Currently, a lot of discussion and debate are taking place about black matters in society, in the media, on social networks, and at panels. The varieties of topics go from racism, discrimination, human rights, movies, music, and fashion. One day, for example, I came across an article that discussed what it is like being a black woman in a liberal city. While reading it, I realised that things described by the writer didn’t suit me, but others did. So it was an affirmation that a black woman does live similarities and differences labelling in Africa, America (continent), or Europe. Have you ever stopped to think about this?
People have the perception that Finland, being a European Nordic country, doesn’t have a black population, but it’s a mistake. Finland has a native and immigrant black community that is active in society in different scenarios, such as performance, art, politics, activism, music, etc.
The Finnish organisation Anti-Racism Media activist Alliance (ARMA) is a three-year project sponsored by Kone Foundation that combines academic research and activism. It aims to be an equal tool to discuss racism in Finland thought innovated way in media, arts, and pedagogy. This is done through three pillars: creative publishing, international networking, and knowledge exchange.
Monica Gathuo works at ARMA along with Leonardo Custódio. A native black Finnish student, activist, and freelance writer, whose mother has influenced r them regarding topics such as justice and equality, which are hard-core elements that aligned her daily life and work.
As part of the international exchange programme from ARMA, Monica flew to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She admits that it was a great opportunity to learn, debate different topics, have lifestyle experiences in the community, and, most importantly, collaborate with their partner organisation Criola.
Months after the coldness and beauty of Finnish winter, Silvana Bahía arrived in Helsinki to have her exchange. She describes herself as a journalist, writer, actress, filmmaker, but most of all a curious person who likes to experiment and learn.
Silvana is delightful to meet people and hear stories. Previously, she worked on human rights in one of the biggest favelas in Rio de Janeiro. They are a city by itself, stigmatised for its violence, sadness, injustice, lack of basic quality services for the people, such as education, health, and opportunities. However, they “are also happiness, live, innovation, and a lot of people are looking for solutions to problems they are facing day by day” confessed Silvana.
Nowadays, she works at Olabi as project coordinator of Preta Lab witch, which works with black and indigenous women, based on teaching them technologies and innovative tools such as server security. This lab was created when Silvana realised that she was the only black woman in the programming and coding space.
At Preta Lab, imparting workshops to women. They also have discussions with different actors from society about the production of new technologies because it is believed that everyone should acquire knowledge of the new technology.
The black society in Finland-Brazil
What have you heard about Brazil or Finland? For sure, they are spotted on two different continents, thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean. Both are completely diverse in too many elements such as territorial area, population, language, culture, governmental structure, weather, and others. However, they also have far more similarities and differences in the black community.
In Brazil, the black-skinned people represent more than 50% of the population distributed around the country. On the other hand, in Finland, statistics are not defined yet, and they are also spread across different cities.
Silvana and Monica are part of this minority group that faces challenges to blackness. After sitting, laughing, and chatting about the exchange experience with these two strong women confirmed that there are differences but also likenesses among black people in both countries.
Monica expressed that the meaning of equality is different “in Brazil is said out loud, there are overt, but in Finland is done in a Nordic way, in silence and covert”.
In Finland, there are a lot of things that are not said regarding the minorities community because most people would rather keep their emotions for they self or it is demonstrated by offensive microaggressions by using hateful language, gestures, comments, etc.
On the other hand, in Brazil, people discuss the issue openly even though they know it’s a high risk of being assaulted, threatened, or killed. For example, in March 2018, Marielle Franco da Silva, who was a political, feminist, and human rights activist, was killed in her car on a street in Rio de Janeiro.
Both Silvana and Monica agree that black women are safer in Finland. Walking on the streets of Helsinki or Rio de Janeiro is totally not the same for black- skinned women. Being a black woman in Brazil means facing a vulnerable reality of sexual and racial harassment, rape, threats, or being murdered since the social iniquities have colour and gender.
Is obvious that there is a huge gap in percentage regarding the figures concerning this social problem. According to a study released in November 2018 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 4 women die for each group of 100 thousand women.
On the other hand, a resemblance between Finnish and Brazilian black women is that they are “constantly fighting for the rights, there is an inequality no matter where you are, whether it is in a Scandinavian country or in Latin-American” said Silvana.
There are different countries far away, yet it matters that the black women’s movement and community can find ways that connect them, understand one another, and work toward the unification of a stronger black community.
In Brazil, black women have a history of long slavery struggle, hierarchy, and invisibility. They had been marginalised by race and gender. They don’t have the same background as white women; they had been working long before. Thus, they have a lot of challenges in reality, such as being recognised as a human being and not being stigmatised like party women and sexual objects. They need to have more opportunities in society. The black feminist looks toward including more women, “we need to take care of ourselves since we always take care of everyone” as Silvana manifested.
Take away
During her visit, Monica was taken away with the black community in Rio de Janeiro. She admitted, “It’s the first time I feel in the correct place as a black woman. It was funny for me because I never feel that I fit anywhere because of being mixed-black. {…} when I go to Kenia witch is the other home country, I am white, but in Brazil, people think I am from there, they didn’t believe me”. She also added that the warm welcome of people is something she loves.
On the other hand, Silvana considers being a privileged woman during her three-month stay in Finland, by learning a lot of new things. When I asked her what she was taking with her back to Brazil, she laughed and said that’s a good question. Silvana said, “is a bigger country than I thought, we need to stop looking at things in a small way, there are more possibilities out there”.
Black-skinned women day by day are looking for stories that match their lifestyle, ways to develop their race and gender identity, learn new methods to dismantle perception, and most of all, have influencer or hero examples.
So when I asked both women for advice for other women, Monica said: “Take care of yourself and support each other”.
My advice to younger black women is “continue to dream for a better future, dreams make people move and change”, expressed Silvana.
It matters that young black people continue the core and believe that they can create a more fair-minded and humane world.
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