My mind is no longer here by Fedigbo Nze Vylva

“…let me tell you something nobody else will tell you, hunger is a very good thing. Our people do not know this that is why they remain poor…the thing pushes you to do something that you did not imagine you could do before… You are very lucky to be chosen…this thing that Yinka has brought you people for is not for people that are not hungry.”

Four men – Donatus, Chidi, Haruna and Osahon—find their fates tied to a devious man, Yinka who poses as a self-styled immigration consultant but who really is the front man for a powerful human trafficking syndicate. The men from different backgrounds: Donatus – an unemployed graduate; Chidi – a soon to be graduate worried about the gloomy life that awaits him; Haruna – a doctor who could not save his ailing mother; and Osahon – a fugitive seeking freedom from his past, are bound together by one goal: a desperation to seek a better life in Europe and Yinka was the man to make their dreams come true.

Though they individually suspect there is more to Yinka’s offer, they are convinced any risk was worth taking to achieve their goal. Unknown to them however, they were pawns in Yinka’s grand plan of exploiting his employers to achieve his own secret selfish ambition. Being caught in this web of deception exposes the four men to more danger than they ever imagined and sets in motion a course of events that could shatter their already fragile worlds. The story unravels from each of the four men’s point of view, revealing their individual motivations for wanting to leave and what beautiful promises a life abroad held for them. These are stories of greed, love, ambition, unfulfilled dreams and the fear of failure. It is also the story of a nation, how it kills the dreams of its youths, leaving them naked, in the hands of preying vultures. But even more, it brings to fore that often unspoken fact that life abroad, away from Nigeria, does not always mean freedom.

Yinka’s employer, the self-styled Otunba Ayorinde who leads a secret Organisation of influential persons involved in trafficking learns of Yinka’s plans and pulls the plugs just at the point Yinka thought he had achieved success. The four young men survive, rescued by a fate that offers them a second chance, a privilege many others like them never get to enjoy.

Fresh, lucid and laced with just the right amount of humour- typical of the rich African story telling tradition, My Mind Is No Longer Here is as absorbing and compelling as it is remarkable. It tells the very important story of a generation of young Africans who are disillusioned by their reality but are daily being consumed by the illusions of life elsewhere.