In 1935, a 26-year-old Kwame Nkrumah was in London obtaining his student visa to the United States when the Italian invasion of Ethiopia was announced. The educator was in transit in hopes of furthering and honing his skills and knowledge of teaching, Black politics and history at Lincoln University. In his autobiography he shares that, “At that moment it was almost as if the whole of London had declared war on me personally. For the next few minutes I could do nothing but glare at each impassive face wondering if those people could possibly realise the wickedness of colonialism, and praying that the day might come when I could play my part in bringing about the downfall of such a system.”

The years to follow were “years of sorrow and loneliness, poverty and hard work”, he writes, and while completing postsecondary studies at Lincoln and later, the University of Pennsylvania, he was a student activist who organised fellow African students in Pennsylvania and across the United States in the fight for their rights in the US and for the end of colonial rule. Taking several jobs to pay school fees and support himself, ranging from a dishwasher to a lecturer, these years “would have been so much easier” he shares, if he did not have to “work out ways and means of earning…[a] livelihood’. 

Nkrumah’s experience was similar to the African students throughout the colonial period who migrated in order to pursue learning because of “racist educational structures with regard to opportunities at all levels and especially opportunities for higher education”, as captured by Dr. Walter Rodney in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. 

Almost 90 years following Nkrumah’s journey, 26-year-old Korrine Sky, a Black British medical student of Zimbabwean heritage and co-founder of Black Women for Black Lives and the Africans In Ukraine Education Fund, is among thousands of students from across the continent and diaspora pursuing postsecondary education in Ukraine — a new stream of educational migration that began in the early 2000s, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.  

Korrine, and Black medical students who study in Ukraine, navigate postcolonial higher education systems across Africa, Europe, Ukraine — a messy terrain that is intensified by the continent’s low physician-to-population ratio, global burden of disease rate, and medical education landscape in need of scaling up. Their migrations are facilitated both by globalisation of medical education and Ukraine’s affordable, accessible medical institutions (with courses in Ukrainian and English). 

“Ukraine has accepted many foreign medical students who could not gain entry in their home countries for political reasons as well as those who could not afford the high price to study medicine in their home country…Many of these national and foreign medical students are now displaced refugees looking to escape to Western Europe or their country of origin.”

War on Ukraine: Impact on Ukrainian Medical Students, International Journal of Medical Students, 2022

 African students in Ukraine navigate in a manner that is parallel, if not similar, to African medical students throughout the colonial period who developed “strategies for training and employment” amid “dynamics of the…power relations” across borders, as described by Dr. Adell Patton in Physicians, Colonial Racism, And Diaspora In West Africa. However, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, their studies and aspirations were violently halted and they were forced to leave Ukraine at the outbreak of the war.

WATCH: Two Nigerian Students Share Their Experience of Leaving Ukraine

Without provisions or preparation from their governments and failed by diplomats responsible for the safety and protection of their nationals overseas, students were forced to flee. The governments often highlight the “successful stories” of international students and alumni while hesitating to address the anti-Black racism experienced by its citizens and international students from African nations. 

“A number of African people have settled in Ukraine and built a community along with families. There is a real concern around whether the African students in Kherson will be able to resettle and have the same rights as their Ukrainian partners and children once evacuated.” 

Humanitarian Needs Overview : Africans in Kherson, Ukraine by Korrine Sky, Francklin Momo Nanfack March, 2022

While pursuing her dream of becoming a medical doctor, Sky was forced to flee and took action while doing so. Sharing her story and the stories of others, while gathering data on their locations and needs, Sky used her voice during a time of crisis and abandonment and supported thousands of Africans in need. She co-founded Black Women for Black Lives with Patricia Daley and Tokunbo Koiki to support and amplify the needs of Black people fleeing the war in Ukraine. She also has a new initiative, the Africans in Ukraine Education Fund, which is dedicated to “helping African students who fled the war in Ukraine continue with their education.

While organising, Korrine Sky shared her experiences with AMAKA, along with her hopes for African international students. 

Kwame Nkrumah, President of the African Students Association of America and Canada, 1943

Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, you were among thousands of Africans and people of African descent enrolled in universities across the country. How would you describe your experiences with the Black community and other Black students before the invasion? 

Prior to the war in Ukraine, I was studying in a private university, which tends to be for international students only. There aren’t Ukrainian nationals. You'll be with people from all over Asia and Africa and start building your own kind of community. In your classroom, you’ll meet somebody and then that person would ask “Do you know where I can get my hair done”? Then they connect you with the hairdresser who introduces you to someone else and you end up building a little family. It was really, really nice.

