Banished by the Country That Raised Me: My Five-Year Exile from South Africa
I arrived in South Africa at age four and grew up there in every way except on paper. I excelled in school, became deputy head boy, and won top marks in my final exams. I felt at home among friends who saw me as South African. When I applied for a university study permit, I discovered my papers were never in order. I’d lived legally as a child but aged into adulthood with no path to formalise my status. Despite hiring a lawyer and appealing in person, I was told to leave and my registration was frozen. In 2026, I signed up for Nigeria’s repatriation program. I endured days of screening before boarding a flight that triggered a five-year ban on my return. Landing in Lagos, I finally received my identity documents in hours. Now I’m back in Nigeria and planning to transfer my chemical engineering degree. My dream is to fix the broken systems that divide Africans and build a future where no one is abandoned by the place that raised them.
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