2

INDEX

Prelude

Introduction

First contact Interview

Prudencios Interview

Historical background: Timeline

Official Data

Mali in Spain

Suitcase

Somewhere I Belong

Label me

The process of finding a new home in Spanish and

Canada: Documentation and laws for immigrants and

refugees

3

4

5

11

21

26

27

28

30

31

33

3

I was born in the North;

My family is from the South;

I left to the West.

I was too black for the North;

I was too white for the South;

I was left in between.

I carry papers that describe me;

I carry labels that entrap me;

But papers will not define me.

"Who are you?"; "Who am I?", I will reply: "I am black."

"I am successful, I am nice.

I am handsome... and a free man."

Bring me the flags, bring me the suitcase!

I might lose one, I might get another,

But I am me, even though my identity is not fixed.

My life is a journey to an unknown destination...

Let me guide you to the inner me.

4

Introduction

This portfolio is about Prudencio Dembl, a twenty-two year old boy who was born in

Spain but whose parents are from Mali. He is a man who has lived in three different

realities: the Spanish, the Malian (on a trip back to his origins) and the Canadian one

(because his family moved there). Through his eyes, we are told a story, his story; about

how different those places are, about how he experienced different cultures and, above

anything else: His sense of identity. Is he Malian? Is he Spanish? Or maybe he feels

Canadian? In order to explore those ideas we divided this project in two parts: the

official truth and the personal truth, or the theoretical and creative ones. The first part

contains background information about Malis history, Mali in Spain through statistics

and associations, and some documents on migration. The other part explores Prudencio

as a transnational person in many artistic forms: a DIY suitcase, a drawing and a cloth

doll.

Who is he? How does he feel? Sometimes we cannot discover him fully, but by

listening to his voice we can have a taste of his feelings.

5

FIRST CONTACT INTERVIEW

First meeting with Prudencio, from which we could get a summary of his life and,

therefore, develop deeper questions about the issues he tackles. It is set in an informal

environment, at the pub, as natural as getting to know ones friend by hanging out. It

shows the warm atmosphere of the conversation, despite the sad facts that are

sometimes described. Here is the first contact:

ELENA: First of all, something my group has asked me about, something they wanted

to know about you. How do you feel like? Do you feel Spanish, Malian or Canadian?

PRUDENCIO: Spanish-Canadian.

ELENA: So you already feel Canadian.

PRUDENCIO: Yes.

ELENA: But you have been there for a small time... well. Also, we want to know about

your parents situation, and Mali, the Civil War...

PRUDENCIO: My mother and my sisters went to live to Mali in 2010.

ELENA: Wait, I meant the beginning, before you were born... How did your parents

come here? I mean, did they have papers?

PRUDENCIO: My father came with an entry visa. And then he got married, and took

my mother here as a familiar reunion.

ELENA: But did he marry a woman from here?

PRUDENCIO: No. First he married my mother, then he came here, he got a job. He

said I want to take my wife here and that's it. In my mother's passport it says

October, so my mother came pregnant. They got lost; she didn't know any language...

ELENA: And did your parents work on something in Mali?

PRUDENCIO: In the fields... livestock; they worked on agriculture.

ELENA: Ah, very good... At least they had papers...

PRUDENCIO: No, they didn't.

ELENA: So how did they come?

PRUDENCIO: With a fake visa. You go to the Spanish consulate and say Come on,

give me a visa and he got one... Spanish, eh? In Africa it is very easy: you pay a lot of

money and that's it, nothing happens... but in the end they were caught. It is 6000 euros.

ELENA: Dear me... And did they come by plane?

PRUDENCIO: My father tried to come up to 7 times. He was deported.

6

ELENA: But in the end he managed to have what he wanted: he has a good job, a house

and a family that has what they need.

PRUDENCIO: Yes, at first he wanted to enter just like everybody. To enter France, of

course. It was 1954. He tried, he tried, but in the end he said Spain. And he managed

at the first attempt, but look...

ELENA: Following what you have said... what was your father's job here?

PRUDENCIO: Before anything else, in an ironmonger's. Illegally, of course. And when

he got the papers, he worked with the junk for many years. He earned a good deal of

money. Now he does not, it is a shit. In the past he could earn a good deal. But the silly

man got used to it and he didn't want to work anymore.

ELENA: Your parents also wanted to make you work, but the social worker said no...

right? Then, you have commented something about your mother, that she came back to

Mali.

PRUDENCIO: Exactly. Let's see, I will explain it by myself since I am the protagonist.

In 2010, my mother came back to Mali because she didn't want to come here; they all

went there. Then there was a big argument. They said: we don't have any relative

abroad, then they said Prudencio, go abroad.

ELENA: Did they throw you out?

PRUDENCIO: Yes, they expelled me. They got me a fake passport. I took the plane, I

arrived here, and I threw the passport. I stay here and I don't have to leave Europe. First

I went to a house of Gambians, of people from Gambia. In 2011 my father came back.

In 2013 there was a coup d'tat. Some tourists came to the village, and they saw that my

sisters could speak another language: Spanish, a language they didn't understand. They

thought my sisters shouldn't have to stay here, and they recommended my mother to get

them a visa. They called my father because of this issue and they said that if my family

did that, they would give them money, to my sisters, as always. In three months my

sisters had both the visa and the plane paid. We were shocked. Why? Why did we get a

visa all of a sudden? This is very important: we said no, no, no, and the visa people

insisted. My sisters were girls and Islamic militias were approaching the village. My

mother came back to Africa to stay with the family, to not being separated from them

again. My brother's wife said: I want one too, but she was denied, the tourists kept

insisting (about the visa) because they wanted my sisters to study, because they knew

numbers, and in the end they gave my mother, my older brother and his wife, that is,

that my nieces also got a visa. In the end they finally convinced my mother.

