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Princess
Cameroon toward the US: Juju, political persecution and domestic violence cause a blind mother of three to leave Cameroon
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1
Home: Cameroon
I had to leave Cameroon. I protested in the marches and the government began to search for me, hunt me down. I have been beaten and tear-gassed many times. I am English-speaking, and the government is French-speaking. The government treats us like animals.
A friend had told me that in Brazil life was better than in Cameroon. One night when I knew the police were looking for me I took a bus to the border of Nigeria.
2
Abuja, Nigeria
In Abuja, I met with a pastor we called ‘the Bishop’. I had learned about him through a friend. The Bishop also told me that Brazil would be a better place for me. He arranged and paid for my bus trip to Lagos and my flight to São Paulo. I took only US dollars with me.
3
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Once in São Paulo, the authorities kept me for one week at the airport. I slept on a bench while they questioned me. But, really, though I did not like being in detention, they were very nice and fed me three meals a day. I kept saying, ‘If you return me to Cameroon, you have killed me.’
After being released from the airport, I stayed in São Paulo for two months. A friend who I had been staying with became pregnant. I later learned that she had the baby many months prematurely. But I had to leave her in her pregnancy and move on. There was no work for me in Brazil.
4
Lima, Peru
I left Brazil with a Cameroonian guy and his older brother. It was the three of us traveling together. We went by bus and it took about a week to reach the border of Peru.
In Lima at the bus station we met up with another group of Africans—including a Ghanaian and a Togolese. We had not known each other previously. There were about seven of us traveling together to Ecuador by bus.
5
Ecuador
In Ecuador I had to stop. My glaucoma was getting worse. As you can see I am blind. I found a landlord in an Ecuadorian town who was a Senegalese soccer player. I now like to call him ‘Footballer’. Footballer had no money, but he was very kind. I had no money either.
Up to that point, my traveling companions had helped pay for everything but they too had to move on. So they left me in the care of Footballer. He was so nice. He liked me for me and we fell in love. But I was determined to keep moving. Footballer helped me. He found—I don’t know how—the money for my bus ticket across Colombia to the Caribbean coast. So I left.
6
Colombia
In Colombia, the authorities stopped me: I had no visa. They told a similar thing to a man on the bus. The man and I bonded on the ride back to the Ecuadorian border. The man—I call him ‘Prof’—had money and so he helped me out. He wanted to go to Peru. I said, ‘No, no, not Peru, Prof. We mustn’t go there. We must go to Ecuador. You can stay with Footballer and me.’ He agreed and we returned by bus to meet up with Footballer.
7
Turbo, Ecuador
Prof and I stayed there [in Peru] for a few weeks until we formed a new plan. “Footballer told Prof: ‘You must take care of her. She cannot see. She is blind.’ Prof and I set out for Colombia again, this time we knew whom to pay [presumably whom to bribe]. We went through Colombia fairly quickly, stopping in Medellin to change busses.
8
Capurgana and the Darién Jungle
From Turbo, Prof and I took a boat to Capurganá [crossing the Gulf of Urabá]. There, we found a guide to take us through the Darién jungle. We walked for two days and came upon a woman with a broken leg. She was also trying to travel north over the same mountains as we, but with her leg broken she could not move. She had been left for dead. Prof said he could not leave her and would not. He urged me to go on. I could not. I was too alone.
Prof found a group of ‘blacks’ and ‘whites’. The blacks were a group of five—a family from Cameroon. The whites were from Ethiopia. They were traveling as a group of ten and Prof convinced them to take me through the jungle. I wished he hadn’t. I could not see and the whites wanted to move faster. We made our way walking. The mafia [armed bandits] stopped us and robbed us of everything we had. They took my phone and all my money. When I emerged from the jungle, I had nothing.
9
La Cruz, Costa Rica
In Costa Rica, a soldier helped me out. He gave me $21, enough to buy a bus ticket to La Cruz, where we are now.
A woman at the bus station gave me $40 and told me to buy a phone. I called Prof—I had memorized his number—and learned that he had made it back to Capurganá with the woman with the broken leg. She is now in the hospital. The army in the jungle brought in a helicopter and flew them to Capurganá. They are like that, the army. They turn us back, but they also help us. They are our enemy when we don’t want them and when we need them, they are our friends.
10
Puerto Soley, Costa Rica
Last week I negotiated with my contact [smuggler] that I would pay $150 to get through Nicaragua to Honduras. He was charging everyone else $330. I convinced him that I could recruit more clients for him. In both the CATEM and my hostel, I found him fifteen people willing to pay $330 each. They came to pick us up in cars and took us to the bay [Puerto Soley]. We walked on foot for a while till we got to our boats. There, I huddled in a small fishing vessel with about half the others. We traveled for four to five hours in the dark and finally reached the shore. We exited the boats, then walked through a forest for about an hour. Waiting for us at the end of our walk was a large truck. Also, two men on bicycles were circling the truck. One of them was talking on his mobile, and kept staring at us. We got into the back of the truck and the driver drove us for about thirty minutes when we were intercepted by a patrol car. The next thing we knew was that we were surrounded by police or immigration officers, or both.
I think Mama Africa’s men [a local smuggling ring] were the ones on the bicycles. Someone in La Cruz had tipped them off, the bicycle guys, and alerted them that we were coming. Mama Africa is very competitive. In the end, I did not select her because her prices were too high and she was not willing to negotiate.
11
La Cruz, Costa Rica
They returned us by truck to the border and once across it, we took taxis back to La Cruz and the CATEM. I let my smuggler know that we had been returned. He seemed to have this information already and promised that without paying more, I could try again. He told everyone who had paid $330, that they would have to pay another $80. He asked me to pay another $150—for a total of $300—but I said no. I would only pay $50 more.
When we met up to make the crossing attempt, he said that I would have to wait because he had customers who were willing to pay more. He was very nice and said, ‘Don’t worry, I will take you, just not tonight.’ That was last night and I will try again tonight.