01/06/2026
FROM DR.ALLEN ONYEMA 'S Air Peace XENOPHOBIC EVACUEE TO SICKLE CELL PATIENT ADVOCATE
The above video was an interview with me and other evacuees by BBC News Africa in 2019. It's been 7 years since I returned to Nigeria from South Africa through Air Peace, the airline that rescued some Nigerians in South Africa from continuous xenophobic attacks by South Africans. It was a bad experience where we had become scared for our lives and nowhere was safe. I personally did not take the attacks seriously until the day my younger sister was on her way to school, and she came across one of her friends who warned her to go back home and hide herself. As if on cue, I was just watching the news that morning and saw that fleets of police vehicles had flooded Sunnyside, arresting any Nigerian they found. I was very scared and as I called my sister to come back home she arrived.
Thank God, I said as we both entered our room and prayerfully began to empty our wardrobes, seeking the most comfortable place to hide should in case the police found their way into our apartment. All these we both went through despite the inconsistency of our health condition. About 3 days later, more or less, the announcement came - Dr. Allen Oyenma's Air Peace would convey willing Nigerians from South Africa back to Nigeria free of charge. Yyyyiiippppeeeee, what a miracle, thank God. Meanwhile, about 3 months earlier, I had just experienced one of the worst level of stigmatization any patient could experience and this became a push for me to establish a non-profit organization to support people living with sickle cell disease like me. So, I had begun the registration process with my lawyer. As we proceeded to the Nigerian high commission and registered to depart SA, we put everything on hold, sold what we could, and left. It was an urgent, between life and death matter, and we were not sure if we were coming back. I told no one i was leaving, but everyone saw me on TV as i arrived in Nigeria. They laughed, they thought i had been deported and circulated rumours. Guess what, I was a very legal immigrant. I'd just just concluded my masters degree and was processing my doctoral program in
