Character Analysis
Alem Kelo
Alem is the protagonist and the emotional centre of the play. He is fourteen years old, of mixed Ethiopian and Eritrean heritage, and is brought to England by his father before being left alone. Everything about Alem is designed to challenge the audience’s assumptions about asylum seekers. He is intelligent, polite, curious, brave, and kind — qualities that make it impossible to dismiss him as a stereotype.
Alem’s character arc moves from innocence (the hotel with his father), through confusion and grief (the abandonment), to gradual adaptation (school, the Fitzgeralds), and finally to quiet resilience (the tribunal). He does not become a different person — he remains fundamentally the same kind, thoughtful boy throughout. What changes is his understanding of the world and his place in it.
Alem is deliberately presented as an ordinary, likeable teenager placed in an extraordinary situation. Zephaniah’s purpose is to show that refugees are not “other” — they are people just like the audience, whose lives have been disrupted by forces beyond their control.
Mr Kelo
Alem’s father is one of the play’s most complex characters. He is a loving, devoted parent who makes the agonising decision to leave his son in a foreign country. His inner conflict is visible in the early hotel scenes: he is warm and attentive, but also restless and emotional. The audience senses his pain before understanding its cause.
Mr Kelo embodies the play’s central paradox — that abandonment can be an act of love. He sacrifices his relationship with his son to save Alem’s life. His letter reveals the depth of his anguish and his awareness that Alem will feel betrayed. In essays, analyse Mr Kelo as a character who is torn between his role as a father (wanting to be with his son) and his duty as a protector (knowing Alem is safer alone in England).
Alem’s mother, Mrs Kelo, is largely absent from the play’s present-day action. She may appear in flashback sequences, but her primary role is as a figure of loss. Mrs Kelo is Eritrean, and her violent death represents the ultimate human cost of the Ethiopian-Eritrean war. Her absence shapes everything: it is part of why Mr Kelo brings Alem to England, and it deepens Alem’s grief and isolation.
In exam essays, Alem’s mother can be discussed in terms of what she represents rather than what she does on stage. She symbolises the innocent civilians destroyed by political violence. Her death also means that Alem has lost both parents in different ways — one to violence, one to sacrifice — making his situation uniquely devastating.
The Fitzgeralds
Mr and Mrs Fitzgerald are Alem’s foster parents. They are presented as warm, generous, and genuinely caring. Mrs Fitzgerald in particular takes on a maternal role, providing the emotional support that Alem desperately needs. The Fitzgeralds represent the argument that ordinary people can make a difference — they cannot fix the asylum system, but they can offer one boy a safe, loving home.
However, the Fitzgeralds are not presented as saviours. They have limitations: they cannot control the outcome of the tribunal, they cannot replace Alem’s family, and their care is always temporary and conditional. Sissay avoids the trap of the “white saviour” narrative by showing the Fitzgeralds as kind but not all-powerful. They help Alem, but they do not solve his problems.
The Fitzgeralds demonstrate that individual compassion matters, but it is not enough. Alem needs both the Fitzgeralds’ love and a fair asylum system. Sissay uses them to argue that personal kindness must be accompanied by political justice.
Mustapha and Sweeney
Mustapha and Sweeney represent opposing responses to difference. Mustapha, a fellow outsider, offers Alem friendship and solidarity based on shared experience. He understands what it means to be different and chooses empathy. Sweeney, by contrast, responds to difference with hostility and racial abuse. He is not a complex character — he functions as a representative of the prejudice that exists in British society.
These two characters work as a pair. Together, they present the audience with a choice: which response do you identify with? Sissay does not let the audience remain neutral. By positioning us to empathise with Alem, we are drawn towards Mustapha’s compassion and repelled by Sweeney’s cruelty. This is part of the play’s activist purpose — it does not just depict prejudice, it challenges the audience to reject it.
Ruth is the Fitzgeralds’ daughter. She shares her home with Alem, so the welcome he gets comes from the whole family. Ruth is also honest about the cost of that welcome: she and her father worry about what will happen if Mrs Fitzgerald grows too attached, because the family fostered a boy called Themba before and he died. Ruth shows that an open home is a brave thing for the family as well as a kind one.
In essays, Ruth can be compared with her parents. Mr and Mrs Fitzgerald choose to foster; Ruth simply finds a new brother in her house. Her worry about Themba shows that welcoming a child is a risk the whole family carries, not a decision the adults take alone.
Character Relationships and the Play’s Message
The characters in Refugee Boy are not just individuals — they represent different attitudes and systems. Mr Kelo represents the impossible choices forced on parents by conflict. The Fitzgeralds represent compassion. Mustapha represents solidarity. Sweeney represents prejudice. Ruth represents the family that opens its door. The tribunal represents systemic power. By examining how these characters relate to Alem, Sissay builds a complete picture of the refugee experience: the personal, the social, and the political.