The challenges of the migration crisis and education as a driver of change have been some of the issues that Ousman Umar has brought to the table at the Pen World Voices 2022 festival, organized by PEN America, and at the UN Global Migration Forum, both held in New York.
Ousman Umar represents the voice of thousands of migrants. His story has been, once again, a speaker of these life stories in the celebration of the Pen World Voices 2022, from May 11 to 14, and at the UN Global Migration Forum, from 16 to 20, both in New York, where Ousman has been invited and has addressed the challenge of migration from his own experience, and the need to find global solutions to this phenomenon.
Pen America is a prestigious global organization that annually brings together more than 70 internationally renowned writers on current world issues. This year, in the 2022 edition of this literary event, Ousman has been able to share a space for debate and intercultural exchange of opinions with renowned writers and intellectuals, including Salman Rushdie, president of the organization. In the midst of experts on migration issues, Ousman’s intervention in the talk “In the same boat: narratives of borders and migration” has discovered the reality of the situation experienced by migrants who embark on the road to a false paradise.
The 2022 edition of Pen World Voices has allowed Ousman’s story reached the other side of the world and has brought the NASCO Feeding Minds project to thousands of people.
His speech at the United Nations
Parallel to his participation in the Pen World Voices, Ousman Umar has received an exclusive pass at the Global Migration Forum, a meeting point that brings together experts who analyze the keys to migration with the aim of reaching consensus on the problems from a multidisciplinary perspective. Ousman’s intervention in this forum has been an exceptional event since, in order to attend, an invitation is needed and requires several months in advance to get it. This great opportunity demonstrates the uniqueness, power and extraordinary nature of Ousman’s testimony, which has been heard by personalities of international stature, and which highlights his social work to start the NGO Nasco Feeding Minds.
Here you can watch his speech
A journey of impacts and contrasts
During these four days, Ousman has found a space where cultural differences are beneficial, with a black community very well integrated in this context and with people of color who occupy positions of great responsibility and are internationally recognized. He returns to Catalonia with the feeling that the world is moving in the right direction and with a feeling of immense pride for being black.
The visit to the city that never sleeps, which was the first for Ousman, is far from the situation experienced in the villages of native Ghana. Amidst the glare of big city streetlights and car lights, the unpaved alleys and non-existent public lighting system of his home village create a grotesque contrast. The black boy who arrived in the Canary Islands in a small boat 22 years ago, took a plane to travel to New York as a special guest in two top-level competitions and, this time, to make visible the harsh reality of the migration crisis. A story that must continue to be told until no one has to live it.
