The Nigerian-born MP, dubbed “the Polish Obama” on his arrival in parliament last year, made the remarks in an interview with the Prague Post, prior to a debate in the Czech capital about European migrants.
Speaking of foreigners in Poland, he said that “most of them come in as students and right away there is a problem because the immigrant students are living in separate hostels from Polish students,” meaning that “right away there is isolation.”
On day-to-day street encounters, Godson acknowledges that Africans endure jokes about being a “murzyn” (negro) but that he takes a constructive approach.
“Most of the young students who come to Poland get angry and saddened when they are called murzyn. And I tell them 'No, it’s okay. I’m a murzyn and I’m proud of that,'” he says.
“I don’t want people to change the nomenclature, what I want to change is the attitude behind that nomenclature....And by your example and by your behaviour you can prove whether that stereotype is right or wrong. Not by protesting.”
Breaking stereotypes
Godson, who has two children by his Polish wife, is also the founder of the African Institute in Poland, which aims at promoting relations between Poland and the continent in which he was born.
He is currently writing a doctoral thesis on the process of Africans adapting to life in Poland.
“When people think about Africa they think about poverty. They think about conflict and corruption. They think about sickness and disease,” he says.
“So when they get to meet an African who is different, who is conscientious, who has integrity – that’s something that really confronts the stereotypes they have.”
Godson, who initially came to Europe as a Christian missionary as the Eastern bloc collapsed, worked his way up the ladder through the local council in Lodz, central Poland.
He became a member of the Lodz city council in 2008, and two years later, he was re-elected, garnering the second highest number of votes out of close to 800 candidates.
Owing to the fact that fellow Civic Platform MP Hanna Zdanowska was voted mayor of Lodz in the same election, Godson replaced her as a member of parliament.
“Seeing a non-Polish-born immigrant getting involved in politics at the very grass roots level was something you can really point to and say things are changing,” he reflects. (nh/pg)