Many Nigerians, indeed decent folks world over were flabbergasted at the horrific images of black African immigrants being lynched on the Streets of South Africa that circulated on conventional and social media in recent weeks as the latest orgy of deadly xenophobic violence eclipsed the so-called Rainbow nation. Victims were burnt alive, knifed or stoned while fellow black albeit, South Africans stood aside and watched. Heads were sliced open and shops were looted in broad day light. The whole world reacted in horror at the senseless killings, including Nigeria. What really is xenophobia? What are the causes of these attacks and how can Nigeria protects her citizens. Ag Head of Investigations, Yemi Olakitan examines the subject.
The dictionary definition of xenophobia describes the phenomenon as a “deep-rooted, irrational hatred towards foreigners” (Oxford English Dictionary), and an “unreasonable fear or hatred of the unfamiliar” (Webster’s). The word comes from the Greek word (xenos), meaning “strange”, “foreigner”, and, phobia, meaning “fear”.
Xenophobia can manifest itself in many ways involving the relations and perceptions of an in-group towards an out-group, including a fear of losing identity, suspicion of its activities, aggression, and desire to eliminate its presence to secure a presumed purity.
The first is a population group present within a society that is not considered part of that society. Often they are recent immigrants, but xenophobia may be directed against a group which has been present for centuries, or became part of this society through conquest and territorial expansion. This form of xenophobia can elicit or facilitate hostile and violent reactions, such as mass expulsion of immigrants or genocide.
Xenophobia is as old as mankind. It has been in existence since Biblical times. The exodus of the Israelites from the land of Egypt can be described as xenophobic, so also is the German systematic murder of more than five million Jews during World War II.
In the weeks of violence in South Africa, shops and homes owned by Somalis, Ethiopians, Malawians and other immigrants in Durban and surrounding townships have been targeted, forcing families to flee to camps protected by armed guards.
According to reports, aggression towards the immigrants in South Africa was reportedly triggered by King Goodwill Zwelithini who said that foreigners must pack up and leave the country. Numerous African countries evacuated their nationals as a result. The main reason for the violence is believed to be rooted in the poor economic state and the high level youth unemployment in South Africa.
The government had vowed to crack down strongly on the unrest, with a decision to put soldiers on the streets after two nights of relative quiet in both cities.
The announcement was made in Alexandra, a Johannesburg township where a Zimbabwean couple survived a shooting. The man and woman were both shot in their necks and the woman suffered an additional shot in her leg, the minister said, Both Zimbabweans were treated and discharged from hospital.
In the same Alexandra area, a Mozambican man was stabbed to death by four South African men in full view of journalists. The four South African men appeared in court and remain in police custody. The National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Velekhaya Mgobhozi said, police have struggled to contain mobs that have been attacking foreigners from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and other African countries in both the economic capital Johannesburg and in the port city of Durban.
The spate of attacks has revived memories of xenophobic bloodshed in 2008, when 62 people were killed in Johannesburg’s townships, shaking South Africa’s post-apartheid image as a “rainbow nation” of different ethnic groups.
In the wake of xenophobic attacks in South Africa, Ambassador Uche Ajulu-Okeke, the Nigerian Consul-General in South Africa said Nigerians living in South Africa have lost more than N21m since the attacks started. “Nigerians have compiled damages to their property and it is totaling about 1.2 million Rand or N21 million, which will be sent to the Federal Government for further action.”
Okeke added that in Durban, two of the three Nigerians who were injured during attacks had been treated and discharged from the hospital. “The Nigerian mission in South Africa is on top of the situation. We are working hard to protect Nigerians in South Africa. “Though, the task has not been easy, we are trying our best. In one of the hot spots at Jeppe, near Johannesburg, the mission assisted about 50 stranded Nigerians to re-settle. According to the ambassador, the Nigerian mission has been meeting with all Nigerian Union chapters in the nine provinces of South Africa to find approaches on how to stop the attacks.
“I am bringing all Nigerians together so that we work out a vigilance and alert mechanism; they will also tell me what their challenges and issues are,” she said.
Okeke said the mission and the Nigerian Union had been working effectively to meet the problems caused by the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians.
