Two weeks before UCSB’s June graduation ceremonies, Alagie Jammeh finally received a letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security granting him political asylum in the United States. In September 2014, the international student had lost his Gambian-government-funded scholarship to study at the university, and with it his visa, after he posted to his Facebook page, “No one should be denied their fundamental human rights because of their sexuality.”
That post resulted in an order to return to the Republic of Gambia, where his uncle — ruthlessly homophobic president Yahya Jammeh — demanded an apology. Alagie was berated by his parents and his 17 siblings. A trip home would’ve meant the end of Alagie’s freedom and the shuttering of his dream to be the first in his family to graduate college. “The reason most people in the Gambia have this belief that homosexuality is bad is because they haven’t met one person who is homosexual,” said Jammeh, who met many openly gay people in the U.S.
The revocation of Gambian support led to Jammeh sleeping in his car, showering at the Rec Cen, and being rejected from countless scholarships because of his undocumented status. Fearing his deportation after a police officer scolded him for sleeping in his car, Jammeh finally told university administrators of his situation. When they asked him why he remained silent for so long, he said, “I wanted to see if I could solve this problem by myself.”