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Walking through the streets of Barcelona, among the graffiti scattered around the city, you will certainly notice the popular slogan: “Barca o mort” (Barca or death in Catalan).
Some of Barca’s most passionate fans have an almost religious bond with the club. Nearly 5,000 kilometers away on the west coast of Africa, a similar expression reflects a completely different reality.
In Senegal it is “Barca ou Barzakh”. Barzakh is an Arabic word that literally means “isthmus”. In Islam, it describes the stage of the afterlife in which souls rest until the day of judgment.
This phrase is like a rallying cry. It is an expression of solidarity, common hope before embarking on a dangerous journey and leaving the danger behind. Reach Barcelona or die trying.
This is a phrase known to Aziz Faye and Lamine Sarr, two former “manteros”. This is a colloquial Spanish term given to immigrant street vendors who operate near popular tourist destinations. It comes from the word “manta” meaning blanket and refers to the way goods are usually presented on large blankets or sheets spread on the sidewalk.
Street vendors set out their wares in central Barcelona in 2016. (Pau Barrena/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2006, Faye and Sarr left their native Senegal on small boats that sailed to Spain. They were deported and repeated this journey several times before finally settling in the country permanently.
While in Barcelona, they helped found Top Manta, a clothing brand cooperative that now employs hundreds of former manteros. One of their latest designs featured the words (in Spanish) “Barca o Barzakh” on the back of the shirt in Barcelona’s colors.
“Barca or Barzakh is a double cry of desperation and hope” – this is how the company describes this phrase. “The desperation of being born into a nation scarred by centuries of enslavement and exploitation, and the hope of reaching the wealthy countries that have benefited from those very exploitations – Europe, a beacon of economic prosperity, democracy and human rights.”
Athlete met Faye and Sarr at the Top Manta workshop, a former textile factory in the neighborhood of Sants, a southwestern part of Barcelona bordering l’Hospitalet de Llobregat. It was lunchtime, but the sound of the knitting machines did not stop, even as workers took turns heating lunch in the microwave.
Top Manta Workshop in Sants, Barcelona (Top Manta)
“It will be difficult to find a quiet place to chat,” Faye said in Catalan, extending his hand in greeting. He and Sarr are Top Manta spokesmen and survivors of the sea voyage from the Senegalese capital Dakar to the Canary Islands. The two uttered the phrase “Barca ou Barzakh” before heading out to sea.
They claim that Barca is an umbrella term used for Barcelona, Spain and Europe. They recalled that in their experience, few had a clear idea of where exactly Barcelona was, but everyone knew the soccer team. Some of the younger members of their party even dreamed of playing for them.
They saw their goal as a place where they could succeed. They expected that the journey itself would be the hardest part and that upon arrival they would reach the promised paradise. What they discovered was completely different.
A policeman talking to a “mantero” near El Vendrell, Catalonia (Ramon Costa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“When we studied history, we were not told about the history of our own country, but about the history of Europe,” Sarr said. “It’s mental colonization, a colonial program imposed there so that we would be Africans but not feel like Africans. We always looked at what was in America and Europe.
“When we came here, we found a different reality and we were very surprised. We thought that Europe was a space of law, a space of democracy, where there was no racism, inequality or anything like that. And when we got here, we found the opposite.”
In Senegal, Faye was a fisherman. However, he said he suddenly stopped seeing fish in the sea, which coincided with the arrival of much larger boats that were exploiting the area.
“I came a long way to find fish,” he said. “I ended up spending a lot on gas, which was unsustainable because I couldn’t afford it. And even if I went far, I still couldn’t find the fish.
Sarr is the son of farmers and grew up in the countryside. Like Faye, he wanted to leave Senegal due to economic problems. Neither of them had any hope that things would change for them there.
“The new colonialism or mismanagement of African governments and the power they wield is causing everyone to migrate,” Sarr said. “Even if you had your studies and all the qualifications, you would never have any hope of getting a job because there is an elite of people who monopolize all the power.
“To work, you always have to have a connection with these people. These practices forced me to leave Senegal because I felt like a foreigner in my own country. I knew I was entering a very rich land, full of very important resources. Phosphates, oil, diamonds, gas, gold. Still, having all this, we felt very poor.
“Considering all these factors, all these difficulties, I forced myself to risk my life and come here to Europe.”
A boat from Senegal with 85 migrants on board approaches La Restinga on the Canary island of El Hierro in August (Jose Antonio Sempere/AFP via Getty Images)
Faye knew the route to Tenerife. He said each of his trips varied “depending on the sea and the wind,” but each of them was “really difficult, five-day trips.”
He added: “It’s not the same if a group of fishermen organizes an expedition as people who have never seen the sea. For me it was a day similar to work. I was a fisherman, we were used to what the sea was like, to fear of the sea. But along the way you saw other boats having accidents. It was shocking.
“The sea is wild. There is no genius in this, there is luck. There are many people who die at sea.”
Faye came to Spanish soil three times from Senegal, sailing along the west coast of Africa, and was deported three times as an illegal immigrant.
“I applied for a visa twice at the French embassy but was refused,” he says of the alternative routes he used after returning to Senegal.
“To get the visa, they asked you to meet requirements that could not be obtained. Requirements such as having a bank account with a lot of money, an employment contract. Most of the people there wanted to leave the country precisely because they didn’t have it, we didn’t even have a bank account.”
Faye finally managed to settle in Spain in 2015. He wanted to work, but without an NIE (Número de Identificación de Extranjero – a tax identification number that foreigners must have in the country), his options were limited.
“Talking to various colleagues, I was told that the only solution was to become a street vendor,” he said.
2019 street protest calling for greater rights and respect for manteros (Paco Freire/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“But the problem is that you are exposed to contact with the police. They chase you every day and can fine you, put you back in CIE (Centro de Internamiento de Extranjeros – temporary detention centers where illegal immigrants are held), or even deport you.
“We started organizing rallies to explain that what was happening to us was not normal, and then in Salou in 2015 a comrade (collaborator Mor Sylla) died. Then we said enough.
“That day we took to the streets to demonstrate. With the arrival of (now former Mayor of Barcelona) Ada Colau, she invited us to a round table to talk about our situation. This is where the idea for the cooperative came from. As a union, we continued to fight and after two years we created our brand.”
Thanks to the cooperative, Top Manta was able to provide legal and regular work to over 200 people who found themselves in their situation.
Top Manta Workshop in Sants, Barcelona (Top Manta)
Thousands of people continue to arrive in the Canary Islands from the west coast of Africa. Spanish Socialist Party Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the region in August after 21,620 people crossed the border in the first seven months of 2024, an increase of 154%, according to data from the European Union border agency Frontex.
A report by Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders, a Madrid-based campaign group that “works to defend the rights of migrant individuals and communities”) shows that between January and May this year, 4,808 people died while trying to cross from West Africa to the Canary Islands. They said these numbers make it the deadliest route between Africa and Spain.
“The problem is that we live here because of capitalism and neo-colonialism, which is forcing us to leave our country,” Faye said.
“If migration is increasing every day, it is because of this. Because of this system that continues to impoverish Africa. We would like to try to solve this problem, but we do not have enough tools to solve it all.
“But we start with small things, like helping people who are in a difficult situation here.”
(Top photo: Getty Images. Visual design: Dan Goldfarb)