under. However, he is resourceful, determined, and skilled, and he has been able to rebound quickly. Jacques started saving money once he established himself in Kampala. He and his wife both have passbooks for a Burundian VSLA, and they each save 40–100,000 shillings per month ($10.80–$27.00). Jacques and his wife save so well that he was able to buy the second-hand car he drives for Uber — six million shillings ($1,620) in cash! Jacques was unable to say how much he earns driving Uber, but it is enough to cover his significant living expenses and continue to save the enormous amounts noted above.
“The biggest challenges for me are communication. To succeed in business, you need to speak English or Luganda [predominant local language in Kampala], and I’m lucky I learned some English in secondary because I cannot speak any Luganda. Banking had been a big problem until recently, and many banks still won’t accept refugee IDs. The IDs are a big problem — for instance, you need a Ugandan ID to get a driver’s permit. I had to bribe the policewoman 120,000 shillings ($32.41) to let me get my permit, and the permit itself cost 500,000 shillings ($135)! But the nice thing is that the permit allows me to use bigger banks that don’t serve refugees — they assume I needed a Ugandan ID to get the permit, so they don’t check that I’m a refugee.”
Jacques is the leader of a Burundian Catholic community called Sainte Therese de l’Enfant Jesus. The group was established three years ago after a Ugandan priest (who had lived in Burundi for 23 years) noticed more and more Burundians attending the French mass he presided over each week. After one such mass, the priest addressed the Burundian attendees and asked them if they needed help organizing masses for themselves — especially masses in Kirundi, the local Burundian language. Jacques had studied in the seminary (all six of his secondary school years studying to be a Catholic priest) and was young (in his early 30’s at the time). So, the group of Burundians elected him to lead the organization. In the first year, they found a place to hold their masses and significantly expanded their community. Jacques won reelection in 2018 and 2019, and he has expanded community projects, including paying school fees and medical expenses for community members. Jacques noted that diabetes and insulin injections were a significant cost for some members and that many Burundian children are sent home when their parents can’t pay their school fees. Interestingly, Jacques’s daughter’s very expensive tuition at a Catholic boarding school — 500,000 shillings per term ($135) — is also paid by the organization.
“The first mass was 40 people, the second mass was 80, and now we have 400–500 people at these masses being said in our language, Kirundi. The Ugandan Bishop actually came in our second year to recognize our church as part of the Catholic community of Uganda and officially accept us.”
Medical expenses and rent represent Jacques’s largest expenditures. Jacques has a young, growing family and a wife who recently gave birth in Kampala. Thankfully, Jacques has a steady job, strong financial acumen, and (relatively) wealthy family members who can send remittances to cover large costs.
“Rent is 350,000 shillings ($94.50) per month. Well yes, I needed two bedrooms! My children are nine years and the newest is five months. My wife had a hard pregnancy with our baby, and I had to pay about two million shillings ($540) in medical expenses. Malaria treatment can even cost like 100,000 UGX ($27) for a child, so medicines are a big expense.”
“My brother in Canada will send me money sometimes. I send about 200,000 shillings ($54) each month to a family in Burundi. They are like my aunts and they don’t have very much. We send and get the money from a place in People’s Plaza — it is a service like a mobile money agent. Josue’s girlfriend works there. She can tell you more. But they have offices in Burundi, Tanzania, even London — I had a friend send me some money from thereafter my wife delivered. They only take five, maybe 10,000 shillings ($1.35–$2.70) for each transaction, so it’s pretty cheap.”