He is one of a group of refugees imprisoned in the hold of the Ramona who initially attacked Captain Haddock when he tried to free them from captivity, only to be stopped when Tintin sprayed them all with water. He and Haddock clarified the mistake, explaining they mistook him for a part of the crew who had shut them all in the cargo hold, and further explained they were a group of refugees on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He immediately agreed to help crew the ship, along with several of his fellow refugees.
Two days later, he spotted another vessel approaching them and called over Haddock and Tintin. The captain of the other ship, who repeatedly asked about the presence of coke, proceeded to examine the refugee's physical attributes, at one point calling him the racist term "Sambo", while checking his teeth, prompting him and Captain Haddock to eventually realize that the man was a slave trader. As Haddock tried to attack the slave trader, the refugee noticed him pull out a knife and called for Haddock to look out, managing to disarm the trader and helping Haddock eject him from the vessel. He and Tintin were perturbed as Haddock continued to shout insults at the slave trader even as he sailed away.
Despite his encounter with the trader, when Captain Haddock tried to tell him and the other refugees that if they went to Mecca, they would be sold as slaves, he did not understand at first. He was eventually demurred when one of the elders in the group convinced him that Haddock was telling the truth.