This week began with a lot of activities. Multiple meetings, mentoring sessions, writing, editing, Executive meetings, helping to organise events, preparing slides for training and drafting reports. It was also time to get ready to head to Luanda, the Angolan capital over the weekend to train some Angolan journalists.
I have been in communication with one of the hosts who has been working on my visa application.
The only reason I am going to Angola is to go and train journalists. And I won’t spend a day more after the training. I’m getting on the plane on the scheduled time and leaving. Luanda is also expensive, and I have no plans of spending a day more.
In any case, Angola is an African country, and I didn’t think much of what or anything that could go wrong. How would it ever be possible that Angolan authorities would deny me, another African, visa. That never crossed my mind.
But sometime last week, the official handling the visa application wrote back to ask me to resend my COVID-19 and yellow fever vaccination cards. You read right. As part of the documents required for the visa application, I was asked to include my COVID-19 vaccination card. That was weird, I thought. Who demands to see COVID-19 vaccination card in 2025. I thought we have long been done and over with COVID-19. Even Ghana repealed the obnoxious COVID-19 levy.
Requesting that I resend the copies surprised me a bit. Because I was certain I sent copies of the right documents. The same vaccination cards I have been using for all my international travels. There is nothing wrong with the cards nor the photos I sent of them. Of course, I did travel with the COVID-19 card when it was a required travel document. The yellow fever card, I sometimes carry it to countries that don’t even require it, because it is always in my passport.
Anyway, I retook shots of the cards and resent and then crossed my fingers.
I didn’t smell anything fishy. Not that I thought I should, because I’m not anywhere near the activity spot. But this evening on my way back from a media event, I received a message from the hosts informing me that my visa has been denied. But that of my colleague from another African country was granted. And they’ve offered no plausible explanation and so it’s not clear why my visa application was denied.
At some point, I tried to think that it could be because there is an Angolan Embassy in Ghana. But there is an Angolan Embassy in the country where my co-trainer is from, and yet their visa was granted. So having an Embassy in Ghana couldn’t be the reason.
In any case, Angola has moved most of its visa processing online and the official applying on our behalf has applied for hundreds of Angolan visas and so knows very well what to do.
So here I am sitting down and wondering and smiling that Angola has denied me visa. It’s funny. Even comical, and I’m laughing like crazy. Because honestly, I have gone past being desperate to travel and I can’t imagine why Angola visa officials would deny me visa, except to flex. Because the only reason they could give if they were serious and that could somehow conveniently justify their ridiculous decision would be to say I wouldn’t return to Ghana. But how is that possible? I don’t speak Portuguese. The only word I know of Portuguese is obrigado, I’m not even sure of the spelling.
Clearly, African countries denying other Africans visa should look deep into themselves. It’s not only a shame. It is ridiculous.
Postscript: I have received more information about the drama of my visa rejection after posting this story. Apparently, my visa application was put in three times, and each time it was rejected. An official of the hosting organisation even visited the visa processing office to try and understand what their reason or reasons were, but got nothing. Even more curious is the fact that they didn’t demand for a COVID-19 vaccination card from my co-facilitator, they did only from me.
By Emmanuel K Dogbevi