You’ve shared your experiences (and the experiences of others) at the Ukrainian border and are now actively gathering information on Africans’ evacuation experiences. What has been most insightful and challenging for you, taking on the role of researcher and advocate while also processing/coping with your own evacuation experience? 

Students are tired and have form fatigue. They are apprehensive about sharing their information and data because of scammers and security risks. There are a lot of families, where one partner is from an African country and the other is Ukrainian, some have Ukrainian children. They are having to figure out what happens to my wife and my children? Are they allowed to come with me or do I now need to stay in Ukraine? It’s a complex situation with constant barriers, topped off with systematic racism that makes everything more difficult than it should be. Hundreds or thousands of Black and Brown people who are stuck or trapped are experiencing racism, and it's just a constant fight. It's just so exhausting and tedious, and it feels like nobody pays attention. Nobody even cares. All of our governments and embassies said that they wouldn't be able to assist us.

Governments and non-governmental organisations should really be supporting community work with the resources and funds that they already have, but instead they'll just tell you “you're doing such great work!” and won’t share anything. It's the community that helped. Small organisations [and] grassroots organisations are doing the work. 

WATCH: Africans Are Reporting Racism and Discrimination at the Ukrainian Border

In your call to action, you’ve joined forces with Patricia and Tokunbo, establishing Black Women for Black Lives. How has your work with each other been both a source of support and motivation for you? 

Having that support has really helped me as an individual and hundreds of others. There's no way I would've been able to do that on my own. And there's no way that Patricia, Tombo, or I would've been able to do this on our own. Our volunteers are amazing and I’ve been able to really see how, when people work together, [what] we can achieve.  

What have your research findings and organising work unveiled about life after evacuation? What are the needs of Africans navigating displacement, interrupted learning, and other shocks and impacts of the war and how can readers become involved with support efforts?

 I've been focused on trying to help as many people who are still in Ukraine and the people who are transitioning. Once people left the borders, we were able to secure a partnership with Airbnb and were able to offer people accommodation for a short amount of time. However, I'm constantly wondering, when that stay comes to an end, what will students need? What now? It feels like we’re all just kind of existing for the moment, there's no set plan, and there are no clear answers. Some of the universities are offering transfers but they still want fees. A lot of students don't want to go back to Nigeria or go back to Zimbabwe because their families have spent all of their life savings just to send their children to this faraway place for school for a better life. 

There are so many layers to this. My mom was explaining at one point to somebody that we left Zimbabwe because of conflict. She never thought that she would ever see me as a refugee. There are students whose countries are currently in conflict, they can't go back but there's no say on what’s next. Will we actually be able to become doctors? I think that in itself is very sad because Ukraine gave us the opportunity to get the medical education that we've always wanted. Black people are less likely to get accepted and less able to pay the expensive cost of medical school. We found somewhere we can go to university and non-Ukrainian universities are closing the door on our dreams. We need more Black doctors and we’ve lost thousands now because of inaccessible education. 

What are your hopes for yourself and all those who have [been] evacuated, those evacuating, and those still in need of evacuation (Kherson students)?

One of the questions we asked students whose studies were interrupted by war was: would you like to continue or discontinue your studies? Not a single person said that they wanted to discontinue their studies. All we really want to do is to be able to carry [on] with our education. That, for us, is the most important thing. I hope…no, I know that the people in Kherson will be able to go home or be able to be reunited with their families. And I hope that everybody will be able to carry on with their education because a horrible, life changing event like this shouldn't change the trajectory of your entire life. I want to be able to afford to give my daughter a life that she deserves. I already sacrificed leaving her in the UK to be with my mom, with the hopes that I would be able to come back as a doctor for her to give her a better life. And now that whole dream has just been taken away from me and I think to myself, was it worth it? What was the point if now I can't even give her that?

Do you have any last thoughts or messages you’d like to share? 

Keep raising awareness about the students who are still stuck. Use your voice and speak. One thing I've learned from this entire experience is that your voice at times is all you have. When I left Ukraine, I didn't have anything, just my documents and the clothes on my back. Through using my voice, which was the only thing that [I] had at that point, I was able to be part of a conversation which helped raise awareness about what was happening to Africans in Ukraine. If you have a voice, let people know what's going on. Maybe it'll reach the right ears. 

Learn more about how to continue supporting African international students whose education has been interrupted by and/or have been displaced by the War in Ukraine by visiting the Africans In Ukraine Education Fund.

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.