After a Harrowing Journey, Jewish Refugees Arrive in the Land of Milk … and Milkmen
Elizabeth Rose Article in The Jewish Journal
Thu, December 08, 2011
Courtesy photos
Above, Wilson and Naomi Kapanga-Ndjibus and their children participated in an Oneg Shabbat at Temple Emanu-El in Haverhill on November 12. Below, Kapanga-Ndjibus demonstrates how he carried his daughter Sardoine and a bag containing important documents across a river in northern Colombia in 2010.
HAVERHILL — On a recent Shabbat morning, a young African family gratefully arranged themselves in a front pew at Temple Emanu-El in Haverhill. Nothing in their immaculate appearance or smiling composure revealed, or even hinted at, the harrowing journey that had brought them there.
But Wilson and Naomi Kapanga-Ndjibus, along with their two-and-a-half year-old daughter Sardoine and infant son Jasper Joseph, have survived a tale of flight and homelessness spanning three continents and two years. Their attendance at services in Haverhill is both a story of determined escape from human rights crimes in their native Democratic Republic of the Congo, and testimony to the strength of their Jewish ties.
The couple fled Africa 17 months ago because life in their homeland had become increasingly harsh. Wilson and Naomi lost their fathers through brutal killings. Both of their mothers escaped to South Africa, where they remain today.
“Naomi had been kidnapped. I got her back by impersonating a soldier. Our house was to be burned the next night,” Wilson said.
Wilson and Naomi were members of a tiny Jewish community in the Kivu Province of Goma. Although the community observed Shabbat, had a Torah, and made sure all young members had a bar or bat mitzvah, it was difficult for the couple to actively practice Judaism in the Congo.
In 1967, then President Mobutu Sese Seko had cut ties with Israel in favor of an alliance with Egypt. Many families felt pressure to take more Christian names or convert to Christianity. By 1980, when Wilson was born, ties with Israel had been re-instated, but there were only 70 Jewish families in the capital city of Kinshasa. In 1996, the synagogue in Goma was burned, along with many other houses.
By 2009, the situation had become unbearable. The couple considered immigration to either Israel or the U.S.
“We were desperate to get to a peaceful place,” Wilson said.
Enticed by the promise of the American dream, including a milkman (a luxury they never experienced in the Congo), they chose the United States. They hired a man called “Adam” to arrange safe passage and American work visas, and paid him $20,000.
Adam was unable to deliver, and instead, the Kapanga-Ndjibus family received a three-month visa and transport to Brazil. Adam informed them that if they wished to enter the U.S.A., they had to “march” from South America.
For more than a year they travelled as illegal aliens across three continents and through 10 countries including Brazil, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. They requested asylum in several countries along their route, but were denied at the Brazilian, Colombian and Mexican consulates.
They marched through Panamanian jungles at night, slogged through chest-level Colombian rivers, battled mosquitoes in Guatemala, and border guards in Panama and Nicaragua. Lacking visas or entry papers, the Kapanga-Ndjibus family were detained in Nicaraguan, Guatemalan and Mexican jails, until immigration officials let them go.
“In Guatemala, the officer prepared our report all night long,” Wilson said, widening his hands to demonstrate the size of the report. “In the morning, the supervisor told him to let us go because, he said, ‘we cannot afford to feed them, and if they die here, we cannot afford to bury them. Send them on.’”
“The only place people were nice was in Costa Rica,” Wilson said. They stayed in Costa Rica for two weeks with a religious sect who fed and cared for them.
When the refugees stepped off a bus from Mexico City in Allen, Texas, in February 2011, they entered the U.S. without proper legal documents. They requested protection and political asylum. Lacking U.S. relatives, they must be granted asylum by the courts. Only 4% of all annual immigrants, roughly 40,000, receive U.S. political asylum.
At the time, Naomi was pregnant with their second child. They were granted “parole” to enter the U.S., and provided bus travel to Boston by a Congolese pastor in Texas. Wilson is not sure why Boston was picked, but once there, the mayor’s hotline arranged for a one-night residence in an area hotel.
“It was cold, and the first time for us to see snow,” said Wilson. After the first night, the family would have been out on the streets had it not been for R-I-M (Registry Immigration Ministry), a Malden non-profit that supports refugees.
Software engineer and Topsfield resident Jim Corbett, who is associated with R-I-M, brought the family to his home, where they are staying while they await a decision on political asylum and work visas.
The asylum process can take months, and during that waiting period, applicants are not permitted to work.
Witnessing extreme atrocities and brutality during their long odyssey has left the couple with a “nightmare that has become a life,” Wilson said. Anxiety, sleeplessness and depression plague them as they attempt to adjust to life in the U.S.
One bright spot has been the birth of their son, Jasper Joseph, at Boston Medical Center in June.
“Here I am free to give him a Jewish name,” Wilson said.
Despite their travails, the Kapanga-Ndjibus family remains hopeful. Wilson has retained a lawyer and hopes to be able to work soon. He holds a degree in South Africa in modern languages, and speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Naomi is fluent in English and French.
Since arriving in America, the Kapanga-Ndjibus family has attended religious services in Brookline, Beverly and Haverhill. They are considering residence in Haverhill and affiliation with Temple Emanu-El. Temple Emanu-El’s Chesed Committee has begun assisting them with clothing, enrollment in religious school and transportation to services.
For more information or to help the Kapanga-Ndjibus family, email elizrose213@yahoo.com// <![CDATA[
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