Last year, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of many cities of the world to honour George Floyd and to voice support for the Black Lives Matter movement. The Black Lives Matter protests that swept across America after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, were the largest in the country’s long history of mass movements for civil rights and racial justice. At least 15 million Americans demonstrated in 2,500 towns and cities, setting off a tidal wave of support.
Finland was not left out as the Senate Square in Helsinki witnessed around 3000 demonstrators, surpassing the 500 people Covid-19 gathering rule that was recommended by the authority. The demonstration in Finland did not end in Helsinki, other cities also organised theirs. In Turku, the Black Lives Matter demonstration was organised by 26-year-old Fidéline Habimana from Rwanda. About one thousand people demonstrated in Turku.
Fidéline is a classroom assistant in Turku. She’s involved in the black rights movement in the port city. She was born during the Rwandan genocide that claimed the lives of around 800,000 to 1,000,000 people. Her parents decided to leave Rwanda for Congo when she was two weeks old. They were in Congo for six months with the hope that things will get better in Rwanda but it didn’t. They relocated from Congo to Zambia when it was clear to them that things aren’t getting better in Rwanda. In Zambia, life was difficult for them because they had no papers then.
They left Zambia and moved to Senegal where they lived for two years while waiting for UNHCR documentation and relocation abroad. Finland was the country that agreed to take them as quota refugees. When the family arrived in Finland, the environment was strange to them, it was during the winter season. They had a language barrier because their mother tongue is French. At the daycare, it was difficult for 4- year old Fidéline to understand what people were saying. A social worker who speaks French and Finnish was assigned to them.
Fidéline shared with us the racism she experienced from childhood. She said at the daycare, she and her brother were mocked because of their skin colour. As an adult, it’s still the same scenario, she said. She said in the shop, a security guard came to check on her shopping to see if she was stealing and this happened several times. Sometimes taxi drivers refused to pick her up because of her skin colour. She said she has a lot of stories to share but the most devastating was when she was walking in her hometown as a teenage girl and a big herd of skinheads attacked her. She didn’t get any compensation for the attack despite taking up the case.
According to Fidéline, a racial discrimination against her skin colour which she will never forget was when she boarded a train from Helsinki to Turku. She was around 11 years old. On the way, someone was supposed to sit next to her according to the ticket. While on the way, an old lady came on board and walked towards her seat and started complaining that she will not sit close to a black person.
“She was using some derogatory words to racially insult me,” Fidéline stated. The old lady said she bought her ticket to have peace, she cannot sit beside a black person. “The staff in the train handled the situation badly. They kicked me off train in the middle of nowhere so that the old lady could sit comfortably in the train that was filled up,” she said.
She said she was humiliated, that’s the most pathetic thing that could happen to an underage girl during winter. After they kicked her off train, she said she didn’t have credit on her phone to call her mum so she had to wait for her call. It took a while before her call came and she narrated her ordeal to her. She drove down to the place where they left her. It was about 100km to Turku. Her mum was so angry.
On racism situation in Finland after the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that took place in some cities last year, Fidéline said this year has been more open when it comes to facing racism. Considering my close circle, I can say that people are more open to learning purposes, she stated. She said Finland is not international enough in every sense, a lot of work to be done and she doesn’t think racism will end in her lifetime.
“According to Fidéline there is much talk on the internet about racism but little action.”
But when it comes to something negative, it often stays in the dark media. It’s great to see how people dare to speak more openly and share stories, unlike before where such is swept under the carpet and facts are denied.
She believes that for racism to decrease in Finland, Finns should step up. She said she can’t remember the last time a friend defended her while been racially attacked. She said in the world, Finland is known as a racist country, but Finns themselves do not see this problem. It further signals acceptance of racism. The mainstream media, when talking about a citizen who is from foreign background who has done wrong, they often emphasize that the person is not a native-born Finn and the reportage is blown up but when the person has done what is good, that brings glory to Finland you will only hear a Finnish citizen in the media.
