AFRICANS TELL OF BIAS IN MOSCOW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP68-00046R000200190027-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 19, 2014
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: December 26, 1960
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
TRIBUNt DEC 2 6
Circ.: e. 128,738
?
Front Edit Other
Page Page Page
1980
ricans
ell of Bias
In MbscOiv
(S The
WASHINGTON, , p. C.
?
ons r e
ecVAIDLILlitlgi
Ir high11. S. intelligence offiCial
has given official voice to
stories of open biai 4ainst
AfstalLj..ty .4.ni,,,thellere-
cently opened Pheole's Uni-
versity
? These students haye "run
into discrimination," their
approved 4esearch , programs
.have been obstructed. by So-
Viet security, and Many have
"become disillusioned, an
have said so in no uncertain.
terms," according' td,Gmen..,AC.
P. "Vrit dife-cror rbf
tlie nits, a
Agency
voilLspecifically
tnetp.on Africa but. spoke of
students 41117 "underdevel-
oped areas" who. don't- find'
. such% utopian ;Conditions"
once they heed the appeal of
the Russians to 'come.to Mos-
cow for study. He ;made his
comments in a s ee.0._t, a
Medical society meeting in
PrfftWelthex.
Grim. Stories
A 'number of African stu-
dents have come out of Rus-
sia ,with grim: stories.of their
treatment, according to other
sources here, however.
They have told of 'beatings
administered to African stu-
dents for merely' a'sking a
,
Russian girl to dance, of be-
ing isolated by Soviet male
student,' of verbal abuse; ,Of
, being , spied upon and forced
to; carry, passes. wherever
they went :in, Moscow.
,
Among some of the ac-
-counts available here is a
'vivid series of artieleS' by'
a Nigerian student, Chuk-
, ,
wemeka Okonkwo, ;who
_spent three years in tge
i Soviet Union studying;14
medicine.
7
Irony
Okonkwo was, particularly
struck by the irony of the
Soviet Call for socialist unity
and Afro-Asian unity while
treating Africarip and others
from outside the Irbil Curtain
with contempt, and suspicion:
7 He related, how, jazz mmic
was considered "obnoxious"
by Soviet authorities, and
some African students pros-
pered With a "black-market
trade" in the records they
brought to Russia with thern
and sold to Russian students.
"They Wanted to buy our
clothes from use" Okonkwo
-wrote. , ,
' He said that the students
couldn't send a letter to. a
Soviet newspaPer and hope
to have published.
? '?%7A',Change
, At ,first, Okonkwo indica-
ted, thing were all right, but
then "Our privileges Were
Withdrawn." Passes were is-
sued to the African students;
but when they- were alone
50-Yr 2014/03/19: CIA-RDP68-00046R000200190027-9
50
they were always stopp on
the, streets by security poll
Impromptu debates in
the dormitories were sud-
denly called off, he con-
tinued, and the Soviet citi-
zens were warned against
fraternjzing with ,the Afri-
cans.
When the Russian 'boys
"withdrew into a shell'," he
reported, efforts tO learn why
produced only hints that "re-
treat" had sounded, "the ro-
mance was' over."
Okonkwo obseryed that girl
friends are "a feature of uni-
versity life all over the
world," But. those African stu-
dents' who developed an at
tadhinent to a,,Russian girl
student ha.d the 'painful -ex-
perience" of' being avoided
and reject9:d.r:,
Beating
Two other African students
emerged) from. the Soviet
Union to tell 'of. a Mali stu-
dent who had the, teniefity
ask a Russian girl to dance
With him and was later beaten'
up so badly .he had to 'spend
two weeks in a hospital. 4
Still another student ewho
studied' ' medicine for tWO
years told of the "greatest
insult" he experienced. He
was going pp in in elevator
with 10 Russians. When he
reached his floor, they tried to
prevent him from getting off.
" "You are no. gentleman, 7
you are a monkey," they'
shouted at him.
. Sources here say they have
no information how many.
'students ; front Africa have
left Soviet Universities; in-
eluding the 'People's
sity,land retUrned home. niti
the impact of. the stories ,0f9
sonie' Who did return, they
judged, has ;been disCourag-,'
ing others ,from going to MC,S-
cow.
(Copyr)ght, 1960)
He wrote of his experiences I
in the Lagos Sunday. Times. I
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/03/19: CIA-RDP68-00046R000200190027j