Seidu Kowa lost all his fingers to frostbite during a walking journey to Canada
Ghanaian footballer, Seidu Kowa has opened up about a harrowing experience he endured while attempting to cross a frozen border into Canada to pursue a football career.
According to him, he decided to walk to Canada in 2016, but along the way, he encountered unknown individuals who handcuffed him and took him to an unpleasant place.
Kowa noted that he met people from various jurisdictions, both Africans and foreigners who were denied food and interrogated about their whereabouts.
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“I remember we told one of the officers that we were going out to get food. He told us that once we entered, we couldn’t go out. He said we should go back, but didn’t let us leave to get food. And they also didn’t give us any food. When they came, they uncuffed us.
“Then they started asking us about our names and information, where we came from and all that. We told them everything. After that, they took us to a small room at the border. They put people there. There were Mexicans, Panamanians, different people. And they put us there,” he said in an interview shared on X.
Kowa disclosed that the place resembled a prison, where they were denied access to basic hygiene facilities.
“They kept us there for seven days. We couldn’t bathe, we couldn’t brush our teeth, nothing. It was like a prison. There was a toilet inside. It was a small room and very cold. At night, when we were going to bed, we asked for blankets to cover ourselves. They said no, they didn’t have any. So we slept in the cold,” the footballer recounted.
He also stated that he lost all his fingers to frostbite due to the extreme cold exposure during his detention.
Watch the interview below:
In 2014, he left Ghana to chase his football dream in Brazil.
By 2016, he was walking across a frozen border into Canada. On that journey, he lost all his fingers to frostbite.
Seidu Kowa’s story of courage, survival, and hope may leave you in tears 🥲 pic.twitter.com/97T68emq0n
— @𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗷𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗯𝗼𝘆 (@OneJoblessBoy) October 30, 2025
SB/JE
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