As you may not know, starting this year the ICPC Africa regional qualifications was merged with the Arab contest (aka ACPC) to form the new Arab and Africa Collegiate Programming Contest. I’m a part of an African team that participated in this year’s contest, I'm going anonymous since people mentioned stories that who complains, gets threatened to be disqualified. This was our first participation and we were really excited and prepared really hard for this opportunity. Sadly we were shocked by how much racism we faced in an “African” country, not only from ignorant people on the street, but even from the contest director himself, “Mohamed Fouad”.

Before the contest started, Fouad was moving between teams and checking up on some of them, telling jokes and so on. When he stopped nearby us and said “We have added a very trivial problem specially for you, I hope that you will be able to understand it hahaha” and then he left. This was so offensive and depressing for us, and I was so shocked that I couldn’t even say a word. What a shameful action by such a person who should be an idol.

Also during the closing ceremony, there was an african group performing some entertainment show (dancing mainly), and suddenly the assistant of Fouad came to us and said, “Hey guys, why don’t you join them” and started laughing.

We didn’t do well in the contest, but that’s because it’s our first participation and the problem solving community in my country is not that great. But seeing how racist the directors were, and (as people are sharing) how corrupt and money driven these people are, I really hope that the ICPC administration will take an action if they really care about the community like they say.