President of the Nigerian Union, Ikechukwu Anyene, said, 50 Nigerians were displaced at Jeppes town, near Johannesburg. “We met about 300 Nigerians in Jeppes town, near Johannesburg, who fled for their safety and about 50 of them do not have any place to stay. We are making arrangements with the Nigerian mission in South Africa to get them a place to stay. “The Nigerian union has also presented relief materials to those affected by the attacks and we are in touch with various branches of the union in the provinces on their safety and security,” he added.
Anyene said Nigerian shops and businesses in Durban and Johannesburg had been looted and some burnt. He said two shops belonging to Nigerians in Durban were looted and they lost goods worth 400,000 Rand.
Black immigrants from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Congo as well as Nigerians living in South Africa have been blamed for the high rate of unemployment, prostitution, crime rates in South Africa, if this is even true, the issues cannot be dealt with by mob attacks. According to researchers, xenophobia is mostly based on false assumptions, which are not actually verified through practical research or data analysis.
In a reaction, the South African Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba said, more than 300 people have been imprisoned in South Africa in connection with the wave of violence against immigrants. He released a warning to those responsible, saying that they would be subject to “the full might of the law”. Soldiers have been deployed to volatile areas in Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal in a bid to quell anti-immigrant violence that has killed at least seven people in weeks of unrest.
Acting Nigerian high commissioner to South Africa Martins Cobham, had said, the removal of Nigerians from the country was not an option for now.
He said the situation was being checked on lower, middle and high threat levels and stressed the need for Nigerians in the country to avoid areas of high risk, abide by the laws of the host country and cooperate with local security officials.
Defense analyst Helmoed Heitman, based in Pretoria, said the decision to send troops to troubled spots showed that the government was concerned. “While it has been terrible, it has not been a total disaster and I think the decision to deploy is an attempt to prevent a disaster from taking place.”
South Africa was criticised by foreign governments, including China, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, for failing to protect foreigners as TV stations broadcast images around the world of armed mobs looting immigrant-owned shops.
President Jacob Zuma’s government was put under further pressure when images appeared in local media of men beating and stabbing Mozambican Emmanuel Sithole to death in broad daylight. The Zulu monarch was widely blamed for the attacks. He was believed to have caused an incitement with his statement in which he compared “foreigners” in South Africa to ”amazeze” (lice or fleas) and exhorted them to pack up and go home. While many South Africans expressed shock and disgust at these utterances, with several making comparisons to hate speech during the Rwandan genocide in which Tutsis were routinely referred to as cockroaches, King Goodwill Zwelithini claimed that he was quoted out of context, and the South African government has taken no action against him.
South Africa’s Equality Act allows for prosecution in cases of hate speech and incitement to violence, while Article 3 of the UN convention against Genocide also makes provisions for “direct and public incitement to commit genocide”.
Currently, several of South Africa’s urban settlements and urban business districts are awash with xenophobic sentiment and mob violence, with South Africans attacking, looting and killing nationals of other countries, most of them from other parts of Africa or South Asia.
With horrifying images and poignant victim testimony making international headlines, the Zuma administration, initially slow to react, finally spoke out against the savagery.
However, the statements by the president and others have actually done little to curb the madness. In one statement, President Jacob Zuma urges “our people to treat those who are in our country legally with respect and Ubuntu”. The qualifier of “legally” implies that those who are here illegally need not be accorded the same respect. Similarly, on a Zulu-language news broadcast on the national broadcaster, Zuma’s address can be loosely translated as: “We realise that there are people living here who are illegal, we also know that there are people who take jobs from other people, however we need to fix this matter.” It seems as though President Zuma was supporting the popular belief that immigrants are stealing South African jobs.
However, the Gauteng City-Region Observatory – a collaborative project between Wits University, the University of Johannesburg and the provincial government – conducted a survey of the informal sector in Johannesburg. Dr Sally Peberdy, a senior researcher at the Observatory – says that the belief that international migrants dominate the informal sector is false. “We found that less than two out of 10 people who owned a business in the informal sector in Johannesburg were cross-border migrants.” Peberdy argues that international migrants do play a positive role in South Africa.
“The evidence shows that they contribute to South Africa and South Africans by providing jobs, paying rent, paying VAT and providing affordable and convenient goods.” The Observatory’s study found that 31 per cent of the 618 international migrant traders rented properties from South Africans. Collectively they also employed 1,223 people, of which 503 were South Africans.
