Cherished Memories of Africa — Page 149
131 Jami’a workers got the upper hand. After the competition Huzur said to me amusingly, ‘do you think that your team would have won if you were in it’. Visas issued on Sunday with Allah’s Help Hadrat Khalifatul Masih IV directed me to bring a delegation of Senegal’s Members of Parliament for Jalsa Salana Germany in 1995. This directive was given in July 1995 during Jalsa Salana UK with only a month to go for the Jalsa in Germany. I packed up immediately and set out for the Gambia. From there I went to Senegal and contacted Hon Niak Jong (who was the then Deputy Speaker of the Assembly). By the Grace of Allah, a delegation of twelve members National Assembly of Senegal agreed to go. Being members of the National Assembly and having diplomatic passports they did not require visa to enter France. They assumed that visa for one European country was good enough for most of the other European countries; therefore, they did not require visas for Germany. The agency, from which the tickets were purchased, suggested the same. We purchased the tickets for Air Portugal and started our journey. At Dakar Airport two different departments checked our documents and granted permission to board without let or hindrance. When we landed at Lisbon airport in Portugal, from where we were to take our flight to Frankfurt, the immigration department there stopped us. The reason: as we did not have the visa for Portugal, therefore, we could not get out of the airport or go to Frankfurt and would be repatriated to Senegal. We argued at length but they would not listen.