Xenophobia: Nigerians Handed List of Dos and Don’ts in India

Rotimi Morgan/

Following multiple incidents of attacks on Nigerians living in India, which occurred about two months ago, the executives of the Nigerian Citizens Welfare Association (NICWA), have come up with a proposal for “guidelines” for Nigerians.

These included things to refrain from, like fighting, violence, drug abuse, prostitution and human trafficking. Also on the same list of six bulleted points, which Nigerians are not to do, are “indecent dressing”, “loitering in the area” and “noise making at odd hours”.

The decision to come up with a list of dos and don’ts followed a meeting between the police on the one hand and representatives of indigenous residents of Greater Noida, a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where majority of the attacks occurred, and members of NICWA on the other hand.

The agenda was to maintain the relative calm that had been achieved a few weeks after the brouhaha over the attacks had died down, and to prevent such incidents from recurring.

The list of six things Nigerians living in Greater Noida are to refrain from was contained in a circular issued by the NICWA.

Commenting on the decision in an interview with Times of India, Charles Macben, vice president, NICWA, said: “There is no smoke without fire. We don’t want it (the backlash) to happen again. I thank God that the police did everything humanly possible to make sure that this thing shouldn’t happen again. We had a meeting with the RWAs and they told us that these are the problems that they were facing with all the foreign students staying there (Greater Noida) We got a lot of questions from Nigeria about why we allowed these things to happen, why we didn’t do our job.”

He further stated: “If we did our job properly, these things would not have happened. We thought these people (the RWAs) were angry, and we decided to ask them why they were angry. We had a meeting, and in order to prevent any other untoward incidents, we decided to form guidelines for our nationals living in Greater Noida. If there are Nigerians living here, they have to avoid these basic six points – fighting/violence, indecent dressing, prostitution and human trafficking, drug abuse, loitering in the area and noise making at odd hours. If any Nigerian is seen flouting these guidelines, they will be given a warning, and if they continue to do the same, they will be asked to leave Greater Noida.”

The association said it gave out this circular at various police stations, submitted other documents related to the guidelines, and mentioned that these guidelines could be implemented with immediate effect. The circular also lists numbers that can be called in case of “violation of any such rules”.

However, a few young Nigerian students in Greater Noida said they were confused by the guidelines and did not understand how “indecent dressing” or “loitering” would be defined.

Alaba Tochukwu Ogeh, 24, a Nigerian student in Greater Noida, said, “When you are talking about indecent dressing along with drug abuse and human trafficking, I don’t understand what they mean by ‘indecent dressing’, at least. Indians feel that when our women wear skirts, that is indecent dressing. But skirts are part of our tradition. We don’t feel that they are indecent.

“So when a group of our people talks about ‘indecent dressing’, we don’t understand what they mean. I have not seen anyone dressing indecently. This rule is a very weird one. Honestly, I think I will be able to understand only if they come to us and explain what they mean. It is very unclear. I personally have to verify whether these guidelines are true or not – one fine day, how can someone make such guidelines? If a Nigerian association is making such guidelines for Nigerians, then other people, especially Indians, will think that we generally get into things like violence, fighting, drug abuse etc. It might portray us in a bad light.”

Also, Queen Madi, 21, a resident of Greater Noida, said, “We come from a decent culture and India also has a decent culture. We wear skirts and Indians generally wear trousers. So if we talk particularly about the indecent dressing point, I don’t understand what they mean. Also, about noise making – I don’t understand what ‘noise making’ is. See, as Africans, we have voices that are loud and when we talk to each other, it can be high-pitched. Is that ‘noise making’ according to the association or according to the Indians?

“I don’t agree with these rules. As a student, I don’t think these rules are fair because I don’t know what they mean by ‘dressing well’ and ‘not making noise’. I am really confused by these rules because I anyway don’t do these things. I don’t know what they are trying to say.”

Another Nigerian student, 18-year-old Promise Okoli Echezona, told Times of India: “I don’t get why they are not able to explain what they mean by rules like these. This mentality is already there (the stereotyping of Africans in India). Will making these rules change the mentality of Indians? I don’t know what ‘loitering in the area’ means. I feel like they have made these rules for their own self-interest. If they are making these guidelines without explaining these rules to their own people and bringing us into the loop, I think they want to make a name for themselves, they want people to know about them and become popular.

“They should have given the full explanation of what they really want. But these rules that are out now, these rules have no specific agenda and it is not clear what they really want to accomplish. I don’t agree with these rules right now because they are not straightforward.”