Black Africans Want to Leave Home

by Paul Shepard

As a black American who grew up in touch with his culture, I couldn't wait to visit Africa when I was growing up. But the best I could do during my college years was to minor in Southern African studies while attending Rutgers University as a journalism major.

Soon afterward, however, I made a trip to Senegal and Gambia and fell in love with what I saw. The people, the colors, the foods and the kinship made it clear to me that the relationship between black people here and black Africans was special.

Then I covered the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa's first black president in 1994, and although those days were dangerous and security was far from certain, the beauty of Africa was reinforced during my 30 days in South Africa.

That is why I read with some sadness the results of an interesting international survey examining migration patterns across the world.

Residents of sub-Saharan African countries were the most likely to want to move abroad permanently, according to the Gallup polls conducted in 135 countries between 2007 and this year.

Nearly 4 out of 10 sub-Saharan Africans, more than 160 million people, said they would like to leave Africa and stake their claim in a new country if given the chance.

North Africa and the Middle East were the next least-popular sections of the world among its people. There, 23 percent of residents said they would like to leave and move permanently.

Next on the list was Europe, where 19 percent of residents said they would like to leave and never return.

The most popular destination for people seeking to leave their home countries was the United States, followed by Britain, Canada and France.

Does anyone else see a pattern in all of these figures?

Africa was blessed with some of the most fertile land, greatest mineral wealth and physical beauty in the world. Yet nearly half of black Africans would pick up stakes and leave if given the opportunity. Sad.

I'm sure the history of white colonialism in Africa has a lot to do with creating the conditions that so many are seeking to leave behind, but I'm sure the continent's history of brutal despotic political leadership, some of whom have pocketed their nation's wealth to the detriment of their people, is also to blame.

But I know one thing is certain when I read these figures:

I'm sad.