Episode Seven: Ukrainians of Colour

It might surprise some listeners to know that Ukraine has a significant Afro-Ukrainian population. Many of them are descendants of the African students who studied in Ukraine during Soviet times. Some have gone on to great fame, like Olympian and MP Zhan Beleniuk, who has a Rwandan father and Ukrainian mother, or Gaita-Lurdes Klaverivna Essami, AKA Gaitana, who was the first Afro-Ukrainian to represent Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest. Outside of Ukraine, there are Ukrainians of colour like our host Sabrina, whose mother is Ukrainian and whose father is from India. All this is to say that Ukrainians of colour exist, both in Ukraine and in the diaspora.But identity is complicated, and for Ukrainians of colour, it can be hard to feel like you belong to a community when you stand out in a crowd, and your own people want to know why you’re there. And when you feel separate and apart from your own people, you can start to feel separate and apart from yourself, too.Today’s episode examines how Ukrainians of colour navigate identity when they’ve been conditioned to see themselves as Ukrainian with an asterisk. Sabrina is joined in the studio by Oleksiy Grynishyn, founder and artistic director of KOLO Choir in Vancouver. Oleksiy – who is Ukrainian and Nigerian and grew up in Vinnytsia – speaks with poignancy and vulnerability about his journey to reconcile his two sides, how he deals with discrimination and micro-aggressions, and the impact that his identity has had on his artistry.