THE HISTORY OF THE "METIS" FUND

In the 1991 article "Negros in Russia" from the newspaper "Soviet Russia", journalist Slava Tynes of Tass narrates the history of the origin of Negroes in Russia. He writes that Negroes were unique both in the pre-revolution and the post-revolution period. In the 1950s there were a handful of Afro-Russian families. In the 1960s, due to the inauguration of the Peoples Friendship University, the number of Afro-Russian families increased significantly. African students married Russian girls who accompanied them to Africa. Some of them returned to Russia with children. In the 1980s Afro-Russian families numbered several hundred. Some Russian women gave birth to black children and refused to travel with their husbands to Africa, as they absolutely were not prepared. They did not know the language, the African culture, nor the customs of the African people. In the 1990s the number of Afro-Russian families increased to a few thousand. According to unofficial sources, in Russia and the CIS there were estimated to be about 6 thousand permanent residents and about 4 thousand temporary residents of Afro-Russian families. Children who are born in such families cannot count themselves hundred percent Russian. They have very strong African genes. Many of them travel with their parents to Africa, but they cannot become complete Africans, as they don't know the language, culture, and customs of the countries of their parents. Women who traveled with their husbands to Africa also didn't know anything about these countries where their husbands were born. For that reason when they encountered these norms in Africa they were not able to cope and returned home to Russia with their black children. Because of their skin color these children are not fully accepted in their mother’s homeland. They find themselves isolated. Moreover, before 1996 there were no African ethnic centers in Moscow.