Unpacking xenophobia in South Africa
The recent wave of xenophobic attacks by some misguided South Africans against other African migrants in South Africa, including Ghanaians, is quite upsetting.
The graphic video clips of some of these incidents circulating on social media platforms are certainly not edifying.
Quite understandably, these incidents, which seem cyclical, have evoked varying degrees of emotional reactions that mask a complex set of factors.
Beneath the veneer
For many Ghanaians who can afford a holiday abroad, South Africa is a favourite destination. On my two work-related visits to Cape Town in particular, a few years ago, I could understand why.
The cool weather, the cleanliness of the city, the well-constructed roads, the shops, the properly laid-out buildings, excellent conferencing facilities, the outstanding natural beauty of the bay sitting at the foot of the famous Table Mountain and other hills and mountains all come together to leave a huge impression on the mind.
The city rivals many European capitals on several levels.
But beneath all the gleam and the shine is an uncomfortable, dark underbelly, which is the lot of many black South Africans in Cape Town and perhaps in many other parts of the country that saw a strong European settlement in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Whilst apartheid officially ended in 1994, its remnants still linger around like a stubborn aftertaste.
All the beautiful residential areas are predominantly white, whilst many blacks still remain painfully trapped in the tin shacks of the crowded townships and in low-paying jobs.
Racial segregation is still very much in force in South Africa, driven by economic disparities.
On the way into town from Cape Town Airport, the genteel, suburban parts and the tin shacks of the townships seemed like worlds apart, with the highway separating them.
Familiar script
The violent attacks appear to follow a familiar, recycled pattern not just in South Africa, but elsewhere on the continent and even beyond, with the chorus of ‘they are stealing our jobs and taking our opportunities!’ as the rallying point.
When economic conditions bite hard and youth unemployment, along with restlessness and frustrations, soar, or there is a surge in crime, someone must take the fall, it appears.
That someone usually is the foreign economic migrant, an easy, convenient target which gives the ruling classes a much-needed diversion.
It happened in Ghana in 1970 with the Aliens Compliance Order, the 1983 mass deportation of foreigners by Nigeria, and with US President Donald Trump’s ‘they are eating the cats’ diatribe, directed at Haitian immigrants in the United States.
It is a well-known far-right tactic in Europe. The South African situation follows the script.
In a recent interview with Asaase Radio, a lecturer at the University of South Africa, Nkululeko Sibiya, attributed recurring xenophobic tensions in South Africa to ‘deep-rooted structural and socio-economic challenges, including unemployment, inequality and political shifts.’
According to the station’s website, ‘Sibiya said the crisis is “complex” but largely driven by economic frustration, with youth unemployment nearing 50 per cent in some areas.’
He is reported to have said that “when people are in a situation where there is unemployment… and some have never seen the workplace, frustration builds”, and explained that people he describes as ‘entrepreneurs of politics’ then redirect public anger towards foreign nationals.
What makes the South African situation particularly dire is that the youth poverty and unemployment are a carryover from the deep scars of apartheid, which has perpetuated stark inequalities in the society along yawning racial fault lines.
Despite the huge hope that ordinary black South Africans had of a much better society with improved economic fortunes when apartheid ended, that dream has come crashing because the economic blocks that underpinned the apartheid system by concentrating land and capital in white minority hands still remain intact.
It is in this cauldron of poor education, limited employment opportunities and poor social services for black people, along with a weakening economy and a minority white control over the ‘commanding heights of the economy’, that xenophobia has flourished with such alarm.
Weak arguments
In all of this, a number of arguments and claims have been bandied about, which I find problematic.
To argue, as some have, that these attacks mean South Africans are ungrateful to Ghana and other African countries for the huge support provided to the country’s black liberation movement in the dark days of apartheid is to miss the point completely.
First, it is unfair to tar a whole country’s citizenry with the same brush when there is no evidence to suggest that there is widespread support for the violence across the country.
This is not to say there is no concern for huge, illegal migration in South Africa or elsewhere, for that matter. Indeed, I have come across various posts on social media of Ghanaians blaming Nigerians for some economic crimes and romance scams and calling for tough entry restrictions and deportations.
Of course, every responsible country has the right and indeed the duty to control immigration into its territory, and to enforce the law.
What is problematic is when some citizens not only attempt to take the law into their own hands, but also to visit violence on others in the process.
That is unacceptable.
Secondly, apartheid ended in 1994, long before many of these rampaging youths were even born, and therefore may not have any direct experience or any recollection of the huge support that countries like Ghana, Nigeria and the frontline states in Southern and Eastern Africa offered their country.
To make it worse, their poor education levels make it highly unlikely they would even have learned any history pertaining to the role of Africa in their country’s liberation struggle.
Again, when people seek to blame others for choosing to seek economic fortunes elsewhere, and in particular African countries, I bristle, then chuckle in amusement because this argument ignores a basic, fundamental human need and drive, especially in an age of easier travel.
Throughout the history of time, man has always been on the move for new opportunities elsewhere, whether in Abraham’s context of his migration from Ur to Canaan, the migrants that fled Europe to the New World for political, economic and religious reasons or the migration of almost every ethnic group in present-day Ghana from elsewhere on the continent.
Today, over 1.1 million UK-born people live in Australia, attracted by lifestyle, employment, and climate.
Within this country, rural-urban migration is a daily fact of life.
The bottom line is that man is always on the move.
If a qualified doctor can relocate to South Africa and work there lawfully and peacefully, there is no reason a barber or tailor cannot relocate and set up shop there lawfully.
A quick thought.
Europe’s Schengen Area is the world's largest visa-free zone, allowing over 450 million people to travel freely without internal border checks across 29 European countries.
One wonders whether Africa, despite its bluster about unity, will ever have such a system, given our penchant for jealously holding on tight to the borders drawn up in faraway Berlin back in 1885 by European powers without a single African voice.
I wish I could be optimistic.
Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng.
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