"A Nigerian pastor said we need to do food this year."

When I found out that a grocery store from Nigeria had opened not far from the Kuzminki metro station, I was almost not surprised. There are a lot of Africans in Kuzminki. True, it was difficult to immediately understand where the noisy and always laughing guys come from, whom I meet every evening at the exit of the metro: there are almost no Francophones among them, few speak English. It turned out that they were all Nigerians. The first Nigerian store in Moscow was opened for them.

Finding a store is not so easy: you have to walk through courtyards, and I get to the place using a navigator. The Afroshop and a couple of office rooms are located in the basement. The store immediately stands out against the backdrop of Moscow office grayness - both with a bright sign on the street in front of the entrance depicting the African continent, and with the inscription on the door “We are sons and daughters of love. Let love guide you.”

Photo: Anya Ayvazyan/PublicPost

Felix and Olga Nwanko, the owners of the store, meet me at the door. Olga is a curvaceous, fair-haired woman of about 30, wearing an open summer dress, smiling and speaking in a quiet voice. Next to him is Felix, a lively, slightly noisy Nigerian. Olga and Felix don’t want to be photographed; they explain that they were not prepared for the arrival of journalists: “You’d better take pictures of the store.” He speaks Russian at first, but then asks if I understand English. Felix has a peculiar African English that you need to learn to understand. He says that he came to Russia in 2009 with his Russian wife - they met in Nigeria. During this time, I managed to learn a little Russian and received citizenship. “Immediately after arriving, I began selling perfume at the market. And then my wife’s sister gave us money so that we could open an Afroshop. Shortly before that, we went to Nigeria, and the pastor told us that he had a revelation: if we open a business related to food, he will do well. He prayed for us and told us to go. We believed in his prediction. In Russia it is not so easy to start a business related to the supply of food. With God’s help, my wife managed to collect all the documents... Russians are good, I have my whole life here now, my children, my beloved wife, her relatives, who also love me now,” Felix says with feeling. Then two stately Nigerian women in short shorts come into the store, choose products, joke with Felix about something and laugh loudly.

At the counter, Olga shows me the products - huge bananas that cannot be eaten fresh - only fried, and also Nigerian potatoes - yams (Nigerians, however, are terribly offended when yams are called potatoes), yams (sweet potatoes), cocoyam (coconut potatoes), palm oil, best seller - banana chips, hair wigs ("African women have their own hair - coarse and hard, but they want silky, so they make braids and tightly sew extensions onto them, straight and soft, so tightly that you can’t tear them off with your hand "). She says that she herself doesn’t particularly like Nigerian food - except for local kashki, which are similar to Russian ones. But there are many lovers of African exoticism.

Photo: Anya Ayvazyan/PublicPost

Photo: Anya Ayvazyan/PublicPost

Photo: Anya Ayvazyan/PublicPost

Olga and I move to the storage room. Felix continues to noisily discuss something with the visitors, and Olga tells how they met: “This is a story with a sad beginning. Felix is ​​my second husband. We met him when my first husband died, he had a bad heart. Felix was his brother." Olga met her first husband in Moscow, and Felix in Nigeria. They have two sons - the eldest is seven years old, and the youngest is one and a half years old. The family often travels to the husband’s homeland, to visit relatives—two or three times a year. Olga already understands a little of the dialect Felix speaks. In general, in Nigeria there is only one official language - English, but every region, village, town has its own local language. Today, scientists count 514 living languages ​​in the country.

Olga also recalls with a smile the story with the prophecy: “Last December we went to Nigeria. They have a church there called the “ Synagogue Church of All Nations” (Editor’s note). Their pastor came up to me and said that this year we need to try to get into food. Everything related to food will work out well this year. In January we came back to the market in Tekstilshchiki, but business was not very active. We tried to do a lot of things, for example, fruits, but the Azerbaijanis pushed us out of their market; after our arrival, it was very difficult to deal with fruits. I explained to her that there is no such store in Moscow yet, but there are a lot of Africans. many of them have not been back home for 10-20 years, and we assume that everything should work out. She agreed and gave the money. My husband went to Nigeria again, made an agreement with the suppliers, and we meet him here at the airport.” Olga says that their goods are always checked very carefully: “Everyone immediately focuses on the fact that suddenly they are carrying drugs. There were problems with this at the very beginning, but when you go through everything once, then it becomes easier. Of course, not everyone is checked like that But our risk group is goods from Nigeria.” Buyers are mainly Africans, although there are also Russians, especially those who, in Olga’s words, are “interested in something new,” as well as wives of Africans or those who have traveled to Africa. People from the embassies of Nigeria and Ghana have already come to the store to buy groceries.

Photo: Anya Ayvazyan/PublicPost

Neither Olga nor Felix want to return to Nigeria. "To live there, you need to have good money. In Nigeria, there are problems with electricity, with water, even in big cities." Felix never encountered racism in Russia, but the children got into trouble. “Oddly enough, the children hurt the older child in the kindergarten. Even the teachers hurt them. There was such a situation that we even had to write a statement - the teacher beat the child because he was not Russian. The issue was eventually hushed up. The district police officer said that she had been reprimanded and transferred us in another kindergarten. People here, of course, are not yet very used to it. We went with the child to the playground, and the parents told their children: “No, Vanya, don’t come near him, he’s black, don’t play with him.” at school they call him black, he’s not particularly offended, really,” says Olga. But she did not feel any malice towards herself or her husband. "The first time I took him to the village, it was absolutely something. By the way, when I went to Nigeria for the first time, it was the same. We also went to the very outback. Little black children touched me to see if I was wearing makeup, then They looked at the finger to see if it was white now. It was the same when I brought it to the village to my grandmother. The children also came up and touched it. But my parents are from the Moscow region, we go there, he’s just like that. his own, everyone knows him because he is the only African in the city."

Finally, Olga explains the phenomenon of African Kuzminki: “For Nigerians, Kuzminki is the center of Moscow: not Red Square, not Pushkinskaya or Tverskaya, but Kuzminki. They are used to meeting here. The fact is that most of them live in Lyubertsy and Zhulebino, because that it’s cheaper to rent apartments there. And all the transport goes there from Kuzminki. That’s why they often meet near the metro in the evenings, sitting by the fountain.” According to her, the Nigerian diaspora in Moscow is quite large: “I think about ten thousand for sure, at least Nigerian citizens. Maybe more. It’s interesting that all the Nigerians who come here, who have been here for a long time, are immediately sent to sell perfume at the market. Husband I started with this too. Everyone started with this, I don’t even know why. Some people “bomb”, others work at the car wash. There are also Nigerians near Kuzminki who often bring clients here.” Africans themselves are friendly among themselves in Moscow, Olga believes. "They know each other. You know, they're so loud when they meet, it's all so intense. But they're actually quite harmless."