Dadaab Refugee Camp – Kenya

With a recorded population of almost 220,000 people as of 2020, Dadaab is the largest refugee camp in Kenya.
Built in 1991 to accommodate refugees fleeing civil war in Somalia, today the Dadaab complex consists of three main camps – Dagahaley, Ifo and Hagadera – with older residents having children and grandchildren born and raised within the camp. A second refugee wave occurred in 2011, when around 130,000 new refugees arrived here, trying to escape drought and famine in southern Somalia. The neighbourhoods of the entire complex reproduce the structure of a city, with an infrastructure that connects the north-east of Kenya to the south of Somalia.

The project welcomes 10 artists from Dadaab, thanks to Mohamed Jimale, a painter who is resident in the camp, and to Dennis Munene, a photographer and director living in Nairobi. Dadaab was one of the most difficult sections logistically, and the only one in which – once the works had been collected and shipped first with a local courier and then entrusted to an international shipper upon arrival the package was found to be mysteriously empty… It took the commitment of the collaborators and the dedication of the artists involved to redo other works, send them back so their contributions could be included in the exhibition.