I haven't watched Coming 2 America and that is partly because I believe Coming 2 America should have told the story of the many Africans that arrive America through Mexico via the treacherous amazon rainforest. No matter how many stories are shared about this dangerous journey, many still embark on it daily. Many even get duped in the process but that is not enough of a deterrent.
I listened to a voicenote yesterday in which a lady was recounting the disappearance of a fellow Cameroonian they had met on the journey. Tears came down my eyes as she spoke. When she mentioned the fact that she was four months pregnant and in that forest, I couldn't help but feel a lot of anger towards African leaders.
What will make a pregnant woman take such a journey? I want to assume that she didn't get pregnant during the journey. The 'opportunity' probably presented itself and she could not wait to put to birth before traveling. Whatever her case is, it still goes to show just how badly people want to leave suffering in Africa, that they are willing to risk their lives and even those of their unborn children.
I am not going to come here and be one of those who preach that there is nothing in the occident and Africans do not need to leave. I have lived out of Africa and in Cameroon and I can tell you that the pastures are truly greener out there even with all the isms that one has to deal with as an African in a foreign land. Many Africans who come home to try and start businesses do that because they wish they could have the living conditions abroad at home, not because life is too hard for them abroad that they want to relocate.
I know many who came from the diaspora to start businesses in Cameroon. Very few have survived. Very few even last 6 months. Businesses face challenges and surmounting those challenges is what creates value for customers. In Cameroon however, those challenges are frustrating because they are not challenges that every competitor has to face in the same way.
I lived permanently in Cameroon between 2013 and 2021. This year I have been in the US. After about a month of being here, I realized that I had not had anything interrupt any of my activities. I had not woken up to no electricity, or gotten into an argument with a driver who wont respect a traffic light. I registered a new company without ever leaving my house. In Cameroon, it took me trying and getting frustrated, assigning the task to a professional to end up having to go back and take it from him to continue then ended up getting registered to the wrong tax center and till date we are having issues because I keep paying my taxes to the wrong center and they just cant figure out how to fix it. In Cameroon, the process took me almost three months from start to finish and most importantly, cost a lot more.
I wanted to write this article to try and convince people not to make this journey but if I continue writing, I might end up explaining to them just why they are better off taking that bet. Sometimes when I come online and I look at the conversations we are having and what sparks our interests, I begin to wonder if it is the same country that people are risking their lives to leave.
I also have a feeling that talking about humanitarian crisis such as this one and assigning responsibility is being branded to be uncool. We are in a world where no one is trying to ruffle feathers. I made a whole song about it on my EP released last month. Don't worry I wont post the link and ask you to go listen. I however wrote the song and this article because this is something that I am very concerned about.
We absolutely need a documentary film on this. Dr. Arikana's African Diaspora Development Institute could champion such a project.
-Tino Foy