Ethnic minority candidates battle to take tribalism out of Northern Ireland politics

Emma DeSouza talks to migrants who are standing in the upcoming local elections, all hoping to challenge the 'apartheid system' which caters for only two communities in the North

Green party candidate Ange Cruz: 'Things are not set up to help people like us.'

When Northern Ireland’s political institutions were established in 1998, they were tailored to govern a “two community” society. 

However, Northern Ireland is no longer merely two communities, but a plurality of demographics with little resemblance to its social fabric a quarter of a century before. 

However, despite increased ethnic diversity, there remains a near-total absence of ethnic minority and migrant representatives in political and public life. 

With less than three weeks until local elections, can a new wave of candidates change the face of politics there?

According to the 2021 census, more than 60,000 people in Northern Ireland are from an ethnic minority community, doubling the statistics presented in the 2011 census and quadrupling those from 2001.

Despite these trends, or the more-than-150,000 migrants living in Northern Ireland, there is no ethnic minority or migrant representation in the Assembly, and only a single councillor.

People Before Profit candidate Sipho Sibanda: 'The political landscape in Northern Ireland has really been set up in a way that it just caters for the two big groups.'

Originally from Zimbabwe, human rights activist Sipho Sibanda of People Before Profit is currently running for a council seat in the Botanic district electoral area (DEA) of Belfast. She says: “The political landscape in Northern Ireland has really been set up in a way that it just caters for the two big groups."

Underrepresented groups

She says underrepresented groups need to be represented.

"For them and their needs to be catered for… in our political spaces we need to intentionally create spaces for all [underrepresented] groups to be involved, to represent themselves, so that we actually shape the politics of this place so that it represents everybody.”

This is a familiar sentiment echoed by fellow Belfast City Council candidate Elly Omondi, currently running for the SDLP in Titanic DEA. He says: “We have to have a face that looks like us, we have to assert our presence, and I believe in the politics of representation. That is one of the reasons why I am standing.” 

Omondi, who moved from Kenya to Northern Ireland in 1999, previously ran as an independent candidate in South Belfast during the 2022 Assembly election, but ultimately found a home with the SDLP, saying he believes the party “is trying to mould a different type of politics”.

Green party candidate Ange Cruz didn’t see herself as a political candidate, but after being encouraged by the party to run, she says: 

I do think I have something to offer as a person who is an immigrant, a person of colour, with a daughter of colour that looks at things from a different perspective.” 

Originally from Canada, Cruz, who is running in the Oldpark DEA, says: “Things are not set up to help people like us."

Tribal politics

The challenge is that Northern Ireland remains trapped in a cycle of tribal politics — political representatives are forced to select a community ‘designation’, of which there are only three categories — unionist, nationalist, or other. 

SDLP candidate Elly Ormondi: 'We have to have a face that looks like us, we have to assert our presence, and I believe in the politics of representation.'

This can prove particularly challenging for migrants and those of other political ideologies or faiths. The SDLP designates as nationalist, but Omondi says: “I don’t believe in those tribal divisions about unionist or nationalist, but I respect that those traditions belong to those who believe in them.” 

For Sibanda, whose party designates as ‘other’, the labels also pose a challenge. “I personally would like to see everyone as one… I think for us to grow and embrace each other’s politics and move forward, we do need to find a way of not separating our politics and ensuring that our politics embraces everyone.” 

Cruz adds that while ‘other’ is a recognised category and a growing community, “some people really struggle to believe that a party can be ‘other’, and that we’re not secretly [a unionist or nationalist party]". 

"You get accused of being one or the other depending on who you talk to.” 

The way to break this cycle, says Cruz, is through integrated education as "physical division from childhood is really where it all starts".

Omondi also speaks about education. 

The apartheid system here where people are divided into two communities is something I want to change, I’m very interested in working with people to stop the segregation in education.” 

A 2022 report by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on the experiences of migrant and ethnic minority communities in Northern Ireland concluded the politics of ‘green and orange’ means that ethnic minority communities have often been “overlooked” in politics and policymaking. 

Sibanda was motivated by this lack of representation. “Our children are growing up here and I felt there was a lack of representation in politics and other spaces. I keep talking about wanting to see change, about wanting to see more ethnic minorities in Northern Irish politics. If not me then who?” 

The report by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee also called on political parties to do more to increase representation. Despite this, Sinn Féin, the largest political party in Northern Ireland, is running no ethnic minority or migrant candidates, nor is the DUP, UUP, or Alliance party. 

Mimi Unamoyo, who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo in fear for her life and subsequently set up an organisation in Northern Ireland to help other refugees and asylum-seekers, was slated to run for the Alliance party but was pulled from the ballot at the 11th hour over what the party described as a “paperwork” error that affected her eligibility. 

One would expect major political parties to be across the candidate criteria in order to avoid such regrettable outcomes. Unamoyo had already been leafletting in the weeks leading up to the announcement.