Africa to Europe: Life of Miss Maria

Tell me everything you have been doing since you came to Europe” Austin said.

I didn’t remember how many times he had asked for that information in the past but right there, i felt it was time to open up to him. He was right there beside me on the bed. We were in Stockholm Sweden and it was during the winter.

I had met Austin back in Lagos in 2006 at the Lekki Beach. I was with Juliet my friend when he walked up to us. One thing had led to another and we eventually introduced ourselves. There was something about him that was very difficult to understand, He seemed too cold and confident and also seemed to have had answers to every questions.

After our time in the beach, He had come up to where i packed my Toyota Rav4 Jeep and continued talking to me even when i stopped answering his questions.

We eventually started dating but knowing that i was returning to Italy soon, i thought everything was going to end. Little did i know it was the beginning of us together.

That was how i met Austin, the most intelligent and the most dangerous man i ever met in my life. Austin Azubuike was never scared of anything. He lived his life like a programmed robot, planning his way to the end before starting anything.

My name is Maria. Not my real name because i had to change the name. The kind of work i did in Europe warranted that i changed it. Not just me, but all the other street girls. Yes, i was a street girl. Not that i wanted to be but that was where i found myself. Not just me but over 95% of all the Nigerian girls that came to Europe during that period. Only quite a few of the girls came for academic purposes. And even at that, half of them eventually ended up in the streets.

The central Europe was not meant for African girls except that the parents lived there to support you.

The purpose was mostly that the Nigerian men, who were supposed to be taking care of most of the girls, also came to Europe for the same thing; money. There was no way for them to hustle and share the money with women at the end of the day For that purpose again, there was only one thing left for the girls to do; hustle too.

European system had no special provisions for African women. The same law that guided men also guided women.

Deal on drugs and go to prison. Most men who had no hearts to deal on drugs ended up doing other jobs such as loading fridges and tyres for business men who came from Africa. Some resorted to stealing and some did whatever thing that could fetch them money.

That was the fate of the Africans who traveled through the deserts to Southern European countries forvgreener pastures.

I was born in Ekpoma, Edo State Nigeria in 1981. I was only 18 years when i was taken to Europe.

I first came to Italy in 1999.

I had just failed my second attempt at Jamb and couldn’t get admission into the University.

I was angry that i was going to wait for another year before another Jamb. Therefore when the offer to

travel abroad came, I took it.

“I don’t know why You always ask this question. You have seen and helped many Edo girls in Europe and i

am sure you know what they all did. We all did the same thing Austin, all of us” I said.

I knew he wanted to know more. I had been with him while he questioned some of the girls he had rescued. It had always been the same routine; What they did before they came to Europe, How they came to Europe, why they came to Europe, what they did in the past and all that.

I had been with him and watched as he helped these teenage girls. At a stage, i wished i had met him when i newly came to Europe but i was there long before he came.

I had decided to open up to him, although he already knew most of the things about me.

I was Born Angela. When i was young, my mother told me that i looked like an Angel; therefore she had given me that name.

I graduated from Secondary School in Uromi in 1998. After failing My Jamb exam in 1998, i waited for a whole year at home before re-taking the same exam. The result of the second attempt was also bad and i didn’t know what to do with myself.bThen she came. Aunty Pamela. She lived in Lagos Nigeria and had a small boutique in Surulere.bShe said she wanted to send me to Europe to live and work there. Her offer took away the bitter memories of Jamb and to make things better for me, my parents

encouraged and supported me to follow Aunty Pamela.

We traveled to Lagos and went to where Aunty Pamela had her shop. I spent a few days before i was told that we were going to Ghana.

As a teenager, I was trilled with such news as going to a different Country.

However, when we were smuggled into Porto Novo through Ogun State, i knew that it wasn’t going to be all rosy on the way to wherever i was going to end up.

Back in Edo State, women who traveled to Europe were making waves. We had heard so many news about how they picked up cars in the streets and how it was generally very easy to become rich over there.

We saw it as a blessing for any family to have one daughter who lived in Europe.

Chapter 2

The following day, we set out for Ghana.

We were four of us; three teenage girls and Aunty Pamela who was leading us. At the borders, she told the authorities that she was taking us to teach us how to deal on clothes in Accra. They believed her after she gave them some money as bribes.

That was how we got to Ghana and some days later, we Proceeded to Burkina Faso.

It was at Burkina Faso that one of us decided she wasn’t going anywhere again.

Amara.

