This was my favourite KCSE exam question. It came from my favourite subject, Swahili literature. This question gave me the freedom to critique, criticise and be vocal on my opinions of the things I disagreed with in the story.
The saying “Shilingi yang’ara yaua” is loosely translated to "All that glitters is not gold" in English. However, the loose translation makes it lose the grit of the warning.
Realistically, the saying would translate to “Money is enticing, but it kills”. It is a harsh warning for those who have a desperation to just get rich. They don’t care about the how or the why. They have an attraction to money and seek to get it by hook or by crook.
A video by BBC Africa has gone viral for its in-depth exposé of Dubai Porta Potty, a topic that I have basically exhausted my opinion on. However, what I can share now regarding this topic as exposed by the BBC is the awareness of it all. In this era of the information age, it only takes seconds for information to be spread to the people.
The information about the dark underbelly of working in the Middle East or the diaspora in general has been around for a couple of decades at least. In the beginning, we found out about the enslavement of people who worked long hours for very little pay. We also learnt about the poor living conditions of migrant workers in the Arab countries. The worst was exposed to us during the #Dubaiportapotty saga.
At the time, when the story was exposed, we were told of the influencers who promoted a certain lifestyle on their social media but the reality was they got crapped on by wealthy men in the Middle East. They were paid handsomely for the degradation. All their followers saw was a glamorous life on social media that the influencers claimed was paid by social media.
I suppose as the demand for girls to defecate on and humiliate in private grew, the supply was generated by the likes of Charles ‘Abbey’ Mwesigwa, a Ugandan man who resided in the UK. Abbey was accused by multiple people of running a prostitution ring in Dubai. He lured young women from Uganda with promises of finding them work only to enslave them into prostitution. Abbey has been arrested since the release of the BBC exposè.
Although most of the young women caught up in these unfortunate situations come from poor backgrounds and are desperate for work, some of them know just what they are getting into. These women are desperate to lead the glamorous life portrayed by some of the rich and famous people online. They want nice heels and expensive bags. They want to post photos on yachts and extravagant parties. They want a life they cannot afford. So they turn into these get-rich-quick schemes. Hey, what is a little degradation in private when you can post opulence in public?
It's getting harder and harder to feel any empathy for people anymore. It is unfortunate because what is happening to these young women is a crime of the highest magnitude. The people doing this deserve harsher punishments than death.
But we have to be realistic. Influencer lifestyles are fake. The idea of finding greener pastures in the diaspora is outdated. Sure, there might have been a point in time where people made a good living in the diaspora. Not any more. As an African in the diaspora myself, I have repeatedly warned people off the fallacies of the diaspora. Even those with high-paying white-collar jobs are struggling to live on their salaries. To imagine oneself living a good life because of working in the diaspora is a dream that needs to be squashed.
Young Africans need to take their chances with surviving at home because what is waiting out there in the diaspora is a monster that is much worse than going to bed hungry.
