THE REFUGEES WHO MADE NEW LIFE IN WALES
The people who came to Wales in search of refuge and found a second home
WHEN Angie Tshiyane walks through Newport, she is recognised by children from across the city.
“Auntie Angie!” they scream excitedly at her.
She explained: “In our culture, if you’re a little bit older, you’re an aunt.”
Angie, aged 57, has become an important figure in the lives of many people in Newport, children and adults alike, since arriving as a refugee from her home country of Zimbabwe two decades ago.
A well-known face within the community, she has provided a safe space for vulnerable women, taught countless children and adults to swim, and provided endless support for individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds over the years.
“I’m so in love with Newport because I’ve done so much stuff here,” she said.
Angie first arrived in Newport 20 0 years ago.
Today, she does not consider herself to be a refugee or an immigrant, but “Zimbabwean-Welsh” and fully Newportonian.
“I’d be dead if I had stayed in Zimbabwe,” she said, matter of factly.
Before she was forced to leave home, Angie was connected to political party ZIPRA, who were in opposition to then president Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party.
“It was so easy to be targeted.” Angie explained she was fortunate not to experience any persecution, but she was made to leave a job she loved, working for Zimbabwe’s central bank – she believes as a result of f her political beliefs.
Angie explained that there was s suspicion your every move was being g watched.
“At that time I had moved to my y mother’s house in a deprived area, we call it a ‘high-density area’,” she said. “In those places word travels so fast t and in those places they know who you support, they know what you do, they know what you used to do.
“That’s why my sister said, ‘You u know what, you need to leave.’”
The threat that something might t happen, she explained, always hung g over her head.
Reminiscing on her arrival in Newport, Angie remembers her initial impression of her new home with a smile.
“The first thing I noticed was the weather,” she laughs.
Three years after Angie’s arrival in Newport, Norbert Mbu-Mputu also came to the UK due to circumstances outside of his control.
“My first week in Newport, people were incredibly welcome,” said Norbert, describing his first impression of the city. He laughs as he remembers locals offering him drinks and chatting with him in The Murenger.
“I couldn’t believe it. I came on Friday, and by Monday I had made friends.”
Norbert arrived in Newport in 2004, after nine months of being homeless and living between a friend’s sofa and a night shelter in London.
“I’m originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo... I fled the country because of persecution,” he said.
“I was a journalist, and I had no choice but to escape.”
Norbert describes how the military arrived at his house several times due to his work reporting on the frontline of the conflict ravaging the DRC at that time, forcing him to make the decision to leave his home country.
He was escorted to safety from his house, under the cover of UN guards, with no choice but to leave his wife and children behind – something he believed at the time would be a temporary measure.
Today, only two of his four children are currently living in the UK, and two remain in the DRC with his wife, Cathe – unable to come to join him due to the UK Government’s visa requirements.
“I miss home, I miss my family, I miss my wife, I miss my kids.”
Norbert has made short visits back home several times since fleeing the country, but the majority of relationships with family members back in the DRC is conducted through daily messages and calls via social media.
Despite this, he still considers himself lucky.
“We’re lucky that we’re not in a prison, and we’re lucky that we can communicate,” he said.
“I’m not the only one in this position, I know people who have been here for years and never had any contact with their families.”
Despite the unimaginable hardship of adjusting to another continent and facing the challenge of building a new life away from family, Norbert also manages to see the silver lining of most things.
Looking back at one fond memory in particular, Norbert describes how he got stranded in the Welsh countryside after missing the last bus home, and was put up in a bed for the night by a local family who fed him and gave him beer.
“This is the Wales I know,” he said. For the past several years, Norbert has been studying in London, recently completing a masters degree in charity management. Currently in Bristol, he is now desperate to make his way back across the Severn Bridge.
“I’m in England, but really looking to come back to Wales... Wales has become much more than home.”
For Angie, when she left Zimbabwe in 2000, the country was in the midst of land redistribution and civil unrest, becoming the subject of international sanctions.
Coming to the UK was a move that potentially saved her life, but was tinged with a sense of loss.
“I know I had the advantage of having family here, but for me it was like starting all over again,” she said.
“I missed the sunshine, I missed the food, I missed everything. I was so involved in the community there, so that was a change.”
It took five years for Angie to be granted leave to remain in the UK. During this time, she was unable to take up employment, and had no choice but to live with her sister and
her husband with no source of income.
“I missed the freedom of doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it,” she said. “It knocked my confidence, up until today.”
After five years, she was finally able to seek employment, getting her first job in the Royal Gwent hospital.
“For me it was difficult in terms of choosing what I wanted to do when I eventually got my stay,” she said. “At one point I thought, ‘You know what, this is never going to end, I’m just going to go back to Zimbabwe.’”
But Angie knew what returning home could mean.
“I would have been either dead or really having problems in Zimbabwe,” she said, mentioning again the fact that remaining in her home country could have cost her life. Because of the way things are politically, because the economy has gone down so drastically, people are really suffering.”
Fortunately, being granted leave to remain in the UK and being able to start wo work in Newport meant she and her son co could now find a home of their own, m moving into a house in Bettws, where sh she remains until this day.
“When it came to integrating into the local community, I was fortunate in that I got involved with the local church. That made things a lot easier f for me, because I had a social life.”
However, living in Newport means t that Angie must live with the reality of ha having loved ones thousands of miles aw away.
“I’ve still got family in Zimbabwe. I I’ve got nephews, nieces, cousins, a aunties,” she said. “When I initially ca came it was a bit difficult. Yes, we could sti still phone and everything, but it was qu quite expensive to phone home or for th them to phone over here. It depends on yo your social status or economic status as we well.”
Luckily, in 2020, despite the difficulties of being so far away from family, social media has made life slightly easier
Today, Angie is proud of her Zimbabwean-Welsh identity, and of Newport in particular. Over the past two decades she has become increasingly involved in different causes – going on to become a pillar of the community.
“I started a support group in 2007 for women. With what I’d been through, I thought there might be other women going through what I went through in terms of loneliness, having no support, not knowing where to go.”
Angie decided to call her group “Madzimai Pamwe”, which means “women together” in Shona – one of Zimbabwe’s official languages.
Since the group’s foundation, it has provided women in Newport with a much-needed support network, while also expanding its community work to vulnerable women in Zimbabwe through fundraising efforts.
From Madzimai Pamwe a choir, ZimVoices, was also born – with Angie travelling throughout Wales to perform alongside other women, fundraising for their charitable work.
Yet another community project Angie has been inspired to set up is her swimming club.
“I started my swimming group for children aged 5-12 years old, from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.”
For her work with the club, in 2015, Angie made it to the finals of BBC Sport Wales’ “community coach of the year”, all while simultaneously studying for a degree in community development at the University of South Wales.
Unfortunately, due to a health condition, Angie is no longer able to provide swimming lessons.
However, she isn’t letting that stop her, and is planning on providing tennis lessons in the near future – her next endeavour to improve the lives of people in the community.
For the children she has taken under her wing, and for individuals more generally from minority ethnic backgrounds across Newport, Angie is determined they have a voice.
By providing them with a space to come together and be heard, applying the lessons learnt with the upheaval and isolation she has felt at different stages of her life, she is doing just that.