HOW THE HISTORY BETWEEN COUNTRIES DETERMINES THE HISTORY OF A MIGRANT: THE STORY OF BAKARI

It is there, discreet. He doesn’t complain. If you don’t ask him, you can’t guess. We cannot guess the suffering he has experienced and that he carries within him, the death that he has, many times, encountered. However, it would be too easy to see in his story an individual destiny, the simple result of a choice. Bakari, his life, are the fruit of unequal relations, of a West whose policy kills African markets(1), after having assassinated its president, Thomas Sankara. That was in 1987. The one who will come to power in 1984 in a country that knows « the highest infant mortality rate in the world, an illiteracy rate close to 98% in the countryside and a life expectancy of about forty years », said, at the thirty-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York : « No one will be surprised to see us associate the former Upper Volta — now Burkina Faso — with this despised catch-all — the Third World — that other worlds invented at the time of formal independence to better ensure our intellectual, cultural, economic and political alienation. We want to be part of it without justifying this gigantic swindle of history, even less to accept to be the back-world of a satiated West […] It is our blood that nourished the rise of capitalism, made possible our present dependence and consolidated our underdevelopment..

The one who demanded the « suspension of Israel, » the outright disengagement of SouthAfrica » from the UN while its apartheid regime was defended by the Western powers, supported the Sandinista struggles in Nicaragua, the revolutionary fight in Cuba and all those who rose up against the colonial empire; he who aspired to « Hecalled for Burkina Faso to refuse to pay an illegitimate debt to Western countries, vilified imperialism and consumerism, and quickly attracted the ire of the great powers: « the Western secret services — and in particular the French — began to take a close interest in this young captain who was too cultured, too intelligent, too free-spirited ».

The West assassinated Thomas Sankara and supported for decades the one who participated in his disappearance: Blaise Compaoré. And the same people who made Burkina Faso die and are killing Africa every day are now advocating for a drastic control of immigrants on the coasts from which they flee, and for their confinement. In this way, the veil of immigration and its so-called « danger » obscures the crude reality: Africa, and non-Western countries in general, is the guarantor of the Western way of life through its labor force and raw materials. However, it would be unproductive to pit the peoples of the West and Africa against each other. As Sankara said: « The popular masses in Europe are not opposed to the popular masses in Africa, but those who want to exploit Africa are the same ones who exploit Europe; we have a common enemy.

Bakari is the fruit of all this. It is now up to us to know who our common enemy is. Outside and inside us. 

SETTING THE CONTEXT 

Between 1984 and 1987, Thomas Sankara, as president, « nationalized land to guarantee rural workers, who represent some 90 percent of the population, access as productive farmers to the fruits of their labor, increased the price he paid to farmers for the main food crops, launched irrigation and tree-planting projects to increase productivity and halt the advance of the Sahel desert zone, organized massive vaccination campaigns and made essential health services available to millions of people. 

A certain petty bourgeois Western self-righteousness does not take kindly to the discourse of the Other. She prefers not to hear it, so as not to draw the necessary implications on her own way of life and the historical responsibilities that we know. AP 

« The N‑VA wants to control and discourage illegal migration to our country. To do this, we must close the door to thousands of people who are currently abusing the asylum procedure for purely economic reasons. » NVA statement, « the land of milk », April 2011. http://international.n‑va.be, Accessed 13/1/14

« Thousands of Africans, including women and children, are camped outside the fences of the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta in the arid Rif. On the orders of the Brussels commissioners, Moroccan police are pushing the Africans back into the Sahara. Without provisions or water. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them perish in the rocks and sands of the desert. » 

« Just under a billion people live in Africa. Between 1972 and 2002, the number of severely and permanently undernourished Africans increased from 81 to 203 million. There are many reasons for this. The main one is due to the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). »

« The Sandaga is a noisy, colorful, fragrant, wonderful universe located in the heart of Dakar. Depending on the season, you can buy Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, etc. vegetables and fruits at a third to half the price of the equivalent local products. — You can buy Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, etc. vegetables and fruits at a third or half the price of the equivalent local products. 

« Few human beings on earth work as hard and under such difficult conditions as the Wolof farmers of Senegal, the Bambara of Mali, the Mossi of Burkina or the Bashi of Kivu. The European agricultural dumping policy is destroying their lives and those of their children. » 

« At the beginning of the 21st century, which is marked by a major economic crisis, the situation does not seem to be improving any time soon, as the militarization of borders and the reinforcement of controls appear to be the only watchwords of political leaders who are looking for solutions. The mass arrests of immigrants in the streets of Athens or Rabat are evidence of this climate, which is all the more worrying because many leaders, in Europe as well as in neighbouring countries, claim that migrants represent a « danger ». Migreurop, border observatory. 

