From AFP via The New Indian Express

Congolese student Arnold Mutumbo Muama refuses to be cowed by a spate of racist violence towards Africans in India’s capital New Delhi, defiant after a friend was beaten up by security guards at his apartment block.

“The guard called him a ‘monster’ in Hindi before taking him to the basement and beating him,” recalled Muama, 29, who chairs a Congolese welfare association.

Racism against Africans in India was thrown into the spotlight following the brutal stoning to death in May of Congolese national Masunda Kitada Oliver in a dispute over an auto-rickshaw.

Following the attack, African ambassadors in New Delhi threatened to recommend to their governments that they don’t send students to the capital “as their security is not guaranteed”.

Around 30,000 Africans live in New Delhi, according to police, and they have told AFP of numerous humiliations they face, from insults in the street to housing discrimination and even violent attacks.

This week, television footage showed police officers in the southern city of Bangalore forcefully restraining a Nigerian woman following an altercation at a market.

She was tied up with ropes before being injected with sedatives.

Despite these incidents, IT student Muama believes it is “out of the question to live in fear”.

“You have to be aware of your rights,” he said.

Read more at The New Indian Express