Hassan Mambosasa
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 2, 2014
- 3,358
- 4,518
(This was originally written in Malayalam and appeared in Azhimukham.com )
To all my loving Tanzanian and other African friends residing in Bangalore, I write this from Kichakani in Tanzania with a sense of remorse, shame and disdain:
I arrived in Tanzania in February 2012. Since then Tanzania has been my home till date. A home so close to my heart that not even for a moment have I felt a tinge of home-sickness that would have propelled me back home to India.
Married to a spouse whose job as a night-manager here ensures that most nights I’m all alone in a land totally alien to me, not once have I felt scared or insecure. In our house in Namang where Swahili labourers dwell, the sense of
security I experienced on all the nights spent alone with Pachu is something which Kerala has never been able to give me.
In Ferry or in DalaDala or even in busy SabaSaba where there’s no place for even a needle to fall, no prying hands or legs have come my way trying to finger my body. Walking through deserted fields or muddy paths has never been a scary experience for me.
That’s the kind of security I experience here. Standing amidst this sense of security in Tanzania, I now write with a deep sense of anguish, pain, anger and humiliation at the growing sense of insecurity among African students residing in India.
India is the place where I was born and brought up. The recent incident involving the molestation of a Tanzanian student in Bangalore is the worst face of the inhuman racial prejudice with which many Indians have always treated and continue to treat people of African descent.
As an Indian, it is with a deep sense of guilt that I apologize wholeheartedly for the humiliation and the mental and physical trauma that you had to undergo.
It is not a mere coincidence that our African friends fell prey to unprovoked assaults at a time when the entire country is raging in its fight for justice over the death of Rohith Vemula who committed suicide at the Hyderabad Central University only because he was born a Dalit.
In 2014, African students from Gabana and Burkina Faso were attacked with iron rods carried by assailants shouting “Bharat Mata ki Jai” at the Delhi Metro Railway Station.
The hapless students were totally at a loss and couldn’t even react with the police present at the scene as mere spectators. A year ago, a mob led by the Delhi Law Minister with active support from policemen not even in their
official uniforms had waylaid a group of Nigerian and Ugandan students and showered them with racial abuses.
Nothing much happened other than a few mainstream dailies reporting on the
racial attacks persons of African descent face in India. The intensity of the racial attacks and humiliation that African students face in India sheds light
on the hypocrisy of the Indian populace. India is now becoming home to a social standard of life where fellow humans are treated as dirt and outcastes.
India has always been a place where a guest is always judged by his or her skin tone or caste. Even the types of plates on which the guests are served food are decided by these superfluous standards.
India is home to khap panchayats which decree the rape of girls or women as a deterrent for breaking age-old caste rules. She is home to grama panchayats which order the stripping naked of dalits and tribals and branding them as criminals for no fault of theirs.
She is ruled by people who endorse all such rulings by the khap or the grama panchayats citing tradition. India is also home to those who impale a protesting dalit or adivasi woman’s vagina with stones and mud.
India is home to a public conscience which roots for throwing an escaping victim who tries to board a bus back into the clutches of an irate mob out to
mete instant justice. She is home to scores of women who have to wait till night to relieve themselves due to lack of basic sanitation facilities, only to be
physically mauled and hung on the branches of a nearby tree.
India is the land of teachers who beat students to a pulp till such time they vomit, all for unknowingly eating from an upper-caste fellow-student’s lunch-box.
She is the land of honour killings where entire lower-caste villages have been torched in the name of loving an upper-caste girl.
The sad truth is that I harbour no false hopes of my India ever being able to treat its dark-skinned guests fairly when she is unable to be fair to her own dark-complexioned children.
I hereby express my unconditional support and understanding for all the humiliation, rejection and abuse that you, my dearest African friends, have to undergo in India.
It was just a while ago that Delhi had hosted a high-level political summit attended by all top African leaders. India which played big brother to all mutual growth and development Indo-African policies are responsible for all the African students residing in India.
