Since the end of Angola’s civil war in 2000, this country located between Central and Southern Africa has experienced a significant migratory flow. It has been the destination of many Guineans in search of a better socio-economic situation. Discover with Dialogue Migration the migratory journey of Amadou Diallo from 2006 to 2015.

“It is in order to support my family that I decided to leave Guinea to go to Angola,” says Amadou Diallo, who ran a small business in Conakry in the working-class district of Dabondi for six years before emigrating in 2001.

However, after so many years of scrutinising potential customers who were only trickling in, he realises that this activity does not pay him enough and ends up by abandoning it.

Meanwhile, he met one of his country-man who had returned from Angola.He encouraged him to try his luck in this country. This is how he finally decided to leave Conakry for Luanda with a purse filled with 600 US dollars. This was in 2006.

Amadou Diallo went through Bamako, Mali like most Guinean migrants in an irregular situation. On the road, he went through the difficulties of the overland journey from Conakry to Luanda via Bamako, then to Benin, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Botswana. The issue is, despite all this journey, he is not able to reach the Angolan soil. His first attempt having ended in failure, Amadou is forced to return to square one, in Guinea. However, he does not get angry. His recoil was only to allow him to jump better. He tried again and managed to return to Angola in 2009. Almost risking his life as he undergoes a series of painful events along the way.

Before he arrived at his destination, Amadou dared to cross the perilous Congo river between Brazzaville and Kinshasa, to endure atrocious suffering at the various borders – imprisonment, caning, swindling smugglers among others -.  “I spent some time in Congo Kinshasa. I realised that nothing was moving. All the same, I started for 7 months to do the street trade at the end of 2006 early 2007. I finally left to continue my adventure,” says Amadou Diallo.

While in hiding, the young Guinean had an accident in the Congo while leaving for Angola. There were 36 passengers crammed into a van, he recalls. “I had an accident with other travellers, including six of my fellow Guineans. Fortunately, we had more fear than harm. But we were arrested by the police who stripped us of all our belongings before putting us in jail. To be free, we had to pay US$140 each,” he said.

Amadou was not yet at the end of his troubles. After twenty years, he still remembers it. “When I was released from prison in Congo Kinshasa, I was repatriated to Benin, empty-handed, with some migrants. Knowing Benin, I looked for my former collaborators to reintegrate me into the migrant smuggler network between Mali and Benin. I worked in this activity for several months, before going to Equatorial Guinea where I worked in the restaurant of one of my compatriots,” he said. “It was the day after I arrived in Equatorial Guinea that I got a job in a Guinean’s restaurant. At first, I received 2,500 FCFA/day. After a few months, I was earning 5,000 CFA/day,” he adds.

After saving money from catering, he decided to leave to develop his own business. 

Amadou then embarked in Equatorial Guinea in the itinerant trade by reselling bread with butter, ice, sandwiches etc. by means of a cart. As he was often arrested by the immigration police, this ended up discouraging him. He decided to leave Equatorial Guinea for Angola. But he will not succeed. Eventually, Amadou resolves to return once again to his country of origin, Guinea.

Sometime later, he returned to Angola in 2009, only then did he manage to achieve his goal. “When I arrived, I offered myself to Guinean nationals. They were the ones who helped me get a job in a bakery. Frankly, this activity allowed me to have money in Angola. I forgot all the suffering I endured on the way,” he sighs. Before hastening to add: “With the money earned, I managed to build a house in Guinea where I currently live with my wife and three children including a daughter.”

Stubborn memories, despite the test of time 

If Amadou Diallo managed to do well in Angola where he stayed 9 years, the memories of a painful past lived in an African country still remain. While he was only arrested by immigration police while sitting in the bakery where he worked, and then released on bail, several foreigners were arrested in 2015. “It had been a very dark time for the country. Commercial activities had been paralyzed. Making money was no longer easy. It was really complicated,” he says, his face saddened.

With more than 10 years of an adventurous experience in African countries, Amadou castigates the “bad treatment of African nationals in some African countries”. Amadou argues that the integration of African peoples remains wishful thinking on the continent. On this, he advises potential candidates for intra-African emigration or elsewhere to do everything to be legal. “Otherwise,” he warns, “it’s real suffering, hard life, disrespect.”