In December 1963, 700 Ghanaian students broke through police cordons and rushed to the gates of the Kremlin in a bitter demonstration alleging racial discrimination by Russian authorities after one of their number, Edmund Asaro-Addo, had been found dead in mysterious circumstances, never satisfactorily explained. The Ghanaians carried placards reading "Stop killing Africans" and "Russian Friendship", the latter under a skull and crossbones. The demonstration, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph of December 19, 1963, was the climax to "an increasing amount of violence against African students in Russia, very often over their relations with Russian girls. These have involved a number of brawls in which the police, the students say, always take the side of the Russians". The newspaper also reported that "The Africans have been forced to realize that not all Russians treat them as brothers and equals". As for Asaro-Addo there were two versions of what happened to him. The Russians claimed that he had been drunk and had frozen to death. The Ghanaians claimed that he had been beaten to death because he had wanted to marry a Russian girl, who was pregnant. Some Ghanaians claimed that his was the third "mysterious death" of a Ghanaian in a year.
In January 1965, ten Sudanese students arrived in Athens from Sofia University, Bulgaria, after being subjected to racial taunts and Communist indoctrination. The following month, 70 Black Africans were deported from Bulgaria for taking part in demonstrations protesting against a Government order to disband their "All-African Students' Union".
In April 1965, 29 Kenyan students returned from the University of Baku, in Russia, with dire tales of cold, hunger, low standards of education, perpetual propaganda - and racial discrimination. (This followed racial demonstrations at the University after the death of George Daku, a Ghanaian, under mysterious circumstances.) Nicholas Nyangere, one of the Kenyan students, described the racial discrimination as "unbearable". Another student said: "It was hell. May God let us all forget that place." Nyangere told newsmen that the students were scathingly referred to as "the Blacks". Many local people had never seen a person from Africa before and because they were black, they were hated by the Russians. "We got our first taste of race hatred as soon as we arrived in Baku. We were told that we could not go out with Russian girls. There was no law against it, but they said it was just local custom. In any case we soon discovered it was unsafe to go out alone with a Russian girl because there was a good chance of being beaten up by the local people. Several Kenyan students got beaten up. Usually it would begin with abuse, then lead to violence. I don't remember a week that went by without an African student being robbed or attacked. One of my friends was beaten up in a restaurant while drinking a glass of lemonade. I was actually with another friend when he was robbed of his watch and pen in a train. We shouted but the thief just walked away. A policeman stood by doing nothing. Taxis refused to pick us up and I was often refused service in restaurants. There were queues for everything. When an African reached the head of the line, he would be told they had just sold out, but the person behind him would get served."
In May 1965, another Kenyan student returned to Nairobi with allegations of racialism practised by Communist countries. He was Samson Mzerah, who had left Communist Czechoslovakia on a pretext because of the racial discrimination. Mzerah complained that everywhere he went, Czechoslovakians shouted "Black man" at him. He said Black Africans in Czechoslovakia were "treated as less than human beings" and revealed that young thugs often beat up students from Africa and sometimes policemen joined in the beating of students for no apparent reason. His report was confirmed by a Sudanese student who had also studied in Czechoslovakia and who said there was racialism and maltreatment in that country. He told of a Rhodesian student who had been thrown off a moving train by Czechoslovakians.
Communists also practised racism on an extensive scale when in Africa. The racism of Russians, for example, was brought home forcibly to many in Africa particularly in a country like Guinea, where there have been several bitter conflicts because of a Russian diplomatic rule forbidding Russians to fraternize with Black men or women. A good example of this was brought to life on January 31, 1963. On that date, Miss Svetlanda Ussopova, a Russian schoolteacher working in Guinea, arrived at Conakry Airport in the company of two Russian diplomats to board a flight to Moscow. Checking her passport, a Guinean official found the photograph in the passport was not of Miss Ussopova. He questioned her in French, and she said she was being forced to return to Russia because she had broken the Russian rule forbidding social fraternization with Black Africans. The Guinean officer refused to allow her to board the aircraft. The Russian diplomats tried another ruse - Miss Ussopova was dressed in an air hostess' uniform but she was again turned back...young thugs often beat up students from Africa and sometimes policemen joined in the beating of students for no apparent reason. His report was confirmed by a Sudanese student who had also studied in Czechoslovakia and who said there was racialism and maltreatment in that country. He told of a Rhodesian student who had been thrown off a moving train by Czechoslovakians.
-- Michael Pugliese