So I decide on another holiday to Ghana. The cheapest ticket is from afriquiyah airways. We will have a 2.30hour transit in Libya. But that is fine- the fare is cheap, I cannot complain. We get to Libya and one of the filthiest of airports-even by third world standards- that I have ever visited. Again, I cannot complain because the fare is cheap.

On my way back to the UK, I see and also go through one of the most humiliating experiences.On my way into the Libyan airport- it’s only an airport transit- I have to join a queue for immigration control. It’s a long queue and I am at the end of it. At first, I thought it’s only for people with a Ghanaian passport. The immigration official takes the passport, and uses an eye glass, and magnifying glass to look at it. Goes to stand in a different light, turns it upside down, all the while looking at it very closely. Then, hands it over to his colleague who does the same.

I thought that was quite interesting, but people are known to use fake passports to travel. The next man to go up is a white man. They take a cursory look at his passport and then stamp it. Takes less than a minute and he is gone. Then a black man goes….this time a black man with a red (British passport). Out comes the magnifying glass, the microscope, stethoscope and the lights.

I start getting angry.

Then comes a white man en route to Amsterdam, with his black Ghanaian wife, and two mixed race children- one a baby, asleep in the his baby holder on mum’s chest. The man’s passport is given again, a cursory glance. They repeat the same ridiculous charade with the wife’s passport- although it’s not a black Ghanaian passport. Then the children- the woman is told to lift the face of the sleeping baby up twice so they can have a closer look.

Now, I am very happy they are doing their job. My anger is directed at the obvious racism here. It does not matter what passport one holds, what matters is skin colour. Once you are black, you are treated suspiciously as if you were a criminal. That I can take, -I live abroad, we get that all the time- till you realise that Libya is in Africa. They are in North Africa and Ghana is in West Africa. Do we need this kind of attitude towards people of our own continent? Their behaviour is distasteful.

One would rather they use the same kind of energy to keep their toilets clean, fix those broken taps in the toilets and put some toilet tissue in the toilets! We are not animals and need to clean ourselves when we have a wee or a poo.

It goes without saying that I will never ever fly afriquiyah again- unless the transit is at another airport.