ELENA: So, did you have to come back to Mali after high school?

7

PRUDENCIO: For holidays, and in the end that wasn't holidays. I wanted to stay here

forever. There you are threatened every day, unlike here. My sisters had a certain age,

they had to get married, and my mother said no. Those militias are not really Muslim, it

is not for the Muslim law, they pass for Muslims.

ELENA: Especially in the Quran, talking of so much violence.

PRUDENCIO: It doesn't talk about violence, but they use it because they want to. My

mother insisted because she didn't want to leave, still telling my father: if you go to

Canada, the protection system is OK, etc. My father, glad; my mother, not. She did not

believe it because since she came to Spain she has suffered.

ELENA: Oh, really? Why?

PRUDENCIO: She didn't like it, she wasn't used to. And until the Jihadist weren't

within our village... well, you won't like what I'm going to say.

ELENA: What?

PRUDENCIO: Many girls, who were pregnant, for going to and fro, committed suicide.

Suicide in the river, of course. And then my mother said We should better leave. My

father did all the paperwork, it was difficult and they had to leave through Senegal

instead of entering Bamako, because the roads were dangerous. It was a disgrace for my

brother's wife, because she neither wanted to. And she saw that they were three girls to

be protected; my brother escaped: either you escape or you join the Jihadists. He went

to Senegal to seek for asylum, so she was left all alone. It is not going to happen

anything to my mother because she is old. 43 years old.

ELENA: But being 43, you are not old.

PRUDENCIO: In Africa you are. At 50, you are already dead.

ELENA: Dear me... let's continue. They took you from Africa.

PRUDENCIO: In 2010, two months after: Get out of here. Of course, I'm a boy.

ELENA: So you came here, with the fake passport... Fake from where?

PRUDENCIO: Fake from Mali. Because otherwise I would have to pay the visa and

there's a control in every road. If they see that the passport is foreigner, they said that it's

not valid and you have to pay 1000 franks.

ELENA: And what did you do when you came back here?

PRUDENCIO: I went to a house of Gambian Negroes. Hey, I didn't want to go to a

child protection centre.

ELENA: So, did you stay with another family?

8

PRUDENCIO: Yes, they told me to come, as friends, like if I say Elena, come to my

place. Friends of my father. They were very welcoming; this is why we are like this

now... bitter.

ELENA: Then do you feel African or not?

PRUDENCIO: Yes, because I follow an African root, but I don't feel Malian. I'm

European... I'm black and handsome, that's it. [Laughs]. Jealous, arent you?

ELENA: Yes, a little, but look, I'm white... [Laughs] It's what I have. Then you went

with this family...

PRUDENCIO: Illegally. A 17-year-old boy that goes with a family that it's not his.

There wasn't an official leave from my parents, just a phone call: Yes, he can come, he

can come.

ELENA: Did you start to study then?

PRUDENCIO: Vocational training. Childhood education technician (Tcnic en

educaci infantil), middle level. First I went to the Health path (rama de sanidad), but

everything in the list was cleaning old butts. And the last option was childhood

education. And this is what they gave me, I was very disappointed. The preinscription

offered me 6 options, I wanted to do the one on the teeth. But no, the 6th option. I

studied a year and a half, because I couldn't enter the LOE, I got the title, I did

internship training... and I liked it. At the beginning they f***ed me up, the first day in a

kindergarten, all little kids, I didn't like it at all. The second day I had more autonomy, I

liked a bit more. I will never forget that kindergarten. I started to play with the children,

when we finished we took the children to their parents with the titular de guarderia...

and instead of saying hello and goodbye, they started to ask me: What's your name?

Are you new here? We've never seen an African here. After I finished the internship

and I worked as monitor and then as a dining hall instructor (monitor de menjador). All

because I listened to that family: Look, now you have this, get the instructor

qualification. There they really disappointed me. And now get the principal one!.

The principal qualification did impress me, because since all my family was already at

Canada, they told me: If you want to stay in Spain, at least prove that you are doing

something.

ELENA: But they made you return to Canada likewise...

PRUDENCIO: Yes, they included me in the reunion. I started the principal course all

desperate. I got the papers that proved that I was there and they told me that I could stay

until I finished. I really wanted to fail, I cheated, and I passed it at the first attempt. In

9

those times I started to have a job. You have the instructor and principal qualifications,

we ignore the principal one... and you take care of the little kids in the dining hall.

ELENA: Yet they took you to Canada.

PRUDENCIO: Yes, so I could know its culture, its life... It was shocking. To go to

Canada will be another section; I'm going to tell you about it later. Well, I passed, and

I had this job for two months and a half. Just that day I found an Elena Peris in the

library, in the Escola Drassanes, in the Raval. And in the Fundaci Joan Salvador

Gavina.

ELENA: So are you in two schools?

PRUDENCIO: Yes... because the foundation also helped me, eh? It was like a casal

and in the end they liked me. I was very impressed when the principal told me that the

principal qualification, with the Bologne plan, was raised to a Higher Level vocational

education of 2 years and, sure, my category was also raised. They don't make you a

teacher, but they do make you responsible of the children's part. Sincerely, this job

made me grow: they pushed me one day and told me now you are responsible of this,

this and this instructor. Thanks to this, I've been responsible. I was frozen. And that's

all, I went to Canada, I came back and I continued.

ELENA: Ok. Lets talk about Canada.

