After 8,262 miles, 21 countries, and a year and a half on the road, Ugandan-British runner and campaigner Deo Kato became the first person to run from Cape Town to London, using the feat to raise awareness about racism and reclaim the story of migration.
Born in Uganda and raised in the United Kingdom, Deo began running as a way to manage his health, a personal decision that gradually grew into a much larger journey of bold activism. He eventually went on to run long-distance in Australia, one of the hottest places in the world, reflecting his determination to tackle challenges head-on.
In 2020, a moment of global reckoning around racial injustice became a turning point for Deo. He realized his running could serve a purpose beyond endurance. ‘I thought, “I have to do something about this. Whether it’s small or big, I want to use my running to create change and speak out against racial injustice,”’ he explains.
That conviction led him to run ten kilometres every day for 381 days, marking each day of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal moment in the United States civil rights movement. He told himself, “I’m going to keep doing this for as long as I can because this is how change happens.”
From this commitment, Deo set out to run from Cape Town to London, symbolically retracing humanity’s earliest migration routes from Africa to the rest of the world. Displacement soon emerged as a central theme of the journey, reinforcing his belief that migration must be understood more deeply.
Setting off from the Long March to Freedom monument in Cape Town gave Deo’s journey a powerful symbolic beginning. “Having the South African community send me off from the landmark was incredibly meaningful,” he says.
The road ahead was long and arduous. Scaling mountains, crossing deserts, and running through wildlife reserves, Deo moved through landscapes that constantly shifted around him. “It feels incredible just to be moving. Then, suddenly, I see elephants and children start running beside me,” he shares.
Along the way, Deo witnessed how complex and restrictive migration can be, particularly for people displaced by climate impacts, economic pressure, or conflict. He saw how limited regular pathways and movement restrictions leave many people effectively unable to move within their own regions, trapping them in unsafe or uncertain situations and cutting off routes to safety.
“Some people end up detained simply for trying to flee conflict or because they are seen as outsiders. Even when they have the correct paperwork, they can still be held.”
Deo himself faced similar barriers. At one point, he was detained despite having the correct documents. In other areas, he was forced to reroute his journey because of conflict or restricted access. “Being Ugandan often raised questions for the authorities, making them wary of me,” he says. His experience mirrored the suspicion and bureaucracy many displaced people face simply because of where they come from.
As he travelled north towards Europe, the scrutiny intensified. “The further I travelled along the migration route, the more I was viewed as an irregular migrant. People would call the police simply because they saw someone they thought didn’t belong passing through their area,” he explains.
Despite the challenges, Deo’s journey was sustained by community support. Along the way, local runners, strangers, and online supporters joined him. Those moments of shared effort and solidarity kept him going. “Without that community support, I would not have succeeded on this journey. It’s what truly gave it meaning,” he says.
The writer is a Senior Communications Assistant with IOM UK. Extracted from IOM
