Guinean | Slovak

Nina Camara.jpg

I was born and brought up in small town in Slovakia. It’s not mixed at all, it’s 95% white people, the rest were Gipsy people, Ukrainian.

Back in the day race was not an issue, this is a bit of communist history that people don’t know.  Communism and socialism were not racist regions, they were actually promoting racial tolerance. They wanted to be different than the old days in America so in the past, African students were welcomed in these countries, they would get scholarships. I was born in the 90s so this period still lived on and people did not really talk about race issues. Well, if somebody does not talk about it publicly, it doesn’t mean there is not a hidden issue.  In reality what’s in peoples minds is different, they never truly welcomed all these foreigners but they would not go out of their way to express hateful attitudes publicly.

Unfortunately, I came across people who would shout at me on the street, they would not shout insults, but they would say ‘Black girl’ which was very unpleasant. Yeah I became very guarded by these behaviors. Then you get people who were very fascinated by mixed race people and find them very exotic and beautiful.

I came to the United Kingdom because I wanted to experience something different. Back home was not a normal environment and I wanted to be treated normal like a human. This is what I like about London. It is so diverse, people see you as human and do not label you. They treat you accordingly.  My country is not doing well so these days there is this huge sense of ‘Stranger Danger ‘. I did not come to the UK because of money but rather to find people similar to my diverse background. Because the culture I grew up in just does not reflect whom I am.  When someone says Slovakian, you will never picture a face like mine and who knows if it will happen in my lifetime.

I would like to find someone in the future who is open minded and from a solid background, someone who has tolerance and has the right values. I would not date someone from a country like mine, I know them too well.