{"id":487305,"date":"2026-06-07T08:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T08:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/487305\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T08:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T08:50:08","slug":"racist-mindsets-congolese-in-ireland-feel-fear-in-wake-of-yves-sakilas-death-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/487305\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Racist mindsets\u2019: Congolese in Ireland feel fear in wake of Yves Sakila\u2019s death | Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Kembetia Bissa fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo and moved to Ireland<\/a> in 2003 he found not only sanctuary but beauty, friendship and a home.<\/p>\n

The asylum seeker settled in Bandon, west Cork, and found work as a landscaper. He opened an African dance school with Congolese drumming and taught local people the rhythms of his homeland. \u201cIt was very positive, very welcoming. I felt like I was in my own country,\u201d Bissa, 55, said this week in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Times have changed. For the interview with the Guardian he took a Luas tram from Tallaght, a west Dublin suburb, to the city centre. When he sat down a white man beside him glowered, stood up and moved away. \u201cHe did not want to be near me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a small indicator that for some Congolese people and other refugees, immigrants and people of colour, the welcome is over. A spate of recent incidents in Ireland, including a shocking death with echoes of George Floyd<\/a>, have prompted a reckoning over race and racism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are actually scared now,\u201d said Bissa, who runs the Facebook group, Congolese Community in Ireland (CCI<\/a>). \u201cWe are scared that they should start to target us in our homes, on the street. If this thing is not controlled the number of deaths will be worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kembetia Bissa, an active member of the Congolese community in Ireland, in central Dublin. Photograph: Rory Carroll\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

On 15 May department store security guards chased and caught Yves Sakila<\/a>, 35, a Congolese man suspected of shoplifting. Video footage showed him pinned to the pavement on Henry Street for about five minutes, with one man kneeling on his neck. When police arrived they briefly handcuffed Sakila before realising he was unresponsive and took him to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

Yves Sakila<\/p>\n

Police are still investigating and Sakila\u2019s family has requested a second postmortem after the first proved inconclusive but the protesters who have marched<\/a> and held vigils do not doubt that race played a part in his death.<\/p>\n

It is not just the parallels with George Floyd<\/a>, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck in 2020, it is the context. Days before Sakila\u2019s death, Bertie Ahern<\/a>, a former taoiseach, was secretly filmed saying: \u201cThe ones I worry about are the Africans. We can\u2019t be taking in people from the Congo and all these places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahern was canvassing in a Dublin byelection <\/a>that platformed hostility to Black immigrants and Muslims. They are blamed for crime, housing shortages and the cost of living crisis, a narrative amplified by far-right agitators. In recent years, mobs have attacked refugee shelters<\/a> and targeted foreigners, including an Indian man who was beaten and stripped<\/a>.<\/p>\n

double quotation markIt comes from politicians and then people see it as an opportunity to commit acts of violenceBulelani Mfaco, activist<\/p>\n

A Facebook page that requested justice for Sakila was inundated with scornful comments from users who cited Sakila\u2019s numerous criminal convictions, including for shoplifting, and the fact that he was homeless. \u201cWhy wasn\u2019t he deported?\u201d said one. \u201cCan you forward some of your literature as I am short of toilet paper,\u201d said another. \u201cBring them security fellas before the witchdoctor,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n

The backlash is not limited to online trolling. Stallholders who work a block from where Sakila died expressed resentment at the fuss, and said the media overlooked violence by Black perpetrators against white people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about that, this crowd marching every week,\u201d said Martina Farrell, 66, a fruit seller, referencing the protests and vigils for Sakila. \u201cA white fella can be killed and there\u2019s nothing about that,\u201d she said, citing a recent case. Others echoed her view.<\/p>\n

People attend a vigil for Yves Sakila on Henry Street, Dublin. Photograph: Brian Lawless\/PA<\/p>\n

Alan Clarke said new arrivals were displacing Irish people from shelters and social housing. \u201cThere is more Irish on the streets because the foreigners are taking the properties.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Bissa, it has been a long, melancholic arc from teaching African dance to hearing clamours for deportation. The manner in which a guard restrained Sakila showed dehumanisation, he said. \u201cDid he think he was putting his knees on the neck of a dog, an animal, or a human being?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bissa attributed xenophobia to the speed of demographic change and a failure to integrate newcomers. \u201cThe Congolese community feels detached from Irish society. The government should work with our leaders to connect people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He estimates that since the 2022 census, the Congolese community has more than doubled to about 8,000. They are part of a much wider influx. Between 2012 and 2022, 401,433 people arrived from abroad. Of the 5.1 million population, a fifth were born elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s experience of colonialism and discrimination did not guarantee empathy with outsiders, especially in an era of social media disinformation, said Leon Diop, founder of the advocacy group Black and Irish<\/a> and author of a memoir titled Mixed Up: An Irish Boy\u2019s Journey to Belonging<\/a>. \u201cPeople are being pulled into racist mindsets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Irish people were hospitable but the traditional greeting, c\u00e9ad m\u00edle f\u00e1ilte, which translates as 100,000 welcomes, needed updating, he said. \u201cWe\u2019re now the country of 75,000 welcomes rather than the country of 100,000 welcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bulelani Mfaco, a former spokesperson for the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland, said rhetoric with racialised undertones, some of it imported from the UK, had eroded tolerance. \u201cIt comes from politicians and then people see it as an opportunity to commit acts of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s far right had flopped in elections but infected the political mainstream with its vocabulary, said Mfaco. \u201cWhen you talk about people being a problem, the natural response is to eliminate the problem. Words have an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

A makeshift memorial for Yves Sakila outside Arnotts department store on Henry Street in Dublin. Photograph: Rory Carroll\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

When asylum seekers had opportunities to engage directly with Irish people the response was often warm, said Mfaco, citing an example from Achill Island in County Mayo. \u201cIt gives me hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Henry Street, rain extinguished candles at a memorial for Sakila. Some nearby stallholders expressed sorrow over his fate. \u201cNo matter what he stole or didn\u2019t steal, it wasn\u2019t right,\u201d said Caroline, 56. \u201cDoesn\u2019t matter what colour he is, it\u2019s still a life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Kembetia Bissa fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo and moved to Ireland in 2003 he found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-487305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}