User:Ssuuna Golooba

Ugandan-born photo journalist Ssuuna Golooba is such an immigrant. He came to the Netherlands in 2002 and was confronted with the reality of living as an illegal immigrant. After four frustrating years sleeping rough and cleaning houses and toilets, he decided to return to his country. The question of what he was going back to do necessitated his decision to tell his story in a documentary film. The idea was to make some DVD copies to take back, sell, and hope to rebuild his life in his native land.

Luckily, the producers, Jongens van de Wit Productions in Amsterdam, saw a greater potential in his story. The result of their collaboration is an international cross-media project SURPRISING EUROPE, consisting of a nine-part TV series, a documentary, and an interactive Web site.

The first pillar of the project, the documentary SURPRISING EUROPE, The life and times of Ssuuna Golooba, premiered in The Hague, the Dutch capital, on Sunday, 27 March 2011. Ssuuna's is a typical immigrant story to which many African migrants in Europe can relate. Unsatisfied with a successful photo-journalism career at a newspaper in Kampala, Uganda, Ssuuna borrowed money to embark of his journey to a supposed El Dorado. He came to the Netherlands and soon enough had the blinkers about a welcoming and prosperous Europe removed from his eyes. A few months after he landed, he ran out money and started sleeping rough.

The film dallies back and forth as it tries to show the complexities and subtleties of an immigrant life. We saw Ssuuna worked as a general factotum -- as a paper-boy and, when he could get it, as a cleaner. Naturally, the odd and dirty jobs are not sufficient to pay rent and feed and clothe the body. Lack of legal residence papers precluded the prospects of rising above his sorry state.

In the meantime, pressures from his family back home were incessant and unremitting. A sister sent a shopping list longer than her arms. The mother also would like the son to remember her as she has, for having one of her children abroad, become the toast of the village. Every distressed person in the village solicits her assistance.

Despite all these travails, the film shows many Africans plainly admitting that since life for them is always dicey, they will gladly gamble on their chances in Europe. In a pre-screening scene in Ssuuna's native Uganda, many people were simply fatalistic.

There are serious but hilarious moments like a scene where people go to church to pray for a visa and the priest fervently casts off anti-travel spirits.

SURPRISING EUROPE is a nice, moving human story of one African immigrant's struggle to juggle various permutations in order to stay afloat in a bewildering and hostile environment.

Migration is a multi-faced and very complex socio-political problem that cannot be addressed in one movie, but the failure to at least show some of the reasons why Europe remains alluring to African immigrants is one of the films weak points.

At the post-screening question-and-answer session, the director honestly admits that theirs was Mission Impossible as they cannot hope to compete with big Western media like CNN that continue to beam their propaganda to Africa.

Ssuuna himself also readily admits that he was not on any evangelical mission to dissuade people from traveling. His mission, he says, was a journalistic job to give people information. What they do with the information is left to every person's discretion.

That is the reason he chooses as his motto: "Be informed." After watching the film, those that took their chances and came to Europe will no longer be able to say: "Had I known?"

It was a message well-presented in the film. Only the most credulous will watch SURPRISING EUROPE and still harbour illusions of a rich, welcoming Europe.

Overall, SURPRISING EUROPE is a moving human story that strives to honestly tell the story of an African immigrant.

Interview of Ssuuna Golooba Femi Akomolafe (FA): First, congratulations on the successful completion of your movie. How do you feel?

Ssuuna Golooba (SG): After five years of hard struggle, it gives good feeling to see that one has achieved something.

FA: How did you come up with the idea?

SG: Actually, it was a story begging to be told. It is based entirely on my personal experiences. People do not understand what it means to be an illegal immigrant in a foreign land. Not having enough to eat; no good place to sleep, and cannot go to hospital when you're sick. And the trigger was the fire at Schiphol that killed 11 detained illegal immigrants. I was an illegal immigrant so I easily could have been one of them.

FA: How did you meet the director of the movie, Rogier Kappers?

SG: It is very complicated. I am glad that they saw the potential in my story and that we could work together to bring it to fruition.

FA: From an "illegal immigrant" to a celebrity, that is some transformation. Do people look at you differently?

SG: Ah! If you know me, you'll know that I remain the person I have always been. I like my privacy and I don't hug the limelight.

FA: What has been the reaction so far? Do Europeans and Africans react differently to the movie?

SG: The reaction, as I expected, has really been mixed. Many Dutch people are truly shocked that people exist (not live) in such conditions in their country. Many Africans find it courageous that I came out to tell a story to which they can relate. Some of them however think that it will jeopardise their status. But that's life.

FA: We saw your mother and some family members in the movie; can you tell us what their reactions have been?

SG: Luckily for me, I never hide anything from my mother. I kept her fully aware of my situation at all times. She knew all along what I went through. But the release of the film also brings her tears of joy. She receives calls from people telling her that "Oh, we have seen your son on TV."

FA: What are your feelings when you hear some Africans say that no matter what you say, they will like to go to Europe?

SG: Like I said in the movie, I am just putting out information about what the life of an immigrant is like in Europe; what people do or decide not to do is left to them. Of course, many will take heed and learn from my experience. To those who say that they will risk it, I say "good luck."

FA: What reasons do you think are responsible for Africans wanting to go to Europe at all cost?

SG: Poverty, corruption, lack of opportunity. Back home, you are limited if you don't know the right people. So, people say, let me go out and try to make it.

FA: What are your plans for the future?

SG: I plan to finish writing my book. It has taken me too long to complete; I'd like to put more time to its completion. I also will try and take the film to many African countries to let people be aware of life in Europe. We can have question-and-answer sessions with students.

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About the Author

Femi Akomolafe (see his profile on Swans) is a computer consultant, a writer and social commentator, an avid reader, and a passionate Pan-Africanist who lives in Kasoa, Ghana. Femi is known to hold strong opinions and to express them in the strongest terms possible. As he likes to remind his readers: "As my Yoruba people say: Oju orun teye fo, lai fara gbara. It means that the sky is big enough for all the birds to fly without touching wings." Femi Akomolafe's views, opinions, and thoughts can be accessed on the blog he maintains: http://ekitiparapo.blogspot.com/. (back)

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