europeus

This was last October. Next door to Hotel Djene, Bamako. 7 pm. The woman who was waiting for me is that kind of person you just cannot forget, partly proud, partly desperate. A kind of militant fighting against absurdity. Proud of her africanity. Desperate because of the poorness of Africa and the consequences it has on its populations. It was the time of Melilla and Ceuta. Of those people trying to climb by force walls separating the South from the North. Northern Africa from Europe. Some people here were shocked to see this human wave running after a dream of prosperity, or simply a way to survive. Aminata met some of them. What they told her was scaring, simply because it says much about the world we are living in: “Say what you want but we prefer to die here rather than going back home and show our parents, friends and neighbours we did not succeed in reaching Europe!, they said. Shame would be on us and we would lost honour.” This story looks far from what the French ambassador in Bamako told me the day before: “There are of course economical reasons that explain why people leave, but there are culturals’ as well. Most of the people trying to reach Europe come from the region of Kai and are members of the ethnos group of the Soninke. Those people made from the travel a tradition. A kind of initiatory rite…”