Afro-Ukrainians

Afro-Ukrainians(Ukrainian: Афроукраїнці[1]) or Black Ukrainians are Ukrainians of Sub-Saharan African descent, including Black people who have settled in Ukraine.

History

Gaitana, an Afro-Ukrainian singer
Zhan Beleniuk, left, member of the Ukrainian Parliament with Ukrainian President, right, Volodymyr Zelenskyy

In 2012, Gaitana, by then "the only Afro-Ukrainian celebrity in her country", represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest.[2]

In 2019, Zhan Beleniuk became the first Afro-Ukrainian member of the Ukrainian Parliament.[3][4]

Nehr

The Ukrainian word nehr (Ukrainian: негр) is widely used and is a nativized loan word from the French: nègre, lit. 'Negro', itself a nativized loan from the Spanish: negro and the Portuguese: negro.[5] unlike nègre is considered offensive in French, nehr/неɾр is not considered offensive. The native Slavic word for things that are actually black (e.g. a car with black paint) is chórnyy (Ukrainian: чо́рний).

Notable Afro-Ukrainians

References

  1. ^ In Donetsk dark-skinned asked the bad-mannered Russian to study Ukrainian language. Gazeta in Ukrainian. January 20, 2014
  2. ^ "Ukraine's Eurovision Selection Marred by Right-Wing Racism]". Time.com. 9 February 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  3. ^ Штогрін, Ірина (11 June 2019). "Чи пройшла Україна "тест Чепурного", реагуючи на першого темношкірого кандидата у депутати Жана Беленюка". Радіо Свобода (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  4. ^ "Монобільшість Зе, бюджетні гроші для Шарія та перший темношкірий депутат. 7 "вперше" виборів у Раду | Громадське телебачення". hromadske.ua (in Ukrainian). 22 July 2019. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  5. ^ Melnychuk (2003), Etymolohichnyi slovnyk Ukraïnsʹkoï movy (Etymological Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language), Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, p 63.