“Transcending the space of marginality”: The audacious search for power and the transformative agency of Liberian Residuals in Oru, Southwestern Nigeria

The Liberian Civil War of 1990 resulted in a huge number of refugees moving to different parts of West Africa. The Oru refugee camp in Ogun State, Nigeria, was one of many camps created in the region by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to offer temporal accommodation for Liberian refugees until normalcy returned to their country of origin. After war ended in 2003, UNHCR failed to decongest the camps in West Africa despite introducing three durable solutions to protracted refugee situations. In 2012, the Nigerian government closed Oru refugee camp following UNHCR’s termination of the refugee status for Liberian exiles. This closure led to their eviction to a nearby uninhabitable bushy location where they were exposed to vulnerability without international protection and humanitarian aid. Even though termination of refugee status exposes residuals to vulnerability, not much of the extant literature explores their afterlife outside camps. The research engages Alex Honneth’s theory of recognition as a theoretical framework. The research utilizes ethnographic fieldwork and mixed instruments to gather focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with 29 participants. This methodology unravels how Liberian residuals have transformed the former uninhabitable space to a cultural colony and an economic hub, even as their daily mobilities, livelihoods, and thrusts continue to influence contiguous communities and cities. The research findings show that from a position of vulnerability and later discontentment with their location in a new space of marginality, Liberian residuals deploy their cultural agency, economic resourcefulness, social capital, and diaspora network to contest the space and resources previously enjoyed exclusively by their Oru host.