SOCIETY TALK: The curse of black tax in diaspora

As a first generation diasporan, I am torn between my home of birth and my home  of residence. Many people who move abroad for greener pastures find themselves stuck in limbo. Some people, like myself, realise at an early stage that we would not want to live in these countries for long.

Along come our people who start implanting ideas in our heads. Ideas such as, “Invest in your future here.” “Buy a piece of land and build for your retirement.” As such, we are encouraged to send money home for our retirement plans.

This is, of course, separate from the regular black tax that applies for every working young person in Africa. The black tax that includes taking care of our ageing parents, our younger siblings and, of course, the extended family as a whole.

For the purpose of today’s article, we will focus solely on the black tax for retirement, where we are pushed to send money home so that our families can invest ‘properly’ for us. Most of them make it sound like they are in our corner, that they are doing this volunteer work for our benefit. After all, who wouldn’t want to see their child or sibling be prosperous?

Unfortunately, the world we live in today has become so evil that everyone is capable of the highest forms of deceit. Imagine being scammed by the people you trust the most. The people you spend your last dime to help because you imagine they would do it for you.

Alas! Some of us are nothing but a steady pay cheque for the people at home. Once we stop being a free ATM, we become useless.

A video of a young woman went viral a couple of weeks ago as she narrated her ordeal coming home to malnourished kids, whom she had left in the care of her own mother. She also came back to zero savings and investments, even though she had been sending money home for this purpose every single month. Instead of being greeted by a happy family, she was greeted by disgruntled people who had no use of her being home as she should have been working to provide.

Another story that went viral on TikTok was of a Nigerian woman who had to go rescue her father in Nigeria as he was held prisoner by his own siblings. They had no use for him but they kept him alive (barely) locked in a room without medical care, even though he had suffered a stroke. Why did they do this? Because the man was receiving a pension of $5,000 (Sh645,815) a month. The worst part was that the siblings had him locked up in his own home that he had built for his retirement.

These stories are many, they transcend borders and ethnicities. Many people all over the world have been taken in by their own family members. The more stories you hear, the worse it gets.

The people at home do not care what we go through to make this money. They do not care about the hardships we face. They only care about their monthly pay. Black tax has stopped being an expectation, it has become a demand. A right of sorts.

I hope to share an important lesson for those in the diaspora: real estate will never run out. If we do intend to retire at home, then we can always buy property when we move there. We do not have to give into the urgent demands of “the market is good now”.

We should also minimise the black tax we send back home and invest for our own future. If we cannot take care of ourselves in old age, I guarantee that no one will take care of us. As such, it is important to be wise and master your own retirement plans.