They came to India reposing faith in her. At least now, I sincerely hope the government wakes up to its obligation in tackling and containing all the racial and inhuman attacks they are subject to.
In solidarity from Kichankani Library , Dar-es-salam, Tanzania
Somy Solomon
TAFSIRI
(KUNA BAADHI YA MANENO NI TABU HIVYO NAOMBA MUIPOKEE KAMA ILIVYO KWANI NIMETUMIA TRANSLATOR)
(Hii awali ilikuwa imeandikwa katika Malayalam na alionekana katika Azhimukham.com)
Kwa wote yangu upendo wa Kitanzania na marafiki wengine wa Afrika wanaoishi katika Bangalore, mimi kuandika hii kutoka Kichakani katika Tanzania kwa maana ya majuto, aibu na dharau:
Mimi aliwasili nchini Tanzania mwezi Februari 2012. Tangu wakati huo Tanzania imekuwa nyumbani yangu mpaka tarehe. nyumbani karibu na moyo wangu kwamba si hata kwa dakika moja kuwa nilihisi tinge ya nyumbani-ugonjwa kwamba ingekuwa drivs me kurudi nyumbani kwa India.
Kuolewa na mke ambao kazi yao kama usiku meneja hapa kuhakikisha kwamba nyakati za usiku mimi nina peke yake katika nchi ngeni kwangu, si mara moja kuwa nilihisi hofu au usalama. Katika nyumba zetu katika Namang ambapo Swahili vibarua kukaa, kwa maana ya
usalama mimi uzoefu usiku wote alitumia peke yake na Pachu ni kitu ambacho Kerala haijawahi uwezo wa kunipa.
Katika Ferry au katika Daladala au hata katika busy Sabasaba ambapo hakuna mahali hata sindano kuanguka, hakuna mikono prying au miguu wamekuja kwa njia ya yangu kujaribu kidole mwili wangu. Kutembea kwa njia ya mashamba ya faragha au njia matope haijawahi uzoefu inatisha kwa ajili yangu.
Hiyo ni aina ya usalama niliyoizoea hapa. Amesimama kukiwa maana hii ya usalama nchini Tanzania, mimi sasa kuandika kwa hisia za uchungu, maumivu, hasira na udhalilishaji katika akili ya kuongezeka kwa ukosefu wa usalama miongoni mwa wanafunzi wa kiafrika wanaoishi katika India.
India ni mahali ambapo mimi alizaliwa na kulelewa. tukio la hivi karibuni kuwashirikisha udhalilishaji wa mwanafunzi wa Tanzania katika Bangalore ni uso mbaya ya unyama ubaguzi wa rangi na ambayo Wahindi wengi daima huwafanyia na kuendelea kuwafanyia watu wenye asili ya Afrika.
Kama Mhindi, ni pamoja na hisia za hatia ambazo mimi kuomba msamaha kwa moyo wote kwa fedheha na kiakili na kimwili kiwewe kwamba alikuwa kapitia.
Sio bahati mbaya tu kwamba marafiki zetu Waafrika akaangukia mawindo ya mashambulizi yasiyokuwa ya kawaida wakati nchi nzima ni mkali katika mapambano yake kwa ajili ya haki juu ya kifo cha Rohith Vemula ambaye alijiua katika Hyderabad Chuo Kikuu cha Central tu kwa sababu alizaliwa Dalit(Mhindi mweusi) .
Katika 2014, wanafunzi wa Afrika kutoka Gabon na Burkina Faso walishambuliwa na viboko vya chuma na wauaji ambao walipiga kelele "Bharat Mata ki Jai" katika Delhi Metro Railway Station.
wanafunzi wasiyo na tumaini walikuwa kabisa katika hasara na hakuweza hata kuguswa na sasa polisi katika eneo la tukio kama watazamaji tu. mwaka mmoja uliopita, kundi la watu wakiongozwa na Waziri wa hseria Delhi kwa msaada hai kutoka polisi hata katika zao sare rasmi alikuwa waylaid kundi la wanafunzi wa Nigeria na Uganda na kuwaonesha ubaguzi wa rangi.