She was an Igbo girl from Imo State. I didn’t know how she was recruited but i saw her at Aunty Pamela’s shop when i came to Lagos. She wasn’t a friendly person and as a result, i avoided asking her questions.

She had gotten as far as Burkina Faso and decided she had traveled enough. All efforts by Pamela to get her to continue was in vain.

Pamela was to hand us over to one man who would take us to Libya. Her own mission had ended there in Burkina Faso.

“This man will take you to Tripoli. You will travel to Italy from there. Aunty Philo is waiting for you girls. I amnreturning to Lagos tomorrow” Aunty Pamela had announced to us.

We were all surprised because we even thought she was leading us to Italy herself.

Those sudden change of plan had triggered a bitter reaction which nearly caused all of some big trouble. “I am scared and I am not following this stranger. I will follow you back to Lagos tomorrow” Amara had said.

Pamela looked at her. “Why are you scared?”. “I don’t know” Amara said. “But i can’t follow this stranger to anywhere. This is not what you told my brother in Lagos”.

“If you want to return to Lagos, go ahead but i am not paying for your transport” Pamela had said. We watched as Amara stood up and left. We all thought she was going to return since she had no money but we never saw her again.

There was no phone and as a result, we couldn’t call her. It dawned on us that she was gone for good when we waited for her for over four hours in the dirty hotel where we were lodged.

One more hour later, Aunty Pamela announced that she was going. She gave some US Dollars to the man who was going to lead us but gave us no money. I became afraid because i didn’t know what we would do if the man chose to disappear with the money. I and Nina were going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere. As we watched Aunty Pamela walked away, we knew that our fates were in the hands of God.

I had said some prayers and waited for the time when the man, who told us to call him Pascal, would announce that it was time to go.

Pascal wasn’t a Nigerian. I didn’t know where he came from but he spoke French and little English.

I guessed he was from Burkina Faso or Ivory Coast. “We leave 12 in the night” Pascal had said to us before he left the hotel where we were lodged.

The worst part of our fears when he left was that we had no money whatsoever with us. “What if this man don’t return here?” Nina had asked me. I told her not to even think about it.

“The Journey to good Things are usually difficult” I had replied. We waited for hours until a few minutes to 12am when Pascal came. He came with another strange man whom he introduced to us as our driver. “He drive us go Agadez” Pascal had announced.

We didn’t know where Agadez was located or why we were going there, we were just left in the hands of

total strangers who were supposed to hand us over to another man in Tripoli. The worst part of it all was that we feared we were going to be raped or even killed.

I regretted making that decision to go to Europe but i didn’t know what i was getting into. I had always thought that it was only through the Aeroplane that people traveled to Italy We left Burkina Faso in the middle of the night.

I, Nina, Pascal, the driver and two other girls we picked in another hotel. They were also from Edo State.

Meeting the new girls was a source of hope for us. We had agreed in Edo Language, that we would fight the two men if they attempted to rape us.

One of the new girls had brought out a knife and showed to us and said she would stab any bastard that attempted to touch her.

Just like me, the rest of the girls were also teenagers; all fresh from Secondary schools, promised a better

life in Europe and tricked into making a journey that we eventually heard many had died on.

The old Land Rover pickup dragged its feet on the sandy way.

Four of us girls were seated at the back while the two men occupied the front seats. Before 6am in the morning, we arrived in a town which i had forgotten its name.

The small town was in the middle of the desert inside Niger Republic.

The old and children stared at us as if they had never seen strangers. There was no civilization in the town and that made me understand that Nigeria was a Heaven.

We located the small local market and bought some dry bread that were as hard as stone. We had water in the pickup; therefore we ate our bread with the water as we waited beside a Mosque which happened to be the only good building in town.

We spent nearly the whole day in that village before moving again. The smell of Petrol at the back of the pickup didn’t allow us to breath well, not that there was fresh air in the first place.

The temperature was high and i understood it was the reason why we had to spend the whole day in that town.

All through the journey, i had wished that i never attempted it. But in the middle of that desert, there was nothing i could do.

We arrived in Agadez, Niger Republic before the following morning.

There was a hotel where we were taken and to our surprise, we met more Nigerian girls there.

As expected, it gave us more hope that we were in the right direction. “We stay here and wait for your man. He come we go back” Pascal had said. What?

He was going to hand us over to another stranger.

There was nothing we could say or do except obey. If we had money, we could have decided to run away but the truth was that Aunty Pamela knew this.She knew all along.

Chapter three coming soon...