In Between Everything and Nothing, fiction writer Joe Meno makes his first foray into the non-fiction world … and what a compelling story to begin with. Subtitled “The Journey of Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal and the Quest for Asylum,” this book weaves comprehensive interviews together with detailed research about the United States immigration system. The result: a very human look at the particularly difficult journey faced by these two men combined with an examination of the flaws inherent in the system as a whole.
It is likely that you heard the story of Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal in the news a few years back. Both men left their homes in Ghana under different circumstances, but shared a goal of obtaining asylum in the United States. A chance meeting at the Minneapolis, Minnesota bus station brought them together on the last leg of their journey: an attempt to cross the U.S.-Canadian border which left them fighting for their lives in harsh, freezing conditions. Between Everything and Nothing takes readers through each man’s individual story, their upbringing in Ghana, and the reasons they left and feared returning, which led them to seek asylum. This book walks through each painfully difficult step of traversing South and Central America, where they hiked for days through dense jungles and crossed rivers, where they were attacked, robbed, and taken advantage of by those claiming to help them. When Seidu and Razak each finally arrived in the United States, they were held in detention centers, treated as criminals, for months on end while their asylum requests were slowly processed and ultimately denied. This led them to venture toward Canada in one final attempt to find a safe place which would accept them.
Meno’s experience writing fiction is put to good use here, enhancing the narrative and making for an undeniably compelling read. He covers the personal stories of Seidu and Razak in such detail, yet also provides a much-needed overview of the inner workings (and failings) of the U.S. immigration system. He details how this system is constructed as a business, labeling who profits from it and who ultimately suffers. Meno lays bare the utter isolation of these mens’ experiences — the lack of support, lack of ethics, lack of adherence to laws that occur every day within the immigration system. He exposes the ongoing violation of human rights, the heartbreaking realisation that the “American dream” is not what Seidu and Razak thought it would be. Meno also draws a connection between the inequality that occurs across so many countries. He identifies how systems in Africa, South America, and the United States are all engineered to favor the rich; how corruption and the absence of justice plague each country.
Yet despite all of this, despite the fact that Seidu and Razak arrived in Canada with their bodies broken and battered, their indomitable spirits prevailed. Their perseverance, their refusal to quit, is absolutely remarkable. The way Seidu and Razak held fast to their faith in God, the belief things will work out as they were intended to, is inspiring. The way that, even in the darkest of circumstances they managed to somehow find their way back to the love and support of their family, friends, and even strangers is unbelievable. And this journey also brought about a discovery of self, of unknown depths of strength — particularly with Seidu, whose journey to embracing his identification as bisexual occurred right alongside his geographical trek.
Between Everything and Nothing is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore. Many thanks to Counterpoint for providing me with an advance copy of this wonderful book. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Joe Meno brings a novelist’s eye to the true story of two young men from Ghana and their journey from the unjust political system of their homeland through the chaos of the United States’ failing immigration system
Based on extensive interviews with Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal, Joe Meno’s nonfiction debut recounts the harrowing journey of two Ghanian asylum seekers hoping to build a better life in North America.
Long before ever meeting by chance at a Minneapolis bus station on December 23rd, 2016, Seidu and Razak had already endured more injustice than most. Forced to flee the inhumane social policies of their native Ghana, both men separately embarked on perilous odysseys that took them through the jungles and bureaucracies of South and Central America. Like countless immigrants before, they arrived at the United States border with high hopes and the reasonable expectation that their worst days were behind them. But instead of finding asylum and the American Dream, Seidu and Razak became trapped in a nightmare as detainees in a private detention facility where a byzantine and cruel plea process stripped them of their humanity and treated them like criminals simply for wanting the chance at a better life. Unable to return to Ghana and with the rise of anti-immigration sentiment extinguishing any lingering hopes for a happy outcome in the United States, Seidu and Razak set their sights on Canada. Crossing the Canadian border would prove to be riskier and more tragic than anything that came before.
Seidu and Razak’s perilous journey has already received international media attention for the way it typifies the uncaring and exploitative immigration crisis at our southern border and beyond. With this intimate and heartbreaking account, Joe Meno brings to life the horrors of the global asylum industry, adding a much needed personal dimension to one of the greatest humanitarian concerns the world now faces.