Hakuna kilichotokea zaidi ya magazeti ya kila siku chache tawala kutoa taarifa juu ya ubaguzi wa rangi mashambulizi watu wa asili ya uso wa Afrika nchini India. ukubwa wa mashambulizi ya kimbari na udhalilishaji kwamba wanafunzi Afrika katika India inaonesha juu ya unafiki wa wengi Hindi. India sasa ni kuwa nyumbani kwa kiwango cha kijamii ya maisha ambapo wanadamu wenzetu wanachukuliwa kama uchafu na tabaka la nje.
India daima imekuwa mahali ambapo mgeni ni daima kuhukumiwa na ngozi yake tone au tabaka. Hata aina ya sahani juu ambayo wageni ni aliwahi chakula ni aliamua na viwango hivi chepesi.
India ni nyumbani kwa Khap Panchayati ambayo ongezeko la ubakaji wa wasichana au wanawake kama njia ya kuzuia kwa ajili ya kuvunja umri wa miaka tabaka sheria. Yeye yupo nyumbani kwa bibi yake ambaye anaamrisha kuwanyofoaa uchi wahindi weusi na kuwatangaza kama wahalifu kwa kosa lolote yao.
Inatawaliwa na watu ambao kuidhinisha maamuzi yote vile na Khap au Bibi Panchayati akitoa mfano wa mila. India pia ni nyumbani kwa wale ambao wanwasingizia ushirikina Dalit(wahindi weusi) wakipinga au tupu ya mwanamke kwa mawe na tope.
India ni nyumba ya dhamiri ya umma ambayo mizizi kwa kutupa kukimbia mwathirika ambaye anajaribu bodi ya basi nyuma katika makundi ya kundi la watu wenye hasira nje ya haki papo. Yeye ni nyumbani kwa alama ya wanawake ambao wana kusubiri mpaka usiku kujisaidia kutokana na ukosefu wa mazingira safi, tu kuwa kimwili mauled na kujinyonga juu ya matawi ya mti jirani.
India ni nchi ya walimu ambao kuwapiga wanafunzi wa massa mpaka wakati huo wanatapika, wote kwa kutojulikana hula kutoka tabaka la chini la mwanafunzi mwenye sanduku la chakula cha mchana.
Yeye ni nchi ya mauaji ya heshima ambapo vijiji vizima chini ya tabaka wamekuwa kuchoma moto kwa jina la upendo wa msichana wa tbaka la juu.
ukweli kusikitisha ni kwamba mimi nafikiri hakuna matumaini ya uongo ya India yangu milele kuwa na uwezo wa kuwapa ngozi nyeusi wake wageni haki wakati yeye ni hawawezi kuwa wa haki kwa watoto wake mwenyewe weusi.
Mimi hili kueleza msaada wangu bila masharti na uelewa kwa udhalilishaji wote, kukataliwa na unyanyasaji kwamba, marafiki zangu wapendwa wangu wa Afrika, na kufanyiwa katika India.
Ni mara tu wakati iliyopita kwamba Delhi alikuwa mwenyeji wa ngazi ya juu ya mkutano wa kilele wa kisiasa na kuhudhuriwa na viongozi wote juu ya Afrika. India ambayo alicheza ndugu mkubwa kwa ukuaji wote kuheshimiana na sera za maendeleo Indo-African wanawajibika kwa wanafunzi wote wa Afrika wanaoishi katika India.
Walikuja India wakiwa imani ndani yake. Angalau sasa, mimi matumaini ya dhati ya serikali inaamka kwa wajibu wake katika kukabiliana na zenye uaguzi wote wa rangi na unyama mashambulizi wao ni chini ya.
