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Lay

Project Type

Photography

2017-2018

La Plata, Argentina.

Lay was born in the city of Kaolack but raised in Thies, Senegal. When he was 3 years old his elder brothers emigrated to the United States to help the family. Since then, Lay never heard of his sibling again. Five years later his father, and soon after, his last brother residing in Senegal passed away, turning him on the man responsible for his mother and two sisters.

At the age of 18, Lay had to drop school and make money for his family. As many Senegalese do, Lay decided to emigrate to improve his beloved one’s economic situation. He heard that Europe was really harsh on migrants, plus the risks of crossing the Mediterranean sea were too big. He didn’t want to be a clandestino. Moreover, he had some friends who emigrated to Argentina, so after saving up for three years he paid three million CFA (close to five thousand euros) to a migration broker who arranged his flight from Dakar to Buenos Aires with one stop in Madrid.

Peasants Lay met while crossing borders.

'Uncle' on the phone, Lay's friend praying in the back.

In the near future, Lay wishes to improve his Spanish so he can write his autobiography and a book of poems. Here is one:

"Africa my Africa, Africa of proud warriors in the ancestral savannas. Africa that my grandmother sings on the edge of distant river sounds.

I've never met you but my eyes are filled with your blood. Your beautiful black blood across the fields. The blood of your sweat, the sweat of your work, the work of slavery, the slavery of your children.

Africa tell me Africa, are you the one who bends and lies under the weight of humility? This trembling again, with red stripes, that says yes to the whip on the roads of noon, then a deep voice answered me, impetuous son, this robust and young tree, this tired tree.

Splendidly alone in the midst of the white and faded flowers, it is Africa, your Africa that grows again, that patiently grows again.

Obstinately and whose fruits gradually have the bitter taste of freedom. Africa when I think of you, my thoughts basically thought that you think of me; because from the root to the leaf, the sap rises but does not go down".

Lay Jay

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