'Russia formed me' - The odyssey of a people-trafficked poet
Eric Ngalle Charles was just a teenager when he was taken from Cameroon to Moscow. Decades on, his experiences there still inspire his poetry.
Eric Ngalle is now a poet and academic in the Welsh capital of Cardiff, but it's his experiences as a people-trafficked teenager that inspire much of his work. When he was 17, he found himself broke and alone in Moscow, freezing cold and unable to speak a word of Russian. To survive, he relied on charity, girlfriends, and a brief stripping career. None of this was enough to buy him a ticket home to Cameroon, so he got involved in a high-risk scam, which targeted some very dangerous people.
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Presenter: Asya Fouks
Producer: Harry Graham
Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707
(Photo: Eric Ngalle. Credit: Eric Ngalle)
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