Katika mshikamano kutoka Kichankani Library, Dar-es-salam, Tanzania
Somy Solomon
To all my loving Tanzanian and other African friends residing in Bangalore, I write this from Kichakani in Tanzania with a sense of remorse, shame and disdain:
I arrived in Tanzania in February 2012. Since then Tanzania has been my home till date. A home so close to my heart that not even for a moment have I felt a tinge of home-sickness that would have propelled me back home to India.
Married to a spouse whose job as a night-manager here ensures that most nights I’m all alone in a land totally alien to me, not once have I felt scared or insecure. In our house in Namang where Swahili labourers dwell, the sense of
security I experienced on all the nights spent alone with Pachu is something which Kerala has never been able to give me.
In Ferry or in DalaDala or even in busy SabaSaba where there’s no place for even a needle to fall, no prying hands or legs have come my way trying to finger my body. Walking through deserted fields or muddy paths has never been a scary experience for me.
That’s the kind of security I experience here. Standing amidst this sense of security in Tanzania, I now write with a deep sense of anguish, pain, anger and humiliation at the growing sense of insecurity among African students residing in India.
India is the place where I was born and brought up. The recent incident involving the molestation of a Tanzanian student in Bangalore is the worst face of the inhuman racial prejudice with which many Indians have always treated and continue to treat people of African descent.
As an Indian, it is with a deep sense of guilt that I apologize wholeheartedly for the humiliation and the mental and physical trauma that you had to undergo.
It is not a mere coincidence that our African friends fell prey to unprovoked assaults at a time when the entire country is raging in its fight for justice over the death of Rohith Vemula who committed suicide at the Hyderabad Central University only because he was born a Dalit.
In 2014, African students from Gabana and Burkina Faso were attacked with iron rods carried by assailants shouting “Bharat Mata ki Jai” at the Delhi Metro Railway Station.
The hapless students were totally at a loss and couldn’t even react with the police present at the scene as mere spectators. A year ago, a mob led by the Delhi Law Minister with active support from policemen not even in their
official uniforms had waylaid a group of Nigerian and Ugandan students and showered them with racial abuses.
Nothing much happened other than a few mainstream dailies reporting on the
racial attacks persons of African descent face in India. The intensity of the racial attacks and humiliation that African students face in India sheds light
on the hypocrisy of the Indian populace. India is now becoming home to a social standard of life where fellow humans are treated as dirt and outcastes.
India has always been a place where a guest is always judged by his or her skin tone or caste. Even the types of plates on which the guests are served food are decided by these superfluous standards.
India is home to khap panchayats which decree the rape of girls or women as a deterrent for breaking age-old caste rules. She is home to grama panchayats which order the stripping naked of dalits and tribals and branding them as criminals for no fault of theirs.
She is ruled by people who endorse all such rulings by the khap or the grama panchayats citing tradition. India is also home to those who impale a protesting dalit or adivasi woman’s vagina with stones and mud.
India is home to a public conscience which roots for throwing an escaping victim who tries to board a bus back into the clutches of an irate mob out to
mete instant justice. She is home to scores of women who have to wait till night to relieve themselves due to lack of basic sanitation facilities, only to be
physically mauled and hung on the branches of a nearby tree.
India is the land of teachers who beat students to a pulp till such time they vomit, all for unknowingly eating from an upper-caste fellow-student’s lunch-box.
She is the land of honour killings where entire lower-caste villages have been torched in the name of loving an upper-caste girl.
The sad truth is that I harbour no false hopes of my India ever being able to treat its dark-skinned guests fairly when she is unable to be fair to her own dark-complexioned children.
I hereby express my unconditional support and understanding for all the humiliation, rejection and abuse that you, my dearest African friends, have to undergo in India.
It was just a while ago that Delhi had hosted a high-level political summit attended by all top African leaders. India which played big brother to all mutual growth and development Indo-African policies are responsible for all the African students residing in India.
