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Africans in Search of El Dorado in Europe and North America: Re-enacting the Middle Passage Horrors

Paul Obi-Ani, Department of History & International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
obianipo@yahoo.com

The hopeless political and economic situation facing Africans as a result of decades of military rule and civil wars have enthroned another era of forced migration on the continent. This time, the dimension is different and “voluntary” but the destinations are the same: Europe and North America. Youths in their prime, in desperation to escape the vicious economic plight and political persecution in their countries, device different stratagems to emigrate to European and North America paradise. Con men with sweet coated tongues promise easy passage to El Dorado. Family assets are sold to procure fake visas or pay guides that would ferry them across North African desert to Italy and Spain. Countless number perish in this mission impossible while thousands are further impoverished. The victims range from naïve young girls who end up as prostitutes to unemployed graduates who end up as dish washers and mortuary attendants. European and North American governments have mounted a blockade against this wave of African immigrants, quarantine those that successfully landed in hostels that are mysteriously gutted by fire under the watchful eyes of their security operatives.
This paper purports that African leaders that have siphoned their countries treasuries to coded European and North American bank accounts have not only ruined the continent’s economy but have mortgaged the future of African youths. To the receivers of stolen African wealth, the challenge is not only for restitution in form of NEPAD, but in humane treatment of these immigrants and an end to the multi-national corporations’ naked exploitation of Africa in collusion with unpatriotic African leaders.