The Human Algorithm: The Story of why Roger made his way to Europe.

The Universal search for meaning and the importance of taking people's projects of personal and social becoming seriously- warscapes or not.

One of the tasks of anthropology is to explore that which makes us human. And while I will not dare to unpack the complexity behind the human condition, I am certain that the search for meaning is part of the human algorithm. In fact, I am still to know another person which does not search for completeness; and I am not talking about a state of Nirvana here, but rather a feeling of self and social realisation. In other words, I strongly believe the search for purpose and achievement to be a common human denominator; independently of the many shapes that this may take and the various places where it can be found: love, religion, success, having, experiencing, being, belonging, becoming... you name it.

Now, I think it is ridiculous that when attempting to understand people's drivers of social behaviour (the what people do and why do they do it) in conflict zones, warscape inhabitants are recurrently portrayed as little more than rational choice makers, maximisers who's motivations for social action are reduced to the most fundamental, mostly to coping with 'the conflict' and its externalities. In fact, this line of thinking does not stop at conflict zones and is generally applied to those populations living under any social condition of extreme injustice, 'the wrecked of the earth' if one likes.

Yet, it is extremally clear to me that while social conditions of injustice - the structuring structures shaping our patterns of social behaviour - have an effect on people's life choices, these do not override people's projects of personal and social becoming, and consequently the nuances behind their, our, motivations for social action. And thinking that it does so, beyond being a recipie for poor analysis, it is a way of alienating these populations from the human algorithm, and hence from a part of their, our, humanity. A very colonial way of thinking, I must say.

Allow me to transform this thought into a living example:

(Hu)man Search for Meaning

I have a friend to which we shall call Roger. Due to complex factors Roger has claims to both Ethiopian and Eritrean nationalities. Not long ago, Roger lived a comfortable life in Addis Ababa: all his basic necessities were far beyond covered, he enjoyed the pleasures of kindship and the economic independence provided by a job that not only he liked well, but which also had solid future prospects. Well, as it happens, Roger wanted more from life. As a self-defined natural born anthropologist that he is, he wanted to :

"See the world, explore other cultures, travel, and discover new things" ​ As it also happens, the colonial political economy is a rigged game that prevented him, and about two thirds of the planet population, from doing so. Well, Roger decided to do something about it. In Roger’s own words:

"To accomplish both my childhood dreams and my personal ambitions, I needed a stronger passport that will allow me to have the freedom of movement that you enjoy "

And so, in the hope of getting a white passport from the UK, our protagonist decided to use the delicate situation of his region to his advantage by making his way to Europe and claiming refugee status as an Eritrean living in Ethiopia- which by the way, was not his case at all.

After months of research, planning, and saving, Roger started his journey by legally taking a plane to Sudan - the starting point of his other journey. Once in Sudan, Roger asked for travelling advise to some Ethiopian acquaintances that used to work as smugglers. After several failed attempts to discourage Roger from making the trip, the ex-smugglers ended explaining him in detail the shorter and safer way to make his way to the UK, his intended final destination. He was to arrive to the UK by crossing Egypt and the Mediterranean sea and entering Europe via Italian ground.

Something that Roger decided not to do. Instead, he opted to make his journey to Italy via Libya- the longest and more dangerous way. When I asked Roger why would he do that, his answer was very clear:

‘With all the risks I was taking, if I was going to die, I wanted to die living’.

Living is the key word here. All in all, Roger told me that his trip to Europe was an opportunity to accomplish that for which he wanted a stronger passport: to travel, to experience new things, to see new places. Choosing the longer, and highly most dangerous way offered precisely that- a journey of discovery, and an opportunity to experience and discover the world; to live his life in his own terms.

Roger tells me that one of the particular reasons to take the longer path was that he wanted to see and experience the Libyan desert; and let's please take into account that this was not a safari trip that included a lunch pack. The journey through the dessert was organised and done by smugglers. Now, I feel that is worth to share that while Roger stressed that sleeping 'Á la belle étoile' and seeing the orange sunset among the desert dunes are some of the best memories he has created in his life.... he was also kidnapped, sold, and abandoned to his luck by desert mafias.. thinking that his end was near more times and in more ways that he would care to remember.

Roger's journey is full of incredible tales, each worth a story on its own. Stories that he will tell us all when he is ready, for he plans to write (another) book one day (the first one is in Amharic, and thus unreachable for me; a real pity). But what is important to me here is that, Roger’s story clashes with normative ideas about refugee drivers for migration. Sure, obtaining a European passport and the privileges that this entails is a clear way to make sense of Roger's motivations to come to Europe; after all, improving one's well being is a very rational choice. However:

Roger make very clear to me that his journey was primarily motivated by his dreams and desires: his eagerness to experience, to life a life worth living, and above all to accomplish a personal project of self-realization.

My point being that independently of their social condition-ing, people are in search a fulfilled live, and neglecting this within the study of conflict dynamics- or that of social behaviour- beyond being extremely reductionist and thus a great recipe for mediocre analysis, it also contributes to forms epistemological violence that discursively ‘others’ warscape inhabitants by alienating them from part of their human algorithm, and hence from our shared humanity.

Dismantling these colonial frames of thinking via investigating how people go about making a life-worth living in conflict zones, finding out what their needs and wants beyond 'the conflict' are, is one of the main purposes of my research.