They came to India reposing faith in her. At least now, I sincerely hope the government wakes up to its obligation in tackling and containing all the racial and inhuman attacks they are subject to.
In solidarity from Kichankani Library , Dar-es-salam, Tanzania
Somy Solomon
TAFSIRI
(KUNA BAADHI YA MANENO NI TABU HIVYO NAOMBA MUIPOKEE KAMA ILIVYO KWANI NIMETUMIA TRANSLATOR)
(Hii awali ilikuwa imeandikwa katika Malayalam na alionekana katika Azhimukham.com)
Kwa wote yangu upendo wa Kitanzania na marafiki wengine wa Afrika wanaoishi katika Bangalore, mimi kuandika hii kutoka Kichakani katika Tanzania kwa maana ya majuto, aibu na dharau:
Mimi aliwasili nchini Tanzania mwezi Februari 2012. Tangu wakati huo Tanzania imekuwa nyumbani yangu mpaka tarehe. nyumbani karibu na moyo wangu kwamba si hata kwa dakika moja kuwa nilihisi tinge ya nyumbani-ugonjwa kwamba ingekuwa drivs me kurudi nyumbani kwa India.
Kuolewa na mke ambao kazi yao kama usiku meneja hapa kuhakikisha kwamba nyakati za usiku mimi nina peke yake katika nchi ngeni kwangu, si mara moja kuwa nilihisi hofu au usalama. Katika nyumba zetu katika Namang ambapo Swahili vibarua kukaa, kwa maana ya
usalama mimi uzoefu usiku wote alitumia peke yake na Pachu ni kitu ambacho Kerala haijawahi uwezo wa kunipa.
Katika Ferry au katika Daladala au hata katika busy Sabasaba ambapo hakuna mahali hata sindano kuanguka, hakuna mikono prying au miguu wamekuja kwa njia ya yangu kujaribu kidole mwili wangu. Kutembea kwa njia ya mashamba ya faragha au njia matope haijawahi uzoefu inatisha kwa ajili yangu.
Hiyo ni aina ya usalama niliyoizoea hapa. Amesimama kukiwa maana hii ya usalama nchini Tanzania, mimi sasa kuandika kwa hisia za uchungu, maumivu, hasira na udhalilishaji katika akili ya kuongezeka kwa ukosefu wa usalama miongoni mwa wanafunzi wa kiafrika wanaoishi katika India.
India ni mahali ambapo mimi alizaliwa na kulelewa. tukio la hivi karibuni kuwashirikisha udhalilishaji wa mwanafunzi wa Tanzania katika Bangalore ni uso mbaya ya unyama ubaguzi wa rangi na ambayo Wahindi wengi daima huwafanyia na kuendelea kuwafanyia watu wenye asili ya Afrika.
Kama Mhindi, ni pamoja na hisia za hatia ambazo mimi kuomba msamaha kwa moyo wote kwa fedheha na kiakili na kimwili kiwewe kwamba alikuwa kapitia.
Sio bahati mbaya tu kwamba marafiki zetu Waafrika akaangukia mawindo ya mashambulizi yasiyokuwa ya kawaida wakati nchi nzima ni mkali katika mapambano yake kwa ajili ya haki juu ya kifo cha Rohith Vemula ambaye alijiua katika Hyderabad Chuo Kikuu cha Central tu kwa sababu alizaliwa Dalit(Mhindi mweusi) .
Katika 2014, wanafunzi wa Afrika kutoka Gabon na Burkina Faso walishambuliwa na viboko vya chuma na wauaji ambao walipiga kelele "Bharat Mata ki Jai" katika Delhi Metro Railway Station.
wanafunzi wasiyo na tumaini walikuwa kabisa katika hasara na hakuweza hata kuguswa na sasa polisi katika eneo la tukio kama watazamaji tu. mwaka mmoja uliopita, kundi la watu wakiongozwa na Waziri wa hseria Delhi kwa msaada hai kutoka polisi hata katika zao sare rasmi alikuwa waylaid kundi la wanafunzi wa Nigeria na Uganda na kuwaonesha ubaguzi wa rangi.
