Sanda was starting his third yr of faculty when he pledged Reuzegom, an unsanctioned membership for younger males from Antwerp. “They signify a sort of social class,” stated Kenny Van Minsel, a former president of the campus scholar affiliation. “Predominantely white — that’s a given — and predominantly upper-class.”
Mr. Van Minsel continuously interacted with fraternities and tried, unsuccessfully, to influence Reuzegom to signal a hazing code of conduct. Reuzegom had just one different Black member, who was given the nickname Rafiki, the identify of the monkey within the film “The Lion King,” he stated.
However Sanda Dia noticed Reuzegom as a possibility. “It has advantages, being in a membership like that,” he had stated, his brother recalled. “If you understand them, it’s good on your community. And once you depart college, they’ll belief you a large number quicker.”
If it sounds peculiar for a Black scholar to pledge an almost all-white fraternity within the identify of networking, college students say it made sense. “It’d appear to be one thing outlandish, however for lots of Black individuals it’s very comprehensible,” stated Nozizwe Dube, a Ok.U. Leuven scholar who immigrated to Belgium from Zimbabwe as a young person.
One of many mantras of Flanders is that anybody can succeed by studying the language, working laborious and getting a level, she stated. In actuality, research has shown that Belgians of African descent are much more prone to be unemployed or work in low-skilled jobs, regardless of having excessive ranges of schooling. Fraternities, she stated, can appear to be an avenue towards a greater profession.
Reuzegom was infamous for its hazing rituals, referred to as “baptisms.” In October 2018, Reuzegom held a boozy occasion in a scholar affiliation constructing. The fraternity trashed the venue, inflicting hundreds of {dollars}’ value of harm, Mr. Van Minsel stated. Fraternity members ordered Mr. Dia to wash up, calling him a racial slur, stated Mr. Van Minsel, whose scholar affiliation colleague was current and reported the incident to him.
“Their argument was that Black individuals ought to work for white individuals,” Mr. Van Minsel stated. “They handled him like an object.” Two months later, Mr. Dia was lifeless.
