Black Book V : 2 Testimony: Following the Sun
Movement; not where you are or what you have,
but where you have come from, where you are going,
and the rate at which you are getting there.
— C.L.R. James's tombstone, inscribed with a passage from his Beyond a Boundary
determined to go whether or not
a rescue operation
risking my life
no one has the name 'smuggler'
written on their chest
if I fail I fail alone
risking this I might create life
for my three children
anyone here who has no money
can sell their apartment buy a boat
and organise a smuggling trip
suffered many things in the desert
people died in the desert
my brothers my uncle's boy friends
just me and my nephew survived
by the time of the next trip
you'd already have regained
half the cost of the apartment
it's a very easy formula
not our choice to penetrate the sea
but if the government won't help us
if UNHCR won't help us if no one can help us
then the only option is to go to the smugglers
we are suspended in the air
we give them direct instructions
not to move too much
no one knew where we were going
we were just following the sun
if you have to move we tell them
just stand up and sit down don't go
from side to side if two or three start
to do that others want to do the same
that creates chaos that causes it to capsize
in Eritrea you're even afraid to talk to your family
the person next to me [in a café]
could be a spy they are looking at
what you are doing people disappear every day
we know it is cruel the seas are
treacherous
I cannot go back
to my country there is a war
in my country there's no security
no equality no freedom
capsizing boats
are a possibility but we have to
turn a blind eye as people are benefiting
financially and there is no other work
I have two choices one is to die
the other is to live if I die at sea
it won't be a problem
at least I won't be tortured
I’m in Pozzallo a small tourist town on the south coast
of Sicily in the past week more than 700 migrants
arrived 373 on Tuesday 300 on Friday and
100 on Sunday
here you don't have a destiny
you don't have education no work
you can't help your family
the inmates (of the Libyan detention centre at Zawya)
complain of beatings the camp commander
says this is just 'occasional' and
'essential for crowd control'
Every day you're just asking for help
but if you go to Europe
at least at some point in the future
you will have a nationality
you will be a human
migrants from Africa often arrive with ulcers
chemical burns from the petrol that floods
the boats’ holds skin diseases
like scabies and lice from being held in detention
in Libya often for six or eight months
it was a sight that broke the hearts
of even men of the sea like us
I saw children's shoes clothing
backpacks floating in the water
others have wounds from being tortured or being victims
of violence a couple of people arrived with gunshot
wounds they told us that in Libya it is anarchy
every time we saw a shoe or a bag,
any sign of life we thought we might
have found a survivor
but every time we were disappointed
it was heartbreaking
a 19-year-old Nigerian woman with chemical burns
over her body told me the hold of the boat
was awash with petrol mixed with salt water
two people swallowed some by mistake and died
for refugees it’s not about seeking a better life
it’s about having any life at all
I have a dream a world without borders
today more than ever
Black Book V : 2 Testimony: Following the Sun, is a conflation of material from a number of sources. The speakers in italics on the left, interviewed by Patrick Kingsley in The Guardian in two reports in April, 2015, are Abu Osama, Syrian refugee; Mohamed Abdallah, Darfurian illegal migrant in Zawya, Libya, detention centre; Bayin Keflemekal, Eritrean nurse; Sofia, Eritrean refugee; and Vincent Collins, Nigerian migrant in Zawya detention centre. The speakers in roman type on the right are 'Hajj,' Libyan smuggler; and a local inhabitant of Zuwara, Libya; and, blogging from Pozzallo, Sicily, Dr. Chiara Montaldo, Project Coordinator, Médecins sans Frontières in Sicily, http://blogs.msf.org/en/staff/authors/chiara-montaldo.The poem derives its form and inspiration from Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony: The United States 1885-
1890.
Movement; not where you are or what you have,
but where you have come from, where you are going,
and the rate at which you are getting there.
— C.L.R. James's tombstone, inscribed with a passage from his Beyond a Boundary
determined to go whether or not
a rescue operation
risking my life
no one has the name 'smuggler'
written on their chest
if I fail I fail alone
risking this I might create life
for my three children
anyone here who has no money
can sell their apartment buy a boat
and organise a smuggling trip
suffered many things in the desert
people died in the desert
my brothers my uncle's boy friends
just me and my nephew survived
by the time of the next trip
you'd already have regained
half the cost of the apartment
it's a very easy formula
not our choice to penetrate the sea
but if the government won't help us
if UNHCR won't help us if no one can help us
then the only option is to go to the smugglers
we are suspended in the air
we give them direct instructions
not to move too much
no one knew where we were going
we were just following the sun
if you have to move we tell them
just stand up and sit down don't go
from side to side if two or three start
to do that others want to do the same
that creates chaos that causes it to capsize
in Eritrea you're even afraid to talk to your family
the person next to me [in a café]
could be a spy they are looking at
what you are doing people disappear every day
we know it is cruel the seas are
treacherous
I cannot go back
to my country there is a war
in my country there's no security
no equality no freedom
capsizing boats
are a possibility but we have to
turn a blind eye as people are benefiting
financially and there is no other work
I have two choices one is to die
the other is to live if I die at sea
it won't be a problem
at least I won't be tortured
I’m in Pozzallo a small tourist town on the south coast
of Sicily in the past week more than 700 migrants
arrived 373 on Tuesday 300 on Friday and
100 on Sunday
here you don't have a destiny
you don't have education no work
you can't help your family
the inmates (of the Libyan detention centre at Zawya)
complain of beatings the camp commander
says this is just 'occasional' and
'essential for crowd control'
Every day you're just asking for help
but if you go to Europe
at least at some point in the future
you will have a nationality
you will be a human
migrants from Africa often arrive with ulcers
chemical burns from the petrol that floods
the boats’ holds skin diseases
like scabies and lice from being held in detention
in Libya often for six or eight months
it was a sight that broke the hearts
of even men of the sea like us
I saw children's shoes clothing
backpacks floating in the water
others have wounds from being tortured or being victims
of violence a couple of people arrived with gunshot
wounds they told us that in Libya it is anarchy
every time we saw a shoe or a bag,
any sign of life we thought we might
have found a survivor
but every time we were disappointed
it was heartbreaking
a 19-year-old Nigerian woman with chemical burns
over her body told me the hold of the boat
was awash with petrol mixed with salt water
two people swallowed some by mistake and died
for refugees it’s not about seeking a better life
it’s about having any life at all
I have a dream a world without borders
today more than ever
Black Book V : 2 Testimony: Following the Sun, is a conflation of material from a number of sources. The speakers in italics on the left, interviewed by Patrick Kingsley in The Guardian in two reports in April, 2015, are Abu Osama, Syrian refugee; Mohamed Abdallah, Darfurian illegal migrant in Zawya, Libya, detention centre; Bayin Keflemekal, Eritrean nurse; Sofia, Eritrean refugee; and Vincent Collins, Nigerian migrant in Zawya detention centre. The speakers in roman type on the right are 'Hajj,' Libyan smuggler; and a local inhabitant of Zuwara, Libya; and, blogging from Pozzallo, Sicily, Dr. Chiara Montaldo, Project Coordinator, Médecins sans Frontières in Sicily, http://blogs.msf.org/en/staff/authors/chiara-montaldo.The poem derives its form and inspiration from Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony: The United States 1885-
1890.
