Persecuted in Africa, Seeking Refuge in New York

The article is about a man from Senegal and the troubles he runs across for having a different outlook on life. Pape Mbaye was a cross dresser who in New York was found wearing eye liner, capris, and carrying a purse. He is a twenty-four year old man from Dakar, Senegal, who was treated poorly by his government and was seeking refuge. He was very famous and talented but was said to give the Country a negative homosexual outlook which they did not want. The incidents he came across in West Africa almost finalized in the death of him. He was an entertainer who enjoyed singing, dancing and storytelling. The government was rudely notified by photos of an underground gay marriage that was looked down upon in his homeland. This is when the government took action and he was severely harassed. It was taken to the point that he was driven out of his home and forced to live on the run in fear of being caught by the Senegalese officials and persecuted. The United States came to his rescue by offering him refugee status, which is rare based on an incident that involved ones sexual orientation. He moved into an apartment in the Bronx where he now feels safe and recognizes the US as his new home. While visiting family that lived in Harlem, he decided to go shopping in an area where other Senegalese people worked. Here he was harassed by his own people in the US. This was something that he had previously thought about and was in fear of. He recalls one man saying “If you were in Senegal, I would kill you”. Back in Africa it has been reported that the government has been arresting all gay and lesbians. Pape Mbaye was making a good living off entertaining at parties and weddings across Senegal. He had multiple riches and a very nice apartment back home. He cross dressed proudly in Senegal even after they had instated an anti sodomy law in 1965. After the photos of the gay marriage had come about, he and four friends were arrested and questioned immediately. The police told them to run and hide, and later realized that mobs had spray painted his apartment. They went to south Senegal where they were found and beaten by angry mobs. He was forced to live in safe houses until May eleventh when he immigrated to the United States to seek refuge. A few days after he had left the President said that he was going to behead all homosexuals in the Country. While going back to assemble his refugee application he was attacked with a knife, which later helped speed up the process. He was safely in America and considered himself a citizen of America where he could practice his sexuality openly and freely. No one should be treated like that in their home country and seeking refuge was definitely a life defying step. If he had not acted upon this sooner he could have ended up dead. As an Immigrant in the United States, he knows it will be hard. He will take on any job but does not want the job of being a brick layer, which is commonly taken on by immigrants in some cases.

Article By: Kirk Semple and Lydia Polgreen
New York Times
A21 October 6, 2008