Prologue

Summary

There were only 10 minutes left until the adhan (call to prayer) for Maghrib (evening prayer). The evening twilight had spread across the horizon beyond the sprawling mass of bamboo and tarp shelters carved into the hillsides of southeastern Bangladesh. The sky blazed with hues of orange and red; the fleeting colours of dusk began to fade away on that hot summer evening in August 2017. We – Absar the driver, my research assistants and friends Munni and Zia, and myself – sat in a rusty old Toyota on our way towards Balukhali refugee camp from the nearby Kutupalong camp. Gathering dust along the way, the car was slowed down by passing tomtoms (auto-rickshaws) that weaved in and out of the dirt road as we drove past rows upon rows of tightly packed shelters – their orange and blue tarpaulin tents almost unnoticeable as darkness quietly descended.

We reached Balukhali at 6:30 p.m. as darkness started creeping into the alleyways of the camp. I noticed a group of young boys kicking a limp football in the dusty open space that served as a makeshift parking spot. For these kids, this sandy spot had become their stadium, where they could enter a world of respite and aspiration – if only temporarily – to escape the destitution and bleakness that hung like a cloud over the camps. Another group of children playfully made jokes and began to disperse back towards their homes. While Absar and Zia stayed behind in the car, Munni and I made our way through the city of tents, climbing up small hills up to 30 metres high, past food vendors – often local Bangladeshis from neighbouring villages who had found new economic opportunity from the waves of refugees and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that had entered their once-pristine locale – closing up shop for the night and groups of men in white panjabis (a traditional pant and shirt outfit) and colourfully checked lungis (a type of sarong in South Asia worn only by men) with white tupis (a rounded skullcap often worn for prayer) on their heads making their way to the makeshift mosques.