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South Africa 2008: Xenophobia unpacked
Posted on May 26th 2008
The celebration of Africa Day provides yet another opportunity to reflect on what it means to be an African and for whom is the continent intended to serve. South Africa is the youngest country in Africa and yet it has only taken 14 years to expose the extent to which the notion of African citizenship is contestable and perishable.
When one thinks of who is truly a South African, the answer is complex reflecting the historical, psychological and cultural dimensions of the matter.
Accepting this proposition necessarily creates real and devastating consequences for black Africans who may be as adventurous as their white colleagues to cross borders and sell their services in countries that the colonial system did not define as their authentic home.In terms of migration of black Africans the post colonial experience has not elevated their status and standing to the extent that xenophobia becomes a real and significant threat to the creation of a United States of Africa.
Who is an African? It may at face value be a simple question but it is at the core of the dispute in South Africa whose relevance is not restricted to South Africa. South Africa is not the first country in Africa to expose its violence against black born in sister African countries but what makes the current situation in South Africa important is that the country is too important economically and politically in advancing the African project for anyone to ignore the implications arising from the black on black violence.
To date in South Africa the only violence targeted at whites has been largely defined as criminality and hence the elevation of crime as one of the single most important variable in contemporary South Africa.
The migration of black Africans to South Africa is not accidental as was the migration of white people from Europe. Whereas Europeans are generally perceived to add value to nation building their black counterparts are largely regarded as parasites.South Africa has provided an African home to many prominent Africans who would otherwise have been domiciled in traditional destinations for diaspora Africans i.e. Europe, Australian and the Americas. It is not in dispute that such Africans have brought with them capital, skills and experience. Furthermore, they do contribute to the fiscus for the debate on xenophobia to be misconstrued as if blacks have not added value to the success of the post apartheid state.
The history of South Africa and the peculiar role of black South Africans in it have created a distorted and dualistic economic structure whereby black skills were not developed deliberately to create a permanent need for white skills. It has been recognized that for South Africa to grow it requires an infusion of skills and yet a logic seems to have developed that such skills should not be in the form of fellow black Africans.
Although the post colonial Zimbabwean experience has produced an absurd outcome it cannot be denied that valuable skills needed for any country in South Africa's condition have been created at great social and economic cost. Such skills are universally portable and it is not surprising that South Africa has been the major beneficiary.
What is significant is that notwithstanding the 3 million Zimbabweans living and working in South Africa, no attempt has been made to organize such a constituency into a political force in the country in as much as the Jews, for example, in America have organized themselves. About 20% of the Zimbabwean population has its roots from South Africa in as much as a significant proportion of the South African population has its roots from other African nations. If the ugly face of xenophobia demonstrated so far in South Africa is allowed to take root, it poses a threat to many South African businesses that have targeted the rest of the continent as a market for growth.
If South African mining, commercial and industrial groups who have the luxury of exporting their skills are then prevented from doing so as a reaction to xenophobia, I have no doubt that this will not be in the interests of South Africa.
The apartheid system had its own rational in terms of the living arrangements between blacks and whites. It was and still remains unthinkable for black and white people to live together in the same townships. The distance between large black townships and white suburbs shows the extent to which whites were aware of the potential danger of living close to blacks and thereby expose poor blacks to the extent of their economic gains and affluence.What seems to be a problem is that most of the black immigrants have no system in place to allow them to choose where they can live and as such they are easy prey to their local black citizens.
What makes the xenophobia issue so complex is that we still have black African Presidents who argue that their country's resources must be reserved for indigenous nationals? If this argument is accepted then the seeds of xenophobia must be rightly located in the reckless language of African politicians. It is also significant to note that even in the case of South Africa if there were no Zimbabweans taking the few jobs such jobs would be available to blacks and not given to other foreigners.
The post colonial experience has further exposed the hypocrisy of African political economy in that non-black foreigners are readily embraced to exploit natural resources while blacks are targeted and in many cases externalized.
Who owns Africa's resources? I am confident that if the real construction of Africa's wealth was known the nature and context of xenophobia would take a different tone. English people in South Africa created Old Mutual in 1845 and the Afrikaners got angry and created their own Sanlam but in post colonial Africa, we still have to witness the positive anger of black Africans and may be one day in our lifetime we will see the emergence of an inclusive black mutual.