« The first reflex pushes these young people to the large urban centers that are Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. There, they hope to find a more remunerative job and to benefit from the advantages of progress. The lack of work pushes them to idleness, with the vices that characterize it. Finally, they will seek their salvation to avoid ending up in prison by expatriating themselves to foreign countries, where humiliation and the most shameless exploitation await them. But does the Voltaic society leave them any other choice? Thomas Sankara 


Kairos. Tell me the beginning, how it all started? 

Bakari. Once, in the village with friends, we were talking about Europe, that Europe is good, that it is paradise. I remember one day, with a friend called Daou, we said to each other:  » Even if we are going to die, we have to come to Europe ». In 2008, my little brother told me: « I’m going to Europe, you’re going to stay with the family(2) ».

K. Why did he want to leave?
B. He wanted to leave because by coming here to Europe he could help the family. 

K. What were your ideas about Europe before you came? 

B. It was heaven. You come to Europe you have everything already, you come and you have a job, you can help your family. So in 2008 my brother told me that he was going to go to Mali, then to Algeria, then to Morocco. One day we were called:  » Bakari, your brother died in Morocco ». 65 people wanted to come and their pirogue overturned in the sea. That day I said to my mother: « I am the one who should die, I am the first son of my father, if it is like that I will leave ». I said: « Mom, you know, in Europe, one euro costs 600 CEFA francs here, when you get there you can work… 3,000 euros, you can have a lot of money… », all this so that my mother ordered me to leave. She didn’t want me to leave:  » Bakari, you don’t know anyone there « , I said: « Mom, don’t worry, it’s going to be okay » (laughs).

One day we were called: « Bakari, your brother died in Morocco ». 

Then, in 2009, my grandfather passed away and I told my mother I was leaving. I took the bus to Bamako. When I got there, I took a Malian passport because the Burkinabe passport does not allow me to come to Algeria. That’s when I said to myself, « This is not easy. It is necessary to go through the Sahara. You go from Bamako to Gao, and there you find Malian soldiers who ask you for money. And they make you suffer first so that you give the money they ask for: do push-ups a hundred times, or they grab your ears, they push you under the sun, it makes me laugh what (laughs). That day, I paid ten thousand francs for it. 

Afterwards, we were told: « you will go on foot to Algeria « . My God! We walked for three days to go to Algeria. I stayed one month at the Algerian border, then I took the bus to Maghnia, which is at the Moroccan-Algerian border. There, I found guides who told me:  » You pay us and we’ll take you to Europe ». They drove us to Oujda, Morocco. But from Maghnia to Oujda, you have to walk for two nights. That’s where I paid my first money for Europe. In Oujda we stayed for a month because we had to gather everyone together to have as many people as possible: 45 or 60. It is the guide who gives you food there. 

THE FIRST TIME 

This is where we were first put in the pirogues to go to Spain, oulala! From Oujda, they came to get us with small cars, four in front and two people in the trunk, we close to go to the sea because the police can not see you. All this is at night, we bring people to the sea. The first people to leave may wait a month, two months, in a large hole (caves) where they hide. At night it is the Moroccans who come to give you food, they work with the guides. 

K. What to eat? 

B. Only bread. 

K. Who were the people? Children, adults… 

B. There were Nigerian women with their child(ren), children not older than two years, three years, even one year. Of all ages. So we gathered everyone, at two o’clock in the morning, we took the pirogues (made of wood with a motor) and we packed everyone in them, and we gave the GPS to the captain to go to Europe. Me the first time, it was an old engine because we went up to the sea, um!… how much did we make? We went up at two o’clock in the morning and around 3, 4 o’clock like that we had a problem of engine. 

The engine is stalled, we are there on the sea. We don’t know what will happen. We’re standing there, looking at each other. Afterwards, all the food is finished. We were told « two o’clock in the morning… by 2, 3 o’clock you will be in Europe ». So we didn’t have much to eat. If it’s like that, there are people who didn’t even take food: « by 15 hours if we are in Europe… »… just water. In any case we, as our engine was spoiled at 15:00, it became a problem. 

