How Is It For a Black to Live in Russia?

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can

only be achieved by understanding.

Albert Einstein

I got acquainted with a tall good-looking 19-year-old guy from Nigeria two years ago, when he had just arrived in Moscow to study. He knew very little about life in Moscow and Russia in general, was diffident, and afraid of almost everything - the metro, strangers, speaking with Russian office workers and waiters, and he asked endless questions. We didn't have a chance to communicate for a year and many things have changed during this time. That is why I was extremely interested in talking to him and in getting to know his present feelings and attitude towards living in what he describes as a 'whole new world'. (He asked me not to mention his name.)

- Why did you choose to come to Russia for five years of studying?

- The Federal Government in Nigeria regularly provides students with different scholarships for getting a good education abroad. The state Bayelsa, where I come from, organized a special program for science students for studying in Russia. It was a great opportunity to get an excellent education in science and become familiar with European culture, so I decided to try it out. One hundred and sixty Nigerian students got the scholarship from this state and came here to study.

- How were the students selected for the scholarship?

- Well, firstly, only the top students, with the best marks in school, had a chance to apply, and then you had to pass some tests in math, physics and chemistry. About 3000 students took part, so you can imagine how hard the competition was.

- Can you say that the best students from Bayelsa have come here?

- Yes, absolutely.

- What perception of Russia did you have before you crossed the border?

- I didn't have any idea of this country. However, I was lucky. I knew one Russian expatriate who was working for my uncle and I had a chance to talk to him. He didn't tell me anything in particular, he was just praising his motherland a lot and warned about the difficulty of the Russian language and that I should be ready to put much effort into studying. Then I checked my future university MADI, in the Internet, where I was supposed to study at first, and the building seemed to me to be a palace, I thought: "Wow! Am I going to study there? It's simply gorgeous!"

- When you came, how quickly did you learn about the existence of racism in Russia?

- When we just arrived, in the very beginning, our superiors and people who had been studying for some period of time in Moscow told us that in general Russian people are nice, but "there are people who for some reasons really don't like your presence here, they are called 'skinheads'. You should be very careful, do not walk alone at night, and if you want to go somewhere it is better to organize small groups in order to be able to defend yourself. We were truly scared at first, but now I personally feel myself much more comfortable here.

- Have you ever personally faced any serious problems with "skinheads"?

- Fortunately, never, in these two years. I think I'm blessed and I thank God every single day for protection. But lots of my friends were terribly beaten up, being in hospitals afterwards in extremely bad condition. Our hostel and the district around it is a very dangerous place. Something happens quite often - but I'm lucky. Once one guy was awfully beaten near our hostel and was brought to a hospital with serious injuries, and I passed the same place only ten minutes later, but saw nobody. I met lots of 'skinheads', or just people who were insulting me, or trying to stand in my way in the metro. That is really foolish. Or cursing in Russian, which I understand, but I do not pay attention and sometimes find their actions really ridiculous.

- Do you think that those who were beaten up are partly guilty themselves?

- Well, I wouldn't say so. Probably, it could be their fault if they provoked it, say, by insulting back or something. But usually the skinheads are already drunk, and they do not need any provocation, they just attack. However, Moscow is a relatively safe place, compared with St. Petersburg, for instance.

- What is the role of the police in the serious attacks or fights?

- We try not to get involved with the police at all. What for? They consider most of the Russians to be citizens and some hooligans. They are naive to the fact that some people are not who they seem to be, and in any case focus their attention straightaway on us in terms of our visa and other documents. Actually, we are always facing difficulties with the police, being stopped all the time to check our documents, especially near the places for money exchange. They are never satisfied with our "spravka" (the permission for living) and "studencheskiy bilet" (student identity card), requiring a visa which we cannot show for obvious reasons, and intimidating us by the possibility of finding ourselves in the police station. However, now we have understood that they don't have any right to do anything, so we just agree to be brought to the police station, or we indulge in argument.

- Are you planning to leave Russia after getting your diploma?

- No, quite the contrary; I like this place. If I get a good job, related to my profession and find a wife, I might think about staying here. I have got accustomed to Moscow and have become a Nigerian Russian, I don't feel cold, can speak Russian, and plan to improve on it, plus I already know my way around. Of course, I know that I should be cautious, for example coming back home by metro at night, but I have got used to the life here, and I like it a lot.

By Liuba Gribanova

(English. 4/2006, page 46)

TASKS

I. Give English-English equivalents for the following word-combinations:

to get an excellent education in smth; to become familiar with smth; to have perception of (Russia); to warn about the difficulty of (doing) smth; to face (some) serious problems; to insult smb; (not) to pay attention to smb; to provoke smth; to attack smb; to get involved with smb; to face difficulties with smb; to require a visa; to show smth for obvious reasons; to intimidate smb; to get accustomed to smth

II. Answer the following questions:

1. What does the Federal Government in Nigeria provide young people?

2. What is Nigerian students’ aim of being taught in Russia?

3. Is it easy for them to be selected for the scholarship? What tests do they have to pass?

4. What perception of Russia did the respondent have first? What was his first attitude?

5. What was his first experience of dealing with the representative of Russian culture?

6. What did the respondent learn about the existence of racism in Russia? What way was it manifested?

7. Have you ever heard about the so-called ‘skinheads’ and from what sources?

8. How does the Nigerian student rate the actions of the skinheads?

9. What situations usually provoke the skinheads’ attacking?

10. Why do the Russian police focus their attention exactly on Black people? Why do Black people always face difficulties with the police, being stopped all the time?

11. Why does nothing prevent Black people from staying in Russia in spite of the fact of being discriminated here?

III. Topics for discussion:

1. Look at the photo at the beginning of this article and tell why the Nigerian student doesn’t want to be recognizable?

2. Tell about the problems of immigrants. What are the difficulties for them in surviving?

3.Tell about your attitude to legal and illegal immigration;

IV.Make up and act out a dialogue:

a)between the correspondent and the Nigerian student;

b)between two Nigerian students sharing different points of view on the problems of race discrimination in Russia based upon their own life experience.

Date: 2015-02-28; view: 805