The “slave” who quotes Shakespeare

Praça de Figueira, Lisbon: lunch break has just finished and everybody is hurrying back to their jobs. Everyone except the tourists sitting in the cafés, a few birds pecking at crumbs, and some old men loitering in the park. We are here to talk to the African immigrant community about their journey to Europe, but it’s not an easy task.

Copyright Alexandra Bertrand

We try approaching some people, but most of them only speak Portuguese and are not friendly to us – three white smiling students asking for an interview in English. We’d like to know something about their living conditions, but it seems that no one will talk to us. Until we find a young man from Angola, who introduces us to his friends. We invite them to talk in a café: talking is easier with some refreshing drinks.

John Baley Wiston is a healthy man. His hands are strong, but his eyes are gentle and his voice is pure. He has a lot to say and finally he found someone who is interested in the hell he lives in. He’s 43, but he looks older. Life hasn’t been easy on him since he arrived in Portugal in 1993, on June 6. He remembers this day very well as he arrived from Liberia, a formal British colony with a name full of hope. I ask him why he didn’t move to England instead and he simply replies: “I came here by coincidence, I had no choice. It was during the war in Liberia. The only way to save your life was to jump on any wagon, so I came here by boat. It took two weeks”. Even though he has been a legal resident since 1997, John doesn’t feel Portuguese: “The emotions, background and mentality are different”.

Like many male African immigrants in Lisbon, Wiston works in construction as a labourer. The work of a labourer is dangerous and involves little financial security: “Many people die, but if you refuse to do something, they fire you. These are only temporary jobs and it happens that we don’t receive any money for the work we have done”. Supervisors are called “gargados” and their strategy is trying to shy away from their responsibilities: “They have no respect, they intimidate you and abuse you, telling you any type of things”, says John, “They make you feel like a slave”. Labour unions exist, but they can’t work if workers first don’t speak out. “Africans from Portuguese colonies never speak out. They are scared, they’ve never been used to having labour rights. Africans from British colonies don’t behave like this. But if we are divided, as workers and as Africans, we will never change things”. Sometimes the government organises security checks, but they’re insufficient.

Faith and music

Copyright An-Sofie Kesteleyn

John lost all his family in Liberia, and hasn’t been able to go back and visit his homeland, nor can he afford to move forward with his life and start a new family. He is stuck in time, a prisoner of a dreadful situation. If he had the opportunity to study and learn something, if Portugal gave him this chance, things would be different. He would like to have his own business, he would find his own way, anything which could make him independent. Then he would send money to his country. “I’m forced to do my job. There’s nothing I can do here. It’s not question of liking it or not.” If he could say something to the European Union, he would say: “There are so many Africans who could be engineers, lawyers, because they studied, but they don’t have the opportunity. If you don’t want all these immigrants to come here without any role, you have to start solving the problem from the roots. You don’t have to think about Africans here, but you have to help Africans in Africa. They need technologies, schools and hospitals. Without money they can’t do anything. My generation has problems, the forth generation will have more and more problems. Poverty is not a natural thing, it’s a man made thing, caused by capitalism”.

John is charismatic, full of information, and is always smiling, even though inside he is sad: “I feel like I am handicapped by this senseless world”. But he trusts in the next generation of Europeans – maybe the future will be better. For the moment, he has to face reality. “The most important thing is to find a form of relief for yourself. I find it in faith and in music: ‘If music be the food of love, give me excess of it that suffice the appetite’: it’s Shakespeare.” I ask him to write the quote on my notebook, because I can’t remember it. His hand shivers, the letters are barely legible.

Ilaria Lonigro