Description: Commi and I talked for about 40 minutes while sitting on a bench in King Tomislav Square in Velika Gorica, Croatia. We talked about childhood, education, life paths and how we got abroad - Commi from Senegal to Croatia since 2013, and I from Croatia to Berlin since 2018. Everyone spoke in their native language - Commi spoke exclusively in Mandinka language, and I in Croatian. Mandinka is a language spoken by 1.5 million speakers in West Africa, including Senegal, where Commi comes from. At the end of the conversation, and since Commi has been living in Croatia since 2013, I asked him to welcome me for all my future visits to Croatia. And Commi welcomed me in the Mandinka language as a generous and good host.

Language is the primary means of communication between people. Not knowing the language of the environment in which we live, being a foreigner, can be a source of anxiety and serious everyday problems. It is as if we are mute and deaf, although all our speech and hearing organs are healthy and functional. Around the month of May 2023, according to the incomplete data of the UNHCR, there were more than 110 million forcibly displaced persons in the world, those who are foreigners against their will. However, even living in an environment where we all understand each other linguistically does not guarantee us a peaceful life - sometimes the very fact that we understand each other well can be a source of problems, conflicts and even hatred. That is why many voluntarily leave their countries and their mother tongue in order to find somewhere else an environment in which they feel better, with which they understand each other better. Croatia, as part of the EU and the rich West, has become an attractive destination for many people who find life difficult or impossible in their countries. On the other hand, according to the 2021 census, Croatia itself lost almost 10 percent of its population in the last 10 years.
One of the main topics not only in Croatia, but also in the whole EU and the whole world is refugees and asylum seekers. The relationship towards them is the source of both interstate disputes and conflicts within the states themselves. Many political parties experienced a rise, sometimes even to power, on a wave of suspicion and even hatred towards those of a different skin color, religion, culture and language. There is a saying that no one hears so badly as he who does not want to hear. A part of European and world politicians are doing everything in order not to spread this attitude as much as possible in society and stop the desire and possibility to try to hear and see the other. And the refusal to hear and see someone, even though he is physically there among us, is the annulment of his humanity, is a symbolic murder.