Abdousalam

"I left Gambia in April 2023, and went to Mali, then across the desert to Algeria, and then to Tunisia. The longest walk I had was for 15 days.

Kasserine is a very dangerous place in Tunisia. There is so many mafia people there, who attack Africans - only black Africans. They will attack with knives or even dogs and take everything you have - telephone, money, clothes in your backpack, some would even take the bottle of water that you drink.

So, I walked to Sfax, to this informal settlement in the city center where all the black Africans sleep and spent a night there. People sleep there, have their shower there, etc. But this settlement is not a place for a human being. There is no a place to rest. Some sleep on cartons, some sleep on bare floor, some on the grass.

After one night there, I decided to go to "Zeidun" [rural area in the surroundings of Sfax] and stayed there for about two months. That area is like a village. There are not so many houses, but the people living there - not all of them, but many of them - are very, very good people. They are very, very afraid to help, but still they help us. If it is time to eat and you go there [to the houses], they will give you food and water. Sometimes, some of us would go to the highway, and some people would give us a few coins, so we buy some groceries to cook for ourselves. This is how we managed to survive.

But it's not easy. You survive here with what you have, and not with what you want to have. It is what happens there. If you have something today to eat, you take that. If you don't have it, you wait for your chance.

But it's not easy. You survive here with what you have, and not with what you want to have. It is what happens there. If you have something today to eat, you take that. If you don't have it, you wait for your chance.

Even if you go to one's house to drink water or eat food, they tell you that you cannot stay. They say that if the police see us here, as villagers, they will have problems; that their government doesn't allow them to help black Africans.

One day, after a Tunisian called me “African”, I asked him: "Where is Tunis located? In Europe or in Asia?" The Tunisian said, “In Africa”, so I asked him: "Then why do you call us Africans? You are Africans like us." He didn't say anything, just smiled."