Upstream (Oslo), July 1, 2009
Russian energy giant Gazprom has inadvertently walked into an online racism debate with the announcement of its new joint venture in Nigeria—Nigaz.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Nigerian counterpart last week agreed the $2.5 billion venture to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Africa’s most populous nation.
The name is meant to be an amalgamation of “Nigeria” and “Gazprom”, pronounced “nye-gaz”, but can be read phonetically as an offensive term for people of black African origin, wrote Reuters.
“How more derogatory can it be . . . let’s join forces in making our government rename this JV,” said the creator of “Nigerians No Nigaz”, a group set up on social networking website Facebook.
Other bloggers took a more mocking approach.
One African-American blogger recommended a playlist of songs from US hip-hop artists including 50 Cent and Tupac Shakur for the Nigaz launch party.
But many comments about the branding blunder on the Twitter and other social networking sites were from white bloggers.
“White people are making too much of this. As long as the Russians pay us, they can call it what they like,” said one Nigerian in the commercial hub, Lagos, asking not to be named.
Original article
(Posted on July 1, 2009)
Comments
If the name of this venture is a problem, then the very country names of Nigeria and nearby Niger (which came to fame several years go when it was alleged that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium or something illicit from there), have to change their names, too. It would be really easy to mispronounce those countries’ names and wind up saying a slur word. When Niger was in the news, most of the media pronounced it “Nee-JAIR” instead of “NYE-gerr” to avoid that particular slip up.
The Anglo-centrism of these people is juvenile. Why should Russians and Nigerians make their languages conform to the ears of English speakers? I would not doubt that every two-syllable word in the English language is a dirty word somewhere in the world. Ought we English speakers all silence ourselves in order that we not offend Digitarians with one word and Upluks with another?
For those of you who don’t get to soak up diversity like we Californians do, I will say that it’s not unusual for Asian immigrants to have names like Long Wang, Wang Kok, etc. Nigaz doesn’t sound too bad by comparison.
I really do think this is prejudiced… for foreigners who aren’t even involved in this transaction to butt in and tell Nigeria and Russia what to call their joint venture. People just need to butt out of their business and let them handle it.
Well I just think the name is funny. Of course it’s the Western liberals who are getting their panties in a knot over this. The Nigerians have the sensible attitude — “As long as the Russians pay us, they can call it what they like.”
This is so funny!
Whats not funny, is that if a similar name were to disparage white Americans, whites would celebrate it, showing how tolerant they are or something. Say, a ‘Readnecks’ or, ‘whteboyz’ or something. You’d have to say you love it, or else folks might think you were a racist or in sympathy with aberrant white folks.
Sure to be a refrain for investors, as oil prices start to recover:
“What’s up? My Nigaz!”
But I think it is prnounced Nee-JAIR due to the fact that it was a French colony until the 60s. People of Niger (I’ve no idea of the demonym, as Nigeria next door put doubts into my head about whether people from Niger are “Nigerian”) probably take no offense from this; they are francophones (unless there’s a racist word behind the name in French as well). When establishing businesses around the world, take the locals sensitivities into account, not activists who rant on about things they have no knowledge of.
This name is a good thing for blacks. The more things like this occur, the more likely the world is to cure the american blacks of their unwise tendency to feign petulance or actually feel so saddened by finding out what people think of them.
Once the world realizes that the blacks are smart enough to know that being gracious and letting people show their opinions of them without being punished is a better strategy than using outrage scare people into silence in some effort to spoof their social status, things will work better.
If the nigerians have this wisdom, the american blacks can learn it too.
People of Niger (I’ve no idea of the demonym, as Nigeria next door put doubts into my head about whether people from Niger are “Nigerian”) …..
To answer your question, the inhabitants of Niger are known (in French) as “Nigériens” (females: “Nigériennes”).
The same confusion could apply to other places, such as the various Congos, whose people are indiscriminately known as Congolese without differentiation (les Congolais/ Concolaises).
Quite a lot of foreign names are sort of poorly researched, remember when WANG came to the U.S.? the Chinese didn’t know it was slang for …. but I’m sure they wouldn’t care.
Who cares, if it’s ok with the Nigerians, how is it anybody else’s business? Anyway, as someone else pointed out, this term may sound derogatory to english-speaking people in some countries, but not to Russians/Nigerians.
When we were children we were taught that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. It appears this simple truth is lost on the politically correct cowards who are afraid to utter a simple word because their communist masters forbid it. I am astonished at how quickly these pantywaists are willing to surrender their First Amendment right of free speech. I have no doubt they would surrender their remaining rights upon demand as well…
The blacks (and liberal whites bringing this issue to forefront) should not be upset with the name.
Instead they should be upset with the fact that with trillions of dollars of revenue from their own resources over the past decades, these black Africans still cannot manage or take care of themselves (why should they even need the assistance of Russia?) They instead continue to be savage and ruthless towards their own.
