From Struggle to Strength: Inspiring Journeys of Central Ohio’s Refugee Community

By Melissa Conroy

 

Tariq Tarey at the Lancaster, Ohio, Decorative Arts Center

 

Lancaster, Ohio’s Decorative Arts Center is currently home to the exhibition From Struggle to Strength, a photographic display of black and white portraits of some of the largest refugee communities in central Ohio. The exhibition was photographed and curated by Tariq Tarey, currently the Director of Refugee Social Services at Jewish Family Services in Columbus, Ohio. Stunning portraits and narratives from refugees from Somalia, The Great Lakes region of Africa (Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, the Republic of Congo), the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan), and Bhutan are featured.

Upon reaching the top floor of the historic Reese-Peters house, visitors are greeted with informational posters that explain such terms as immigrant, refugee and asylum seeker. Each of the rooms of the top floor is given to the geographic area of the world that these refugees hail from. Each features music from the cultures represented, information regarding the specific political situation that caused them to flee their homeland, a map detailing where the people come from, along with information explaining the differences within each region. Each photograph features a short statement from each subject.

Despite the differences in geography and history, one senses a shared adversity and rough resilience that comes through in many of the faces in the exhibition. Yet, grouping the people in this way highlights the differences between and within each geographic region. The reasons for becoming a refugee are varied and unique. Some fled their homes due to armed conflict and human rights abuses, while others fled due to political persecution or gender-based violence.

In the room featuring the people of Somalia, visitors learn of the protracted situation for Somalian refugees, many of whom have been in refugee camps for 20 or 30 years as a result of civil unrest and political instability. On the other hand, the Great Lakes region of Africa has been affected not only by similar factors but has also been deeply affected by droughts and flooding brought on by climate change. Knowing the background of the people represented gives the portraits and narratives of the people emotional weight.

I found this particularly evident in the room featuring refugees from Bhutan, where visitors learn of the brutal, political policy of “One Nation, One People,” implemented in the late 1980s. This policy aimed at the creation of cultural and linguistic homogeneity through the eradication of Lhotshampus cultural practices. Nepalese language instruction was forbidden. The government enforced a compulsory dress code upon the Lhotshampus people. Unlike the Buddhist majority of Bhutan, the Lhotshampus people are a religious minority who follow Hinduism and maintain their own unique cultural traditional. People were forcibly exiled while others—facing imprisonment, rape, and torture—fled.

When seeing Hast Dhital from Bhutan, wearing his traditional hat, one senses not only pride in his Nepali heritage but also his resilience. His statement that accompanies his photo echoes that strength, as he explains how his cultural and religious practices continue, here in central Ohio: “I farmed potatoes, tomatoes, pineapples, and rice in Bhutan, alongside raising goats and cattle. Now in Columbus, my family bought a home with a small garden, allowing us to grow our food, including sacred plants like marigolds and medicinal herbs like bitter gourd.”

From Struggle to Strength displays many voices, men and women, adults and children, happy and sad, some in modern dress while others are in traditional garb. While some speak of positive aspects of living in America, such as the freedom of religion, better housing, and job opportunities, the feeling of being displaced is evident in voices such as Mwomb Juma from the Democratic Republic of Congo: “Back in Congo, I held a revered place in our community, deeply connected to the social fabric. Yet, since arriving in America, that significance seems to have slipped away, leaving me feeling disconnected from the role I once played in society.”

Yet other voices, such as that of Munica Abdullahi of Somalia, point to how refugees are deeply connected to this new society. Adullahi, born in the Utange Refugee Camp in Kenya, has gone on to become the state representative for Ohio House District 9, a role she sums up by simply stating, “I felt driven to serve my community.

Other voices highlight the economic contributions refugees make to central Ohio (over $1.5 billion in annual taxes), as well as their connections to other groups in the community. Byaene Mtange, for example, of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, shares that it was only through the help of the Jewish Family Service that their family was able to resettle in Ohio.

It is the connection to the Jewish population of Ohio that I wish to end with. The exhibition is partially funded by Ohio’s Holocaust and Genocide Memorial and Education Commission. This seems only fitting, seeing as the first inhabitants of Lancaster, Ohio, were German-speaking Jewish immigrants who had come most recently from nearby Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. By the mid-1850s, the town was populated by not only various religious and ethnic minorities, from Irish Catholics to English Episcopalians to Scottish Presbyterians, but also Ashkenazi Jews arriving from Eastern Europe.

Like today’s refugees, the Jewish immigrants contributed to the prosperity of central Ohio, through their businesses and contributions to the community. And like today, central Ohio was not free from racial tension. The anti-semitism of Lancaster in 1850 was openly displayed in advertisements in the local paper: “a jewelry company known as Gates & Cosper repeatedly ran an advertisement in 1850 stating that their watches were ‘an honest class of jewelry instead of a Jew article.’”

The refugees presented in From Struggle to Strength, face different challenges than the Jewish immigrants of the last century. Imam Horsed Noah from Somalia explains the tensions he faces: “As a Muslim imam there’s the right-wing Islamophobia always linking us with terrorism, and groups like the Islamic State distorting our faith.” Imam Noah ends his statement with a reminder of what unites us, whether refugee or immigrant: “We share common goals—respect, peace, and co-existence.” It is a message that all of us, whether in Ohio or elsewhere in the world, can embrace.

From Struggle to Strength is on view at the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio (Reese-Peters House), 145 E. Main Street, Lancaster, Ohio, from January 27-April 28, 2024.

Admission is free.

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All work at The Commons is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

 

Melissa Conroy is an Associate Professor of Religion at Muskingum University specializing in comparative religions. She received her BA and MA from the University of Toronto and her PhD from Syracuse University. A comparative scholar of religion and bodies, Professor Conroy has written several articles on religion and film, religion and psychology, and religion and gender.