International Day for People of African Descent - Sofonie Dala’s non-fiction story

The International Day for People of African Descent was celebrated for the first time on 31 August 2021. On this  International Day for People of African Descent, we celebrate their extraordinary cultural richness and diversity and pay tribute to the enormous contribution they have made to the development of our societies throughout history.  Join here: My years in Russia“ - Non-fictional story based on the real life of Sofonie Dala Hello everybody! I’m Sofonie Dala, today we’re going to talk about the international day of people of African descent, a date that is celebrated on August 31st annually.  Well, I’m going to tell you my personal story, about what my life was like in Russia and what it’s like to be black in Russia. I lived in Russia for 10 years, I went to Russia in 2005 when I was 13 years old. I went there to study. At first I felt very embarrassed and uncomfortable because I noticed that people looked at me a lot, they hunted me with their eyes, women also fixed their eyes on me a lot. And I didn’t understand why everyone was looking at me. I asked myself, these people look so much, what’s going on? People everywhere greeted me as if they were in front of a famous person, some were happy to see me, others were terrified and afraid. Over time I realized that people looked at me because of my skin. I first lived for a while in a city where I was the only black person, and it was a terrible thing for years. Click here to learn more: