Author: Leah Pattem / Photos: Elisa González
Since Mame Mbaye’s death in 2018, a powerful vigil and march take place every year in his honour. Last night, the streets of Lavapiés echoed with drums and song, and the chants of protesters united behind a simple demand: respect for migrants’ human rights.
Mame Mbaye arrived in Madrid in 2006 and lost his life there in 2018. His death is shrouded in two conflicting narratives: one from the police and another from his friends. While the official version prevails, the 12 years leading up to his death align far more with his friends’ account – that what ultimately killed Mame Mbaye was institutional racism.
His journey began in Saint Louis, Senegal, when he boarded a boat with 93 others, including minors, in search of a better life. After a perilous week at sea, he arrived in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, on May 29, 2006.
For over a decade in Madrid, Mame lived in precarity. He worked as a street vendor (mantero) and later as a cook at a friend’s restaurant, earning enough to rent a room in an apartment on Calle del Oso. It was on the doorstep of his home that he suffered fatal cardiac arrest. He was just 35 years old.
Police reports state that officers found Mame Mbaye on the ground and attempted to resuscitate him. However, multiple witnesses, including his friends, tell a different story: that he was chased by police from Sol, triggering his heart attack.
Mame lived under constant threat of social exclusion. Spain’s immigration laws require undocumented migrants to reside in the country for at least three years before they can begin regularization – a process that demands a permanent work contract, an almost impossible condition for those in his situation.
As an undocumented migrant, Mame had no right to healthcare beyond emergency services, leaving many like him vulnerable to undiagnosed illnesses, including the heart condition that ultimately took his life.
Anti-racism groups including Regularizacion Ya and Sindicato de Manteros, as well as protestors from all around Madrid, aim to spread the urgent message that current immigration policies kill – exactly as is written on the hand-painted signs.
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