‘I’ve given up on returning’: Jamaican exile speaks out on loss of his home
The Rev. Jevaughn Satchwell is a pastor, nurse and activist who combats discrimination against LGBTQ people and people living with HIV. A Jamaican now living in Canada, he is the provisional leader of the Caribbean Interfaith Network, a regional body that seeks to promote the dignity and understanding of LGBTQIA people through communities of faith. In this interview, he relates his life experiences as an emigrant from the Caribbean through the prism of his faith.
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76crimes: Tell us about yourself.
Rev. Jevaughn Satchwell: I am a 30-year-old former Jamaican social worker from Montego Bay, on the north coast of Jamaica, off the coast of Cuba.
For 10 years, from 2010 to 2020, I worked with relative ease and many happy moments with people living with HIV or sex workers, despite the dangers inherent to the social context of my country: homophobic legislation that legalizes discrimination, as well as high crime rates.
However, it is this same context that finally led me to have to leave my country, in order to save my life, at the turn of 2020.
76crimes: How does this violence translate?
Satchwell: In Jamaica the laws, institutions and society are deeply homophobic. The Jamaican Penal Code in fact stipulates that “whoever is found guilty of sodomy, committed with a human being or with an animal, may be imprisoned and sentenced to forced labor for up to ten years,” under Article 76.
In reality, the already high level of violence and crime in Jamaica that affects all spheres of society, further targets LGBTI persons who are vulnerable and fragile as offenders believe that they are an easier audience to attack without incurring retaliation. Furthermore, in Jamaica it is a stigma to come out to the police who in any case deny protection to LGBTI communities.
This is how I had to leave Jamaica and abandon my loved ones and family behind for Canada after being threatened, assaulted, stripped, humiliated and robbed while leaving a skills-building workshop in New Kingston. In Jamaica, it is not uncommon for people to call us “battyman” when they see us coming into a neighborhood and talking about AIDS and prevention to those most affected by the HIV epidemic.
So, some forbidding men had probably already come to the area around the workshop I was running in order to identify me, when I was literally kidnapped, grabbed and sequestered in a vehicle where 4 determined thugs were waiting for me. They were armed to the teeth, it was a real trap, a Machiavellian ambush, like you see in the movies.
In the end, I was only robbed of a very expensive, state-of-the-art telephone of a sought-after brand. In addition, they tried to get 1500 US dollars from me under confusing conditions, but I didn’t have it. I had to remove myself from all social networks after this bad move.
76crimes: What were the consequences of this aggression in your life?
Satchwell: I left many things: my country, my family, my beloved relatives. But I also discovered many things: Toronto, Canada, and the security that I had come to seek and that suits me so well on the shores of Lake Ontario. And Toronto society is very diverse and vibrant. It must be said that Canada remains one of the last great western countries open to immigration and this was a big factor in my choice.
It must be said that if I am living in exile in Canada, I am not an asylum seeker. In fact, I came here rather on a work visa, because I have a diploma in management, although at the professional level, I have not yet found the job that best suits my expectations. At the moment I am just a nurse’s aide.
As far as my home country is concerned, I only plan to go back there on vacation and I have given up on the idea of returning to live there. The road to change mentalities will be too long and I have lost hope to see it in my lifetime. However, I still have some activist ties to Jamaica, through contributions to online advocacy workshops, especially with the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities.
Finally, the other consequence of the tumult I have been through is that my faith has grown from it. In November 2019, I was in Bogota [Colombia] with the Global Interfaith Network, at the time of the structuring of the Caribbean Interfaith Network. Even today, outside of the country where I was born, I remain convinced that the dialogue between LGBTI communities of faith and spirituality and religious leaders is an essential lever to prevent and combat homophobia and transphobia.
If you would like to contact or write a message to Rev. Jevaughn Satchwell, you can send him an email at this address: info@76crimes.com.
