Fube is a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was designed and built by refugees who returned after the first democratic elections in 2006.
Between 1998 and 2003 the Democratic Republic of Congo was the center of what has been called Africa’s World War. Fighting between rebel groups and government forces killed approximately five million people. During that period a large number of refugees fled from the country’s southern provinces to camps in Zambia that were not run by the government. At the peak, the United Nations refugee agency estimated that 66,000 Congolese refugees were in camps in Zambia.
A voluntary return began in 2007, and people re-entered Katanga Province. Krista, writing for The Reel Project, documented the journey back to Fube and other villages.
Fube was designed as a sanctuary for people who, for one reason or another, could not go back to their own villages.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, people who seem to have gained wealth and status are sometimes accused of witchcraft. Neighbors say they used majini — bad spirits, in Swahili — to attract success. Fube became a safe place for people who feared going home.
Robyn Leslie, then regional advocacy and communications officer for the Jesuit Refugee Service in Southern Africa, published those accounts in “Refugees of Africa’s World War Still Fear Returning Home.”
One resident, Kyomdwa Ntombo, explained the name: “This is what the name ‘Fube’ means. It comes from an old French word that means ‘blurred.’”