By Our History Team
KAMPALA: African countries have condemned the maltreatment of fellow African citizens who are trapped in the Russia-Ukrainian conflict by Poland’s border officials who discriminated against them and obstructed them from reaching the crossing points.
The Nigerian government led the condemnation by calling out the Polish for mistreating thousands of its students and citizens fleeing the war in Ukraine.
The Guardian in UK reports that a deluge of reports and footage posted on social media in the past week has shown acts of discrimination and violence against African, Asian and Caribbean citizens – many of them studying in Ukraine – while fleeing Ukrainian cities and at some of the countries border posts.
More than half a million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began last week, according to the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR.
The Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, said on Monday: “All who flee a conflict situation have the same right to safe passage under UN convention and the colour of their passport or their skin should make no difference,” citing reports that Ukrainian police had obstructed Nigerians.
“From video evidence, first-hand reports, and from those in contact with … Nigerian consular officials, there have been unfortunate reports of Ukrainian police and security personnel refusing to allow Nigerians to board buses and trains heading towards Ukraine-Poland border,” The Guardian quoted him as saying.
Amid chaotic and emotional scenes at Ukraine’s borders with Poland, as well as Romania and Belarus, where a number of African governments have advised citizens to head to, the treatment of African and Asian people has caused outrage. Many African students have condemned the difficulties they have faced trying to escape the conflict.
Government officials from Ukraine and Poland have said all refugees are welcome, adding that border officials were working through hundreds of thousands of cases.
As the condemnations flooded the social media and other media spaces, Ugandans in the heart of Africa recalled when their country hosted some 6,400 Polish refugees who fled the Second World War some 80 years ago.
“During the second world war, Uganda housed around 6,400 Polish refugees, of which half were children, most of them orphans. The main refugee camps were settled up in Nyabyeya, Masindi District and Koja (Mpunga), Mukono District in 1942,” tweeted Lovette Jallow.
Jallow is an author and activist against racism. She was born in Gambia and went to Sweden at 11 years old. She was invited by LUNA (Lund’s Science Student Union) and WINGS, a network promoting gender balance in academia, to talk about diversity and equality at universities.
She is a renowned published author, 7x Award Winning Lecturer and Tedx Speaker who tweeted @lovettejallow.
The visibly impassioned tweep went on:
“Tens of thousands of those deportees made it to other parts of Africa too, spreading in two dozen villages across six countries in east and southern Africa. How quickly we forget history and how seeking refuge is not static.”
“According to the British Parliament’s document from 7th April 1943, the East African governments promised to accommodate 21,000 Poles altogether. Tables always turn. And people always forget who welcomed them with open arms when their homes transitioned to war zones,” the tweep reasoned.
“The people who are now seen as less worthy of refuge not so long ago gave your grandparents refuge. Remember this world is interconnected. Let’s find more common ground than just rampant anti-blackness. Some are at the border today because the same Africans you now mistreat once saved your grandparents. Remember that. Our history is buried but not deep enough that we can’t unearth it. It left me feeling emotionally spent. Having worked in these environments before I know the anxiety that courses through your body when you face persons who think you are less than.
Goodnight,” the tweep closed the lecture before providing pictorial evidence that we used in this story.
The Comments:
Many Africans and non- Africans have taken to twitter to express their feelings:
Iohannes Bosco@Chinaxor writes:
Biting the hands that fed their ancestors. Seeing how Africans were prevented from getting on the train to Poland on TV will never be okay. It’s so terrible. I hope they get to see this eventually and realize their ancestors weren’t prevented as they did few days ago to the Africans residing in Ukraine
Emotional Yvonne Witter FRSA @Yvonne_Witter says:
It resonates 100% because we too need to know our greatness. Centering myself as a Black Woman is all I can do in the face of hostility in Europe. I see no separation between myself and the students being pushed to the back of the queues in freezing cold @lovettejallow, Thanks for sharing this information. Our humanity and care for others is limitless in the face of abject hostility from others.
Miriam’s Travels @miriamtravels reports:
I know this is one of the tourist attractions for the Polish in Uganda. They travel here for pilgrimage to these sites… it would be nice for a newspaper in Poland to publish this now…
@Katharina833: Black people have only been good enough to serve their wars. Remember those you reject today, their grandparents showed love and hospitality to yours….
@josephmuramuzi1 warns the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Hope you remember this history! Don’t let comfort make you forget easily! Treat our brothers like fellow humans. Difference in skin color makes humanity versatile, not different!
Ngasoqueen @SNgack: Goes Combative:
This is why Africans got to pick their fights. Our grandparents were taken to fight in WW2, a war they know nothing about. Those who survived didn’t even have acknowledgement in the whitewashed history books. In countries like Kenya, the white soldiers were given natives lands
Uganda’s ‘self-reliance‘ policy for refugees has been widely praised, and described by UNHCR as a model of development-based assistance for other countries to emulate. In contrast to many refugee-hosting countries, Uganda’s ‘self-reliance’ policy allows refugees the right to work and freedom of movement.
Currently, Uganda hosts 3.7 per cent of the world’s refugees, about 1.7 million refugees over the last ten years. Uganda holds the 6th position in the world and as one of the largest recipients of refugees. In recent years, Uganda has provided protection to people from DR Congo and South Sudan in particular, but the country has also received refugees from Burundi, Somalia, Afghanistan, Rwanda and several other countries.
Uganda is a pioneer in integrating refugees and giving them full rights.