Japa:mind in west,body in Africa

In 1999, two stowaway teenagers from Guinea, Koita Yaguine and Tounkara Fode embarked on a deadly trip to ‘Europe or die’ in order to escape terror leaders at home. Unfortunately for these teenagers, they died a cruel death in the landing gear of Sabena Airlines Airbus before the plane landed in Belgium.

In a letter that was found in their pocket, it reads “To the Excellencies and officials of Europe: We suffer enormously in Africa. Help us. We have problems in Africa. We lack rights as children. We have war and illness, we lack food. . . . We want to study, and ask you to help us to study so that we can be like you, in Africa schools”.


Had it been those teenagers made it alive, they would not had regretted their actions given the state of the continent.

Paul Collier captures it better when he says, “development is about giving hope to ordinary people that their children will live in a society that has caught up with the rest of the world. Take that hope away and the smart people will use their energies not to develop their society but to escape from it.”

Many African youths are physically living in Africa , but their minds are in far away Europe. Their fatherland is not ‘fathering’ their future; their beloved motherland is now murdering their dreams. Many are no longer at ease with the land they called homeland.

They have lost the passion, they have lost the hope in the continent.


There was a time “Barsa Wa Bala”, a wolof language, meaning “Barcelona or die” was in vogue in Senegal. The Senegalese youths believed it was better to die on the journey to Europe than under hopeless and unfavorable conditions at home.

Today, in Nigeria “japa” meaning to leave one’s home country in search of greener pasture in foreign land, is on the gyrating lips of many young Nigerians. People sell their property; they left their parents to loneliness and longing and family to “japa”. The race is to the Northern hemisphere . The energy is to secure a seat on the next flight going to Europe. Their savings are targeted to getting a visa. Some sold their property to Japa. Their prayers and fasting geared towards their visa application. They are investing half of their body features on securing a visa to Europe. It is now a blessing and a call to celebration to land at an airport in Europe.

What is worse: most of the continent leavers are skillful and energetic youths. For a continent that needs its resourceful and energetic youths to be a prosperous continent losing these youths without addressing the underlying problems is saddening. These youths have exhausted their endurance. They do not see their dreams becoming a reality.