From Adeyinka Olaiya,
Editor-at-Large, Sao Paulo, Brazil/
Members of the African community in Brazil have launched a protest Saturday in Sao Paulo after security agents seriously injured a Nigerian man and a Cameroonian woman in an alleged racial attack.
A 38-year-old Nigerian Man, Owolabi, and a Cameroonian woman, Judith, 37, were beaten to a pulp at the metro station in Sao Paulo, Brazil, by private security agents for reasons described by the Brazilian community police authority as racial discrimination and religious intolerance.
Armed with guns and sticks, the security agents attacked Owolabi and Judith who sustained a deep wound on her head.
NewsmakersNG learnt that Owolabi, a Nigerian who lives and works in Brazil trading in African religious articles for over 10 years now, was accused by the security agents inside Metro Republica, at Sao Paulo, of jumping the ticketing points thereby entering illegally into the metro station.
The protesters told NewsmakersNG that the head of security at the station abused his rights by calling Owolabi and his group monkeys, even after discovering that none of them had jumped the ticket point and that they all entered the metro station after buying their tickets.
They said that when Judith, a Cameroonian trader and a passenger in the metro tried to caution the security agents speaking in Portuguese to stop referring to Africans as monkeys, she was brutally attacked by the guards who never stopped referring to them all as monkeys.
The attack sparked a protest in Sao Paulo as many Africans took to the streets calling on the police to stop the assaults on Africans.
A detachment of police officers was seen battling to restore peace and order at the metro station.
Meanwhile, African-Brazilian human rights lawyers and activists involved in the protest have taken up the case with the prosecuting authorities hoping to bring the security agents to justice on the allegations of racial discrimination, religious intolerance, and homicide attempts.
The Nigerian embassy in Brazil has also been communicated and all necessary procedures were being followed by the activists.
Brazil today counts on thousands of Nigerian and African professionals boosting the economy in all ramifications. They include Nigerian medical doctors, lawyers, and academics who are being courted by the Brazilian government.
NewsmakersNG also learnt that some Nigerians and other Africans involved in the practices of the African traditional religion in Brazil have been victims of assaults from native Brazilians who see the internationality of the practice as a threat to them.
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