There was a lot of noise a few years ago about a Norwegian band[1] who had a song "Neger på Ål stasjon"[2] ("Black man on Ål train station") describing the fascination of the author first time they actually saw a black person in their hometown.
I'm not from Ål at all[3](although I have visited it) but I can verify the feeling. Black people were very much excotic were I came from too, and if one of them had shown up we would probably have discussed it at school next day, wondering if they could speak our local language etc.
Edit: I should add that we had nothing against black people. A couple of stories to show what I mean: forsome reason we often ended up next to a black family at camping, and I remember my dad and their dad being friends and he took built a toy boat with us once and another time I met a black boy at my age at the beach who was actually from Africa (the first family was from somewhere in Europe) and I was existed that I had met someone from Africa and it was the first time I can remember using English for real.
[1]: Hellbillies, awesome sound and some interesting texts BTW
[2]: It is a very respectful song
[3]: Norwegians might find this funny as "Ål" and English "all" is pronounced about the same way (of course depending on how thick their "L"-s are.
There was a lot of noise a few years ago about a Norwegian band[1] who had a song "Neger på Ål stasjon"[2] ("Black man on Ål train station") describing the fascination of the author first time they actually saw a black person in their hometown.
I'm not from Ål at all[3](although I have visited it) but I can verify the feeling. Black people were very much excotic were I came from too, and if one of them had shown up we would probably have discussed it at school next day, wondering if they could speak our local language etc.
Edit: I should add that we had nothing against black people. A couple of stories to show what I mean: forsome reason we often ended up next to a black family at camping, and I remember my dad and their dad being friends and he took built a toy boat with us once and another time I met a black boy at my age at the beach who was actually from Africa (the first family was from somewhere in Europe) and I was existed that I had met someone from Africa and it was the first time I can remember using English for real.
[1]: Hellbillies, awesome sound and some interesting texts BTW
[2]: It is a very respectful song
[3]: Norwegians might find this funny as "Ål" and English "all" is pronounced about the same way (of course depending on how thick their "L"-s are.