By Eucharia Mbachu

Washington , D.C.

The twenty first century is going to be remembered by Africans for many  reasons. It could be known as the century of African Renaissance; or the century of fear, famine and fraud; or indeed the century of hope and promise despite the agony of AIDS and the pressing blows of economic reversals, political failures and cultural stagnation. If it is the Century of African Renaissance, then one could address the good, the bad and the ugly about immigration by saying that during the next nine decades hopefully continental Africans will finally join the ranks of all literary human cultures everywhere by trusting and investing intellectually in their languages through alphabetization and collective withdrawal from the ever-growing bank account of human knowledge. Migration would be just one bridge between impoverished Africa today and the New Africa of tomorrow.

It could indeed be noted also that the twenty-first century could be next hundred years during which Africans would defy the sad predictions and poor judgments about them and their continent. It is only in this context that one can address the question of modern African migration and the negative consequences of illegal immigration.

 Illegal immigration is the ugly face of modern African migration. The rise of the New African Diaspora in the last half of the twentieth century in Europe , in the Middle East and in America cannot be well understood unless and until certain factors are examined and analyzed. The illegal migration of young Africans to Europe during the colonial period was through store away. This is to say, many an African youth managed to steal their way to Europe with or without the collaboration of sailors onboard vessels bound for European ports. Some of these young men tried to obtain jobs onboard and whenever they fail to secure a position, they wangled their way to a European port by other means. Numbers were very limited during the colonial period but legends among Africans, particularly West Africans and Somalis from East Africa, who found their ways to European ports or even to the United States during the twentieth century, suggest that the few that made it became metaphorically the black flies in the milk bowls of Europe. Their easily detectable faces and their inadequate familiarity with the language of the European societies made them targets for Negrophobes and malevolent urchins in the poorer sides of London , Liverpool , Manchester , Marseilles , Bordeaux , Hamburg and Piraeus .

The problems of the illegal immigration have gone through some radical changes because of a number of developments in the world. Although very few African youth entertained any idea of traveling abroad through illegal means, the idea of Europe being “a paradise” was carefully cultivated by the handful of individuals who were lucky enough to travel for education or training. Those selected few created, at least in West Africa , the myth of the “Been-toes” These were primarily males, although occasionally there were female cohorts in their ranks, who went to England and came back filled with foolish pride about their adventure to the West and the sense of distinctiveness such a journey confirmed upon them. Somehow, many of these men and occasionally women truly believe that their journey to Europe made them culturally superior to their kinds and neighbors. Real or imagined, these persons shared a common ground with the successfully migrated illegal immigrants in Europe and the Americas . Their stories are known to fellow Africans who are privy to their saga and their long and hard struggle to climb the mountain of legality in the West.   

One of the root causes of the illegal migration is the myth about Europe being a paradise and that any village boys or girl who navigates his or her way to its ports would come across financially and materially success and their condition with poverty in life would come to an end. Here we go again with one African myth that captures the imagination of the desperate youth in search of hope and fortune. Related to this myth about Europe is the lifestyle of the “Been-toes.” Being fascinated with life in the Metropolitan World of the colonizers and eager to impress his fellow Africans about his cultural assimilation into the world of the European, many of the “Been-toes” helped maintain the myths that inspired and drove many young Africans into the arms of illegality. Through such intended or unintended circumstances the conditions of the illegal Africans today and in many cases added insult to African injury. Such was the state of affairs before the end of colonial rule.  The situation is very grave at this time and many African governments are caught in this bind.

 But if the conditions of illegal immigration has created very serious political, economic and moral challenges to African leaders, then those who have any interest on the subject should ask why has the situation deteriorated and what can be done to address the matter seriously. The political conditions in many of these countries are largely responsible for the crisis. Unable to secure a job after finishing school and living in an economy where jobs are few and paying conditions are on the borderline of serfdom, many of these young people see flight from home as the gateway to social change and financial security. Most of the time, these challenges are not fully explored by the youth. Their desires to go abroad and come back home laden with the golden- fleece, as in Greek mythology, motivated many of them. As a result of their enthusiasm many of these young people have come to see their journey to the West as crucial as anything known to them. Driven abroad by personal and familial shame in the midst of more successful villagers and neighbors, many of these children who end up as illegal immigrants in Europe or even America are forced to do so because they do not want to return home empty-handed. Indeed there is a powerful saying from a long-standing migrating African group called Sarahules in the Sene-gambia and Maraha in Sierra Leone . Mungo Park, the British medical doctor who is now remembered as an explorer of note who traveled to West Africa to trace the source of the Niger River, brought to our attention in his travelogues a saying of this ethnic group in the West African region which goes like this: “Why should I go back home empty-handed as if I had nothing but the hairs on my head!” This old saw among the Sarahules or Maraha plays a powerful role and members of this group are now found in the United States of America , in Europe and in Southeast Asia . Their success stories are well known in West, Central and Southern Africa whence they made fortune and brought back home in West Africa .   

