I’ve been following BFP’s blog from the original through all the reincarnations ups and down and now to flipflopping so I readily accepted her invitation to contribute to this amazing space she has created.  The invite was offered with the consideration that I could post as little or as much as often as I wanted on whatever I chose to write about so it wasn’t an offer I could refuse.

A little about me – I started blogging in June 2004 when I was living in rural Spain spending most of my time in olive and almond groves and walking my dog Zami (who very sadly is no longer with me). Since then I’ve passed through for varying lengths of time, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria (which is where I am half from though which half has never seriously been identified and well is a whole other story of my life) Morocco, India, Haiti, the US and here where I am today, in one of the bellies of the colonial beast – UK.  I mostly post / write (I use the term loosely as in putting words to screen) about anything related to Africa  and the Diaspora though I do sometimes venture to the various locations known for creating chaos such as Europe, the US and Israel. I just came back from an art festival in Gratz, Austria [Steirischerherbst - Real Energy World], where I saw written on the side of a  van the words in Yoruba (a Nigerian language) “the white man came and turned the world upside down”  (“oyibo wa si aiye wonyi aiye si odi” ).   It was a bit strange seeing this in a small town in Austria which was about as banal bland a geographical space as one could imagine.   I was relieved to find it did however have a very murky past despite attempts at bleaching history – there is something slightly or maybe greatly obscene about too much cleanliness.

The city like many European cities had it’s share of African mostly male immigrants living on the margins and hated by the indigenous population.  On the way out to the airport we passed the local prison and I asked our host who was in there since I was told the place was more or less free of crime.  No surprise to find it was mostly immigrants from Africa and the far regions of Eastern Europe not yet accepted into the “community” of Europeans – criminals for being in a place they were not wanted.   The prison acted as a holding  cage prior to deporting the unwanted.  The irony or maybe not so ironic more rage inducing,  is that so called “African liberationalist” Qaddafi has made a deal with the Italian government to patrol the Mediterranean and seize those trying to get into Europe, return them to Libya where they are kept in detention for months on end in the most horrific conditions deep in the Sahara.  Libya’s trade with Italy has now been quadrupled. Before Libya it was Morocco – they made a deal with Spain which in a couple of cases ended with them driving people into the Sahara and dumping them  to fend for themselves.   Then it was Mauritania possibly the most dangerous route to Europe where thousands have died on the crossings in flimsy wooden boats.  I met a young man years ago in Cyprus who was trying to get to Greece.   I didnt see him for a while then bumped into him and he had been to Greece got caught and was back in Cyprus all in the space of a week.  He then tried again and I received a text saying he made it and was working. The next time I heard from him he was back in Senegal – what happened to him now I dont know but I wonder.  One of the most horrific stories was when 47 people were set adrift in the Atlantic – their bodies ended up in Barbados.

Someone recently told me of the story of a young Nigerian woman who had spent 6 years trying to get to Europe. She started off  with one child and had two on the way.   On the crossing only 15 people survived – she was one but she lost her children.  She is now in Europe.   This is the nature of the beast we are having to struggle against.  A beast which is no longer hungry in need of cheap labour to satisfy it’s greed.  So now it spits out all that it swallowed in the past………….

Sokari