Journey of Last Resort

Life is worth living when we live for a purpose. The perpetual quest in looking for greener pastures has been the basis for migration and mass exodus of people from Western Europe to Australia and North America, from the Middle East to Latin America and the current exodus of Africans to Western Europe. This phenomenon has facilitated the growth of a diasporan population particularly of Lebanese and Syrian origin in Argentina and Brazil.

Unfortunately, the African has never migrated en masse voluntarily be it the trans Atlantic slave trade, the Sahara or orient trade and now the forced migration of youths from Africa south of the Sahara to the Shores of Southern Europe. The plight of Africa’s youth has reached an endemic state and it is no longer a national problem but rather a regional problem for countries south of the Sahara. This problem needs a concerted effort at the regional level to stem the tide of the perilous loss of young souls on the desolate desert and stormy seas of the Southern coast of Europe. The gloomy expedition otherwise called the “Back Way Voyage” to Europe has become a menace in our societies both in Africa and Europe. The African continent is increasingly losing its most prized assets i.e. its youth and the Europeans are faced with an influx of would be refugees who are adding a burden in an already volatile socioeconomic environment. The precarious situation that Europe finds itself in with regards to the influx of refugees is partly their making in the sense that the global economic order has been skewed in favour of the first world particularly in the areas of trade and legal migration. The time has come for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to revisit its trade policies and we MUST also admonish African governments to invest more in its youth to reduce the high incidence of unemployment. Africa’s youths are somehow in a state of despair and the idea of “Tukki Tekki” is their last resort for redemption and self actualization. Personally, the “Back Way Voyage” has been a peripheral issue until it hit closer to home. Over the years, I have acquainted myself with many young dynamic and energetic youths whom I believed were beacons of hope for their nations. I was saddened by the demise of a young lad whom I knew personally and his zeal to succeed was insurmountable. Rest in peace young blood for you have persistently fought against the odds and obstacle on your way.

The political class in Africa has a role to play in this anomaly. They have to sincerely, sustainably invest resources in youth development and succession planning in the youth folk. Equally, the West is also part of the problem. Inequalities in all its forms are a recipe for disaster. The idea of social justice and equality is not part of the development agenda well at least between "us and them" (Africa and its Development partners). It baffles me why a Gambian should pay the British Embassy 70,000 dalasis (1,500 dollars) for visa fee to enter Britain. This is not only absurd but a blatant disregard for human decency. Remember Malcolm X said that “we never landed on Plymouth Rock but Plymouth Rock landed on us”). The new world order and it's dispensation of economic dividends and opportunities are not only crafted by the powers that be, but they are designed to perpetuate and extend their control over our dominion. That said, the solution to Africa's problem is inextricably linked to Europe's prosperity therefore, Europe and rest of the Western world should advocate for policies that are mutually beneficial. A case in point is the UN Security Council. Why it is that Africa cannot have a permanent seat on the council given the size and population of the Continent? Nigeria and South Africa are two candidates that an equitable United Nations would have added to the list of permanent members but the congruence of western hegemony and idiocy controls the global agenda. I can go on and on, but African leaders need to do more by investing significantly in its future and that is its youths. The epitaph of the youths lost on these voyages reads; " Pondering about our motherland Africa. War and crime, political fuckery, poverty and destitution forced us on daring voyages across the desolate Sahara. Third world people with first world problems".