International Day for People of African Descent - Sofonie Dala's non-fiction story
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT
The International Day for People of African Descent was celebrated for the first time on 31 August 2021.
On this International Day for People of African Descent, we celebrate their extraordinary cultural richness and diversity and pay tribute to the enormous contribution they have made to the development of our societies throughout history. We also remember those of African descent who came before us, heroes of resistance to slavery and violations that continued with impunity for centuries.
Today, we raise our voices against systemic racism, against unpunished human rights violations, including killings, committed by law enforcement. We demand justice. We oppose colonial structures of power and wealth distribution that are even more intolerable and unsustainable in these times of health, economic and ecological crises.
"My years in Russia" - Non-fictional story based on the real life of Sofonie Dala
Hello everybody! I'm Sofonie Dala, today we're going to talk about the international day of people of African descent, a date that is celebrated on August 31st annually.
This holiday was created by the United Nations to celebrate the diverse heritage and several contributions of people of African descent.
Today, as part of a single human family, we recognise the urgency of eradicating once and for all the stigmas and prejudices based on unfounded ideas of racial superiority that continue to cause suffering to millions of people of African descent around the world.
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Well, I'm going to tell you my personal story, about what my life was like in Russia and what it's like to be black in Russia.
I lived in Russia for 10 years, I went to Russia in 2005 when I was 13 years old. I went there to study.
At first I felt very embarrassed and uncomfortable because I noticed that people looked at me a lot, they hunted me with their eyes, women also fixed their eyes on me a lot.
And I didn't understand why everyone was looking at me. I asked myself, these people look so much, what's going on?
People everywhere greeted me as if they were in front of a famous person, some were happy to see me, others were terrified and afraid.
Over time I realized that people looked at me because of my skin. I first lived for a while in a city where I was the only black person, and it was a terrible thing for years.
Yes, there was racism.
There is a lot of racism in Russia, but there is also racism in any part of the world, including here in Africa we also have nationalism.
I lived and suffered a lot of racism and prejudice in Russia, where even going out on the street was chaos. I had to think twice before going out without urgent reasons. But even so, I didn't give up, I managed to achieve my goals, I finished my studies, I have a master's degree.
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In my student days I was a very outstanding student. In 2012 I was the first black woman and the first African to present the "Navruz party", it is a central Asian party of the republics that are within Russia. With this I opened doors for many Africans, after me many other Africans were invited to present these events.
We excelled a lot in Russia, we celebrated our African festivals and our countries' independence days. We sang and danced, we shared our African cultures.
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Nowadays many Russians are familiar with our culture. They really like our semba and kizomba dance. You can find many dance schools opened by Russians, where they teach how to dance semba and kizomba.
I stood out a lot and took advantage of every occasion and opportunity to show our culture. I'm going to show you some moments of what happened in Russia.
Sofonie Dala being interviewed by the Russian press on Africa Day in 2013
Today is May 25th, African Liberation Day, as it is such an important day for us, so we decided to celebrate. We are not only celebrating here in Russia, but in Africa people are also celebrating.
This is my African costume, I brought it from Angola, because I am Angolan and this is our national African costume.
Today, all African students in this city are dressed in national costumes to represent our culture here in European countries so that everyone knows how we love our culture, and how proud we are to be African.
In our homes in Africa, we all get together as families and spend time together, we decorate the streets and sit outside, we eat and paint everything very beautifully, with African beads and bussis. We also use to paint our faces at carnivals, we do our African rituals. We rest on these commemorative dates in Africa, because they are very important days to us.
Sofonie Dala directly supports the realisation of the UN's SDGs, particularly:
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities – By promoting social, economic, and political inclusion of all, irrespective of race, ethnicity, or national origin.
SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions – By fostering a culture of tolerance, non-discrimination, and respect for human rights.
SDG 4: Quality Education – By raising awareness about the importance of education in challenging stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.
It was on a day like today, August 31, in 1920, that the first declaration of the rights of people of African descent was adopted in New York. Commemorating this historic event, in 2020 the General Assembly, under the initiative of Costa Rica, declared this as the International Day for People of African Descent. International day celebrations invite governments, civil society, the public and private sectors, schools and universities, and citizens of the world to reflect on values that unite humanity and to take concrete actions to advance them.
International days reflect the values that society shares. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and have the potential to contribute constructively to the development and well-being of their societies. Any doctrine of racial superiority is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust, and dangerous and must be rejected, together with theories that attempt to determine the existence of separate human races.
The United Nations strongly condemns the continuing violent practices and excessive use of force by law enforcement agencies against Africans and people of African descent and condemns structural racism in criminal justice systems around the world. The Organization further acknowledges the Transatlantic Slave Trade as one of the darkest chapters in our human history and upholds human dignity and equality for the victims of slavery, the slave trade and colonialism, in particular people of African descent in the African diaspora.
What is this approach?
The targets of SDG 10 focus our efforts on reducing income inequality, promoting the social, economic and political inclusion of all, taking systemic action to ensure equal opportunity and to reduce inequalities of outcome, supporting safe and responsible migration, and ensuring a greater role for developing countries in our global community. The SDGs are also grounded in the principle of “leave no one behind” (LNOB), which acknowledges that progress has often come at the expense of marginalized groups through colonization, discrimination and exclusion. Despite the global commitment to SDG 10, inequality is on the rise and is driving persistent poverty, conflict, polarization and environmental degradation.
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