A complaint to the Swiss Embassy in Dakar, Senegal
“Why don’t you just use your American passport? You are lucky, if you want an easy life, you can use your American passport. I really don’t understand you. Why do you want to make things difficult for yourself?”
- Woman who identified herself as the “Consular in the high position” but refused to give her name at the Swiss Embassy in Dakar, Senegal November 17, 2022
There I was with my letter of invitation from Yury Boychenko, Chief at the Anti-Racial Discrimination Section, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights dated 7 November 2022 as well as my letter to the Embassy of Switzerland in Dakar requesting a visa from Juan Nunez, Programme Managment Coordinator, Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures, and Right to Development Division. Armed with these, as well as my Guinea Bissau passport, two passport pictures, my hotel reservation, and numerous other supporting documents, I woke at 4:00 am to catch a flight from Bissau, Guinea Bissau to Dakar, Senegal in order to get a visa to attend the historic first session of the Permanent Forum of People of African Descent in Geneva, Switzerland December 5-8, 2022. Mr. Alfredo Hamden, the Swiss Honorary Consul in Bissau, helped arrange the exceptional meeting. I had followed every instruction, prepared all my documents . . . . It was supposed to be a simple process. Fly to Dakar a few hours early for an 11:00 am meeting, present the documents, get fingerprinted, get the visa, and catch the 5:00 pm flight back to Bissau. Such is the life of a diplomat.
Nigga, you aint going anywhere!
This is the man who received me at the Swiss Embassy in Dakar, Senegal who refused to give his name or title. However, the Swiss Embassy website states, “If you wish to complain about the behavior of the consular staff and, if applicable, the external service provider or the procedure, please contact the competent representation in writing.” - https://www.eda.admin.ch/countries/senegal/fr/home/visa/entree-ch/jusq-a-90-jours/documents-schengen.html If you can identify this man, please contact me.
The man who received me behind a thick glass window was rude and condescending. He demanded I give him my documents, and I did, confidently. Here’s the appointment letter. Here’s the invitation letter. Here’s the letter from my host to your Embassy….
Except, to my disbelief and frustration, each document I presented provoked some kind of objection. He wouldn’t listen to any explanation and he talked to me as if I was an idiot not knowing I was probably better educated than him and, having traveled to about 40 or 45 countries now, more experienced in the world. Apparently, my letters of invitation were insufficient, even though addressed to the Embassy from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights!
Because I had come a long way at great effort and some expense, I refused to slink away timidly at his refusals. I wasn’t going to just be denied so easily. My insistance further provoked him and he confessed that he didn’t like the tone of my email to Mr. Handem on November 10, the one that said,
“Greetings Mr. Handem,
I need your assistance. I am not able to talk directly with anyone at the Swiss Embassy in Dakar, and as I just informed you, there are NO appointments available before my departure on December 3. What exactly are your "responsibilities related to the requirement for Switzerland visa is very clear in my terms of reference"? I am a citizen of Guinea Bissau following your instructions, which, unfortunately, are not resolving the matter and require some "extra" effort. What can you do for a citizen of Guinea Bissau invited by the United Nations to attend an event in the country of Switzerland? Am I to not attend the event because no solution to this problem of obtaining a visa can be arranged through no fault of my own? Has this not happened in Guinea Bissau previously? Do you have any knowledge of the information posted on the https://www.swiss-visa.ch/ stating that the Portuguese representation in Bissau can issue me a "Schengen visa (up to 90 days) for entry into Switzerland?" If you don't know about this, wouldn't it be good for you to inquire on my behalf so that you can be informed and more helpful in the future if a similar situation happens to another citizen of Guinea Bissau? Is your only response "contact the embassy in Dakar directly"? Their response has been "schedule an appointment online", and again, none are available before my departure. I am humbly asking you to use your good offices to help me avail myself of the option to get a Shengen visa for entry into Switzerland through the Portuguese representation in Bissau as indicated on the Swiss Visa website. As Honorary Consul, they will more likely receive me and resolve my situation if I am accompanied by you.
