Samson Gatto is one of the many Africans who leave home in search of a better life in the West. Ubupagasi, meaning working hard for little money, is related to the Ugandan slogan kyeyo. Kyeyo, a Ugandan expression, originally referred to people who leave their country to sweep the streets and clean toilets in developed countries like Britain, the United States and Canada. Ubupagasi and Kyeyo have taken on a broader meaning, referring to all people who work abroad, whether their jobs are considered glamorous or not. What they all have in common, is that they are all away from home, working hard. The terms now mean earning ones livelihood in a foreign, often more developed, country. Gatto like so many others has decided that a life in Britain would be better than a life in Africa. And like so many others he has undertaken the enormous challenges to make his dream come true. The process of reaching the ‘Promised Land’ begins with getting a visa. Convincing the visa assessment panel to grant you a visa is no easy feat. Finances must be organized, a mountain of paper work needs to be sifted through and completed. People even resort to forging the necessary forms to prove that they can afford a visit to the West. Hopeful applicants will even approach the rich in the hope that they will pretend to sponsor their trip and hand over bank statements as the necessary proof. This called for relatives and friends to mobilise what they could since he did not have any parents. As if that was not enough of suffering, he did not have enough pocket money. In his application forms, he claimed to have 700 pounds for up keep during his week visit in London. Perhaps the biggest challenge is paying for one’s air fare. People often resort to selling their property; such is their determination to move abroad. Gatto was lucky enough to be able to turn to relatives and friends to secure the necessary funds. Visa and ticket are in hand, but the challenges are not yet over. Gatto describes the fear that enveloped him upon touching down at Heathrow Airport, London. He was after all entering the country on a short term visa with no intention of going home any time soon. He explained in an email written from UK how he gabbled his way through passport control: “the weather is not good enough here, so I will spend three days and £450 will be enough.” He was in! But what next, how was he to find his friends? He left the airport terminal to call an old school friend who had promised to put him up for a while. He eventually got in touch with Kasame Brian, an old school friend who promised to come and pick him up once he’d finished work. “While waiting, I got nervous that I might be arrested for being idle. So I begun roaming the cold streets,” Gatto said. Finally Kasame found me and took me to his home somewhere off Old Brompton Road, London. Within a few days Gatto had made contact with Rutwaza, another friend from school, who promised to give Gatto his work permit and to help him find work. Gatto with false papers found work in a supermarket and was paid weekly into Rutwaza’s account. After a month’s work Gatto was confident that he had saved some money. To his horror Rutwaza had claimed most of his earnings as a fee for use of his work permit and bank account. “He threatened to call the police and report me as an illegal immigrate,” Gatto explained. He was left no choice but to watch his earnings be taken from under his nose by his so-called friend. Gatto was able to find another permit but his job in the supermarket was lost. He has lived in Britain for four years now and it has been nothing like what he imagined. He has been forced to forge a work permit without which, options are very meager: most likely one will be forced to accept either a factory job, work cleaning other people’s houses, looking after the elderly or child minding. “Its not very promising when one has a university degree or a master’s degree, yet it beats begging in the streets or depending on relatives overseas to send a monthly allowance.” Gatto told of the appauling conditions in which he and others like him live and work: “Often at work, the factories are health hazards, with no windows or decent ventilation. The employees are not protected from potential harm.” Immigrants on the whole live on the edge, constantly looking over their shoulder, terrified that they will be caught by immigration officers and deported. “Once in a while factory swigs are done, where immigration officers and the police come into factories unexpectedly and catch more than our average number of illegal immigrants and shipping us off home,” Gatto said. Immigrants find themselves working between 12 and 16 hours a day. They have no rights and are thus abused. Nannies for example are hired to take care of children but end up also cleaning the house and doing the laundry. Gatto explained that while you may get paid more in the West, the cost of living is so much higher that it is just as difficult to make ends meet. These illegal immigrants are not just from Africa. There are those from Asia, South America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe all competing for the same miserable jobs. Despite these challenges there are those who send money home. The pressures from relatives can be immense. In the knowledge that Western salaries are much than those back home, families forget that the price of living is also much higher, and inundate those who have flown the nest with requests for school fees, hospital bills and other such expenses. Gatto explained that the work that goes into ubupagasi or kyeyo money cannot be underestimated. There are those who make it. Gatto knows of Africans who have bought houses in UK, and those who have having bustling businesses. Some even manage to do the jobs that they went to university for. But the sacrifices they have made along the way have not been forgotten. There was a time when Gatto believed that the streets of London were paved in gold. He has walked those streets and it turns out they are made of concrete not dissimilar to the ones back home. Ends