K. The first time you left, were you sure you would be in Europe the next day? 

B.: Yes, because that’s what we were told. So I said to myself,  » By the next day we’ll be in Spain . But we had the problem of engine… we stayed in the sea until midnight, after the food is finished. Three days on the sea. Then we had no water to drink. On the sea it was cold. The first time, it was a lady who died. We threw it in the water. Then people started to die. The one who dies is taken and thrown into the sea. My friend Alou told me « Bakari, we are all going to die! I said,  » Oh, no, you can’t say that, we’re not going to die. I was sad but I started to laugh. The captain was angry with me, he took a hammer and he hit me on the head, oh my god, my god what! Then I started to cry. 

« The first time, it was a lady who died. She was thrown into the water. Then people started to die. Whoever dies is taken and thrown into the sea. 25 people died. 

25 died. There were 65 of us. Some children died too. We threw them away because we were full, you see, normally the dugout was supposed to take 40 people but there were 65 of us! If we don’t throw away the bodies, the dugout will sink into the sea. There were waves, the water came in the dugout, we had to remove the water, then the dugout broke at the bottom. It was the fourth night, we saw a helicopter turning. The next day, the navy came and took us to Morocco. In Morocco, we were put in prison and then repatriated to Maghnia, Algeria. The Moroccan soldiers take you, arrived at the border, as they cannot enter the Algerian territory they say to you  » here is Algeria, go away! On the other side, the Algerian military tells you « you don’t come back here, stay in Morocco ». Here is the disaster that is now rising… you must fight to return to Algeria! In Maghnia, there is land work (potatoes, removing grapes…) so you can manage there, working to earn food. I did a few months there, I got some money and back to Oujda. 

SECOND TIME

In Oujda, I said to myself that the guides who are there are not good. I went to Rabat, paying people to put you on the bus. When you pass through Tangier, the police can check you, and if you don’t have the papers, you are arrested and taken back to Algeria. If you arrive in Rabat, you stay there. There is no guide in Rabat, there you contribute, you buy your dugout and then you go to the sea. But you need a guide who knows the road to leave. There I found some of my former colleagues who were there, we made a contribution and from Rabat we went to Casiago, a city in Morocco which is by the sea. 

Once you arrive in Casiago, you can return to Ceuta, the city that the Spaniards bought from Morocco(3). If you go back there you are in Spain. That day, we went through the forest, the guide made us go up on the sea, at 3 o’clock in the morning. But this was not with engines and all that, but with the oar. It takes 5 days to arrive. From Casiago, to enter Ceuta, it is not far, I can say 10 kms, but there is a lot of security, so you have to go to Malaga or Algeciras. Around 12:00, the Moroccan navy took us, hop! Prison, and repatriated us to Algeria again. When you arrive in Algeria, you have nothing left. You start working in the gardens again. For three months. You sleep in the forest, with Malians, Guineans, Burkinabe, all African nationalities. We built huts and we sleep 20, 30 there. If the Moroccans need you, they will come and get you to work. If you work a little and have money, you have to cross the border on foot at night to get to Oujda. 

THIRD TIME

I came to Nador to try to return to Melilla. There I did not come to the sea. I found an Ivorian guide who told us: « Oh, I’ll take you to the fence ». It is necessary to jump a 6 meter fence(4). That day, at three o’clock in the morning we got up again in the forest (laughs) to go to the fence. We started to climb, that’s when the military came out. That day there were many who wanted to go up who got hurt, the fence caught them. That day we were beaten until I could no longer walk; they took off your shoes and beat you on your feet here (Bakari shows the flat of his foot), you can no longer walk. First Nador prison, then we take you by bus, because sometimes you are 25 I do not know, sometimes two buses. You can sit down, but if there’s too many of us, I sit down and there’s someone sitting on me you know. Afterwards, they take you to Algeria and throw you into the Sahara desert. At that moment I stayed there and I said to myself: « Ok Bakari how are you going to do? Because at that time, I had no more money. 

FOURTH TIME

I was with my friend Ibrahim, from Ivory Coast. At that time I was sick, the way they hit me, I stayed there and couldn’t work for almost a month. We worked and I said to my friend « let’s try again « . From there I returned to Rabat, then to Nador. Beni Ensar is a small village near Melilla. You are there on the mountain, you see Melilla and you say « but why can’t I come back here ». We stayed there and then we thought we would swim to Melilla. 

