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Story: Africans

African students, Wellington

Colombo Plan students, Wellington

Ghanaian dental nurse trainees Victoria Mensah, Rose Adisi, Faustina Tay and Jemima Imbeah meet the Mayor of Wellington, Francis Kitts, in 1963. Many early African arrivals came through the Special Commonwealth African Assistance Programme. In 1962 there were 43 African students in New Zealand.

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Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Reference: NZ Foreign Affairs Review (August 1971): 25.

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How to cite this page

Carl Walrond, Africans – Africans in New Zealand, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/676/african-students-wellington (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 July 2024.

Comments

Liya Lupala
03 July 2020
Please correct the information on SCAAP scholars on your website. I have written before about this, and your information is wrong. I'm the child of a SCAAP student who arrived in 1961. All African students in NZ from 1960 were exclusively SCAAP. Colombo students were Asia/India focussed. I'm would like this history corrected. My father was Scaap. I was born here "illegally" inherent to the rules of Scaap, in their 1965 handbook. I was hidden in NZ with grandparents. I now have a son whose father is also Tanzanian. I have friends in NZ that are also children of Scaap they returned in the 1970s when the NZ govt relaxed it's rigidity to its unwritten "white NZ project" & allowed mother's back into NZ with their African children. 2020 is 60 years of continued African presense in NZ. I am happy to assist you with the correct research evidence. NZ has never had great race relations, ever. There were occassions of success but SCAAP rules ALSO tore father's from children with absolutely no concern for their humanity or welfare in NZ. Our welfare didn't feature above the primary covert concern for the white NZ policy. Misiformation continues to add insult to injury.