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‘African Village’ in Vietnam's capital after Dien Bien Phu victory

‘African Village’ in Vietnam's capital after Dien Bien Phu victory

Thursday, May 08, 2014, 21:09 GMT+7

After being defeated in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, African mercenaries serving in the French Union’s French Far East Expeditionary Corps had to wait for their governments to fulfill procedures for repatriation.

It took around 16 years to send home over 300 ‘soldiers of fortune.’

During the waiting time, they were assigned to work with local farmers on a farm at the foot of the Tan Vien Mountain in Hanoi’s Ba Vi District.

Their work was well paid, upholding the Vietnamese government’s policy of tolerance.

In fact, the soldiers were eventually granted a higher salary and greater allowances than the local people.

While working on the farm, the African soldiers were allowed to marry local women and build their own families.

The residential area where the African soldiers lived with their partners was named the ‘Vietnamese African Village.’ That name still exists in the Tan Linh Commune of Ba Vi.

‘New Vietnamese people’

Vietnamese African villager Nghiem Huu Phuc, 78, recalled that the most impressive thing about his village was the entrance gate, which was decorated in the Arabian style, which was not popular in Hanoi at the time.

An image of the gate now hangs in his living room.

In 1963, the area was officially named Viet Phi (Vietnamese African) Farm, covering an area of over 700 hectares at the foot of Tan Vien Mountain and included in the two communes Tan Linh and Van Hoa.

Sugar cane and other agricultural products were loaded on trucks every night and the lights twinkled on the farm, Phuc recalled.

All farmers, locals and Africans, shared their joy and work and led a happy life, he noted.

“The African soldiers were good workers and lived in harmony with the locals. Locals called them ‘new Vietnamese people’,” said Phuc.

Those on the farm felt it was within their duties to promote the health and stability of the African soldiers.

Nguyen Xuan Dong, 83, who was the cashier of the farm, said, “Vietnam was then in the U.S. war. Although all human and financial resources were prioritized for battle, the government granted favors to the African soldiers.

“Each of them was given 21kg of rice a month while a local got only 15kg.

“Local people lived in thatched houses, but the Africans lived in brick facilities. Each African was paid at least 87 piasters a month, while a Vietnamese worker was paid 33 piasters and an engineer got 70 piasters,” Dong confirmed.

The last African soldier was allowed to leave Vietnam by 1970. When they returned to their homeland, they brought their wives and children with them.

Nostalgia

On recalling his memories of the African soldiers, Dong spoke with emotion in his voice: “They were really good men, wonderful brothers.”

In 1965 when the U.S. army expanded their bombing area in northern Vietnam, the families of the African soldiers were relocated to northern Yen Bai Province and Dong sometimes boarded a bus to visit them.

On going back home in Hanoi, Dong was often given gifts such as homemade bread or sugar, he said.

It was not much but it symbolized the precious love between men of different nationalities and skin colors, he added.

In 2009, the Embassy of Morocco in Hanoi sponsored the restoration of the Arabian-style gate of the Vietnamese African Village and the ‘soldiers’ sometimes returned to visit the farm where they stayed for a time to reminisce and visit their friends.

“When some of my old friends returned to visit me, they said they still love Vietnam and cherish their memories of the country and its people,” Phuc told Tuoi Tre.

Now, the Vietnamese African Village is becoming more prosperous than ever with the addition of dairy farms.

Nguyen Van Hai, head of the village, said it currently includes 187 households, the residents of which all understand the legacy of their home.

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