The king’s offer: a helping hand to try my luck

ABSTRACT

What follows are introductory remarks and an excerpt of a conversation between anthropologist Catherine Therrien and Jackson Abena Banyomo, a Cameroonian national currently residing in Morocco, where he also works in a civil society organisation. The extract is published (in French) in the book Whoever fails becomes a sorcerer. Journey of a Cameroonian migrant who left Africa and arrived … . in Africa ¹ (Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval), where Jackson and Catherine retrace and reflect on Jackson’s journey from Cameroon to Morocco, and on his life in the country. This piece provides a vivid first-person account of how migrant people experienced the regularization process – the encounter with the state and the NGO apparatus, the logics subsuming (il)legalization – and deconstructs ‘transit’ as a monolithic concept. The extract also provides a brilliant example of decolonial scholarship, in which the anthropologist takes a step back to act as facilitator, producing an account in which her interlocutor is not only the main character but also narrator of his own story.

KEYWORD:

• Migrant's testimonial

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The title has been translated from the original French title, Celui qui échoue devient sorcier. Parcours d’un migrant camerounais parti d’Afrique et arrivé … en Afrique (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2019)

2 The term ‘illegalized migrant’ rather than ‘illegal migrant’ highlights the fact that this ‘illegality’ is primarily the result of the implementation of restrictive migration policies (Herald, Bauder. 2014. ‘Why We Should Use the Term Illegalized Immigrant’, RCIS Research Brief, (1): 7)

3 The story, first collected orally, was transcribed in its entirety, and then reworked (from the discussions that emerged from reading the first draft) in order to make the reading smoother without losing the richness of the orality.

4 After a refusal from the consulate (although he had gathered together all the necessary paperwork), Jackson finally obtained a first visa to participate in an eleven-day work mission to Paris in March 2018. He has since returned to France on three more occasions: when he went as a tourist (summer 2018 and summer 2019) and then as part of a symposium on migration (November 2018).

5 In September 2013, Morocco launched a new migration policy. A first regularisation campaign for undocumented migrants took place between 1 January 2014 and 31 December of the same year. A second campaign was launched in December 2016.

6 Jackson signed his first work contract with Caritas in May 2017. In May 2019 he signed a permanent work contract.