From Gambia to Italy, the start of a new life

When and why did you leave your country?

For war reasons and work difficulties – I left the Country  because my mum was separated from my father whom I only saw three times in my whole life. My father eventually showed up somehow but my point of reference was the women of the house and I lived with my mum and sisters. He told me to go with him and leave them but I didn’t want to and neither did my mother – she was after us and insisted, she had other children but the only male child was me, I was important in the family, because in Gambia, the male is seen as the continuer of the family. I, however, took my mother’s surname, she is everything to me. I tried to go to Senegal and escape and I arrived at a school where they were learning the Koran, I was with the boys and we also grazed sheep there. My father followed me to Senegal when I was 12. I couldn’t stay, so I decided to go back to Gambia and run away from my father because I didn’t know anyone. Then my mother and grandmother wanted to send me away, we had heard about this phenomenon of migration in Europe, it was known, so they sent me to Libya and from there to Italy.