BLACK BEAUTY OR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT?

Britain gives and take. Yesterday, while some enjoyed the last sunny days the British weather had to offer, others were caught up by the reality that illustrates the divide between the "rich" country and the "poor" continent. Britain, land of opportunity and freedom! A freedom it has set itself the mission to implement to faraway lands, but to which not all are entitled on its soil.

It is with the dream of a better life that Gambian-born Fatou Cham, 32, came to the UK to study banking, economics and finance at London Metropolitan University. A resident in the country since 1998 on a student visa, her mother and eldest child were allowed to join her in 2000. When her visa expired in 2001, she applied to stay in the UK but was refused permission. A mother with parental obligations, Cham took up a post as a checkout staff in one of UK’s leading stores in 2002. Working as an overseas citizen was then a simple formality. But in 2004, toughen measures on immigration meant that she was required to hold a valid working permit. A further application submitted in January 2009 was yet again rejected, leading her to appeal to the High Court.

The future seemed brighter though for Miss Cham when she took her chance at an opportunity – and was indeed selected among hundreds of hopeful – to model for a clothing range as part of an ad campaign to be featured in women’s magazines. But the appearance of her beautiful silhouette in magazines, billboards and newspapers also brought with it attention on her status. A tip-off led to her being questioned by immigration police, turning her dream into a nightmare. Fatou Cham, a mother-of-three, a would-be model who could potentially live her dream to begin a new career and provide for her family, now faces deportation.

Fatou Cham was put in the limelight by the store in an attempt to “ditch models for real women”. Well, this is the reality and the contradictions that come with it. Cham’s image embodies this contradictory attraction for black feminine beauty and sensuality accepted on glossy paper but rejected by the very nature of its Otherness, i.e. its Africanity. For it is that which makes her a foreigner, until her physical or bodily presence in the UK is author/ised and validated by the seal of approval of the country’s immigration services.

As we prepare to discuss these questions in November during the Encounters of Bamako, Fatou Cham’s story just reaffirms how “Borders”, the theme proposed by the 8th edition of the African Photography Biennial, remains a pressing issue affecting lives in and outside Africa. An issue that touches on Human Rights.

London, 28 Sept. 2009.