The African Migrant in A World with Dividing Eyes By Abimbola Lagunju

When you read or hear migration experts, NGOs (both local and international) as well as International Organizations and their donors speak of migration by Black Africans to Europe or to any other part of the world, you get the impression that in all probability, in a few years, Africa will be depleted of its original peoples as they will all have moved away to other countries. Such discussions seek to evoke a mental scenario of an Africa (without Africans) populated by the Chinese (who are as mobile as Africans) sharing our land with Boers and other Europeans while Africans inhabit Western Europe and other developed countries

The fear of an imaginary exchange of continent of habitation by Black Africans with other parts of the world, particularly with Western Europe has been an object and subject of many conferences, the purpose of which is to devise ways of preventing this occurrence. These ways include carrot and stick approaches towards apparently indifferent African governments to keep their people behind their borders and to develop at least on paper national migration policies. This fear has also fired up extreme nationalist parties in European countries, who are making gains in different parliaments hoisting the flag of race and religious phobias.

As usual, NGOs and International Organizations have jumped on the bus to benefit from the fear. There are many illusory projects based on only-understood-to-them theories to contain Africans within their borders. These organizations in their bid to sustain their benefits from their grants reinforce the fear of their donors. Also, these organizations also try to invoke fear of death and suffering along the migration route in potential African hotfoots. Fear is the commodity in which everyone involved in migration trades. And Mr. Donald Trump who is demanding for five billion dollars to build a wall along the southern border of the United States is the current biggest trader.

However, to the chagrin of traders of fear, the African hotfoots and their governments do not trade in this commodity. The potential migrants think of suffering as a sacrifice that must be made and if death comes in trying, it is heroic to submit to its claws. It is general knowledge that whether here or there or on the way, suffering is inevitable. It is the price that this civilization exacts from us Black Africans in all existential ramifications.

African leaders, who have turned out to be the wisest human beings in this Trade Fear have been largely silent about the outflow of their peoples. Not that they can do anything about it anyway. These leaders have been looking helplessly on since forced migration of slave trade through the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Program years when the African professionals trained by their poor governments were shamelessly poached by rich governments without any reparation for years of investment. The same rich governments called the poor African leaders to conferences to discuss “brain drain”. Using health as an example, they told African leaders that Sub-Sahara Africa had the highest disease burden in the world and the least health workforce to confront the disease burden. As usual, African government made the right noises and moved on.

More than other leaders, Black African leaders understand the right and the desire of people to move. This understanding is not born of modern concepts and ideologies, it is innate. It is as ingrained in the DNA of an African just as melanin is. These leaders understand and know that the desire to move from one place of habitation is an almost uncontrollable urge, which is sometimes urgent, sometimes slow-burning, but it is always there.

Migration experts like to pretend to understand why the people move. They write many theories from economic to climate change through demographic explosion to explain current migration tendencies. All the theories invariably share one thing in common - they portray external factors and influences as inducers of human movements. It is possible to study migration patterns but to seek to fully ascribe rational reasons to on-going unforced movements may be satisfying intellectually but deficient in the understanding of human nature, particularly the African mind and his worldview.

While economic reasons may, to some degree come into play in the current migration of Africans, the urge to change place of habitation and livelihood also plays a role. This urge that I term, volo-refugia (a movement fired by an urge) cannot be appeased with economic inducements nor suppressed by fear of suffering or death on the route. It is a powerful internal drive probably powered by forces beyond the understanding of the traveler or his observers.

Thankfully, the fraction of African hotfoots is infinitesimal compared to the general Black African population and to the fraction of hotfoots from other countries. A Gallup poll released last week showed that 16% of Americans in 2018 said they would like to move to another country. It was a small news item despite the enormous figure this translates into. Imagine the number of conferences, projects and grants that would erupt if a Gallup poll were to show that 1.6% of Africans expressed the desire to migrate to other countries.

There have been three mass movements of Africans from Africa in history – one voluntary (from the Rift Valley) and two forced (Arab slave trade and the transatlantic slave trade). The voluntary departure from Africa gave rise to new human races and in the forced departures, the destination countries were the primary beneficiaries. At no time in human history has the presence of Black Africans caused harm to other cultures. On the contrary, the presence of other cultures has multiply harmed Black Africans on their own soil.

The African hotfoot, the volo-refugia on the way or on your soil is harmless. Protect him.