PRUDENCIO: An autumm's day, I don't know which, they told me to visit my family.

Sure, I was happy: TO VI-SIT. Not to live, to visit.

ELENA: But you told me that you went to live...

PRUDENCIO: Yes, it was when I was put there. To live: I clapped. Then: look, no,

you will stay there.... I said yes but I wasn't convinced. We went to the T2 at the

airport, nobody there, we took the plane, we flew... and it was a disgusting thing: it was

at night and then the sun rose, I felt like that because once we arrived the night you have

passed is again falling over you. More than 24 hours just seeing black! When I arrived

to the country, it was all full of snow... in October! We reached the town, Ottawa, when

we passed through there I liked. I thought it was like here, I liked its buildings, its

people, its spaces... it was like a city I have ever dreamt.

ELENA: Very... natural?

PRUDENCIO: Yes, very natural. But this is in past tense. A lot of open spaces, very

tidy and very luminous, as if it always were Christmas! I liked the house. My mother,

with a very thick coat... I asked my sisters: Yes, they are studying, yes, fine, and you?

Well, I'm working. After some time they told me: So if you are working there, why

don't you come back? Hallelujah! What about going some time there so when you

10

finish you come here and work on your profession? So very well, I started Psychiatry,

since I wanted to do teeth.

ELENA: Yes, because both studies are so connected... [Laughs]

PRUDENCIO: It is Health! University, another world. Come on, here, do all this.

What? People from everywhere in the world, asking me in English, and me being like

je ne parle pas dAnglais, I'm sorry. Mexican, German, we were a group. And in the

end I also liked it a lot, yes. Evidently, when we did Pharmacology it was like the

theory, but when we reached the personal part, the part of treating a person, I liked it a

lot. It was like: either I continue or I go to Spain. So sure, one day there was a heavy

snowfall so I said: I better go to Spain, because I earn money, but I always have the

door open to Psychiatry. You could do it via Internet. No, I didn't want to get

confused. And that is why I came back, thanks to the job. The Spanish ambassador told

me: You are Spanish, you have the right to come. You don't have the refugee visa from

Spain, you have it from Mali. Super great! And Spain authorizes me to enter as a full

right citizen. The visa problem: although you are Spanish, since your exit visa is from

Mali... but no, I'm Spanish. We don't have a right to loss our nationality, because we did

not take the refugee status in Spain.

ELENA: So, when you took the refugee visa, you lose the nationality of the place?

PRUDENCIO: Yes...

ELENA: So how do you manage to return to your job, after being one year abroad?

PRUDENCIO: I had already said to the principal that I was visiting my family. In the

world of jobs there is a rule for absence. One leaves, other comes. In my case, I leave,

four come. Due to the title issue, because they changed it... Well, any question about

Canada?

ELENA: I don't know, nothing comes to my mind now...

PRUDENCIO: How were the national holidays? February was the month when there

were more holidays.

ELENA: Well, this project is more about the colonialism in Africa, and how it affects

people, this is why it is important to know what happened in Mali and why you had to

go to Canada.

PRUDENCIO: You want to leave Africa because colonialism was useless. Everybody

wants to leave; otherwise nobody would be a boatperson. Nobody wants to live here,

but either there. The solution is: if someone fixes the problem in Africa, there will not

be more African immigration.

ELENA: Yeah, but people are very selfish.

11

PRUDENCIO: Yeah, that is true.

ELENA: [Silence] Well, I guess I can stop here.

PRUDENCIO: Yes.

[End of the interview].

PRUDENCIOS INTERVIEW

This is the real interview with Prudencio. It follows the several questions that the

previous interview arose. They are questions of past, present and future. Here is the

interview:

ELENA: Let's see, Prudencio

PRUDENCIO: Hello.

ELENA: Where are your parents from?

PRUDENCIO: My parents are from Mali; they were born in the Democratic Republic

of Mali, in a rural town of Mali, in the demarcation of Kayes, in the Northwest of Mali.

ELENA: And why did your father leave the country?

PRUDENCIO: To earn a living.

ELENA: Yes, but there must be something more... I mean, what made you father decide

to move?

PRUDENCIO: [Pause.] You see, according to what he told me, he wanted to leave...

Firstly, to earn a living. Secondly, to help his relatives, specially his father, and this is a

thing that all the Africans share: we always must help our parents, and it is almost

mandatory to leave.

ELENA: I didn't know this... And how many times did he try to enter France?

PRUDENCIO: Eight.

ELENA: This is a lot, indeed...

PRUDENCIO: Yes... and he managed to enter Spain...

ELENA: And why do you think he couldn't enter France?

PRUDENCIO: It was for visa problems, for legal problems... Because... if you have to

go to France, you need a visa and in France they have to accept it or not. And since he

didn't have any relatives there, of course, they make it very difficult. Or you can ask for

the refugee visa, but he hadn't asked for any; he had asked for a regular one, and if you

ask what earnings you have to survive in France, he could not justify it...

12

ELENA: And don't you think it is strange that, being from Mali, which is connected to

France. For history... You know that Mali was a French colony...

PRUDENCIO: Yes.

ELENA: Don't you think it is strange that, ironically, your father decided to go to

France?

PRUDENCIO: Of course, man, of course, all the Malians are there, from all the

francophone countries they are in France...

ELENA: And is it for any reason in particular that he went to France, or because he just

thought that it was...

PRUDENCIO: No, because there were many friends there, many distant relatives were

there. And sure, if you went there you could always find some group with the same

language that could support you and you also knew French.

ELENA: And how did your family end up in Spain?

