The word of the people without papers
'Parole de sans-papiers'

Madjiguène Cissé

And they now tell us that we cannot go
that there is no room on the ship
If it is a sad joke, make up your mind gentlemen
let us get to the end of this.
Later, the sea is hard.
And blood rains down.

Pablo Neruda, The Ship

In all ages, and in all latitudes, human beings have defied the worst environments by crossing deserts, seas and mountains, in an effort to meet each other. The history of the human species from earliest times has been characterised by this migration of men and women, young and old, either in long convoys or in small groups that, leaving Africa, spread themselves all over the globe, reaching all continents and islands.

Civilisations have evolved largely due to this faculty that all peoples have of embracing change. Crossing frontiers has always been one of the ways in which societies were built. This action has drawn boundaries and altered them by the signing of treaties in times of peace or by imposing new boundaries on the defeated at the end of conflicts.

Worldwide, kingdoms have grown or succumbed following the alliances contracted by their sovereigns or due to their marriages and divorces. War and wedlock, alliances and conquests have resulted in people meeting and exchanging views, thus intermixing members of the human race. Those engaged in agriculture, those minding cattle and the hunters have all wandered beyond the boundaries of their home territory, either to seek more fertile lands elsewhere or in pursuit of game. Seldom have symbolic boundary lines, real or imagined limits impeded these movements.

With time, aimless wandering gave way to commercial routes and nomadism to invasions and conquests. Blows were swapped and so was salt for wheat, iron for meat; customs and knowledge went into a common melting pot. The foregoing were the building blocks of civilisations.

Thus, in Africa, even in the days of ancient Egypt, commercial motivation induced coastal people with salt and other sea goods to move from the Atlantic seaboard to the interior of the continent. At the same time, this commercially driven movement was bringing into contact people of diverse origins, culture, customs and practices; the admixture gave birth to new civilisations. Later, with the expansion of Islam, those of animist and polytheist beliefs were peaceably or forcibly converted.

Consequently, the nutrient salt savoured more spiritual food.

Also wars, both tribal and worldwide, have caused large population movements, in an effort to escape the ravages of death, violation, torture, penury and misery.

For more than ten centuries, Europe suffered the invasions of migrants from the East: Gauls and Goths, Franks, Germans and Huns. The effects of the resulting admixture have today been forgotten by those concerned with purity of race, people, ethnicity and community. Eventually, Europe came to see itself as being the centre of the world. The illusion was confirmed by the fate of its emigrants.

Spaniards and Portuguese colonised South America. From the 18th century onwards, millions of Germans, Irish and then Italians and Poles went to the United States of America.

Other shorter migrations in search of work took the Italians to France and the Turks to Germany.

Everywhere and at all times, integrated or excluded, persecuted and held in contempt, migrants have come to live together with the nationals of the host country. This has taken years and centuries to come about. This is the road new migrants will follow.

Human rights apply to every person. When these rights are under threat, it is legitimate to struggle to have them reinstated. All human beings have the right, like their ancestors had, to travel and to be mobile - in summary: freedom to move, to welcome and to be welcomed.

Can it be said that refugees of today and tomorrow are more nomadic than the explorers who for centuries set sail from Bordeaux, Nantes or Lisbon? Are any people utterly sedentary? Freedom of movement is not something invented. It confirms an existing situation.

One day, "those without papers" in Saint-Amboise requested precisely the acknowledgement of that situation. And from that moment France debates, struggles, gets angry, reasons and even acts irrationally.

Madjiguene Cisse, Senegalese, is a spokeswoman for the group 'Collectif de Saint-Bernard', an organisation of inmigrants living in France. In 1998, she was awarded the German Human Rights League Prize. Madjiguene now lives in Dakar, Senegal.

Madjiguene Cisse shared the experiences of the 'Collectif de Saint-Bernard' at the International Seminar on Racism, Xenophobia and Gender organised by Lolapress magazine on 27-28 August in Durban, South Africa. This text is the introduction to her book 'Parole de sanspapiers', first published in France in 1999. A Spanish version of the book was published in 2000.
Translated from Spanish by Heather Batchelor.

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