West African returnees are using the film to modify the script on migration | Video

Dakar, Senegal – The last thing Aïssata Ndiaye remembers before waking up in a Moroccan hospital was shaking helplessly as she watched her friend Khadija – a young mother – leave the Mediterranean. The boat that was about to cross the sea had to capsize. He was one of the few who managed to return.

Ndiaye, who was only 21 years old at the time, paid another woman $ 1,700 (about $ 1,700) to travel from Tangiers to Spain. He hoped to study at the university as soon as he arrived.

“I’ve had a lot of pain,” Ndiaye said. “I longed to travel the world, and I did, but not the way I wanted to.”

Each year, thousands of people are finding their way across the Sahara Desert in Africa to try to cross into Europe in search of a better life and to escape conflicts and persecution.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 2,400 people died or disappeared while trying to migrate to Europe in the first nine months of this year – more than last year. About 1,200 dead people were registered on the road from Libya to Italy. Others are held in concentration camps or in remote areas of northern Africa.

On average, more than half the crossing of the Mediterranean Sea is poorly maintained.

During Ndiaye’s trip in 2019, four of her friends died. He found himself alone and claims to have been tortured in Morocco, then sent to Algeria where he was beaten and sent to Niger. Later, he was able to return home to Senegal with the help of IOM.

Now, the 23-year-old, along with several other refugees and asylum seekers, has turned to the film to investigate the migration crisis. Their work is featured at this year’s IOM Global Migration Film Festival, which is taking place in 13 countries in West and Central Africa. This lasts until December 18, when the winners will be announced on International Migrants Day.

“We always see migration images made by Europeans or Americans,” said Tabara Ly Wane, co-founder of La Maison Bleue, a record label competing in a major part of the festival. “It is important for Africans to tell their stories – to tell their experiences.”

For the first time, a special competition is being held for films by people such as Ndiaye dedicated to the IOM project “Migrants as Messenger”.

His film, Sous Mes Pieds (“Under My Feet”) was shown last weekend in Dakar’s Yaraax, where the outdoor space was packed with children and teenagers.

“Cnema has a chance to speed up,” said Magueye Kasse, a Senegalese critic who nominated judges for the film festival. “It bothers you, it amazes you with the picture, and the picture makes you think.”

The art exhibition at the opening ceremony showcases Migrants ’work as a Messenger volunteer as part of their outreach campaign. [Portia Crowe/Al Jazeera]

The idea of ​​immigrants such as Messenger is to deal with miscommunication by using messages from colleagues who have returned home. The program trains volunteers for the art of photography, theaters, storytelling and video production, and works with them to initiate discussions in their communities.

The IOM says its aim is not to discourage people from moving, but to raise awareness about the dangers of unplanned migration and to promote safer practices. Christopher Gascon, head of the agency for West and Central Africa, knows this is not always the case.

“As you do [with] frustrated, hard to say, ‘Oh, why not look for a way out?’ ”he said. “There are ways you can go about it more often, but it all has to do with your well-being, which has to do with development and education.”

However, he wants to make people aware of “what is expected out there”.

Migration also became a hot topic in Europe recently when thousands of people gathered on the border between Belarus and Poland, camping in the cold of winter. This week, at least 27 people drowned in the English Channel as their boat capsized trying to cross from France.

And for those who do, it will not be easy.

Zeidy Dabo, from Mali, in 2017 sailed to Italy with his wife and three children but stayed in a tent outside Paris. Four years later, he is still awaiting a response to his defense request and is not being allowed to work.

Fatou Guet Ndiaye, who is also the director of Mantoulaye, answered the audience’s questions after his film was screened at the festival. [Portia Crowe/Al Jazeera]

Although her family now lives in safety, and her children are in school and doing well, she does not accept the path she has taken. “I would not encourage anyone to cross the Mediterranean Sea – not even my worst enemy,” Dabo said.

There is also the stigma attached to refugees and asylum seekers when they return home. Fatou Guet Ndiaye, who directed the Mantoulaye film, said he had to repeat the school year following his planned tour.

As a teenager, he boarded a wooden fishing boat bound for the Canary Islands, but returned six days later when the pilot strayed. Her parents were devastated.

“He was insulting me – even beating me – because he said it was not appropriate for a high school girl to drop all that and go to Spain … with the boys,” he said.

As for Aïssata Ndiaye, who says she has always wanted to be a filmmaker since she was a child, she hopes the film festival will help her build a career in the industry.

If he wins the competition, he plans to use the prizes – new film equipment – to launch more projects and “showcase his skills” to the world.

She says: “I know I will continue to think about moving. “I have a lot to say about moving; and big, vague, there is so much to say.