That day we left, we threw ourselves into the sea. We go around the port and then we enter the port of Melilla. But there are the Spanish guardias who are there, if they catch you they will take you out. That day we left around two or three o’clock in the morning, because around midnight people are in town. If they see you they call the police. The military are at the edge of the sea to prevent us from passing. That day the military were sleeping, we threw ourselves into the sea but the military woke up, they called the Spanish Navy. The guardians came. How many of us were there… 5 people. They took us out, gave us to the Moroccan military and started hitting us again. They let us sleep by the sea, in the cold. The next day they took us to jail at the port. We were repatriated to Algeria. That day, I called my mother and said,  » Mom, I’m going back, I’m not going to Europe anymore, otherwise I’ll die here for nothing . She said to me  » but Bakari, everyone knows that you want to go to Europe, and you’re going to come back like that? I said,  » No, okay, I’ll go back.

FIFTH TIME

We found ourselves in Casiago. There is a forest where all the blacks meet. There are Malians, Ivorians, Senegalese … we have all the ghettos there, Africa is there what. And it is there that we found a guide, Malian, who knows the road and who said to us « I take you along and I also leave with you « . So that day he drove us to go to Casiago. We went up on the sea at two o’clock in the morning, in a dugout, rowing. The next day at 7 a.m., the Moroccan navy took us, made us go back to prison and then took us back to Algeria. Ah, I said to myself: 

 » What are you going to do? »

SIXTH TIME

This time I worked in Maghnia, I came to the forest of Casiago. I said  » I, Bakari, will not return to Algeria to work ». I stayed in Casiago, where you have to go to a small village nearby to get food, if you have some money. As I did it 5 times, I knew the road, not to lie to you, I was the guide too. Once there were people who came: « I am looking for a guide to go to Europe « . I told them  » I can bring you, but I’m going with you « . There were two places: the old corner where you could climb on the sea, and the new corner. I took them to the new place, then we went on the sea but that day we couldn’t leave because nobody knew how to paddle… it was raining, it was very windy. My friend Ibrahim was there that day; he can’t swim. The water knocked us over on the sea. I could see it, it was going down, it was flowing. People were drowning. I took Issa’s hand… Then the military came « oh, comrades, comrades! « , they threw us a rope. There were six of us in the dugout, one of them was Adam or who? … at that time he was still in the water, he drowned. The military told us « here you are, comrades, you are told not to go to Europe… »

K. You left each time at different seasons, sometimes in the middle of winter? 

B. We don’t choose. It is necessary to calculate if there is no military at the seaside. Even if it was snowing in December/January. Even in the winter, we used to leave a lot because the military are at the seaside until maybe 10:00 p.m., and they go to their camp to sleep. 

K. Did you have big jackets then? 

B. You have to look in the trash for big jackets, in the forest you also have to make a fire and stay around. I can’t explain it all to you. After that day we were taken to Oujda — Casiago prison — Algeria. 

SEVENTH TIME

I left, I said to myself « oh, I’m not going to stay here ». I returned to Casiago. I preferred to stay in the forest than to come to Algeria. I stayed alone with my friend Ibrahim. One night the rain hit us from 6 o’clock in the evening until 6 o’clock in the morning; at 7 o’clock in the morning the Moroccan soldiers came to search the forest, to look for the illegal immigrants. We hid. At that time it rained every day. Ibrahim said to me « I will go to Rabat ». I told him « I’ll stay here, I’ll die or I’ll go back to Spain, but I’m not going back. That day I stayed alone in the forest. There was no one there, my teeth hurt. I lit the fire and stayed. I had nothing to eat. 

K. To drink? 

B. There is water in the canal. 

K. Water that is not drinkable? 

B. Drinkable? Why are you talking about drinking? (laughs). We don’t care about « drinking », rainwater is what we drink. The next day, I went to the village to buy only cigarettes. People gave me bread. Some people came and asked me to go up, to take the sea. I said « if you want we can go ». People came with a zodiac, 200 kg maximum, we went to eight people. That day we went to the sea. 

K. With an engine? 

B. You talk about engine… no! With the zodiac we have four paddles, two people, the others behind to paddle, feet in the water. There is no need to talk about food, there is not even room. That day we left on the sea, the water was not good. But if the soldiers see that there are too many waves, they say « ah the comrades are not going to leave », but that day we left. But we couldn’t leave, you were rowing but not moving; we paddled all day, we don’t even move. The next day, the water is calm and we see the Moroccan navy, we thought it was the Spanish. We were for two days a night there on the sea. We thought it was the Spaniards who were going to bring us to Europe, but it was the Moroccans. 

They took us back to Maghnia. 

