As 32-year-old Gael Soro follows this journalist into a shop selling leather bags on Bandra’s Hill Road, an attendant with his arms drawn across his chest moves ever so imperceptibly and blocks Soro’s entrance. He is smiling, but his eyes are hard. Soro asks chummily, “How are you?” The attendant steps aside and allows him entry to the 15x10 feet shop. The minutelong exchange has not perturbed Soro.
In fact, within a short span - he arrived in the city in December 2012 and will leave sometime in the middle of 2014 - Soro has grown accustomed to the improprieties that each day brings with it, starting with stares from commuters on the train ride to Sewri, where he interns at a sports company. Over a cup of tea at a nearby café, the Ivory Coast national, who shares a three bedroom apartment in Goregaon east with five other African nationals, admits that people’s reactions leave him amazed. “People stare. Even if I say ‘hello’ they don’t respond. Initially, colleagues at work behaved the same.”
Soro came here in search of a job, but like many in the black expat community, he too, is keen to start a business - he wants to import cashews from the Middle East. To tackle the problem of residents with little manners and too much curiosity, Soro simply greets them cheerfully. That has worked, he says. “My Indian colleagues now accompany me to lunch.”
Social killsThat may not seem like much of an achievement, but for the likes of Soro, a tiny gesture towards friendliness is welcome, especially since these are hard to come by. Soro’s friend Alain Sedaminou, a Togo national, would know. Over a fortnight ago, the 26-year-old went for dinner with two friends - both Africans - to an Andheri east eatery serving Punjabi food. “The waiter took our order, but returned a few minutes later and asked us to pay up first.”
Though offended, the trio paid up, ate dinner and left.
A sales and marketing officer at an Ahmedabad-headquartered construction firm has been working in its Malad office for seven months, and has faced worse. He has been shunted from homes (a former landlady asked him to shift to Mira Road, home to the infamous Nigerian wadi); residents of his housing society have refused to enter the elevator when he’s using it, and he has been arbitrarily hauled up by cops. “I was in Lokhandwala on a Saturday evening with a Singaporean friend. The constable asked to see my passport. I wasn’t carrying it so I showed him my PAN card. But he didn’t relent. Finally, an Indian colleague who lives in Kalyan had to come and assure the policeman that all was legitimate about me.”
Rules stipulate that foreign nationals must carry their passports at all times while in India. Yet, the cop didn’t bother checking whether Sedaminou’s Singaporean friend was carrying her passport.
Past catches upIn 2005, two African nationals were denied entry to Bandra’s Hawaiian Shack. At that time, the club’s owner Sadhana Lalwani was quoted saying that cops had told them “they would hold us responsible if they found Nigerians peddling drugs in pubs.” Lalwani says that after that incident - for which she apologised publicly - the pub began to check bags of all its guests, in order to not discriminate.
Not wishing to be named, a senior police officer from Thane district says there is a fear that a large number of Africans living in the city are involved in drug peddling or online frauds. Earlier this month, 109 Nigerians were nabbed in a raid by the Mira Road police from Mangal Nagar, a neighbourhood that’s come to be called ‘Nigerian wadi’ given the large population of Africans who reside there. DSP of Thane (Rural) Anil Kumbhare says 39 of them were found to have expired visas. Six have already been deported.
The Indian government website doesn’t mention this categorically, but tourists are charged differently for visas depending on their country. According to the Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) Mumbai, an American is charged $140 for a year-long business visa. In contrast, African nationals are charged $290. City dwellers paint all black expats - and all Nigerians - with the same broad brush stroke. Racism, like other forms of bigotry, functions on generalisation and a refusal to comprehend nuanced differences.
It extends to women, too. A 25-yearold Ivory Coast national, who does not wish to be identified, recalls an experience that occurred a few months ago that’s changed the way she socialises. “We were a group of eight girls, including one German, and were waiting entry at a popular Lower Parel club. All of us, except the German were held back. We were told that we weren’t on the ‘guest list’.” A resident of the city for over a year, she has stopped visiting nightclubs. Old-time restaurateur AD Singh, who owns Olive Bar & Kitchen admits that the social and the F&B circuit is wary of black people. “While as a country we discriminate on the basis of colour, there is a stigma attached to the African community because of a few who are involved in the drug trade. It’s unfair to generalise, but it does happen.”