PRUDENCIO: They tried, but they couldn't enter France, they went to Senegal, and

they wanted to enter Spain in order be able to enter France. But when they entered

Spain, they stayed in Barcelona and had a first job in an ironmonger's shop in Lleida.

ELENA: And in this ironmonger's, how did they manage to get a job? How did they

manage it being illegal people?

PRUDENCIO: In those times there were a lot of jobs and people wanted... mmm...

Look, yes, he went to an ironmonger's, met a man, a boss who was called like me, and

finally he got a contract, yes. Knowing that he was illegal, and since in those times they

needed labour, it was very easy to get the job. And thanks to that ironmonger's he got

the papers; they gave him a residence permit with work.

ELENA: And how was the job at the beginning? Was it easy, hard...? Your father's

working experience How was it?

PRUDENCIO: Ah, at the beginning they exploited him a lot. Yes, and many hours of

work, but he was glad with the money he received... But there were almost 24 hours a

day!

ELENA: Uff... And now let's talk about you... Have you ever visited your parents'

country, Mali?

PRUDENCIO: Yes.

ELENA: And how was the experience?

PRUDENCIO: Totally an adventure. It is another country, something totally different

from here.

ELENA: And did you feel welcomed there? How did they receive you?

13

PRUDENCIO: Obviously, they received me very excited, because they had never met

me and they had never seen me. As I was born abroad, it had been a lot of time since my

relatives were last there... Father and mother, I mean... And in the end they have

received me very well. As an immigrant, they have received me. They are more...

welcoming. You will never be alone and you will never starve.

ELENA: But, of course, it is what you say: It was a different world... You were born

here. You know the communities from here... It is the opposite.

PRUDENCIO: Yes, but even Africa is very different. The very region is quite different:

village, savannah, city, town... Sure, you have to adapt. Even those who are from the

village, if they go to the city, they cannot live there. And if they go to the savannah,

neither can they survive, it is very difficult for them. This is so plural... All in a same

country...

ELENA: And how much time did you stay there?

PRUDENCIO: I stayed there for two months, in 2012-2013, I don't remember very

well, between those years before going to the other country; I stayed there five months.

ELENA: And why so much time?

PRUDENCIO: At first, because of the papers, the preparation for going to the other

country, the visa, and everything... In those five months I did manage to adapt. Not

completely, evidently.

ELENA: And what happened there after you left?

PRUDENCIO: Mother and sister got the visa to Canada and could go there. My parents

had the idea that I was on holidays, just making a visit, being integrated, learning the

customs, more or less, from there.

ELENA: And then what? Did you have to come back?

PRUDENCIO: Evidently, we all left together. We went to Canada and then I came here

again.

ELENA: Ok... but I know you talked about a fake passport...

PRUDENCIO: I don't have a fake passport... not fake, because in order to get a

passport you have to be in a register of foreign siblings of Mali, and since I wasn't there,

we gave more money to the policeman and he made my passport. The passport is legal

for travelling, but not for owning it... but they cannot take it from me because they gave

it to me. It is not fake by itself, materially. Just the way it was acquired.

ELENA: And after leaving Mali, what did you do? Did you come back home or did you

go to live with someone?

PRUDENCIO: [Pause.] I went to live all alone; a friend of mine gave me a shop unit...

14

ELENA: And what about the Gambians?

PRUDENCIO: Some Gambians took me their home back then because I was underage.

ELENA: And how was that experience of living with the Gambians?

PRUDENCIO: Hmmm...

ELENA: I was expecting some anecdote, something... some memory you have from

living with them.

PRUDENCIO: Well... they are doing all they can to earn a life... Their brother took the

Gambians' father. He declared his brothers as sons, and they came here as sons, but in

fact they are brothers.

ELENA: This is very curious...

PRUDENCIO: And with Spanish nationality and they didn't speak Spanish.

ELENA: And what happened exactly? Why did you go to Canada?

PRUDENCIO: Well, my family Yes, my family chose to take a visa, especially

because of my sisters and my mother. They did try, eh? The objective was to leave the

place because there was a moment in which there was a coup dtat. There was a lot of

instability and many people left the village to go to the city. My family did not have any

place to go. My mother did not trust the situation because my sisters were born abroad,

they didnt have a future. And that people that helped them, those tourists They

organized the paperwork for the visa knowing that it would not be accepted because

they had chosen the last option. However, at the end it was accepted. They gave money

to my father, because he was here, to take a plane. They could go to Canada because the

issue of protection. As Canada is a really open country, especially with the protection of

women and underage girls who have come from abroad, they had a lot more priority.

ELENA: And what is this thing about these tourists?

PRUDENCIO: They were tourists that were mmm that were filming and taking

photographs in villages. They werent tourists with money

ELENA: Of NGOs?

PRUDENCIO: No, no. Absolutely no. They were totally for personal reasons, they

came there filming... photographing. And of course, as they met my sisters, with a

high occidental level the tourists had a really high empathy. They asked them many

questions and my sisters told them their life Of course, she had seen that the girls

from there either had to leave or they would meet the consequences suffered by the

other girls of the place.

ELENA: They went to Canada But did you go with them?

15

PRUDENCIO: Firstly, I came to Spain to begin my job/study with my father, who was

here but not living with me. In the end, they left Mali, them. And I think it happened

on July, that I decided to go to Mali again with my father. And We coincided there

two or three days maximum. Exactly two days. Because it was a compulsory period to

make the registers, the data Especially because of safety, because they had to identify

us. Because if we didnt do these things Perhaps to go to see my family could be

impossible.