Hakuna kilichotokea zaidi ya magazeti ya kila siku chache tawala kutoa taarifa juu ya ubaguzi wa rangi mashambulizi watu wa asili ya uso wa Afrika nchini India. ukubwa wa mashambulizi ya kimbari na udhalilishaji kwamba wanafunzi Afrika katika India inaonesha juu ya unafiki wa wengi Hindi. India sasa ni kuwa nyumbani kwa kiwango cha kijamii ya maisha ambapo wanadamu wenzetu wanachukuliwa kama uchafu na tabaka la nje.
India daima imekuwa mahali ambapo mgeni ni daima kuhukumiwa na ngozi yake tone au tabaka. Hata aina ya sahani juu ambayo wageni ni aliwahi chakula ni aliamua na viwango hivi chepesi.
India ni nyumbani kwa Khap Panchayati ambayo ongezeko la ubakaji wa wasichana au wanawake kama njia ya kuzuia kwa ajili ya kuvunja umri wa miaka tabaka sheria. Yeye yupo nyumbani kwa bibi yake ambaye anaamrisha kuwanyofoaa uchi wahindi weusi na kuwatangaza kama wahalifu kwa kosa lolote yao.
Inatawaliwa na watu ambao kuidhinisha maamuzi yote vile na Khap au Bibi Panchayati akitoa mfano wa mila. India pia ni nyumbani kwa wale ambao wanwasingizia ushirikina Dalit(wahindi weusi) wakipinga au tupu ya mwanamke kwa mawe na tope.
India ni nyumba ya dhamiri ya umma ambayo mizizi kwa kutupa kukimbia mwathirika ambaye anajaribu bodi ya basi nyuma katika makundi ya kundi la watu wenye hasira nje ya haki papo. Yeye ni nyumbani kwa alama ya wanawake ambao wana kusubiri mpaka usiku kujisaidia kutokana na ukosefu wa mazingira safi, tu kuwa kimwili mauled na kujinyonga juu ya matawi ya mti jirani.
India ni nchi ya walimu ambao kuwapiga wanafunzi wa massa mpaka wakati huo wanatapika, wote kwa kutojulikana hula kutoka tabaka la chini la mwanafunzi mwenye sanduku la chakula cha mchana.
Yeye ni nchi ya mauaji ya heshima ambapo vijiji vizima chini ya tabaka wamekuwa kuchoma moto kwa jina la upendo wa msichana wa tbaka la juu.
ukweli kusikitisha ni kwamba mimi nafikiri hakuna matumaini ya uongo ya India yangu milele kuwa na uwezo wa kuwapa ngozi nyeusi wake wageni haki wakati yeye ni hawawezi kuwa wa haki kwa watoto wake mwenyewe weusi.
Mimi hili kueleza msaada wangu bila masharti na uelewa kwa udhalilishaji wote, kukataliwa na unyanyasaji kwamba, marafiki zangu wapendwa wangu wa Afrika, na kufanyiwa katika India.
Ni mara tu wakati iliyopita kwamba Delhi alikuwa mwenyeji wa ngazi ya juu ya mkutano wa kilele wa kisiasa na kuhudhuriwa na viongozi wote juu ya Afrika. India ambayo alicheza ndugu mkubwa kwa ukuaji wote kuheshimiana na sera za maendeleo Indo-African wanawajibika kwa wanafunzi wote wa Afrika wanaoishi katika India.
Walikuja India wakiwa imani ndani yake. Angalau sasa, mimi matumaini ya dhati ya serikali inaamka kwa wajibu wake katika kukabiliana na zenye uaguzi wote wa rangi na unyama mashambulizi wao ni chini ya.
Katika mshikamano kutoka Kichankani Library, Dar-es-salam, Tanzania
Somy Solomon