Feels like homeYet, this city manages to throw the odd curve ball. Twenty-three-year-old student and Kenyan national James Okong’o, who has lived in Mumbai for two years recounts an incident that occurred last November on a local train. A fellow commuter started abusing him without provocation. “While I didn’t understand what he was saying, I could understand that it wasn’t pretty. I ignored it, but other travellers stepped in. They asked him to stop and he did,” Okong’o grins.
Father Lawrence Johnson, a priest at Vashi’s Sacred Heart Church for the past four years says the parish has seen a steady decline in Africans parishioners. When he started out, there were over 100 Nigerians who would attend the service. Now, that number is less than 40. Yet, ironically, over time the community has become more accepting. “The other day, a north-Indian man was talking to me in the church, explaining how he has fallen on bad times. A couple of Nigerians who overheard the conversation stepped in and offered to give this man Rs 4,000.”
After mass, more Indians have begun to interact with the expats, too, he says.
Among the parishioners is 39-yearold Rapheal Amechi who set up Wazobia, a restaurant in Vashi sector-14 two years ago to offer his countrymen a taste of home. Wazobia offers African delicacies like Egwusi soup (an Igbo dish) and Jollof rice, a popular dish in many parts of West Africa. In heavily accented English (his native tongue is Igbo) Amechi says that though the eatery is popular with Indians, 40 out of every 50 diners are Africans. For these parishioners, then, places like Wazobia often serve as a safe haven, where diners can eat a meal without being stared or sniggered at.
Mumbai is also home to a small populace of students from different African countries. Of the 211 foreign students who enrolled at the university this year, quarter were from Afghanistan. The rest were from Africa and the Middle East. Of the 77 students that reside at an international students’ hostel in Churchgate, eight are from Africa. A 22-year-old Kenyan national studying BCom at a suburban college says that in the two years that he has lived here, he has never interacted with his classmates socially. “Perhaps, it is because they speak Marathi, I speak English. But they have never stepped out of their comfort zone to make friends with us.”
Indian-in-lawIt’s no different for black people who are married to Indians. For them, there is little choice but to bear the prejudice. Often spotted jogging on Bandra’s Turner road, 49-year-old Eddie Teel says he is commonly confused for an African. Raised in Atlanta, US, Teel came to Mumbai in 2011 when his wife, 39-year-old Sangeeta chose to return home. The move has left the couple with bittersweet experiences. “We were at a shop once and a man shut his girlfriend’s eyes and turned her dramatically toward Eddie. As soon as she opened her eyes, she screamed,” Sangeeta recounts, shaking her head at the utter insensitivity.
At 6’5”, Eddie cuts an imposing figure. The personal trainer says finding clients hasn’t been easy. At present, he has barely four. “Some decide against training with me once they meet me,” he says, distracted by the antics of his six-year-old daughter Pramila, who is blowing air through a straw. “People see my colour and think I am African. I have to constantly repeat that I am an American and my family has been for generations.” He wonders he is stared unabashedly. “I look at them and say ‘hello’. Only then do they turn back.”
Yet, the couple is unwilling to leave Mumbai. Pramila has settled down well - she visits a neighbourhood school and has a thriving circle of friends. The neighbours are friendly with Teel and his family.
According to social commentator Santosh Desai, racism in India isn’t surprising. “We also discriminate among our own on the basis of their birth and colour. Cosmopolitanism is a facade in Mumbai, though it calls itself a global city,” he says. According to Desai, people could use social media to set things right. “If a restaurant or a club doesn’t allow Africans in, others should boycott the place. If we are not doing anything about it, especially when it is so easy to take action, it becomes fair to say that Mumbai is not cosmopolitan,” Desai says.
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/82/201303242013032401384082836e56d29/Blacklist.html
Topic: Blacks treated as social outcasts in Mumbai (Read 2230 times)