Usumain Baraka

Usumain Baraka was born in Darfur, Sudan[1][2] in the small village of Dirata,[3] close to the city of Geneina. He is a member of the Masalit people. At age 9, the Darfur genocide came to his village, and Janjaweed militants killed his father—the leader of his village—and brother.[1][4] Baraka fled on foot through the jungle and found shelter in a refugee camp in Chad with his mother and sisters.[1][5]

After three years in the refugee camp, Baraka left in search of a normal life and education,[6] He traveled through Libya and Egypt.[1][7] In Egypt, he saw a television program on the history of the Jewish people and the Holocaust.[1] In 2008, he paid Bedouin smugglers to take him across the desert into Israel.[8][9] Upon reaching Israel, he had no shoes. The first Israeli soldier he encountered took off his own shoes and socks and gave them to Baraka.[10]

Baraka submitted an asylum application in 2013,[11][12] and received humanitarian temporary residency status.[13]

In December 2020, Baraka's brother Sayid Ismael Baraka, who had received American citizenship after being resettled there as a refugee, traveled to El-Geneina, Sudan, to visit family.[14] He was murdered inside his own home by violent militias on January 16, 2021.[15]

Baraka received his high school diploma from Yemin Orde,[1] a Jewish[16] boarding school for at-risk and immigrant youth near Haifa, Israel. After completing high school, Baraka hoped to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces, but was prevented due to his lack of Israeli citizenship.[16] Instead, he completed a year and a half of volunteer service.[17] He frequently returns to Yemin Orde to give inspirational talks to current students.[18]

Baraka graduated from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in 2019 with a bachelor's degree in Government and Diplomacy Relations.[16] After completing his bachelor's degree, he enrolled in a Master's program[19] in Public Policy, also at the IDC[19][20] and graduated in summer 2020.[21] During his first degree he was a volunteer member of the IDC student union.[22] Baraka completed his studies in Hebrew, one of five languages he speaks, and is the first refugee in Israel to gain a master's degree in Hebrew.[13]

Baraka co-authored the paper "‘She Died While Missing Us’: Experiences of Family Separation Among African Refugees in Israel" along with Dr. Hadas Yaron Mesgena, published in the book Forced Migration and Separated Families: Everyday Insecurities and Transnational Strategies.[23]

Baraka is a Co-Founder of the African Students Organization in Israel. From 2016 to 2019 he served as the organisation's Education Director, and took over as the CEO in January 2019.[24] In 2019 he gave a keynote address at the organization's inaugural annual conference.[25]

Baraka makes frequent appearances on Israeli television, radio, and print media, where he represents the asylum-seeking community. He appeared on Kan 11 February 2020[26] following Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting in Uganda with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.[27] He appeared on 103fm and in Haaretz in August 2020[28][29] following an announcement that Israel and Sudan were undergoing peace talks.[30] He was also featured on an episode of the Israeli television series 'Slicha al hashe'ela' or Excuse the Question, which discussed African asylum seekers in Israel.[31] In April 2020, he was the subject of a Kan 11 mini-documentary, which described his activism to help fellow asylum seekers in Israel during the Coronavirus pandemic.[32]

Baraka also gives tours and lectures to groups in English and Hebrew on the topic of asylum seekers in Israel, the Darfur genocide, and South Tel Aviv.[22] He also runs a Hebrew language school for fellow asylum seekers in Israel, through which he teaches Hebrew to dozens of asylum seekers from Darfur and elsewhere.[13]

On June 28, 2017, Baraka spoke to the Israeli Knesset on behalf of asylum seekers in Israel.[33]

Following his brother's murder in 2021, Baraka spoke out about the dangers presented by Sudan's interim government, run by perpetrators of the genocide in 2003.[34] He both spoke to other journalists and authored an op-ed on the subject, published in Israel's Haaretz newspaper.[35]