Those who cross the sea change their sky but not their soul
Horace
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– Wasn’t it scary in that boat?
– I didn’t pass it. He knew how to swim. Many others did not know. Those were more scared.
And how long did they spend at sea?
–It took us eight days to reach the Canaries. The sea moved a lot, but nothing bad happened to us.
While I am talking with Abdulaye Sylla (21) in a cafeteria in Barceloneta, the Mediterranean has swallowed a boat full of sub-Saharan immigrants who were trying to reach the shores of Greece. Hundreds die, actually we don’t know how many.
(…)
Abdulaye Sylla had gotten on his boat in 2020.
–Wait a moment –he tells me, and narrows his eyes when calculating the date–: I did it on October 24, 2020, just after the pandemic.
–And why did you get on the boat?
–In Saint Louis (Senegal), life is complicated. We had nothing. My family is poor. Ousseynon, my father, is a lifeguard and massager. My mother was at home. We are eight brothers.
–And what did you do?
–I was a lifeguard, like my father. I used to work with him, but in Senegal they pay you poorly for that job. He also taught young children to swim, just as my father had taught me. I learned on the Faihderbe river, which flows into the sea. There are many swimmers in my town. I was good at swimming. I was second in the African Championships in Nigeria, in the cadet category, and made the national team. He swam the 100m breaststroke in 1m15s.
–And the federation did not help you?
–He paid us for the material and the trips, but he did not give us money. He didn’t have it.
So he got on the boat.
–I knew that my uncle Gade had done the same thing years before. He had left and had arrived in Barcelona. I wanted the same. A friend told me: ‘Do you want to go to Spain by boat?’. I said yes, I was thinking of helping my family. I called my uncle Gade and asked him for the money and he sent it to me: a thousand euros. I didn’t say anything to my father or my brothers, I only told my mother, just before boarding. She told me that she was afraid for me, but for her to leave. I got on the boat and I was not afraid because I knew how to swim. But that doesn’t count. He would have gone anyway, even if he didn’t know how to swim.
–And in the boat?
We didn’t have a vest or anything. It was cold, there was water everywhere, the clothes were soaked. I took the trip as an adventure. There were people of all ages, including a baby, and only one woman. On November 2 we arrived in the Canary Islands.
-And then?
We were received by the Red Cross. They gave us clothes and food and took us to a shelter. There was Covid, so we spent fifteen days in quarantine. Then, if you had a passport, you could go. I had it and my uncle paid for my ticket to Barcelona. I arrived on November 29. My uncle is a chef in a restaurant and he wants to help me work there, but I don’t have papers. Although I lived with him, I spent a year walking the street, as a junk dealer.
Did you win anything?
–Sometimes, 25 euros a day. He collected copper or iron and sold it. I quit to study. I got to know Superacció: a girl recruited me and I joined the association. We are 34 young people from Senegal, Morocco, Benin… and I am training there.
(Superacció helps young people at risk of social exclusion; one of its tools is sport).
–What does Superacció give you?
-A bed and food. And bicycle mechanics classes, cooking and sports workshops, percussion and swimming. I’m on your swim team. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we go to the pool on Rocafort street and swim five kilometers.
And what do you think of your future?
–I want to be a lifeguard here, in the sea, on the beach or in a swimming pool. Or swimming instructor. First I have to finish ESO. I will do it next year and then I will enter a medium grade of sport.
–Is this better than Senegal?
-Better! I tell my friends in Senegal: “If you see a boat, get on it.”
(Today, Abdulaye Sylla and six other Superacció swimmers are taking part in the Marnaton eDreams Sant Feliu de Guíxols by Zoggs).
