For a very long time, Ukraine has attracted students from abroad since the country has highly invested in the education sector, and it was deliberate in attracting international students, especially from newly independent African nations.

Ukraine universities offer high quality and standard education at a lower cost than other European countries and are seen as a gateway to the European job market. Therefore, the country had so many international students living and studying comfortably in a country that was not hostile to them.

Facing Discrimination During A War

In war, humanity is the first casualty. While Ukrainians are suffering significant losses of property and lives in the hands of Russians, the African students have been a major casualty in the loss of humanity.

The videos and posts circulating on social media are disheartening. African students are allegedly beaten with batons, thrown off trains, and restrained at the Medyka port to Poland in favor of Ukrainian nationals. But what is worse is that these claims are regarded as fake, yet there is enough evidence showing the suffering being subjected to these young black men and women.

When Russia is killing Ukrainian women and kids, destroying the Ukrainian economy and foundations, the Ukrainians are lushing out on black people who want to leave and go back to where they came from. You would hear this phrase with white supremacists, ‘go back where you came from,’ directed to black people in Europe.

Now they want to leave, but you won’t let them. 

The African students are facing the worst form of racial discrimination when it should not matter what skin color an individual is. When black people are blatantly segregated and kept aside in borders and denied entry in other countries, then it shows how racial discrimination is deep-rooted in our society. It is shocking to see prime-time newscasters and reporters confidently say that they would expect what is happening in Ukraine to be happening somewhere in the Middle East or north or west Africa. Does it mean that it is not essential if Africans or people from the Middle East attack and kill one another or that Europe is home to civilized people who should not be attacking one another? The belief that Africans and middle Easterners should be suffering in war and not civilized Europeans is why Ukrainians won’t help black people leave the country. They could not believe they deserved a reprieve or peace while they, ‘the better’ humans, suffered.

African Students Speaking Their Truth

African students who the Russia-Ukraine war has worst hit are defending themselves, proving to the world that they are being mistreated and other people getting offended. According to BBC News, African students’ stories are harrowing. One Jessica, Nigerian national studying medicine in Ukraine, recounted her experience trying to escape the massacre. Jessica’s tale involved multiple hours-long walks over two days. After taking a taxi to the car line for the border, Jessica ended up taking a 12-hour trek to a shelter overnight. The next day, a bus arrived to bring people from the shelter to the border, but she was stopped. “The Ukrainians said, just Ukrainians,” and after begging and pleading, she was finally told, the bus is only for Ukrainians, and if you are black, you should walk, and so she continued walking. 

The authorities prioritized women and children in the borders but not black women or children, white Ukrainian women, and children. Black students came to Ukraine to study and go back home, and they did not deserve what was happening to them. According to the African students, Ukraine is a beautiful nation with friendly people, and they were not expecting what was happening to them. According to the African students, no one offered their homes to Black people, and no one offered to pick up the Black individuals. They became stranded and lost in a country that ranged with war and suffering and ruling authorities being against them.

Racism And Discrimination Against Africans Is Not New

The depiction of racism and discrimination against African students fleeing Ukraine is not new. It could be shocking that when people needed to show togetherness, they showed discrimination. Suppose you are a black person in Europe. In that case, you probably understand what I’m talking about, black people experience racism in every front of their lives, but the society and the ruling government, which is predominantly white in every part of Europe, has established social cushions to the racism that masks it on the outside but it is thriving.

African students are given education opportunities in Europe, they are offered fewer visa restrictions, they are solving the employment needs in Europe, yet they are still treated as lesser beings among their white counterparts.

Most of the African students were studying to become medical professionals and engineers working predominantly in Europe, helping the same people persecuting them. It defeats logic when the media thinks that Middle Easterners and Africans are uncivilized, and that’s why they attack each other.

Europeans have started all the major wars in history, from World War 1, World War II, and the Russian civil war. Europeans colonized Africans, and if there is anyone who should be considering changing their reaction to conflict, it should be the Europeans. 

What Next For African Students

The biggest dilemma facing international students in exile is whether they should remain in Europe to see if they could continue their studies or go back home and consider their investment in higher education as a waste.

Jessica Orakpo, a sixth-year medical student at the Ternopil National Medical University, was to graduate in four months when the Russian troops invaded. She told BBC news that she couldn’t move forward with her education since the school had all her documents and she did not have time to start over.

Most of the students have made remarkable strides and investments in their education, and every country should do whatever they can to ensure that it is not in vain.