Today, I want to concretise my dismay of this phenomenon with the shocking example of recent escapades of racist and shameful peccadillos of a white Russian man in Ghana and Kenya.
The make-believe Russian gigolo – nothing to write home about – easily lured black African women into unsuspecting verbal and sexual scenes and acts. He secretly filmed and then exposed his black African female prey on social media.
The Russian was armed with two important assets. The first, and most important weapon in his hands, was whiteness. That is to say the social construction of the white European as a “superior” human being to the black African.
About more of this later. The second weapon in his possession was a pair of glasses with a camera to surreptitiously record his naïve and gullible “victims.” Speaking in heavily accented Russian English, the white man beguiled the hapless black African women with crude and unsophisticated stories of fake love and non-existent riches and opportunities. What was most stunning was how easily the black African women “fell” and succumbed to the white “messiah.” I was utterly disgusted and completely discombobulated.
As is often the case in Kenya, the predictable happened. The African women, once exposed to full public ridicule — including to their spouses, lovers, family, friends, and co-workers — became inconsolable. Quickly, some people decided the black African women were “victims” of the Russian. I wasn’t so sure. I don’t say this callously, or without regard to the vagaries of poverty and cruelty of life that many black women find themselves in. But to imagine that a white man speaking with a Russian accent is your salvation as a black woman is where I draw the line. I will be damned if I can believe such a canard.
Let’s parse the “victim” narrative. It’s true that centuries of white supremacy have left black people with many doubts about their own identity and humanity. But it’s true that many centuries of black resistance have instilled in black people pride and humanity. I don’t believe, for example, that there’s anything like innate racial superiority of one race, gender, or ethnicity over another. I simply don’t.
I understand of course the historical facts of enslavement, colonisation, and exploitation of people of black African descent by Europeans and Arabs. But subjugation of one people by another doesn’t – and cannot – be equated to innate superiority. Black Africans have also colonised Europeans in history. Black Africans have also built indomitable civilizations, some before the Age of Europe.
In Kenya’s Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, there’s no crime against “pick-up con artists.” The Russian was within his rights to solicit sexual favours and encounters from all and sundry. But in law, there are crimes de jure. Recording a person without their consent, or knowledge, and publicising the recording, is one such crime under that statute.
The Russian is liable to prosecution and imprisonment for a term for violating that law. Just as there are courts of law and courts of public opinion, stupidity or gullibility can be a “crime” de facto in the court of public opinion. This is akin to contributory negligence in tort law, where the plaintiff fails to act in a prudent manner, or in the way a “reasonable person” would act, thereby contributing to the harm.
What’s my point? Whereas I sympathise with the African women harmed or scammed by the Russian , I feel they contributed to their own miseries. Let me elaborate. Most national parks in Kenya have cages where tourists can go in and cavort with big cats. I’ve always regarded that as a foolish and potentially fatal stunt, the presence of the armed guard at the ready to shoot in case the big cat decides to make a meal of the tourist notwithstanding. We must take responsibility for our own actions. Why a black woman believes a strange-sounding white man is her saviour is a sad and infuriating fact. She ought to know better. Perhaps our educational system is to blame.
Black Africans need to learn that no one is responsible for their liberation but themselves. Every tub in life sits on its own bottom. In the movie “From Russia with Love,” the spy thriller, James Bond knows betrayal is part of the craft.
Nothing surprises him if there’s a double-cross. If Black African women decide that white men can save them, they ought to be prepared for the betrayals that come with the territory. To come back in the aftermath to shed tears feels a little hollow.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. On X: @makaumutua.
