“We have advised all African students living in Delhi and the National Capital Region to remain confined to their houses, do not move,” said Samuel Jack, president of African Students Association, amid the recent attacks against members of the African community living in India in the past 48 hours,
Four Nigerian Students were allegedly attacked yesterday by residents of Greater Noida, who had taken out a candlelight march for the death of a 17-year-old boy allegedly due to drug overdose.
The students’ from the Association called for a media briefing here today. They condemned the attacks on Africans alleging they were ‘racial’ in nature. The representatives of the Association also blamed the state authorities for not acting swiftly every time they are targeted.
"We cannot take this anymore, if this continues to happen we will ask African students’ to boycott India, we have a two-sided relationship. If Africans come to India, Indians also live in Africa. There are a lot of people living in Africa peacefully. Nigeria alone has around 2 lakh Indians living there. We give them the best of treatment and hospitality. And when we come here we expect the same," said Presido Okungi, a member of the association.
Talking about the fear prevalent among the African students living in the country, Rodriek from the Democratic Republic Of Congo said, “We all are definitely living in fear, this is not just one incident, several incidents like this have been reported in the last 48 yours.
" I see this violence as an act of pure racism. We are attacked here based on the assumption that black people are cannibals. We are looked at by residents of this country in our everyday life because of our skin colour; it is assumed that every African living in India is a drug addict. This generalisation is very dangerous," added Rodreik.
Attacks against Africans have been reported at regular intervals in the last couple of years. Eze Ugo Lawrence said, “ When we came here, we had a very good impression of this country but it seems things have changed a lot in the last couple of years, there is tremendous rise in hatred against black people. "
Last year, a student from Africa, was beaten to death in Delhi and a Tanzanian student was badly beaten up and stripped in Bangalore.