ELENA: But you stayed in Canada a lot of time

PRUDENCIO: Yes a really good season to adapt myself to Canada No, but in the

end, the refugee program is good.

ELENA: Was this program for all your family?

PRUDENCIO: Yes, yes. Because they are up to take complete families more often. The

objective that they have now is familiar regrouping.

ELENA: And in the end you decided to return to Spain.

PRUDENCIO: Yes with the hope of returning to Canada, to continue my

experience to finish what more or less I wanted to do to continue working and

studying. My objective is to radically change my life. Now Im doing the continuation

and later there will be a day in which I will end it. And I will do go to Canada. I

will return to live there and finish the studies I began there.

ELENA: So youre planning not to stay here in the future Do you know if youll

stay in Spain permanently?

PRUDENCIO: No, I will probably not stay permanently in Spain. Probably, eh? At the

moment Im sure about it. I see that eventually I will leave.

ELENA: Why?

PRUDENCIO: I dont know I liked Canada, I fell in love with Canada but I have

advantages here too. Because I can also go to Canada and begin from zero but here I

have things and Im not the refugee Of course I can continue here and I can decide

by myself, I have also the permission to go there without any problem. Later, I can have

a new life and a new future. Because I really like the job I have here and I would like

that this job were somehow related to Canada.

ELENA: And what is your job?

PRUDENCIO: Im the children coordinator of a school in the Raval.

ELENA: A lot of work, isnt it?

PRUDENCIO: Ah, yes. A lot.

16

ELENA: We will now begin with the second part of the interview, which is shorter than

the first one. Its a question about acceptation of your family in Spain.

PRUDENCIO: Aaah... eh?

ELENA: About if they felt like they were accepted here. Do you think that the Spanish

institutions give sufficient support to the immigrant people?

PRUDENCIO: No.

ELENA: Why?

PRUDENCIO: No. Because my mother stayed here and she was really isolated and

always working with junk. I have never seen anyone or anything that supported women.

Evidently, as Im working with children and it is related to a difficult neighbourhood, I

know a lot of families I dont see anyone that wants to look at those women that are

married, of immigrant origin and that from where they have really strict laws so could

be in a vulnerable situation. There is nobody, nobody. There are especially women that

know the language but they are illiterate and they only have the mission of taking

care of their sons, and of course I think they dont look at these things. And some

husbands have maaaany like three women they can marry four times. And this

happens in Spain. And they dont give the opportunity to those women to develop and

feel like they are equals. Because if not, this thing will pass from parents to sons. And

now we are in a really difficult period, because if the sons are born here and have the

ideology of this place, but their parents have the ideology from abroad It is the spot

where there is more conflict and violence. And I dont see ANYTHING, the Spanish

institutions are not doing anything to stop it.

ELENA: Can you affirm that you are treated in the same way as in Canada?

PRUDENCIO: No. No.

ELENA: How is it in Canada?

PRUDENCIO: In Canada, the objective is to integrate the family. Every member of

the family. And specially to identify the risk spots. Because there come people from

Pakistan, Arabs and some Muslim countries, where they have the women oppressed.

And Canada gives support or forces the women to do a number of things, forces their

husbands to do a number of things. Therefore, the women can feel integrated and full of

knowledge about their liberties. And it is a forced way to enter in the familiar focus. In

this way, they can evade ethnic and religious conflicts.

ELENA: Of course, you know all about this topic due to your job Do you think that

the role of the social worker is useful?

17

PRUDENCIO: Mmm... no. No. It gives resources that are useful. They are of really

good quality but I think that there is a need of working with more objectivity, eh?

And also, with the women's issue, a sector of the women. If we want that women enter

in the labour market. Especially foreign women who are more dependable of their

husbands. They want to give an independency to the foreigner women that it is not

given here.

ELENA: And do you feel accepted here? Is there someone that in some concrete

moment had prejudices towards you?

PRUDENCIO: No. Initially, in the school zone, never. Of course, when I enter to the

school sometimes with new children they say oh, un negrito. Its an impact but then

they get used to it. But with another people I have talked to it is complicated.

Especially when searching for jobs, more or less qualified, it is really difficult to have

them. If I want, for example, to work in a job a bit qualified it will be more likely to

be as manpower, hard work, in the field or in restaurants, as cleaner. But in a job

related to administration it is hard.

ELENA: But even when hearing you it can be easily seen that you are from here. You

talk really well and you dont have any accent.

PRUDENCIO: Yes, of course. But the first glance impresses.

ELENA: Do you sometimes feel represented in a book or a film?

PRUDENCIO: No. Sincerely, I dont read, and I dont like to watch movies.

ELENA: And how do you feel? Do you feel identified as a Canadian, Spanish or

Malian?

PRUDENCIO: Unfortunately (well, fortunately for me) I feel Canadian. Why?

Evidently there in Canada when always... Let's be specific because this question is a bit

difficult. Here you are always considered as a foreigner. It is quite complicated to...

ELENA: But then don't you feel Spanish?

PRUDENCIO: Let's see, my heart is Spanish. I know I am from here but I see that...

ELENA: Then you feel Spanish!

PRUDENCIO: Yes, but from outside nobody recognizes me as a Spanish. It is like

when at the beginning, when you have to sign a document, they tell you: Can you give

me your NIE?, when the NIE is a document for foreigners; this means something. So

then, which is your nationality? Which is your country? Which is your language? All of

this is not taken for granted in you, evidently. Sure, it is a problem of society because

here it hasn't been a long time since they have started to have massive immigration.

ELENA: Ok, but if we compare it to the whites, there are still few black people.

18

PRUDENCIO: What?

