May your struggle change everything. It’s what Fatou now awaits

The night before our conversation, Ndeye Fatou Ndiayejust 15 years old, spent more than four hours at 9th Police Station, in the neighborhood of Catete, in Rio de Janeiro. Next to her father, the student testified about the racist attack she suffered this week, in a WhatsApp conversation between her classmates. Even at a young age, the student seeks to use the case as a way to raise awareness about prejudice and help black girls who experience it almost daily.

Ndeye Fatou is Brazilian, daughter of Senegalese parents. As soon as the case came to light, people immediately began to say that her parents were African refugees, but no. Mamou Sop Ndiayehis father, was born in Senegal and came to Brazil in 1998 to study Electronic Engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). After graduation, he completed a master’s and doctorate in his field and is now a professor ofthe electrical engineering department of CEFET/RJ🇧🇷 Your mother studied Nursing in the country of origin and came to meet her husband in Rio years later. Together, they had two daughters, Ndeye and another 8-year-old girl.

Proud of her origins, Fatou says she is “60% Senegalese and 40% Brazilian”. According to her, everything she plans is in her family’s country. “Today I feel more Senegalese than Brazilian. Everything mine is there, my whole family. I visit every year and I’ve even lived there too. In the distant future, I see myself in Senegal. I think about growing old and retiring in Africa”, said Ndeye in an interview with CLAUDIA🇧🇷

Another important part of its history is fashion. Influenced by her mother, Ndeye says she is passionate about the subject. In 2010, her mother opened the store Africa Art, which sells clothes and accessories made with typically African fabrics and prints, and part of the profit goes to the Senegalese families that manufacture the items. Currently the store has branches in Rio and São Paulo. “Fashion has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I like to help in the store, especially in the administrative part. That’s what piques my interest the most.”

Future

1st grade student🇧🇷 year of high school, Ndeye Fatou still has time to think about what he wants from the future, but he already has an idea of ​​the path he wants to follow. The girl thinks about studying medicine after graduating. “I would like to be a gynecologist to take care of women. Women’s health is still a taboo, unfortunately, and I want to help deconstruct that, ”she said. On the other hand, she also considers following a path similar to that of her father, and dedicating herself to Petroleum Engineering🇧🇷

The desire to take the second course came because of her African roots. According to Fatou, the continent, which has approximately 10% of the world’s estimated oil reserves, has almost no initiatives of its own to explore oil. “Despite this wealth and European exploration, oil extraction generates almost no profit for the continent and does not even create jobs. If I dedicate myself to this career, I think about helping to change this reality from the place of my origins”.

Racism

Racism is a reality for all black people in Brazil. In cases like Ndeye’s, which occur in elite locations, such as private schools Franco-Brazilian (considered one of the best in Rio de Janeiro), situations are even more recurrent. As one of the only black students in the school and the only one in her class, the student says that hearing prejudiced statements is common. “Usually it is racism in a more veiled way. But quite explicitly, it was the third time I suffered at school, in the 10 years I studied there, ”she says.

The group where the messages were sent was not the “official” group of his class, but one composed only of the boys in the class. According to Fatou, there were rules to be able to participate in the conversation: they were prohibited women🇧🇷 black and LGBTQI+🇧🇷 Racist and prejudiced comments were recurrent even in the general group and the girl says that she always tried to warn about how problematic that was. However, this time, the content was more “heavy” and was exposed by a friend who participated in the parallel group and took pictures of the messages before leaving the conversation.

“When I read it, I was not sad. I was outraged. I thought a lot about my teachers, who always tried to bring racial issues into the classroom and educate in some way. They have always given me a voice and have even opened up space in their classes so that I could talk about this and the history of Africa. But this has nothing to do with the administration of the school, it was the initiative of the teachers themselves”, said Ndeye.

At first, the school administration did not reach out to the Ndiaye family. They were called to a meeting only days later, when the case gained greater proportions in the media. According to the student, they exempted themselves from any responsibility because what happened occurred “outside the school premises”, that is, it would be out of her control. Some of the perpetrators of the crime and their family also contacted Ndeye’s parents to apologize. “But that too only after the story became known. I always knew they made racist jokes and I always tried to warn them, but they only decided to listen and try to redeem themselves after seeing that everything was exposed in newspapers and on television”, explains the student.

Ndaye has already left the Franco-Brasileiro classes – which, at the moment, are online due to social isolation measures – and should return to study soon at other schools. As a student with excellent grades and who has already won several prizes at school, especially for some poetry works, she received proposals for full scholarships in two schools in the South Zone of Rio. As the last few days have been chaotic, she still doesn’t know how she will go on in the future, but she wants to go back to school soon. In an interview with The globeMamour, Ndeye’s father, said he also intends to take his youngest daughter out of school, but that, for now, she continues to attend online classes.

Case developments

The family filed a complaint and, after the testimony, they await the next steps. According to the delegate responsible for the case, today (22) five teenagers were identified by the police as suspects in the racist attack. All of them will be summoned to give testimony, alongside those responsible. Some member of the school must also be subpoenaed. The act committed by the teenagers falls under the case of an infraction notice, which is equivalent to the crime of injury based on prejudice.

For Ndeye, what was positive about the whole situation were the support and messages of affection he received on social networks. The case gained unimaginable proportions, which she hopes will serve as an example for other cases of the genre. “I was very happy because I imagine that a lot of people must be going through this right now and have no voice to report it. I hope that all this struggle, all the stress I went through, makes a difference in cases of racism in Brazil, especially in private schools”, she concludes.

Resilience: how to strengthen yourself to face your problems