Thanks to a cancelled flight in Dakar I had to reach my business meeting in Bissau via Gambia all the way by taxi. The 300km part  from Banjul was passing through beautiful Casamance, the greenest part of the Senegal. With approaching the Senegalese-Bissau border the number of checkpoints we had to pass was increasing by the minute. At one point we could already see the next checkpoint in front of us after having just successfully passed the last one. The procedures at all checkpoints was more or less the same: A grimlooking official was inspecting in a highly serious manner our passports, preferably in slow- motion, too even add more gravity to the act. Neither checkpoint could claim any specific purpose since there was neither a conflict between the two countries nor were we already at the border. At the end we made it, but simply lost a few hours. Travelers with a different kind of passport certainly woukd have been soaked. Now I realize what highway robberies meant in Eurooe‘s dark Middle Ages. And now I fully comprehend what locals have to endure in some parts of Africa when they travel.
More or less by coincidence I bump into Andi, engineer from Bavaria with a business model which success to catch my attention: Andi transfers old but reliable Mercedes vans overland (I just think of the many checkpoints…) from Germany to Bissau, 6500 kilometers. This, he had founded the most successful mini van line in Bissau, reaching all parts of the country. After a few beers we quickly reach the challenging topic of the migration crisis. Andi argues that the demand of Africans to get to Europe had been so heavy, because it’s so difficult to get in. In the mind of Africans everything which is hard to get – must be good! I catch myself think: He knows the mindset of Africans with whom he has been living for many years, really well Mayve he’s right proposing the abolition of Schengen visa requirements?