ELENA: That there are still few black people here.

PRUDENCIO: Yes, but...

ELENA: Look at England for example. There are many more of them...

PRUDENCIO: Yes, but there they are considered English.

ELENA: Yes...

PRUDENCIO: But here... I think that as time passes and with this new coming

generation, with many children at school... At the end all this generation will be...

ELENA: Because one thing is how you would like to feel and another is what you really

feel. Because you were born here...

PRUDENCIO: Yes, I feel like Catalan-Spanish. It is also that I don't have an identity of

my own.

ELENA: You are a citizen of the world.

PRUDENCIO: Yes, but evidently I am not from Mali, eh? I am not from Mali but I like

to have a link with Mali, eh?

ELENA: But, don't you feel Malian?

PRUDENCIO: No, but I like to have a link with there

ELENA: Next question. It is about your future: Do you have some plan for the future,

something you would like to do at a long term?

PRUDENCIO: Yes...

ELENA: You say that you want to leave because according to you, you have said that

you wanted to do here what you have in order to start a new life there.

PRUDENCIO: You have understood it more or less well but I'll specify. My long-term

project is to go to Canada and ... I have two long-term projects: First of all, to go to

Canada to finish the degree and do a program about social integration in education.

Something from there as there are groups of ethnicities, for example, there are people

from Mexican origin, Latin Americans or people that don't have medical attention or

people that, because in Canada the school is state assisted, there are some people who

have difficulties to access; we also give support, I want to provide support for those

people. And if we look at the other side, I would like to go to this poor developed

countries like Philippines, Indonesia, to do a very important social work, focused on the

people, to prepare the people, to try to eliminate illiteracy from a group of people, to

recognize their rights, to help them to be able to defend themselves and be able to give a

series of arguments, very...

19

ELENA: Everything is very focused to people. There is nothing related to materialism

or things like that.

PRUDENCIO: No.

ELENA: Then, did you mention a degree in Canada?

PRUDENCIO: Yes, unfortunately I've started a degree of Medicine/Psychiatry that I'm

not quite good at for now but... I've advanced a lot but I don't... I do like it a lot but not

to work exactly on it and exclusively on illnesses or something. I feel more like working

into social. All the knowledge I'm getting I would like to apply it but in a different

way of treatment, not like therapy in a hospital.

ELENA: And how did you get there? How did you manage to have a degree? Well,

doing it. But what have you done? A Higher Educational Course?

PRUDENCIO: Evidently I did the primary education very late, at sixth grade. After

that I did the ESO and I started the vocational secondary school (grau mitj) and then

the higher educational school (grau superior).

ELENA: And what did you study at the vocational secondary school?

PRUDENCIO: Pharmacy.

ELENA: And in the higher educational school?

PRUDENCIO: Pre-primary education.

ELENA: Ah, ok. Then from there you...

PRUDENCIO: Yes, I went, they co validated me, I lost a series of places and I chose

the first I saw there. Psychiatry was just per chance and I entered and I did I did... and in

the end it was like: I like it, the knowledge, its application, how to help a group of

communities, depressions and similar issues... but I would like to apply it to the social

level.

ELENA: If you had to name all the difficulties you have found in your way, which

words would you choose?

PRUDENCIO: Words?

ELENA: For example, loneliness.

PRUDENCIO: Wait, quite difficult, eh?

ELENA: Prejudices, racism...

PRUDENCIO: Ah, I don't know...

ELENA: Some difficulties you must have faced here.

PRUDENCIO: Everywhere, sure, all my life.

20

ELENA: For that. For example, could it be racism? Because you have indeed said

before that people, just with seeing you, just for your physical appearance, believe that

you are not from here. When you really are.

PRUDENCIO: I think this would be a confusion of identity.

ELENA: Why this?

PRUDENCIO: Because in the end you don't know where to go and in the end you don't

know how to represent yourself in front of a goal. It is that this difficulty of... the word

is confusion of identity and this confusion makes you chase some goals that you don't

like or that don't fit you. Because also the Africans tell you that you have to go always

very far, you have to get the university degree but if you stay in the higher educational

school and do social integration, and in the end you like it, why do you have to go so

far?

ELENA: But this is not only in Africa, this also happens here.

PRUDENCIO: For Africa this is very marked because in the end you have to marry, to

have some children. Evidently you have to do all of this, all.

ELENA: But there are many from your village, for example, that would never have the

ESO.

PRUDENCIO: Sure for this, but once you have the doors open, you have left and you're

studying... They give you a lot of pressure. And then here it is like if you are here you

deserve to work in the fields or as a garbage man... a series of things.

ELENA: This here?

PRUDENCIO: Because the society cannot believe it, because we are always poor and

that... we are poor and we don't have time to move forward and it is like (with a

nonchalant tone) eh, these people are not going to go so far.

ELENA: But this is racism.

PRUDENCIO: I think it is a difficulty of identity and... Especially difficulty of identity

and courage.

ELENA: Well, now the last question. What would you say to the people that are

listening to this interview or that will read it? About this topic, this situation, about

people who is in the same situation as you

PRUDENCIO: That they must continue going forward because they can achieve their

dreams.

ELENA: As you have done.

