Olufela Teddy Owolabi - 29. Agust 2001

I feel like my life is being threatened. "I can no longer go around alone in town, without fearing something might happen", say Olufela Teddy Owolabi, a 25 years old Nigerian man who has been living in Iceland for about four years.

He says that his relationship with the police in Reykjavik hasn't been the way it should and he wants to speak his mind, mostly because of his two sons, one 2 year old and another 9months old, both born in Iceland.

"I most definitely do not want them to experience the same things I did last Sunday. I want them to be able to speak openly in their home country and express their opinions with out having to face sleeping in chambers, only for the fault of being dark skinned". Olufela, or Teddy like he prefers to be called, is referring to an incident that happened on Hverfisgatan last Sunday morning where he claims that he and his Nigerian friend were attacked, only on grounds of their skin colour. Afterwards, the police used a violent hand towards him, and then let him wait handcuffed in prison chambers for a while.

Teddy wanted to take this to the media now, since this wasn’t his first struggle with the police. "Things are getting worse every day and street fights are getting more and more common. According to police actions, it seems like it's considered all right to pick up a fight with people as long as they are of other races then Icelandic, and then the consequences are none. I feel my life is in jeopardy, and it has gotten to the stage of me not wanting to call the police, since it hasn’t helped me before. I will rather call my friends for help, and that is obviously much more likely to cause fights between groups of people of different races."

Teddy says that violence and racism weren't that common before, when he first moved to Iceland. It's getting worse, partly because of the way things are handled, and not controlled in the way they should be. Teddy says that if nothing will be done, the violence will soon get out of control and someone's life could end. "I cannot imagine that this is the way the Icelandic nation wants to have it, and that’s also why something has to be done right away. Iceland is supposed to be a good example for other countries, where people are should to be able to live together in peace. I cry on the inside, when I think about my two sons, because I do not want to have the same things happening for them, as they have for me."