By Alessandro Puglia
Kebbis Secka was a young Gambian migrant who arrived in Italy in 2016. Soon after receiving his residency card, he signed up to be an organ donor. When he died in December, he passed on the gift of a healthy life to others.
Kebbis Secka, known to his friends as Kebba, arrived with his cousin Ebrima in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo on June 25, 2016. Secka had traveled from Gambia, through Libya and across the Mediterranean.
As soon as he was granted a permit to stay in Italy and received his identity card in the city of Vittoria near Ragusa, Secka decided to sign up to be an organ donor.
Sadly, his death came much sooner than anyone would have expected. Secka was just 23 when he died as a result of a motorcycle accident on December 6. Kebba had borrowed a bike from a friend and was heading back to his house in Chiaramonte Gulfi when he was hit by a car. He spent nearly a week fighting for his life in the hospital in Cannizzaro, but on December 13, 2023, he passed away.
‘Whoever saves a life, saves the entire world’
Keith Abdelhafid, a local Imam from the Sicilian port of Catania, came to the hospital to pray for Secka. According to the Imam, Secka was Italy’s first ever refugee organ donor.
“Whoever saves a life, saves the entire world,” he said.
Before he died, Secka had worked as a cultural mediator with the Fo.co cooperative in Chiaramonte Gulfi. His cousin Ebrima remembers that he loved playing football and played for a team in Vittoria, Vittoria FC. “His nickname was Lampard, after the well-known England midfielder,” said Ebrima at the end of Secka’s funeral.
Part of Secka’s job was to help migrants who followed routes similar to the one he had taken years earlier. He learned Italian and was popular with his peers. This wish to help seems to have been strong in his life.
One of his colleagues from the Fo.co cooperative, Alessandro Brullo, said Secka was determined that his organs should help others even after his death. “During the time we spent tgether, he told me about his will, and he seemed so happy about his decision [to have signed the organ donation form.”
‘It was an act of love’
When Secka passed away, Savino Borraccino, head of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at Canizzarro hospital, was informed of his decision. “It was an act of love,” says Borraccino.
Secka’s gesture has helped save several more lives in Italy. His liver was donated to a pregnant woman with a potentially fatal liver condition. His stomach went to a patient in the north of Italy, in the mountainous Piedmont region, while his heart helped to save a young man in Sicily’s capital Palermo. Secka’s kidneys also helped a patient in Sicily and his corneas went to the National Eye Bank foundation in the northeastern region of Veneto.
After his death Secka’s colleagues at the Fo.Co cooperative decided to collect money for him to help repatriate his body to Gambia. “Our objective was to reach €5,500, but donations from people were greater than we expected,” said Donata Stracquadaini, president of the cooperative. “People in Ragusa, but also people from all over Italy know Kebbis. We will use the rest of the amount to support Kebbis’ family,” she said.
Helping his family and compatriots
Before his death, Secka would send money regularly to his mother in Banjul. He helped his two little brothers and especially his 17-year-old sister Famous, whose dream is to become an engineer, explained Alessandro Brullo.
Last summer, after years of absence, Secka was able to travel back to Banjul as part of his work with the cooperative. “It was an unforgettable moment,” said Brullo, who also met Secka’s family in the Gambian capital.
Secka worked with the cooperative to set up a circular economy project called “Ragazzi in Gambia” (Young Guys in Gambia) intended to help create more job opportunities in his home country, and offer an alternative to those who wish to migrate in search of a better life.
“Kebba was not only my cousin, he was my best friend and he was the person who rescued me when we traveled from Libya to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea, we also spent some terrible moments together in the Libyan prisons,” said Ebrima, Secka’s cousin.
Ebrima and another friend, Ousmane, helped the Imam to wash the body as part of the Islamic ritual prior to his funeral.
Last rites
Imam Abdelhafid said he was particularly moved by Secka’s determination to donate. “This gesture moved me particularly because he was very young when he took this important decision. In Islam the culture of giving is very important and this is something we have in common with Catholics. Donating, helping people and charity is a fulcrum of every religion. Donating organs is an incredible human act of love.”
Abdelhafid said that he and many others have been busy in the Islamic community explaining the importance of signing up to schemes like organ and blood donation. Apart from the help to humanity, the Imam hopes it sends a message to Italian politicians and the wider society too. “Kebbis’ act of love is also a message for Italian politicians who might want to instrumentalize migrants for their own political ends,” Abdelhafid said.
During the funeral, Secka’s body was covered by three white veils, as required in the Islamic funeral rites. As the Imam prayed, some of Secka’s Italian colleagues offered up their own prayers. In the room, the sounds of the Islamic prayer reverberated around a small statue of the Virgin Mary.
A glinting ray of sunlight appeared to caress Secka’s body through the window as the funeral came to an end. From there, Secka was transported to the airport for his final journey back to Gambia. From the Fontanarossa airport at the foot of Mount Etna, not far from where Secka lived and worked, the young man was flown to Rome and then on to the Gambian capital Banjul to fulfil the final wish of himself and his family.
Source: infomigrants.net