PRUDENCIO: They have to trust in themselves. Evidently they always have to look for

themselves. If they are people that come from those funny origins they must look for

21

themselves, they don't have to listen to what the family says, to what the culture says, to

whatever that says what they have to do. There are always some patterns that mark you

and in the end they screw up your life and make you lose a lot of time. First you must

go to the main things: if you have to work, work and have your needs covered, and if

you want to study, study, but don't lose your time with the patterns marked by a series

of cultures that tell you that you have to get married, have children, take care of the

family, pay the family because sometimes there are people who get married in Africa

and have such a series of family responsibilities that in the end they cannot reach their

dreams. And in the end they just migrate to only work almost like a slave, that your sons

are there, your wife is there... that you have to be throwing your money away. That is,

that you are working for them, you are not working for something you want to do in

your family. I think Ill say this. If you have come here to work and have a job, work

and achieve your goals and if you want to study, study, but don't listen to these patterns

that people mark you.

ELENA: Good advice. Would you like to say something more?

PRUDENCIO: No.

ELENA: Ok, thank you very much, Prude.

PRUDENCIO: I've found this interview very interesting.

[End of interview].

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: TIMELINE

As it has been often believed, the past helps shape the present situation. Therefore, once

we know the past, we can understand why some events happen nowadays. Furthermore,

knowing the history of a country, in this case of Mali, is also useful because it helps us

understand events that our interviewee has explained. For instance, in the interviews

Prudencio explains how his family was in Mali while the Tuareg rebels seized control.

Nonetheless, history is often complicated to explain and understand. Thus, this is why

we believe that a timeline is easier to understand and more visual. This timeline

comprehends the Malian history from the 11th century until the present day. We will

now provide a brief summary of it:

During the 11th century, Mali was an empire. It was a period of greatness for the

empire. However, in the 14th and 15th century, the empire declined and a new empire,

the Shongai, took control. Throughout the 19th century, France started to advance in

22

Mali and in 1898 it completely conquered the country until 1960. In that year, Mali

became independent under a military dictatorship. Democracy, as we know it, did not

start in Mali until 1992.

In 2006, the Tuareg rebels demanded greater autonomy for the northern regions of Mali.

The government signed a peace deal and a ceasefire to avoid a rebellion with the rebels.

However, soon after the rebels started attacking. In 2012, Tuareg rebels declared the

independence in northern Mali with the help of some Islamist groups associated with

Al-Qaeda. During 2013, they advanced further down towards the capital, Bamako.

The government unable to tackle the rebels asked France for help. The French troops

easily recuperated the major zones of the Islamists. Nevertheless, the Tuareg rebels have

seized control of some cities again in 2014. This year, the Malian government and the

rebels have started a round of talks to end the conflict. Nothing has been decided up to

this moment.

Bibliography:

Mali Profile bbc.com. 19th November 2014

Mali - a brief history and latest developments: interactive The Guardian.com.19th November 2014

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24

25

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OFFICIAL DATA

It is an official document with data about the number of Malian citizens in Spain.

http://www.ceimigra.net/observatorio/i

mages/stories/mirada_mali_vfb.pdf

Document by CeiMigra (Centro de

Estudios para la Integracin Social y

Formacin de Inmigrantes). It analyzes

the Malian population in Spain and the

reasons why people would emigrate.

27

MALI IN SPAIN

This document provides the websites of two associations involved in the Malian

presence in Spain. Casa de Mali is mainly focused on the cultural events and Congdib

works on families welfare.

CASADEMALI.ORG

Casa de Mali has been acknowledged as a Malian diaspora association

by the authorities: They work on spreading Malis culture across Spain

and they have promoted the creation and development of the federation

of Malian associations in Catalonia.

http://www.congdib.es/Castellano/Miembros/Paginas/Asociaci%C3%

B3n-Mali,Sikasso-en-Baleares.aspx

Association founded in 2008 and based in Majorca. The Malian

section works on sensitization about many factors: poverty, family

welfare and help those families in any official document from the

Spanish government or others from Mali via embassy.

28

SUITCASE

We are going to fill it with the rest of the parts of the portfolio.

This is a suitcase made of cardboard, but we wrapped it with a green cloth. We also

added some stickers with the different countries related to Prudencio's story and also

this airlines box with our names.

What does it represent? Why this choice?

We did this in order to convey a specific meaning. The suitcase can easily be seen as a

symbol of journey. Not only a physical journey to the different countries that Prudencio

has visited, but also his own personal journey in order to grow up as a full person

despite all the difficulties he has faced, in order to achieve his dreams. A journey that

has not finished yet, but it is about to continue The journey of life.

The cardboard symbolises the fragility towards the difficulties, towards the prejudices

and expected patterns that Prude has met in his life. As he says in the interview, a word

that would explain his life is confusion of identity. This is because society tries to

impose a series of patterns on him:

For Africa this is very marked because in the end you have to marry, to have

some children. Evidently you have to do all of this, all. (...) And then here it is

like if you are here you deserve to work in the fields or as a garbage man... (...)

Because the society cannot believe it because we are always poor and that... we

are poor and we don't have time to move forward...

However, this cardboard is wrapped with a green cloth: A smooth cloth of the colour of

hope. This is a metaphor of how he holds to his dreams, to his expectations and hopes

for the future, in order to ignore those discourses that otherwise would limit him. As he

says in the interview, people experiencing the same as him must continue going

forward because they can achieve their dreams. If you have come here to work and

have a job, work and achieve your goals and if you want to study, study, but don't listen

to these patterns that people mark on you.

What is more, the green cloth has some stickers on it. There are 3 stickers of countries

in the front part: Spain, Mali, and Canada, because these three countries represent major

stages in his life. In the right side there is also a sticker of the city of Barcelona, which

29

is where he was born, the point of origin. Finally, in the left side, there is his name

written in stickers with images of the world map, because Prudencio, although

considering himself a Catalan-Spanish and partly Canadian and linked to Mali, does not

have a fixed identity, a specific nation really, but he is a citizen of the world, which can

be connected to the idea of Transnationalism that we have studied in class.