Mungo Park ’s report simply pointed to the connection between migration and economic self-enrichment. Learning from that particular situation and experience, one can now affirm that economics still plays a big job in the question of illegal immigrants to Europe or America . Whereas Mungo Park was sharing the story of an African or a group of Africans who were shame to go back home without any evidence of success in their ventures, the modern African illegal immigrant is caught in the fire of political instability and economic underdevelopment. What add insult to injury in this particular case are the factors and forces of globalization and modernity. These two creatures are historical and psychological octopuses that exercise tremendous powers over modern human beings. Learning to survive in their presence and uncomfortable with the rules of the game in their home countries as well as the European and American social universes, these illegal Africans are part of the local underground of their host societies yet they share the dreams and hopes of the people above the ground.

Through such an analysis one can now state a number of observations about the present crisis of the African illegal immigrants. First of all, there are two kinds of illegal immigrants and the European and American experiences shed ample light on the matter. There are illegal immigrants who started their life journeys as legal residents who secured their visas from the embassies of the host country. However, because of overstay and other motivating factors, these men and women who had enjoyed the protection of the law decided to walk in the shadow of illegality. With expired visas and unwilling to accept the sad condition of voluntary departure from the host country, they migrated from the realm of the law to the realm of the deportable. This twilight zone of immigration laws of the West has become the great desert of frustrations and anxieties for many African families. Running from pillar to post and from hand to mouth, many of these illegal immigrants placed their faith and their destiny in the hands of lawyers, judges and legislators in the societies whose laws they violated in the first place. With pennies from their jobs and with hope of a revolutionary immigration change for them and their kinds, these men and women dream about life in better days. Such hopes and dreams keep many of them alive. They may be waiting for Go dot, but their fears of boarding the train to the Promised Land is as really as the Jews tracing the footsteps of Moses from Egypt .

The other type of illegal immigrants is the modern variety of the store away in the last century. These are Africans who wish to join the ranks of the immigrant population through illegal means. The most visible examples are those who are now trying to reach Europe through the Atlantic Ocean . A Bell-Howell Index or a Goggle Citation Index could lead you to a number of articles about Africans trying to cross the Atlantic for a European port. Hundreds of these men have died at sea and African musicians have sung lyrics lamenting their plight and pain to their families. The agony of illegal migration is a thigh pin running almost constantly on the soft underbelly of a poor Africa where political leadership has yet to learn the language of political tolerance and economic development in the greater number of countries.

 The United States and Canada could have been added to their list of reachable ports. However, the Middle Passage and the plight of the Haitians have conspired to make such a venture scary, dangerous and unacceptable. Even though slavery in America has ended, and not many Americans would call for its restitution, the desperados among the African youth under the present state of affairs have made it sadly probable that many of them would not mind repeating the agonies of the Middle passage to undergo the Kunta Kinte experience. This indictment of the leaders and the led in Africa should be made by any African, and most especially by an African public intellectual who has the power of the pen and can be jeremiad in his or her articulations. Jeremiah attacked the Hebrews many years after their flight from Pharoahnic Egypt because some of them were still xenophile in their attitudes towards Egypt vise-a –vise Hebrew religious tastes.

Another point to make about the illegal immigrants in Africa is linked to the moral state of affairs on the continent. The question of human trafficking begs for answers around the continent. There are several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) working on the subject and their reports are available to anyone with a computer or a newspaper. Four issues are imperative on this matter. The first is the linkage between illegal immigration and criminal manipulations. Many of the illegal immigrants are sometimes puns in the hands of criminal groups who used them to do dirty works and remained trapped in their condition of deprivation and financial insecurity. African governments are directly or indirectly linked to such problems in so far as passports are concerned. Even though in many cases, African governments are innocent, some rogue bureaucrat could be the hidden force behind such acts of human trafficking and illegal migration. Reports have shown how young and naïve Africans have been trapped by perpetrators of such evil acts through false promises and grandiose schemes.

 Finally, one could say that Africa faces a serious crisis of youth and the problems can only be resolved with responsible government and effective social change in the moral, political and economic policies of their countries. The Western countries that have joined the African countries, particularly Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia where most of the adventurers sailed from for European ports, in their common goal of reversing the trend and improve the conditions of life for the youth must remain steadfast and aggressive in providing the much needed assistance to change things. The NGO’s in these African states have a serious responsibility. Educating the youth and developing programs for the maintenance of human dignity and economic hope would be appreciated by all in Africa and abroad. This is one sure bet for the winners and Africans of the twenty first century cannot be otherwise.

Eucharia Mbachu

Voiceofwomenandchildren.Org

Robot  Villager

# 1 By Eucharia Mbachu ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 26.08.2007 01:54