Wherefore Art Thou Black Man?

Late last year I wrote about how the mass migration of Africans into Europe was fueled in part by the abuse of microlending money as well as money gathered by families of people who often stole said money to make the trip. Here is another piece on the devastating consequences of mass migration out of Africa.

Left Behind by Migrant Husbands, Women Break The Rules and Go To Work

Before I start the quote it should be known that African woman have always "worked". Now the "kinds" of work may be different but it's work none the less. So the headline is misleading.

KOUTIA, Senegal — Years had passed since her husband had crossed the sea to look for work in Europe. Left behind, Khadijah Diagouraga trudged to the couple’s peanut fields alone every day, struggling to earn enough to provide for an extended family of 13.

Imagine leaving your family of 14 (13 kids plus wife) to go live on the streets of Paris begging for a job from the racist white man. For years.

Her husband is probably among these fellows.

When the town’s water pump broke and her faucet went dry, she tied a donkey to a cart to haul water from a nearby well, cursing her absent husband the whole way. Her action shocked this small, conservative village in rural Senegal. Guiding animals was men’s work, village leaders said.

When I read this part the first thing I was like, ummm are there no people who know how to fix a faucet? Oh right

They'd rather be on the streets of Paris then provide plumbing for their wives and kids in Africa

Imagine for a moment, you who live in a developed country, your faucet breaks and so rather than being able to call a plumber you have to load up with buckets and hike to the nearest river, creek, whatever to get your water.

“It’s not a sight I ever wanted to see,” said Baba Diallo, 70, sitting in the shade of a dried cornstalk canopy, shaking his head as if to rid himself of the memory

Say Baba, Why don't you fix the faucet? My mechanic is in his 70s so age isn't an excuse. I suppose it's just too much work to get out from under that tree.

Across West Africa, villages have been emptied of husbands and sons in their prime who set out for Europe to look for work and never returned. Women, realizing they might never see the money their men promised to send home, have gradually taken on what are seen as men’s roles, earning money and running large households of in-laws and other extended family members.

Black wives matter.

“There are a couple men who look down on me,” Ms. Diagouraga said. “I ignore them. What matters to me is hard work.”

But they cannot even fix a faucet.

Many of Senegal’s migrants come from sun-bleached flatlands near Koutia in the east that rely almost entirely on peanuts and a handful of other crops for income, even as a yearslong drought shows no sign of letting up.

Many working-age men here have given up. The village chief of Koutia estimates that in little more than one generation, 200 men from the 95 households have migrated to Europe. Many were the family’s chief earners.

Senegal is on the edge of the Sahara, but it's not the only country bordering (or full of) large sand. Sometime there needs to be a change of occupation. That aside from that, look at that depopulation number!

The lure of Europe is on display in Senegal’s villages. Amid the clusters of shabby mud-brick homes are houses made of cement, some two stories tall, painted and surrounded by cement walls. All were paid for with money sent home by migrants.

But can't invest in teaching plumbing as a craft so that one can simply call a man when the faucet breaks...

They saw the satellite dishes on rooftops and neighbors clutching iPhones. Then there was the shiny, tiled mosque with towering minaret, which the village chief bragged had been built with money pooled from local migrants. A few villagers could even afford cars.

Hey village chief, there's a broken faucet in need of repair...

Ms. Diagouraga’s husband, Mohamed Diawara, had bought a small automated mill to grind millet and corn to sell. But fuel for the device was expensive, and it was constantly breaking down. Farming was tough, too. Each harvest seemed smaller than the one before. Mr. Diawara had only one donkey to help him till the soil, while his neighbors had sophisticated plows.

Business opportunity for the owner of the "sophisticated plows": Rent the plow to neighbor for a cut of his harvest and invest in plumbing school.

Mr. Diawara had been saving to buy a new part for his mill, but told his wife he wanted to use the money instead to pay smugglers to take him to Italy. She knew it was dangerous; three men from Koutia had died trying that same year. Stay and we’ll make it work, Ms. Diagouraga pleaded.

Smuggle to Italy. Sounds like a better plan.

Work in Europe is far from guaranteed for many migrants. Mr. Diawara said in a telephone interview that he was sharing a room with four other men and sometimes went days without eating. His salary working day jobs on a cleaning crew was too little. He couldn’t afford to go home.

Was broke in Senegal. Now broke in Italy, in a room full of men. Hungry. I wonder if this could have gone differently.

And then she got to work, soaking beans for dinner and sweating as she ran behind a donkey, urging it to hoist pails of water from a deep well.

Some of the village’s few remaining young men were sprawled nearby in the shade. They lifted their heads to watch her on that baking afternoon.

“I pray God will help her see the fruits of her labor,” said Hamidou Diawara, 19. They had been there for hours doing nothing, Mr. Diawara said, daydreaming about sailing to Europe.

Not a single MOFO even offered to help.