While it is undoubtedly true that some of the frustrations that have fuelled xenophobic violence are rooted in socioeconomic inequality and the high unemployment levels among South Africans (between 40 and 65 per cent according to various statistics), the situation can hardly be the fault of immigrants. It seemed it is a fall out of the apartheid regime. Investigations reveal that, there has been little attempt by officials to acknowledge that the abject living conditions of millions of poor South Africans and the lack of social services, is a contributing factor, particularly in a context of gross corruption and within government circles.
Many people outside the country are puzzled by this black-on-black violence, while others agreed that it has its roots in the past, when the apartheid government resourced one group of black South Africans to fight another in a horrifying proxy war that led to brutal and indiscriminate killings on both sides.
Certainly there is a sense among some South Africans that tend to solve problems through violence. The civil disobedience of the apartheid era, when freedom fighters vowed to make the country ungovernable, has carried over into the democratic era. Many believe that intimidation, looting and violence are still legitimate tools of political expression, while others are merely opportunistic when they join in the looting and attacks.
The tacit acceptance of such attitudes at high levels of government, and the desultory action by the police and criminal justice system, has resulted in an atmosphere of impunity, particularly when antipathy of immigrants is expressed.
Since the mid-2000s, the South African government has ignored analysts’ warnings of the potential for xenophobia, and has preferred instead to regard outbreaks of anti-immigrant violence as “criminality”.
There is also undoubted frustration that the promises of freedom, of “a better life for all” have not been realised, with the poorest of the poor actually becoming poorer while the richest appear to relish relatively indecent levels of wealth.
Add to this is a context where many “foreigners” start businesses in the poorest areas, and are seen to be earning better incomes and living better lives than those born in South Africa makes the anti-foreigner resentment becomes more entrenched, though not justified.
In the short to medium term, the Zuma administration needs to take concerted action to arrest and prosecute perpetrators of xenophobic violence, and to put into place measures to safeguard communities with large numbers of immigrant residents or workers.
Investigations reveal that of the 350 foreigners killed during the outbreak of xenophobic violence in 2008, only one has resulted in a murder conviction. This statistic continued a picture of impunity for perpetrators of such heinous attacks which will have many unanticipated repercussions for South Africa.
Already, South African entertainers and sportspeople are experiencing a backlash by having gigs and sporting events cancelled. South African professionals are being repatriated from countries such as Mozambique and Malawi, and a consumer boycott of South African exports to the rest of the continent is being organised. It is to be hoped that these signals are being noted by Pretoria and that the government will, at long last, begin to deal with the scourge of xenophobia in a concerted, considered, and far-reaching manner.
This xenophobic resentment if not checked, will cripple South Africa herself. The unrest, which began in Durban spread to at least nine provinces, and reached Johannesburg. Although President Jacob Zuma used his Freedom Day address to take a firm stance on xenophobic violence that has gripped the country, lashing out at governments who “criticise the South African government but their citizens are in our country”
Reverend Andrew Akinsuyi of the Salvation of God Mission, said, “It seems as though the South African President does not know that South Africans are also living peacefully in other Africa countries without attacks.’’ he said, such utterances by the president do little to help the matter. The president out to know that South Africans are also living in other African countries and going about their businesses without harassment. He was speaking as though all South Africans are living in their home country. This is far from the truth; many of them are living in Nigeria and running companies without unnecessary interference by Nigerians”, he said.
Speaking further Akinsuyi said, “Nigeria ought to take a very strong stand against the attitude of South Africa. They should know that we can do the same to their people here in Nigeria if we choose. The government of South Africa must show a very strong commitment to eradicating xenophobia by bringing the criminals to justice. I also believe that Nigeria must as a matter of urgency solve the problem of electricity. The only reason Nigerians go to a country like South Africa to do businesses is because of our epileptic power supply. If you remove that many Nigerians will come home including those in Europe and the United states. I don’t see what South Africa has that we do not have. We must fix our energy problems and then our people will no longer go to live in countries where they might be attacked and killed”, he said.