Finally, we thought it was a good idea to write our names in an airline box because we

are acting somehow as deliverers this fragment of Prudencio's story to all of you and

this choice of design does not break the harmony of the whole piece.

30

SOMEWHERE I BELONG

Materials: Watercolour, Copic Markers, pencil colours.

Size: 29.5 cm x 21.5 cm.

This drawing is a visual representation of Prudencios world, with

the places he has been to. Also, not only there are references to

the idea of transnationalism but also to the problems of migration

for certain countries.

1. Trip to the North: Unlike the main vision of East and West, in

this case there is a difference between north and south: Mali is the

third world country, and what we see is that the only option for

survival is going north. Mali is the past, his origins and his

ancestors, and the blood symbolizes two kinds of blood: the blood

in ones veins, which defines his filiation, but also the blood that is

shed in the country and made his family leave.

2. Who sets limits: Prudencio is going around the world; He does

not set any limit and, therefore, lives in Spain and Canada, as a

normal citizen or as a refugee. However, the compass ends in

France: It is striking to know that his father, coming from Mali,

could not enter France, colonizing country. The north itself sets

limits.

3. Is this the solution? We should be aware of the problem in this

case: we focus on giving a new home to the newcomers (if they

are accepted, see the problematic of illegal immigration as well

and their desperate attempts to enter the first world). However,

instead of that we should look south and try to solve the problem in

the country of origin. That is, watering the roots of a tree instead of

cutting it. Do we want peace? We should tackle the problem in that

way and not washing our hands from our privileged place, the

north.

31

LABEL ME!

Materials: jeans fabric, brown silk fabric, blue cotton

fabric, green plush cloth, thread, paper, cotton, ink,

buttons.

Size: 30 cm x 12.5 cm.

It is a doll that represents Prude and it has different parts: a

body, some clothes (a hoodie, a pair jeans and a pair of

shoes) and some stickers or labels that cover the clothes.

The doll symbolises people's prejudices from the external

appearance and how the reality is different from those

preconceptions. It is thus an invitation to rethinking ones

own presuppositions before meeting a person, just by

judging the looks or the accent.

The stickers represent the labels that people here put on Prude

when they see him, as he says in the interview. The first thing

many people sees on him is his skin colour, so there is a sticker

painted with black ink that represents this label. This is connected

to the label foreigner, because Spanish people tend to think that

black people are necessarily immigrants:

() but from outside nobody recognizes me as a Spanish. It is

like when at the beginning, when you have to sign a document,

they tell you: Can you give me your NIE?, when the NIE is a

document for foreigners; this means something. So then, which is

your nationality? Which is your country? Which is your language? All of this is not

taken for granted in you, evidently. Sure, it is a problem of society because here it hasn't

been a long time since they have started to have massive immigration.

In addition, they also tend to associate this with poverty and failure, inability to get an

education and a good job (labels Poor and Dropout). The last label (Label me)

challenges the observer to reanalyze Prude from a different perspective.

32

Now, if you unbutton the doll's hoodie, you will find a window in his chest, a chance

for Prude to show how he represents himself despite all the external labels. The inner

part is made of the same green cloth as the suitcase, as it represents his hope to achieve

his dreams. It has some additional stickers on it. There are the flags of Canada and

Spain again because he feels Spanish-Canadian and does not like to be perceived as a

foreigner, which he does not feel. There are three paper dolls holding hands together

that represent, on one hand, children and school, Prude's studies and job, and on the

other hand, his future projects of solidarity. There is also a sticker which says

Successful, because he has managed to do many things despite the difficulties.

Finally, there is another sticker which says Handsome because he sees beauty in his

blackness. This is a celebration of self-esteem because unfortunately there is a tendency

to associate fair skin with an ideal of beauty, and it is great to hear that Prude is able to

see himself as handsome in defiance of this ideal:

ELENA: Then do you feel African or not?

PRUDENCIO: Yes, because I follow an African root, but I don't feel Malian. I'm

European... I'm black and handsome, that's it. [Laughs]. Jealous, no?

33

The process of finding a new home in Spanish and Canada:

Documentation and laws for immigrants and refugees

In the following pages, we will find several texts that can help us understand the

differences between Spanish and Canadian immigrants and the laws that rule the

Refugee Program. We thought that it would be useful to attach this to enrich the

knowledge about Prudencios journey.

Los derechos de los inmigrantes, by Ubaldo Martinez Yeiga.

The introduction of Los derechos de los inmigrantes is a clear guide to

understand the differences between the rights of the immigrants and the inhabitants of a

country. This writing is divided in different sections with the objective to help us

understand how, especially in Spain, it is the bridge between the national and the

foreigners.

La integracin social de los inmigrantes extranjeros en Espaa, by Eliseo Aja

La integracin social de los inmigrantes extranjeros en Espaa is an interesting

text that explains, in order to demonstrate and contrast with the Canadian integration,

how different types of Spanish immigrants act and live in Spain. It is a complete reading

that gives a new point of view more analytical and especially based in stadistics. The

topics it describes are very broad, and go from gender to the houses where inmigrants

live.

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and Regulations

Finally, to better understand the mechanism of the refugee program, we have

decided to include the established rules of how it functions. Superficially, it can be seen

as a simple request of protection, but as you will see in these pages, it is a matter of a

high degree of complexity. It clearly demonstrates that the Canadian refugee program is

one of the best of the world. These pages are a set of rules that explain the protection

that the refugees have, how the applications are done, and how the officers have to act

towards this applications.