Cultural misgivings, police apathy behind attack on Africans in City

The recent fracas involving Africans and locals in Byrathi appears to be the outcome of a communication gap and cultural misunderstanding between these two sections living alongside each other.

Compounding the problem is the apathy of the local police who have been unable to gauge the extent of friction and failed to defuse the situation.

Byrathi, near Kothanur on the way to the Kempegowda International Airport via the Bagalur route, was a traditional village which, in the last few years, has seen an abrupt urban growth.

Apartment complexes and independent houses have mushroomed and many of these are inhabited by outsiders, including a sizeable section from across Africa.

On Monday night, four from Africa’s Ivory Coast were chased down and beaten by a mob in Byrathi which complained that the foreign nationals were creating a nuisance in the area.

Deccan Herald visited the area and was buffeted by grievances from both sides against each other. While the local people objected to the lifestyle of the outsiders, the Africans were upset that the people in the area had not understood them.

According to the police, in Bengaluru there are an estimated 6,000 people from countries as diverse as Nigeria, Tanzania, Congo, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Uganda, Ghana, Zambia and Botswana who are mainly students of higher education. Some 2,000 Africans reside in and around Byrathi, including Kothanur, the police said.

Locals look on with dismay at the lifestyle of the African community whose members like partying, loud music and wandering the streets late at night.

Most of the time African men and women move around with each other and this causes even more resentment among the locals. One local, Rajan, complained that they carry liquor bottles with them and drink in public, they move in groups and create a din. “The noise and nuisance are unbearable. We hesitate to move out of our houses,” he said.

Mike and Ali from Congo have a different point of view. “We need freedom as in our countries. We are prevented from celebrating beautiful moments of life even though we never disturb others. Locals have failed to understand our culture and upbringing and end up projecting us in bad light,” Mike said, backed by Ali.

The availability of housing in the area has drawn Africans towards the locality. Landlords prefer to rent their apartments to them as they get a better deal than from locals.
A house which can normally fetch up to Rs 12,000 can sometimes go for up to Rs 20,000 if the tenant is from an African nation.

But if there is one point that both the foreigners and the locals agree on is their views on the police.

Both say the police are deaf to their complaints and insensitive to the situation. The chief of a local Christian association, Isaac, pointed out that their views are not taken seriously by the police. Mike and Ali say the police should organise more meetings between the Africans and the locals so they can understand each other better.

Munirathna and Abdul Sattar, who have rented out their properties to some Africans, say all of them are not bad. There are some whose behaviour has affected the image of the rest.

“Local residents have jumped to the conclusion that all Africans are bad. In fact, we did inform this to the police. There could have been a few meetings to clear the mistrust. But such meetings never happened,” Sattar said.

A police officer, however, claimed they had been ordered by higher-ups to go slow on issues involving the Africans as they were foreigners and could create diplomatic complications.