Nigeria in response to these attacks recalled his top diplomat. Acting High Commissioner to South Africa Martin Cobham, who said he was “invited” to Abuja to discuss the anti-immigrant attacks in South Africa, which have killed at least seven people. Televised images of armed gangs attacking immigrants and looting foreign-owned stores in Johannesburg have sparked a backlash in Nigeria, where hundreds protested in front of shops owned by South African brands like MTN and Shoprite.
South Africa’s foreign ministry called Cobham’s recall an “unfortunate and regrettable step”, before taking a swipe at Abuja for its own record on protecting foreigners.
It will be recalled that last September, a church hostel collapsed in Lagos, killing 115 people, most of them South Africans. Nigeria was criticized for its slow response to the disaster and what some saw as a haphazard rescue effort. However, critics have said, this can hardly be compared to xenophobic attacks since it was an accident.
In a statement, Clayson Monyela, spokesperson for DIRCO, said the South African government was shocked that the Nigerian government would resort “to such an extraordinary diplomatic step to express outrage at actions or behaviour of another government”.
Monyela said, “We are not sure which actions or behaviour of the South African Government the Nigerian Government is protesting”.
“It is only Nigeria that has taken this unfortunate and regrettable step. If this action is based on the incidents of attacks on foreign nationals in some parts of our country, it would be curious for a sisterly country to want to exploit such a painful episode for whatever agenda.”
The South African authority said despite the recall, the country remained committed to a strong bond of friendship and bilateral relations with Nigeria despite the death of 84 South Africans at a collapsed guest house of Synagogue Church of All Nations on September 12, 2014.
The country took a jab at the outgoing administration of President Goodluck Jonathan saying it would raise its concerns through diplomatic channels with the incoming Muhammadu Buhari administration and referencing the failure of the current administration to rescue the kidnapped chibok girls and also end Boko Haram insurgency.
“We shall also continue to support and not blame the Nigerian Government as it battles to deal with Boko Haram that continues to kill many innocent civilians,” the statement said. “We hope that the more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram will someday be reunited with their families.”
South Africa and Nigeria have had a tense relationship since the former seized millions of dollars in cash illegally brought into its territory by Nigerian authorities.
Zuma said a frank conversation on illegal immigrants needed to take place within the Southern African Development Community as well as the African Union.
Zuma mentioned the murder of Mozambican citizen Manuel Jossias—first identified as Emmanuel Sithole—in the Alexandra Township.
“He used a false name to avoid detection by authorities as he was an illegal immigrant,” he said.
Zuma paid tribute to the three South Africans who were killed in the attacks in Durban: Ayanda Dlamini, Msawenkosi Dlamini and Thabo Mzobe, who was 14 years old.
He said South Africans were angry, adding; “We need to be cured, we are sick”.
“The latest outbreak of violence necessitates more comprehensive action from all of us to ensure that there is no recurrence. We have to address the underlying causes of the violence and tensions, which is the legacy of poverty, unemployment and inequality in our country and our continent and the competition for limited resources,” Zuma said.
He also spoke at length of how violent South African communities are, adding that “we need a psychological cure”.
“Apartheid was a violent system and it produced violent countermeasures to it. So people still believe that to fight authority you must fight government, even now, when it is your own government. We need to be helped as a society,” he said.
“They get excited. They burn the tyres; they block the roads; they destroy property; exercising their rights but interfering with the rights of many.”
Zuma then lashed out at the Economic Freedom Fighters and their trademark militancy in Parliament.
“Look at the institution that is said to be the apex of democracy, Parliament. Look at the politicians whom you have voted for, how angry they are. How defiant they are, even in Parliament,” he said to thunderous applause.
Zuma said Parliament and the office of the Speaker should be respected.
He was taking exception to the behaviour of EFF Members of Parliament who often disobey the orders of the Speaker in the national assembly.
“If the Speaker says ‘Out of my house’, you must get out. But what do some of the members of Parliament do when the Speaker says ‘Sit down’; they say ‘Speaker, I want to address you’. They will continue addressing the speaker. If the speaker says ‘Withdraw’ they say ‘I won’t withdraw’. If the speaker says ‘Out’ they say ‘I won’t go out’,”
He said this was a glaring example of what he called the “violent culture of apartheid”.
“Imagine if politicians are so angry then who will rule the country.”
South African President Jacob Zuma deployed troops last week to quell the violence in Johannesburg and the port city of Durban, which forced thousands of people from their homes over the past few weeks.
Minsiter of State for Foreign Affairs, Musiliu Obanikoro, who summoned South Africa’s High Commissioner in Abuja to demand Pretoria take “concrete steps to quell the unrest has also demanded compensation for the victims of the attacks.
Hundreds of Zimbabweans, Malawians and Mozambicans have been repatriated by their governments over the unrest, which has drawn fierce criticism of South Africans from Africans in other parts of the continent.
The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation, has described the recall of Nigeria’s High Commissioner as an “unfortunate and regrettable” diplomatic step.
In a chat with Pa Theophilus Ajibola, an educationist, he said, “While Americans continually pride their country as “a nation of immigrants” and talks about how immigrants have helped the prosperity of the United States. South Africans are using the same reason as an excuse for the mass unemployment, abject poverty and inequality experienced in their country by native South Africans. America is said to be the nation with the highest number of immigrants in the world and yet the greatest nation. South Africa on the other hand, when faced with the same situation considered it the reason for her poverty.
“Something must be wrong with black Africans. This is a country who when they were in trouble under the heavy weight of apartheid all African nations supported and helped them especially Nigeria. It is a shame that this same people have become xenophobic to their fellow African brothers and start attacking them, setting people on fire on the streets. It is completely unacceptable. Nelson Mandela must be angry in his grave,’’ he said.
President Barack Obama in a heartfelt televised address to the United States, explain his decision to enact sweeping immigration reforms that will shield from deportation almost five million people currently living in the country illegally. In an emotional broadcast from the White House, the president unveiled controversial executive action that will make millions of undocumented migrants eligible to live and work in what he described as “a nation of immigrants”. He urged America to show compassion to newcomers who entered the country illegally but have worked hard and put down roots yet still “see little option but to remain in the shadows or risk their families being torn apart”.
Since Obama made these announcements, no xenophobic attacks have been reported in the United States of America.
The Zulu king spewed hate and parts of South Africa went aflame. South Africans have been noted to exhibit exceptionalism, a shared self perception as non Africans. And many have tried to find the reasons for such a ‘superiority complex’ or sense of otherness. Their struggle against apartheid may have conditioned them and foisted on them a sense of uniqueness sufficient to justify the conception of brother Africans as “others”.
But nothing can explain a penchant for naked hate filled violence by black South Africans against black Africans of other nationalities. The current spate of attacks is preceded by other such events. According to reports, everyday street interaction reveals a population seething with hate for black immigrants in many parts of South Africa
Many South Africans allude to the fact that many of the foreign African nationals in their country engage in nefarious activities and help to worsen the deteriorating crime situation in the country. A particular charge is laid against Nigerian nationals for example is drug peddling, advance fee fraud and armed robbery. It is true that years of apartheid have left many black South African youths and families impoverished and educationally backward. These black communities suffer many social dislocations and deprivations and all of these have contributed in raising family and social tensions. Such communities can ill afford aggravation of broken situations by immigrants. But rather than employ mob justice and barbaric methods, why wouldn’t such an aggrieved society use the criminal justice structures and immigration processes to stem any such foreign criminal proliferation. All these seem to be the aftermath of apartheid South Africa, blacks live in squalor. Yet down trodden indigenous black Africans transfer murderous aggression to fellow sympathetic black Africans. South Africa has deep seated problems of social inequality.
Many African nations sacrificed so much in the fight against apartheid and the inexplicable lukewarm attitude of South African leaders in the wake of the attacks has baffled many. A group of hitherto shackled people who, in their dark days, lived off the benevolence and charity of others in the spirit of African brotherhood, and whose freedom was purchased by the contributions of sweat and blood by many African nations
What lessons can Nigeria learn from these horrendous killings? The pictures coming from South Africa are gory. Conspicuous free flow of moral outrage is good and hopefully will be effective deterrent, but emotional outpourings are not enough. Women and children have been decapitated severally following religious riots in northern Nigeria. Thousands have died in Plateau state in many ethnic religious confrontations between indigenes and “settlers”. Instigators and perpetrators have always walked away and victims have never been rehabilitated. So we can make demands on South Africa but we must set same standards for ourselves. Punish offenders; soothe victims, re-adjust the society.
