El Dorado: Illegal African Immigrants On A Wild Goose Chase In Spain

El Dorado: Illegal African Immigrants On A Wild Goose Chase In Spain

The news of illegal African immigrants deported from Spain is no longer alarming.
Because, it has become a common case circulating the Western media everyday. The news reporters should even be tired of reporting it.
An AP report perfectly captioned the photograph above: “CHASING A MIRAGE?: Two illegal African immigrants, who have walked 550 km from the Algerian border in southern Morocco through the desert, sleeping in the open and being fed by shepherds, take rest on the road to Oujda, Morocco, on Friday.”

I watched a CNN documentary on the harrowing nightmares of these desperados wandering in the scorching desert in their do or die journey from Morocco to Spain. And the desert is now the graveyard of hundreds of the unfortunate ones who collapsed and died from exhaustion, dehydration, sunstroke and starvation.

But, what are they fleeing from?
From the poverty in Africa?
For the greener pastures of Spain?
The Eldora do of the wayfaring African wanderers in search of the Golden Fleece in the Western World. Because, their dreams have become elusive and their hopes have been shattered in heart-breaking disappointments and failures at home. So, they seek for the beacon of hope in developed countries in Europe and America and other continents where they hope to have better opportunities to succeed in this turbulent world. Who is to blame for their perpetual woes? Of course, we don’t need to look far to see the culprits and suspects who are guilty of the agonies of these deprived and dispossessed Africans who have lost hope in their respective governments in Africa. Corrupt governments that have failed to serve the common interest of their people. Corrupt and tyrannical African politicians and top military officers who have looted the national treasuries of their countries and squandered their ill-gotten wealth in the same Western world where they have forced these their fellow Africans to flee to. How many Nigerian public officers have been arrested in London for money laundering?

The infamous criminals have been making headlines in the Western media. And the others have refused to repent. In fact, they are laughing at their partners in crime who were caught for failing to outsmart the foreign law enforcement agencies. And as long as these corrupt and wicked African rulers continue to control the reins of power in African countries, more and more poor masses of African ghettos and villages will continue to flee Africa to escape to America and Europe and other prosperous countries at all cost and against all the odds militating against their survival and success.

Once upon a time, millions of Africans were kidnapped by violence and transported across the desert to Saudi Arabia and across the seas to America and Europe and they left in tears and pains during the holocaust of the slave trade. But, today millions of Africans are begging and wishing to be smuggled to America, Europe and other prosperous countries no matter the dangers they will face in such suicidal migrations in tribulations.

But, were they hopeless, homeless, helpless and powerless in Africa?
No. Because, there are what Graham Greene called, “Ways of Escape” if they really wanted to face the challenges of the struggle for survival and success in Africa as I have been doing all these years without giving up. Because, I believe there is hope and we can make it well in Africa if we join our hands and put our heads together to live and work together in justice, love, peace and unity to serve our motherland Africa in our respective occupations and professions, irrespective of our similar or peculiar handicaps or limitations and regardless of class, creed or colour. All we need is the common sense to seek out the good ones out of the bad ones, the best out of the worst and the humility to serve one another. Because, what I have discovered among the majority of the failures and disappointments in Africa is the lack of humility to serve one another. Our egos and self-esteem in our wise conceit and deceit with greediness and wickedness have led the majority of humanity astray and left the world is disarray and chaos for all of us have fallen away in our vain pursuits in the rat race to El Dorado.