By Alex Lam

As inhabitants of one of the seven continents on the planet, Africans have shown the world their persistence and power to adapt to different ideologies and communities. They fought colonialism for centuries, and survived with establishing their own countries. Despite being respectable nations, Africans are still one of the most vulnerable groups towards discrimination. Even here, in Macao.

Similar to other groups of foreign students, African students studying in Macao also have to face pressures and problems generated from local people and society. Not only do they have to overcome difficulties of communication and integration, they also need to tackle the hardship of adapting to a new culture, and facing the challenges of life such as being discriminated. While discrimination is usually not a problem for students from Europe or the Americas, what the African students have to endure may be beyond our imagination.

Emmanuel Omoleye, who is a Nigerian student majoring in English Literature in the University of Macau, came to Macao almost five years ago and has witnessed the serious problem of discrimination here. He thinks that local people, from all ages, always have a problem communicating with Africans, which makes Omoleye and his friends feel hostile occasionally. In defense of that, he believes this is a problem caused by the misunderstanding between different cultures: local people tend to relate Africans to poverty and crimes, which can be a key factor towards all the acts of discrimination and disrespect. Aside from that, Omoleye also points out that it is extremely hard for African students to look for jobs outside the campus, and sometimes waiters/waitresses in restaurants may even refuse to serve African students, without even knowing who they are and where they come from.

How could the situation be improved? Another student from Cape Verde, David Pires, believes that communication and education are the key. He suggests that children in Macao should be taught about how to respect different cultures in the world, and to be more active in communicating with different people.

Both Omoleye and Pires went through different periods of difficulty and hardship when they first arrived Macao. They hid their emotions and chose to adapt to the local people and surroundings. They were the ones who compromised. If the local community can show a more welcoming attitude in the first place, life for African students like them could be relatively easier.