EIGHTH TIME

That day I called my mother. Every time I came back, I told him:  » You have to make blessings for me otherwise… », « Bakari if it doesn’t work, you have to go back « ,  » no I don’t want to hear that, I’m not going back « . But that day I told him:  » If it doesn’t work out, I’ll go home ». But every time, in Africa, we say:  » We’ll go to the marabout  » and they say:  » Look how my child will become and gna gna gna … ». I said,  » Mom, we have to stop this. I myself am tired of it all. Every time you tell me « yes, Bakari, I went to a marabout and he said that you will go back to Europe ». ». I said,  » This is all bullshit . I said to my mother,  » I don’t believe in God anymore, even God is false. Even if God comes here to Morocco, he will not return to Europe « . She told me: « It’s over, you’ve gone crazy now, if you don’t even believe in God anymore « . I said,  » That’s how many times, 7 times, I turn, I don’t send you money or anything… ».

« Even if God comes here to Morocco, he won’t go back to Europe » 

This time I stayed in Algeria to work, I told everyone in the ghetto « Bakari is going to leave, Bakari is going to see his mother, I am not going to Europe anymore ». You even had to go to work, an intermedian was coming to pick you up. I didn’t want to go to Europe anymore but after 5 months I changed my mind. There was another convoy, through Nador, to enter Melilla. 

That day we left and Lassi, a Malian, said: « I know a marabout in Mali if we contact him you will go back to Europe », I said to him: « What are you waiting for then… ». I didn’t believe in it anymore but after 5 months, a little money, I wanted to try my luck again. The marabout said:  » We must make a sacrifice « , we sacrificed a sheep, and you know what happened to us? We met a Moroccan who told us that he had a dugout canoe and was going to take us to Europe. He said,  » I’ll take the two of them, and I’ll go show them where the zodiac is, and then you go buy it « . They thought that we had the money. But we knew, Sékou had 200 dirhams on him but the rest we left with the others. The Moroccans took us to a forest, I don’t know how many kilometers away, because they put us in the trunk. They stopped, we got out, they took out machetes and one had a gun. In the forest, there was no one, except for four Moroccans. « Comrade, dough!  »  » Flouze, flouze « . They searched us, tore everything apart, stripped us naked. They blindfolded us and made us turn around, and they left. I knew Morocco but not this forest. I said, « We’ll stay here and in the morning we’ll see where we’re going to go. We stayed like that, we did not sleep. That day I thought they were going to kill us. 

K. Do you think they could have done it? 

B. Yes. The next day we left at the edge of the road and we crossed a man with his car who took us until in forest. He gave us bread. After we went for the eighth time, we went back to where people were waiting for us. We left for the sea, we didn’t want to go far, we went around to Melilla, the guards took us and repatriated us. 

NINTH AND TENTH TIME 

You ride the bus all day, handcuffed. We give you water and bread before putting you on the bus, and that’s it. I wanted to go back, but they were going to tell me:  » You wanted to go to Europe, you couldn’t, your brother died! You will return ». I stayed there to work, selling phone cards, you know. I would go to the city to buy the cards, then I would sell them in the ghetto. Because at that time it was snowing, there was not much work. I earned some money and went back to Nador again (« in Algeria they pay you 1000 dinars — 10 euros — for a day, so not working every day, it’s not possible. So 120 euros per month was very good »). When I arrived in the Ivorian ghetto in Nador, « good arrival, good arrival  » they told me and offered me food, I don’t know where they found it (laughs). The next day they told me:  » You and Solo Béton will go to the market to buy food » (laughs).

K. « Solo Concrete? 

B. His name is Solo because he is so hard in Morocco but he still gives people the courage to go to Europe, they say to him:  » You are as hard as concrete ». So he said, « We’ll go to the market. We go down, we pass all the stores at night, after, arrived in a big garbage can, he begins to search:  » Bakari, eh yes, it is here, it is necessary to search, we come to look for condiments! « Is this the market? », « You didn’t see anything first… ».

Then we started going through the garbage, taking the rotten onions… anyway, that day I was, oh… 

K. And how did you eat before? 

B. Ah, I was doing the salam. It is necessary to stop on the side of the road the people who pass, the tourists… You are there, you say « Salam aley koum, papa walu maman walu ante misikina « , it means  » my father is dead, my mother is dead, I have no family left, I ask for food ». There are people who give you, but there are people who insult you. 

So we are there with my friend, we search and then Solo Béton shouts:  » Oh Bakari today, thank God we found meat, we found rabbit! Afterwards he lifts it, but as it was dark since you have to go and search the garbage at 10 pm otherwise the police will chase you away. So I said,  » Tomorrow we’ll make soup . We went home, dropped it off and the next day we saw that it was a cat, which was dead. Not rotten, but like he died the day before. We heated water, chillies, onions, removed the intestines… that day everyone was happy. 

In this ghetto, I made two attempts to enter Melilla, but I didn’t succeed. The military took us but they did not take us to Algeria. They took us to the forest and then left us there. I didn’t want to go to Europe anymore… I went back to Algeria myself. The ninth time I tried to reach Melilla by swimming; the tenth time, we tried by Maware, there it is very hard, you have to start walking at 6 o’clock at night until 6 o’clock the next day. There are no soldiers but to get there you have to walk for almost two days. It was the tenth attempt: we went to the sea and were caught again. 

THE LAST

I left, I stayed in Maghnia and worked there. Every time the people who had money came and said:  » We are going to Europe, the cursed ones stay here! I said:  » Now Bakari, the last one and it’s over ».

K. How many times do you know who did it when you were there? 

B. Oh, some people have done it 20 times, and then they got tired and said « I’m not going anymore ». 

K. And where are they? Did they go home? 

B. Returned? They are there in Algeria. There are some who have done eight years in Algeria. They don’t try anymore but they don’t go back home because they say  » I couldn’t come to Europe « , and that’s a great shame,  » I’d rather die than go back « . They have no life, they are in the forest. 

I said « this is the last time ». We left in Maghnia, two days later it is the feast of the sheep. We went to Rabat, arrived the day of the party, there were more police. It was in October, we went up to the sea at three o’clock in the morning because the policemen had left for the prayers of the sheep. In a zodiac, with the oars. There were 8 of us. There were waves and a friend who was coming for the first time said to me:  » Bakari we are going to die, we are going to die « . I said to him: « What are you talking about, I prefer to die than to return, you know how many times I tried to come? He wanted to return, I hit him with my paddle. We paddled, paddled until the night, we did not see any military. The next day, at 3:00 pm, I saw the Spanish Navy. Since we saw the Spanish Navy, we said:  » Oh God, today we see you » (laughs).

The Spanish navy picked us up and took us to Malaga. We were given clothes and taken to a campo. 

K. Were you happy? 

B. At that moment I began to pray to God: « I have arrived in heaven ». I asked someone for two euros to call my mother:  » All the blessings you have done … I got where I wanted « .

K. Two years…


B. Yes. I said: « Mom, forget everything, it’s over now, I’ve arrived ».

We cannot transcribe here the whole interview which lasted more than three hours, but I asked him one last question, asking him if he thought that if Thomas Sankara had not been assassinated, he would be in Belgium now. Bakari answered me: 

« No Burkinabe would have come to Belgium, no one would have come to Europe. Sankara wanted us to work. We want to work to eat « .

Bakari returned on November 17. Alone. A few thousand euros collected during a solidarity party will help him on his return. But is there a future in Burkina without a profound struggle for a change in the Western way of life, and the looting that makes it possible (5)?

Interview by Alexandre Penasse

Quotations in boxes and in the text not referenced are from Thomas Sankara and Jean Ziegler, Discourses on Debt, Elytis Editions, 2014; Jean Ziegler, Refugees of Hunger, le Monde Diplomatique, March 2008, Thomas Sankara, Discourses of the Revolution in Burkina Faso 1983–1987, Pathfinder Editions, 2007. 

www.migreurop.org is a well-documented site, with maps showing the routes taken by migrants, the deaths (known!) each year, the walls in the world, the Frontex agreements, the conditions of detention of migrants, etc… 

Notes et références
  1. La Politique Agricole Commune (PAC), notamment.
  2. Les propos de Bakari n’ont pas été modifiés pour adopter le style écrit, ils sont retranscrits, excepté quelques petites corrections, tels quels.
  3. Le terme « acheté » est criant de vérité. Ceuta et Melilla sont des enclaves espagnoles situées au Maroc. Relique du passé colonial, elle évoque toujours l’inégalité profonde entre les pays.
  4. Ceuta et Melilla sont de véritables forteresses… Des images sont visibles sur internet en tapant le nom des villes dans une barre de recherche.
  5. Bakari nous a raconté son arrivée en Europe et sa vie plusieurs années en Belgique. Nous vous en ferons part dans un prochain numéro, ou sur notre site www.kairospresse.be, bientôt mis à jour.

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