Suicide routes

This book examines clandestine migration from Casamance to Europe by looking at the economic, political, social, cultural and symbolic factors behind these departures. It proposes a typology of the actors involved in these journeys, immerses the reader in the lived experience of sea journeys and sheds new light on the conditions of the crossing, the mode of organisation, the role of the captain of the pirogue and other fishermen, the phenomena of hallucination and panic en route and the many risks that surround this world of sea journeys made in recent years by would-be migrants in search of the European El Dorado. Through powerful and poignant testimonies that run through the analyses, we also look at the risks of sea crossings, the phenomena of insanity and madness that manifest themselves in would-be migrants, who suddenly find themselves in a totally unknown, constantly shifting and all the more frightening environment, the ocean (by day and even more so by night), at the mercy of Providence.