Omar Baldé
Is from Casamanza, Senegal. The armed conflict in the region resulted in the murder of his father and his older brother in 2019, when they were home. They didn’t want to collaborate with the rebels who attacked their house. Omar was coming back from working as a teacher when he found them. Without the courage of living under the same roof in which these atrocious events happened, he moved from his hometown with his mother, originally from Gambia, to Birkana. But for him there was not a safe place.
His uncle in Gambia organized his trip on the dinghy: he had to go. After arriving in the Canaries, he has been months in Las Raíces, where he is called “El Profesor, The Teacher”. He is a 30 year old man with a deep sense of life and an innate ability to explain emotions and experiences which are difficult to put into words: war, constant insecurity, having to run away, leaving everything behind, having nothing.
Omar says that living in Casamanza is similar to having been dead for a long time. That is why getting on board a dinghy, assuming risks, having to wait in a campsite like Las Raíces for his asylum application to advance. Omar’s efforts are focused on remain calm, with his spirit in peace: filling himself with a sense of luck and hope that he doesn’t know very well.
Omar Baldé
Is from Casamanza, Senegal. The armed conflict in the region resulted in the murder of his father and his older brother in 2019, when they were home. They didn’t want to collaborate with the rebels who attacked their house. Omar was coming back from working as a teacher when he found them. Without the courage of living under the same roof in which these atrocious events happened, he moved from his hometown with his mother, originally from Gambia, to Birkana. But for him there was not a safe place.
His uncle in Gambia organized his trip on the dinghy: he had to go. After arriving in the Canaries, he has been months in Las Raíces, where he is called “El Profesor, The Teacher”. He is a 30 year old man with a deep sense of life and an innate ability to explain emotions and experiences which are difficult to put into words: war, constant insecurity, having to run away, leaving everything behind, having nothing.
Omar says that living in Casamanza is similar to having been dead for a long time. That is why getting on board a dinghy, assuming risks, having to wait in a campsite like Las Raíces for his asylum application to advance. Omar’s efforts are focused on remain calm, with his spirit in peace: filling himself with a sense of luck and hope that he doesn’t know very well.
