Being African In India: ‘We Are Seen As Demons’

After a year in India, Zaharaddeen
Muhammed, 27, knows enough Hindi to
understand what bander means. Monkey.
But it isn’t even the daily derogatory
comments that make him doubt his
decision to swap his university in Nigeria
for a two-year master’s degree
programme in chemistry at Noida
International University. Nor is it the
questions about personal hygiene, the
unsolicited touching of his hair or the
endless staring. It is his failure to
interact with Indian people on a deeper
level.

Zaharaddeen Muhammed, a master’s

degree student from Nigeria living in India,

speaks at the Africa-India Solidarity Forum

in New Delhi: Al Jazeera

“People often look at me as if I am

different, and hard to be trusted,” the

tall, softly spoken student explains. “I try

to be friendly. I speak Hindi and always

laugh. But when I offer biscuits to the

neighbours’ children, they don’t accept.”

After a year, one of Zaharaddeen‘s

biggest wishes remains unfulfilled: to be

invited to an Indian wedding.

“I am a big fan of Bollywood,” he

explains about why he wanted to come

to India. “I did not come for the school

because there are enough good

universities back home. But I wanted to

learn about this other culture and

interact with the people here.”

While he speaks with his Indian

classmates at the university, a 75-acre

campus accommodating students from

more than 20 countries, and some of

them also showed up for an international

cultural event he helped to organise,

none of these encounters lead to

friendships.

“I have never been at an Indian person’s

home, as a friend. No one has visited

me,” Zaharaddeen says.

Zaharaddeen rents two rooms on the first

floor of a three-storey house in Greater

Noida, a residential area on the outskirts

of Noida, a satellite town east of New

Delhi and part of what is called the

National Capital Region. The house is

about an hour’s drive south after

crossing the River Yamuna which runs

along Delhi’s east side.

Noida International University, one of five

private universities in the city attracting

students from all over the world, is

another 20 minutes’ drive by bus or auto

rickshaw along a newly constructed

expressway, surrounded by barren fields

and opposite a Formula 1 racing circuit

that was built in 2011.

The university hostels are all off-

campus. Zaharaddeen opted out of living

in them because he likes to cook his own

meals and he’d heard that the hostel

canteens only serve vegetarian food.

A friend from Nigeria, who was already in

India, found his current house for him.

The ground floor is also rented out to a

student from Nigeria.

“My landlord is an extremely good

person,” Zaharaddeen says. Although he

has had some bad experiences with

Indian people, many of them are good,

he stresses. And he doesn’t want to

generalise.

“That would be a huge mistake. Because

it is Indians often generalising about all

people from Africa that makes us feel

unsafe.”

‘Racism at every turn’

Zaharaddeen is a member of the

Association of African Students in India,

which last month announced a protest

rally at New Delhi’s protest street Janter

Manter.

“African students no longer feel safe in

India; we have to deal with racism at

every turn,” said the announcement.

The rally was planned after the

Congolese teacher Masonda Kitanda

Olivier died in an attack in Delhi in May.

A week later, six Africans, including two

women and a priest who was on his way

home with his wife and baby, were

attacked by men with cricket bats.

Earlier this year, a female student from

Tanzania was beaten and stripped in

Bangalore by an angry mob, in response

to a fatal accident caused by a Sudanese

student unknown to her.

Zaharaddeen speaks with horror about

the attack in Bangalore: “She was just

walking there. It could have happened to

any of us.”

In each of the cases, the police said that

racism had nothing to do with it. But for

the student association and the Group of

African Heads of Missions, it had, and

the time had come to take up the issue

at a higher level.

‘Followed and harassed’

Zaharaddeen was supposed to coordinate

transport for the students from Greater

Noida wishing to attend the rally, but it

was cancelled when the student leaders

and diplomats were invited for talks at

the Ministry of External Affairs and the

police commissioner made commitments

to ensure their safety.

