“The way the Irish asylum system turns people into un-human is my problem”: An Interview with Ifedinma Dimbo

Ifedinma Dimbo was born in Nkwelle-Ezunaka, in the Igbo-speaking region of eastern Nigeria. She studied Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. She first went to Ireland as a graduate student in 1995 to obtain an MA in Sociology of Development from University College Cork, and during that period in Ireland her son was born. They went back to Nigeria in 1998, but the Dimbo family decided to return to Ireland in 2002, thinking that being parents of an Irish-born child gave both Ifedinma and her husband residency rights. However, they had to experience the Irish Direct Provision system first-hand while theymaintained a legal battle with immigrationfor three years. It was during her experience as an asylum seeker that she had her literary calling. One of her stories appeared in the 2008 publication Takinga the Wise Man, a book published by SPIRASI, an Irish organization set up by the Congregation of the Holy Spirit that works with asylum seekers, refugees and other disadvantaged migrant groups, with special concern for survivors of torture. In 2010, her short story “Grafton Street of Dublin” appeared in the Irish Writers Exchange’s compilation titled Dublin: Ten Journeys, One Destination. This anthology includes ten short stories, the common factor ofwhich is that they revolve around the city of Dublin and they are written by writers who live in Ireland. Some of the authors are Irish-born, like the critically acclaimed writer Nuala ní Chonchúir, while others were born in places as diverse as Sweden, Germany, the US or, as in the present case, Nigeria. In her short story, Dimbo tackles the issue of deprivation while in Direct Provision, with a walk through one of the most commercial streets in Dublin, Grafton Street, as seen through the eyes of a Nigerian female asylum seeker who has to live on the institutionally granted allowance of 19.10 euros per week. In 2012, the Irish Writers Exchange published Ifedinma Dimbo’s first novel, She Was Foolish? Once again, the protagonist, named Gift, is a Nigerian woman who seeks asylum in Ireland. However, the length of the novel allows the author to delve in Gift’s past and how she got to her current situation as an asylum seeker, including an abusive partner who led her to become a prostitute in Italy, all of which takes its toll in the protagonist’s emotional and psychological well-being. Ifedinma Dimbo currently lives in Dublin, where she works and researches for her PhD in Medical Sociology. The Nigerian-born, Irish-based writer was kind enough to answer my questions via e-mail between the months of August and October 2014, with some final elaboration in January 2015. Ifedinma Dimbo’s writing, as well as her answers in this interview, are an invaluable testimony to a reality that is currently taking place in Ireland and has often been silenced. Now that Irish society is beginning to be aware of the unfair treatment that refugees and asylum seekers receive at the hands of the Irish system, it is high time to let people who, like Ifedinma Dimbo, have made Ireland their home, have their voices heard in the field of Irish Studies. In this interview, Ifedinma Dimbo very sharply shares her views on writing, immigration, religion and Irish society