Respectfully,
Siphiwe Baleka”
So there it was. My tone. My attitude. My unwillinginess or inability to accept being unjustly denied. Some white guy decides that in spite of the obvious genuine invitation and noble purpose of my visa request, HE wasn’t going to make it happen. First his objection was that my invitation needed to be sent directly to the Embassy. Then his objection was I didn’t have an airline ticket. He wouldn’t listen to me explain that the United Nations instructed me NOT to buy a ticket, and they the United Nations, through its official travel agency, would be making the flight arrangements for me but had not yet done so. Since the man wouldn’t let me finish a sentence, I showed him the letter explaining exactly the situation. Then the man asked where my travel insurance was. I didn’t know anything about needing the travel insurance. He thought that was the nail in the coffin but I objected saying, I sent all of the documents I had to his office and they scheduled the meeting and did not send any instructions on additional documents. He, erroneously, insisted they did send an attachment with a checklist of documents I needed to bring, but a review of all the emails proved that he was mistaken. At this point, I simply said, “look, I have been invited by the United Nations in your country to attend this event. I have brought all the support letters that they have issued and I have already forwarded them to this Embassy, I have followed every instruction from the UN, from Mr. Handem, and from this Embassy. As you already know, today is the only day I could come to Dakar, at a great inconvenience. Surely you can see that everything is legit and thus, you can find a way to issue me a visa.” His response was, “why don’t you just use your American passport?”
I was stunned. How did he even know I had an American Passport, I thought, and then asked him. Then he showed me that on the application for the appointment, I stated I was born in the United States. So I answered him:
“I am a citizen of Guinea Bissau and I am attending this UN event that is a permanent forum of people of AFRICAN descent so I am traveling on my AFRICAN passport, which is my human right to do so.” With supreme arrogance the white man said, “no, you can only go using your American passport.” And that was the moment when the system of white supremecy, the colonial system, the very essence of its injusice and the very reason why a United Nations Permanenet Forum of People of African Descent is needed was demonstrated right before my eyes. It was the moment when the indignity was made manifest and brutaly clarified.
“I am a dual citizen and it is not for you to decide for me which of my passports I am going to travel on,” I replied. But the reality was, he did have the power to violate my human rights with impunity.
Fortunately, at this point, the woman who claimed to be the Consular came and she took over. She was way more tactful and polite, but equally poisoned with colonial white privilege. After she finally produced a sheet of paper with a checklist of documents that included proof of travel insurance that I didn’t have, she just looked at me incredulously and explained that with my American passport, I don’t need a visa. Why don’t I just use it. Her actual words were, “you are lucky to be an American, to have an American passport. If you want an easy life, use your American passport.”
I looked at her equally incredulously. Did she really just tell me I am lucky to be American? Did she not understand American slavery? Did she not have any human empathy for the victims of American ethnocide? Would she tell the descendants of Sitting Bull they are lucky to be “American”? Would she tell an Ashkenazic converted Jew he was lucky to be “German”???? Indeed, when I tried explaining that a system which proiveds an easy life to an American and denies it to an African is unjust and racist, she had the nerve to tell me she didn’t like what I was saying. She then told me that her daughter was a dual citizen of Switzerland and Austria and that she was proud of both, suggesting that that was an appropriate comparison and that I should be grateful that I have the option of being accepted by the nation that enslaved my ancestors. I . . . just . . . couldn’t . . . .
I managed to contact some people and get through to some members of the PFPAD to get them to send the invitation letters directly to the Embassy. While waiting for that to happen, the Embassy staff went to lunch and I went around the corner to a travel insurance agency and purchased the insurance. When the Embassy re-opened at 2:00 pm, they still had not received the email directly from officials at the UN and the woman claimed that she called the UN which said they had no record of the invitation. The whole thing was now a mess and it felt like 1) they just didn’t want to issue me the visa; or 2) they thought maybe I was suspect. I mean, afterall, why would a succesful and talented person leave the United States to become a citizen and live in Guinea Bissau, ranked 177th out of 189 countries on the human development index, one of the poorest countries in Africa with a government notorious for impunity and corruption?
By 2:47 pm, it was a lost cause. The email still had not come and even if it had, the Embassy would not have enough time to process it before closing. Meanwhile I had a flight to catch and if I didn’t leave, I would have to spend the night in Dakar, necessitating a hotel and changing my ticket, expenses I just couldn’t afford. With no other options, I left, dejected, with no visa. As I explained in a text to PFPAD member Michael McEachrane who made an effort to help the situation,
“I have a difficult decision to make. If I can’t attend PFPAD as an AFRICAN, if I can only attend by using an American privilege that the rest of my countrymen cannot avail themselves, then it weighs on my conscious and sensibilities as a revolutionary…. This is always the problem. . . . Sometimes refusing can make a bigger statement/impact. I’m tired of suffering such indignities ….”
Click here to read about the last indignity I suffered at a major international event.
Perhaps this experience will be highlighted as a lead in to Item 6: Thematic Discussion: the Fight against Systemic Racism - Future Policymaking for People of African Descent at 3:00 pm CET on Monday, December 5th during the opening days of the 1st session of PFPAD or Item 6: Connecting the Past and the Future - Equality for All People of African Descent at 3:00 pm CET on Wednesday, December 7th.
