In a secluded farmhouse surrounded by palm trees, a group of frightened young Africans peek nervously from behind the curtains, wondering where the next attack will come from.
In the past few weeks, they have suffered drive-by beatings by men armed with iron rods and machetes, been denounced as drug dealers and a “cancer” by government ministers and taunted in the street as “black monkeys”.
It could be a scene from apartheid South Africa, but it is Goa, India’s laid-back “hippy paradise”, and their tormentors are Indian politicians and police officers colluding in a brutal, racist campaign to drive them out, they told The Daily Telegraph.
That campaign has intensified since one of their compatriots, 36-year-old Obodo Uzoma Simeon, was hacked to death on Oct 30 outside an African restaurant in Parra, a smart village of whitewashed Portuguese colonial churches and shrines a few miles from the popular Baga and Anjuna beach resorts.
Police believe Mr Simeon was killed in a turf war between Nigerian drug traffickers and local Goan mafia, fighting for control of a lucrative trade in the state where 250,000 British and Russian tourists visit every winter – the dark side of this hippy haven turned low-cost destination.
Detectives told The Daily Telegraph that Nigerians operated as an organised gang and had “trod on a lot of toes” by selling drugs in resorts controlled by local Goan, Russian and Israeli mafias.
But friends of Mr Simeon’s, hiding in Parra, say he was killed because he was black and to intimidate Goa’s Nigerians into leaving.
“Most Indians are racists. We have not been welcome here at all. They think foreigners come here to take their place. I came for business but I’ll be going back soon. When you go out they look at you as if you are an alien. They beat up African guys for talking to their girls. They call you khampri [negro], kali [darkie] or 'black monkey’,” said Joy Madu, a
24-year-old imitation jewellery exporter.
Local scooter rental firms now refuse to rent to Nigerians. “They don’t like the colour black,” she added.
Joshua Samuel, an imposing semi-professional footballer who came to Goa for trials with local clubs, said black people were banned from nightclubs.
“If you are black, or American black, or [you have] black skin, you won’t get in. If you’re at the gate, they hit you. This is what we are facing. We can’t go anywhere or enjoy [anything]. We just stay at home, we don’t do anything. We cook our own food,” he said.
It is thought that as many as 75 of Goa’s estimated 140 Nigerians had been attacked in the past two years and Mr Simeon’s murder had been the last straw, he said.
On the day after his killing, more than 50 Nigerians blocked the highway in Porvorim, stopped the hearse and dragged his body on to the road to highlight their suspicions that his brutal murder would be covered up.
Their protest instead led to the authorities cracking down on Nigerians staying illegally and a surge of anti-Nigerian feeling in the state.
More than 50 Nigerians were arrested and have been homeless since their release earlier this month. In Parra, the village panchayat, or council, denounced Nigerians as drug traffickers and ordered landlords to evict them. Banners were hoisted over roads urging locals to “Say No To Nigerian, Say No to Drugs”. At least 15 Nigerians now sleep on the beach.
Nigeria’s high commissioner said the arrests had “rubbed salt in the wounds” of a grieving community and one official said there would be “repercussions” for the 800,000 Indians living in Nigeria.
The Indian government has assured Nigeria it will protect its nationals and a spokesman said it was anxious to safeguard a long, “irritant-free relationship”. But in Goa, fear still hangs in the air.
Mr Simeon’s body was found close to the home of Michael Lobo, the local member of the legislative assembly whose wife led a campaign for Nigerians to be evicted from the village. There was no suggestion that they had any involvement in the death.
Detectives said he had died from 29 stab wounds, from several knives. They have identified eight Goan suspects, believed to be members of the “Chapora Mafia” which controls restaurants around Anjuna, and two have been arrested.
Manohar Parrikar, Goa’s chief minister, has denied racism was a factor. “It is not racism. If you see earlier history, you will see that more Nigerians are involved in drugs,” he said. In November, a Goa minister, Dayanand Mandrekar, apologised after calling Nigerians a “cancer”.
In Parra, Sam Ezeh, 28, and a friend of Mr Simeon, offered to demonstrate Goa’s racism by visiting one of its popular clubs with a Daily Telegraph reporter. At Baga’s Cape Town club there was not a single black reveller inside. As Mr Ezeh tried to enter, two bouncers said he could not come in because he was Nigerian and the order had come from the police.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/10537682/Trouble-in-Goan-paradise-as-Africans-beaten-and-harassed.html

Oh my god!

Front Page.

@@@

Most Indians are racists.

this is wat we know but the white god has made black man so sstupid even the ones in Lagos

i bet they are falling over themselves to hang out with one in the Nigeria Zoo

I guess its impossible for them to leave and that's why they're still there.