Santa was starting his third year of school when he pledged to the unregulated club Rusegom for young men in Antwerp. “They represent a kind of social class,” said Kenny Van Minsel, former president of the Campus Student Association. “Primarily white – given that – and primarily upper class.”
Mr. Van Minsel repeatedly communicated with comrades and tried unsuccessfully to get Rusegom to sign the Hedging Code of Conduct. He said that there was only one black member in the Rusegoom, nicknamed Rafiki, the monkey’s name in the film was “The Lion King”.
But Sanda Dia saw Rusegom as an opportunity. “He has the advantages of being in a club like that,” he said, his brother said. “If you know them, it’s good for your network. And when you leave school, they will trust you very quickly. ”
If a black student finds it strange to seek the pledge of almost all white comrades in the name of networking, the students say it makes sense. “It sounds like something foreign, but for many blacks it’s very understandable,” said Nozizwe Dube, a KU Leuven student who immigrated from Zimbabwe to Belgium as a teenager.
One of the mantras of Flanders is that one can succeed in learning any language, by working hard and getting a degree, he said. In fact, research has shown that Belgians of African descent are more likely to be unemployed or to work in low-skilled jobs despite having a high level of education. The fraternity, he said, looks like a path to a better career.
Rusegom was notorious for his troublesome rites, known as “baptism”. October In October 2018, Rusegome hosted a boozy party at the Student Association building. Wealthy Van Minsel said the comrades littered the place, causing thousands of dollars in damage. Congregation members ordered Mr. Dia to clean up, calling him racially obscure, said Mr. Van Minsel, whose student union colleagues were present and informed him of the incident.
“His argument was that black people should work for white people,” Mr. Van Minsel said. “They treated it like a like object.” Two months later, Mr. Dia died.
