Afro-Russian
Total population | |
---|---|
40,000–70,000[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Oryol, Lipetsk, Astrakhan | |
Languages | |
Russian · Abkhaz · Niger–Congo languages · Nilo-Saharan languages · English · French | |
Religion | |
Christianity, Islam |
Afro-Russians (Russian: афророссияне) are Black people, including Black people who have settled in Russia and mixed-race children. The Metis Foundation estimates that there are about 40,000 Afro-Russians.[2]
During the Russian Empire
There are very few recorded instances of Black Africans settling down in the Russian Empire. A notable member of this small group is Abram Petrovich Gannibal: an African emancipated and adopted by Peter the Great, given education, raised to nobility, and served in both civil and military capacities. He is also a great-grandfather on the maternal side to the famed Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
Early Soviet period
After the revolution several Black African and mixed-race families came to the Soviet Union under the auspices of the Comintern. They were chiefly specialists in the spheres of industrial production and agriculture. The technical equipment, modest means, and professional experience brought by them were an appreciable contribution to economic development of a new state. Among them were Oliver John Golden and his wife Bertha Bialek (he brought with him a group of 16 Afro-American experts in the cultivation of cotton), well-known African-American poet Langston Hughes with a group of 22 filmmakers, Paul Robeson with his family and many others. Some of them stayed in Russia and their descendants still live there.
Post War, The Festival Children
When African nations gained independence from colonialism, the Soviet Union offered scholarships to young people from these nations. About 400,000 Africans studied in the former Soviet Union between the late 1950s and 1990.[3] The first significant arrival of Africans was for the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students held in Moscow in 1957. Many Africans also attended the Patrice Lumumba University. Hence colloquial terms for Afro-Russians born in the 1950s and 1960s are "Children of the Festival" (ru) or "Children of Lumumba". Some of these children subsequently returned to their African parents' countries or moved on to Western Europe or in the case of Jewish Afro-Russians to Israel.
Notable Afro-Russians
- Epiphanny Prince (African American and dual Russian and American citizen), basketball player
- Deanna Nolan (African American and dual Russian and American citizen), basketball player
- Lyukman Adams (Nigerian father), triple jumper
- Aleksandr Alumona (Nigerian father), footballer
- Cirilo Tadeus Cardozo Filho (Brazilian born), futsal player
- Joaquim Crima (born in Guinea Bissau), farmer and politician
- Allan Dugblei (Ghanaian father), footballer
- Abram Gannibal (Central Africa), statesman, military leader, politician
- Ivan Gannibal (son of Abram Gannibal), military leader
- Roy Jones, Jr. (African American and dual Russian and American citizen), boxer
- Alice Edun (Nigerian father), singer
- Nkeirouka Ezekh (Nigerian father), Olympic curler
- Jon Robert Holden (African American and dual Russian and American citizen), basketball player
- Brian Idowu (Nigerian father, half-Nigerian / half-Russian mother), Russian Premier League footballer
- Victor Keyru (Sierra Leonean father), basketball player
- Yelena Khanga (Zanzibari father, African-American mother), journalist and TV anchor
- Sergei Fanuelovich Kotov (orphan of Ghanaian father and Russian mother), Ghanaian tribal king[4]
- Stanislav Lebamba (Congolese father), footballer
- Cyrille Makanda (Camerounian father), basketball player
- Avua-Siav Leo Nelson (Ghanaian father), footballer
- Peter Odemwingie (Nigerian father), footballer
- Adessoye Oyewole (Nigerian father), footballer
- James Lloydovich Patterson, Russian actor of African American and Ukrainian descent
- Jean Sagbo (Benin-born naturalized Russian), politician, elected councilman of the town of Novozavidovo
- Jerry-Christian Tchuissé (Camerounian born), footballer
- Emiliya Turey (mixed-race father of Sierra Leonean descent), handball player
- Devis Uko (Nigerian father), footballer
- Grigory Siyatvinda (mixed-race father of Zambian descent), actor
See also
References
- ↑ O'Flynn, Kevin (26 August 2009). "Russia’s Black Community". The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
- ↑ Gribanova, Lyubov "Дети-метисы в России: свои среди чужих" (in Russian). Nashi Deti Project. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
- ↑ Lily Golden & Lily Dixon "TV project «Black Russians»". Africana Project. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
- ↑ Wrigley, Matt (9 July 2006). "Abandoned in Moscow, enrolled in the Red Army and finally crowned as a king". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
External links
- Funmetis a Foundation for Afro-Russian Children
- (Russian) Article "Afro-Russians" from Rossiyskaya Gazeta
- (Russian) Article "Black Man" from Online Vremya