He was never drawn to go to Libya to get rich: he was driven by the pain of the past

Looking out the window overlooking the highway behind the high-rise apartment building where she lived in Benghazi, Libya, Aliyu noticed cars speeding past. It was already 3 in the afternoon, and he had been standing there looking at these cars for an hour. He could see his other two half-sisters whose parents were foreigners in his mind. He recalled how, one day, Patricia’s European father came to Ghana and took his daughter to his country. Six months later, her other sister, Cecilia, was also taken back to Taiwan by her Chinese father. On these two occasions he could see his mother’s face distorted by pain every time one of them said goodbye to his mother.

The departure of Patricia, her older half-sister, was particularly cruel to her mother. Her tears ran freely down her cheeks as she held Patricia’s wrists firmly, saying goodbye. Back then, Aliyu had campaigned for several days to ease her mother’s pain and heal her aging heart wounds. The younger and darker of his two half-sisters, he stayed behind to clean up the emotional mess left behind by his departed half-sisters.

Growing up, Aliyu’s mom and two other half-sisters lived in a room under a leaky tin roof between four brick walls. Every night before going to bed, they first had to place empty Milo cans in strategic places to catch any leaks when it rained. Aliyu was never attracted to go abroad just to get rich. He was driven to leave Africa by pain from the past. ‘

“I’m going to work hard, Mom, so I can have something.” Aliyu reassured his mom before deciding to take a road trip to Libya. Her dad was a drunk and irresponsible, he was mean and violent when he had too much. He left the marriage early, but visited his mother once or twice a year, drunk and demanding sexual gratification. When her visits stopped, Aliyu’s mother had had another baby, who died in childbirth, and a broken jaw from her father’s relentless beatings.

Aliyu was told that her father left her mother for another woman when she was only two years old. She returned to her mother’s fold when she went bankrupt and Aliyu was six years old. He left her again for a younger woman when Aliyu was thirteen, came back when he was 21, left when he was 22, and came back when he was 24. In fact, it was irritating to see Aliyu’s dad ditch his mom, once fortune he began to smile at her. him and, only to get rid of her during the hard times. There are some women who will forgive her husband for her sexual sins as long as he appreciates and supports the family. Aliyu’s mom was that kind of woman. Dad was an older gentleman; he was old-fashioned, but he often tended to regard pretty young women as delicious young ladies.

Pain from Aliyu’s past led him to become a slave in post-Muammar Gaddafi Libya. Aliyu was just one of many young people in Africa whose parents and the societies they lived in had failed them.