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We must ascertain ourselves of whom we are and who we want to be, celebrate the diversity of our differences with others in an environment that is conducive for social learning progress as we enrich our souls and our ways of life. Every aspect in living activity must nosh our social factor. The comportment of doing our business, our everyday work, our politics, economics and our science and arts must be to celebrate our social life as bequeathed by creation and experience of human kind in every geo-demographic interim we are called to exist. Xenophobia, tribalism, nepotism, racism are a psycho-sociological bigotry triggered by rational deficiency in appreciating geo-social and physiological diversity in other human creations. The dislike in xenophobia, the sightless loyalty in tribalism, the favoritism in nepotism, the prejudice in racism and the egocentric judgments in spiritual faith are all negative aspects of mental behavior that transients all social class strata in every community, nation and regions at large. We are all guilty and infected from birth of this emotional bug called hate. The degree of hate is not directly comparative to the manner one expresses it, we all fight to control detestation. The acts of xenophobia by our SA brothers are extremely dreadful for they expose the extent of underdevelopment of their human brainpower. Here we are confronted by psyche in a sorry state if ever it exists in these nationals. Focus must therefore be to invest heavily in lifting the SA brothers up from prehistoric behavioral responses to match today’s civilized consciousness otherwise their existence will remain a waste of human history. To imagine one having to enjoy a piece of meal after battering to death the head of another living being with metal rods, sticks and stones in a contingent of a community is nerve shattering and mind grueling. We are compelled to think of the “what to do” and the “how to do” while drawing lessons and conclusions from this occurrence. It is imperative that Africans must not reciprocate this harsh gesture to other SA brothers in business, work, study and vocational obligations across Africa. The moment we fail to manage our temperament is when we expose revulsion. We must not apply the Mugabe method for it calls for a moment of madness. In Zimbabwe there were the raiders ‘matevera’ from the south eastern land of ‘m’tebele” later dubbed Matabeleland coincidentally they migrated from SA and lived on killing weaker ethnic groups for food. ‘Amatebeles’ hated their victims (umtakati) and would butcher them before raiding their harvests, however the raided would hide in caves like the sun “vatshona’ later dubbed Mashona from Mashonaland. It is in Matabeleland where Mashona would be beaten to death in cold blood for having migrated there for a job. Shonas were accused of taking Ndebele woman and the jobs therefore were unwanted “amatsvina’. This complex of exclusivity was later confronted by the Korean trained fifth brigade while integration was bolstered by civil servants exchanges from other regions. I do not advocate in sending the army as the SA gvt is doing for the government will forever live with a scar against its people, but we must encourage integration of civil servants as a solution. Concerns by SA brothers are genuine for there are new waves of immoral economic immigrant population who are bent on retrogressing the cultural fabric of some African neighborhoods, however the SA methods of disapproval is wrong. In conclusion, all that glitters is not gold; there are some countries with developed infrastructure and business that does not necessarily reflect the development of citizenry. In Zimbabwe we must guard against industrial prosperity that is not in tandem with the development of all its citizens.
I deeply apreciate your anlysis I have also written something on xenophobia in SA,see-www.zimchaiyo.blogspot.com. I also belive it is also symptomatic of lack of clear immigration policies in Africa.To the extent immigrants are seen as social and economic costs drivers than wealth creators. There is need for African nations to create vehicles for exporting labour to other countries and the recieving countries need to create avenues for those who are ready to settle in SA with the veiw of exploting their capabilites. In the article I point to the anomaly that skilled Zimbabweans illegally in SA are carrying out menial jobs yet they could contribute better as professionals. I also believe that xenophobic acts exihibited by the the SA's are barbaric and not of this day especially the quote "inja leyi sefile".either problems originating back from the apartheid or from the current SA government, it is still not enough to burn someone alive. if these guys are not carefull they will end up worse than us Zimbabweans.
