The stares that greeted Jean Gregoire Sagbo when he first arrived in the Soviet Union from Benin in the early 1980s were sometimes accompanied by insults.
Today the gestures are warm and welcoming, at least in this rural community where Sagbo made history four years ago by becoming the first black person elected to office in Russia.
With Sagbo now into the final months of a five-year town council term, his allure does not appear to have faded in Novozavidovsky, about 75 miles northwest of Moscow. Instead, he and many residents believe his time in office has helped improve the negative attitude some Russians have about Africans and dispel a widespread belief that many Russians don’t like black people. “I think people can differentiate between bad and good,” Sagbo, 60, said over a cup of tea inside his small office at the town’s dilapidated municipal building. “People believe in me. They know I will try to solve their problems.”
“It doesn’t matter that he’s black; all people are the same,” said Constantine Morozov, 41, a carpenter, who grew up in the 8,000-person community. “What matters is that he’s a good person. He helps everyone and he has cleaned up the town.”
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