After that, Delhi police organised several

community meetings with residents from

African countries and their Indian

neighbours and landlords.

Zaharaddeen attended one of the

meetings in Chattarpur in southwest

Delhi, an area full of narrow alleys

popular with students.

“It was very useful,” he says. “Both sides

got to raise their issues.”

African residents spoke about the

difficulties they often have in finding

accommodation.

“When landlords find out where you are

from, they just say ‘no’,” explains a

female student, who asked us not to

reveal her name or nationality for

security reasons.

“I don’t want to be targeted. Even when

people ask me at parties where I am

from, I often lie … you never know who

you are speaking to. You might be

followed and harassed.”

She used to live in an area similar to

Chattarpur and says she was evicted by

her landlord without any notice. “Even if

they rent out their place to you, they

remain suspicious and start asking for

the rent halfway through the month. I

was late with paying once and was told

to leave immediately.”

Rohtas, a young broker who mediates

between landlords and potential tenants,

says he often gets requests not to show

houses to “black people”, because

they’re presumed to deal in drugs and be

involved in other criminal activities.

And its not just landlords who think like

that, the female student explains.

“Shopkeepers often check the money I

give them to make sure it is not fake,”

she says.

“It is rude and unfair. We are a happy,

cheerful people. But in India we just get

angry.”

‘Demons or drug dealers’

As a secretary of the Nigerian Citizens’

Welfare Association of Greater Noida,

which holds meetings twice a month,

Zaharaddeen encourages other members

to “live peacefully with the host

community”.

That echoes the stance of the All India

Nigeria Students and Community

Association, which operates from New

Delhi and imposes a 1,000-rupee ($15)

fine on its members if they are found to

be dressed “inappropriately”.

Zaharaddeen does not drink or smoke,

but says he has adjusted his lifestyle. He

has classes from 10am to 4pm, eats

lunch on campus, usually with other

international students, and goes home

afterwards.

He might go to a restaurant or the

grocery shop, and on Fridays he goes to

the local mosque, but, he says: “I don’t

go out. In India, you cannot roam the

streets at night. In Nigeria, I used to

hang out till midnight. Here I make sure

to be at home by 9pm-10pm [at the]

latest.”

At a recent meeting organised by the

Africa-India Solidarity Forum, a

traditionally dressed Zaharaddeen spoke

to an audience of about 50 mostly

Indians about the generalisations he

feels Africans are subjected to.

This was seconded by Ibrahim Djiji

Adam, a 25-year-old business student

from Libya.

“We are often seen as demons, drug

dealers or prostitutes,” Ibrahim said.

Unlike Zaharaddeen, Ibrahim made Indian

friends during the three-year programme

he recently completed at Noida

International University. He learned Hindi

and even “dated an Indian girl”, he says.

This is how he says he realised that

many Indians “are racist amongst

themselves”, as well.

The caste system

Professor Archin Vanaik, who retired

from teaching international relations at

Delhi University and also spoke at the

forum, agrees with Ibrahim and links the

widespread racism African people

experience in India to the caste system.

“The caste system makes it easier for

people to accept other forms of

exclusion,” he explains.

There might also be what he calls

“psychological compensation” at play for

those Indians who experience prejudice

as members of lower castes or the so-

called “other backward classes”.

“They could feel better by looking at

African people and thinking ‘at least I am

better than that’,” he says.

Zaharaddeen felt positive after the

forum. “I am happy that so many people

truly care,” he says. “Thanks to meetings

like this, we can start to feel safe

again.”

He hopes that India and Nigeria will

continue their decades-old ties, built

during their struggles for independence

and strengthened in the post-colonial

years of non-alignment, when thousands

of students and business people would

travel between the two countries.

But would he advise a good friend from

Nigeria to pursue their higher education

in India?

“Then I would perhaps tell him to go

elsewhere … The purpose of studying

abroad is to learn about another culture.

If that cannot be achieved, then you

might as well not go.”

Source: Al Jazeera