Mutumwa has always shined with his commentaries and i appreciate your columns as i draw a lot of inspiration for Zimbabwe from them.I just pray we will be able to go back to the days it used to be - highly literate people owning the factors of production and progressing well with the rest of the worl.Coming to the so-called "Rainbow Nation" - rainbow without the colour black.This is one country on a one way downward spiral for the simply reason that the majority have not been given the training and conditioning ti THINK.Growing up in Zim - i remember we liked the folks from Malawi,Zambia etc not to mention the rude inhabitants of Botswana who are killing our people in numbers in the name of controlled immigration.What takes a human being to be made to eat urinated food (University of Free State - Reitz Hostel) and still smile by a white person and yet have the energy to literally burn to death ebasela umlilo,a fellow black Africa.Mind you the two are simply saparated by the imaginary borders drawn by the Europeans in their scramble for Africa (sic).Having lived in SA for close to six years - i see no future to hang onto in this forsaken place purely because of the lack of reaoning power on the part of the black man.A white guy in SA today can still literally torment and have 20 black people cower before him in unimaginable fear.
I do appreciate your analysis of the SA scenario and your lamentations.On the surface Mbeki's comments may rightfully describe what man SA feel about the attacks meted out to fellow blacks. The core is the miseducation and misdevelopment of the SA african.I have visited SA several times and l have come to terms with the level of illiteracy in that country. Rainbow nation,reminds me of what Obasanjo had to say as he invited the whites that had fled from Zimbabwe," we wont allow these skills to leave Africa" My point is African are more interested in bedding the whiteman and happy to accomodate him. Crazy. In simple terms Africans have been keen to assimilate the whiteman into their fabric and celebrate them. Crazy.When you realise the animal instict that is quick to pop out of the SA black person then you realise the intergration is way way off the target.That is why it is important to see the relevancy of Zuma 's ascendancy to power is so critical to the remaking of the independent SA.Africa is so full of surprises,this is the same Africa with Joseph Hill of the affirmed Culture group very high on ganja would say you cant take the bush out of an African. Well,when you see the strait jacket that the SA african is about you ask yourself whether this the sequel to the Gods must be crazy part 1&2.What is Ubuntu to the SA african? You see its easy when Americans rehabilitate their soldiers from Vetcong and Iraq. The SA need to really work so hard to reeducate, reculture the lost generation and offsprings of the apartheid era.
Thank you Mtumwa for such a good analysis.What we notice in SA is nothing other than African Leadership failure. The so called revolutionalist viz, Mbeki and Mugabe all share one thing leadership challenges. For SA at least they managed to realise it early as opposed to Zim where we thought Bob was a great leader for the past 20 years only to find ourselves boarding buses to buy cooking oil and cooking aids from SA. You know our leaders lets us down always. They think the so called \"bringing freedom\" is the visa to think on behalf of the masses. As you rightfully said there is need to mobilise all exported labour residing in SA and Europe for the benefit of the country. The politicians will never do that because as long as long as people leave the country they count that as a minus vote for the opposition. They always weight political prosperity. All they want is living on travelling subs only. Just imagine what was Chinamasa doing in SA last week. He only arranged a fake trip to get some USD(sic).In as much as we do not find progresive leadership as Africa we are doomed for sure.
Mutumwa Dziva Mawere (born January 11, 1960 in Bindura, Zimbabwe), is an African business executive, pioneer, financier, banker and entrepreneur best known as the founder and Chairman of Africa Resources Limited ("ARL"). He is known for having built one of the most powerful and influential corporations in Zimbabwe's history
Many thanks Mr Mawere for opening the subject of "Who owns Africa" in reflection to the recent xenophobia violence. I must express my disgust at the xenophobic attitude of our fellow black south africans. You're right & we need to change our minds given that a white foreigner is readily accepted into SA and exploits the economic opportunities without any adverse attitude from the locals. I also agree with your analysis that is such practices are allowed to prevail, they threaten South African businesses which are exploiting the African market and this will consequently affect the SA economy. I also agree that the roots of this culture lies in apartheid and not in the presence of black foreigners or their competing for resources. The average black south african compared to the average black foreigner or black african cannot compete in terms of intellectual capacity; life orientation; innovation; socio-political-economic appreciation and to that extent they become vulnerable to any force that comes their way, political or otherwise. As a Zimbabwean living in South Africa, i cannot accept the fact that our numbers here are the cause of these attacks at a time when our workmanship across the entire south african economy has been the reason for the sound economy. Wealth distribution, social service provision remain the responsibility of gvt & black south africans need to wake up & not wait for gvt handouts. Where i come from,we do not cry for houses, we cry for land to put our houses, we work for ourselves and only ask the gvt to provide a conducive environment. Most south african educational institutes, UNISA, Damelin, IMM, IAC,etc have on their books a bigger number of black foreigners than black south africans.