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South Africa: Saying No to Xenophobia
AfricaFocus Bulletin
April 22, 2015 (150422)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"Finally, one word about 'foreigners' and 'migrants'. No African is
a foreigner in Africa! No African is a migrant in Africa! Africa is
where we all belong, notwithstanding the foolishness of our
boundaries. No amount of national-chauvinism will erase this. No
amount of deportations will erase this. Instead of spilling black
blood on no other than Pixley ka Seme Avenue (!), we should all be
making sure that we rebuild this Continent and bring to an end a
long and painful history - that which, for too long, has dictated
that to be black (it does not matter where or when), is a
liability." - Achille Mbembe
At times like these, with news of the horrific deaths of
schoolchildren in Garissa, Kenya; migrants in South Africa and in
the Mediterranean; and victims of police violence on the streets of
U.S. cities, written words to respond or explain are painfully
inadequate.
Some voices are more eloquent than others, however, and this
AfricaFocus Bulletin contains commentaries by Achille Mbembe and Mia
Couto on the most recent wave of xenophobic violence in South Africa,
as well as a short list of other links with relevant commentary.
In addition, AfricaFocus particularly recommends the following three
links - a video from the Nelson Mandela Foundation featuring Youssou
N'Dour, an interview with S'bu Zikode in Durban, and a petition
initiated from Malawi.
Video from Nelson Mandela Foundation, We are All Africans
https://www.nelsonmandela.org/news/entry/xenophobia-is-an-expression-of-a-terrible-failure-of-memory-by-south-africa
Interview by Walter Turner, KPFA, Apr 20, 2015, with S'bu Zikode
from the Abahlali Shackdwellers' Movement, on the hypocrisy & mixed
message on xenophobia of South African government officials
https://kpfa.org/program/africa-today/
There are many petitions on-line. This one, entitled "Stop
Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa," was initiated by Lorraine
Mopiwa in Malawi and invites signatories worldwide. It has
already received over 18,000 signatures.
http://tinyurl.com/ppduyc4
Previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on this issue include
http://www.africafocus.org/docs08/xen0805.php,
http://www.africafocus.org/docs10/xeno1008.php, and
http://www.africafocus.org/docs14/sa1410.php.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Updates on Deaths at Sea
Last week, AfricaFocus featured reports from the UNHCR on deaths in
the Mediterranean. Since then, the number of those drowned as the
result of European policy has more than doubled, and it is now
front-page news. A few additional links:
New York Times update on latest deaths in Mediterranean April 21,
2015 http://tinyurl.com/lcctm2c
"Mediterranean migrant deaths in 2015 may hit 30,000: IOM", BBC,
April 21,2015 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32399433
"The 900 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean were killed by
British government policy," Telegraph, April 21, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/qylpej4
Niels Franzen, "The EU's Proposed Plan to Destory Migrant Boats in
Libya Must be Rejected by the European Council," Apr 22, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/m9tf4dz
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++
Achille Mbembe writes about Xenophobic South Africa
April 16, 2015
http://africasacountry.com/achille-mbembe-writes-about-xenophobic-south-africa/
"Afrophobia"? "Xenophobia"? "Black on black racism"? A "darker" as
you can get hacking a "foreigner" under the pretext of his being too
dark self hate par excellence? Of course all of that at once!
Yesterday I asked a taxi driver: "why do they need to kill these
'foreigners' in this manner?". His response: "because under
Apartheid, fire was the only weapon we Blacks had. We did not have
ammunitions, guns and the likes. With fire we could make petrol
bombs and throw them at the enemy from a safe distance". Today there
is no need for distance any longer. To kill "these foreigners", we
need to be as close as possible to their body which we then set in
flames or dissect, each blow opening a huge wound that can never be
healed. Or if it is healed at all, it must leave on "these
foreigners" the kinds of scars that can never be erased.
I was here during the last outbreak of violence against "these
foreigners". Since then, the cancer has metastized. The current hunt
for "foreigners" is the product of a complex chain of complicities
some vocal and explicit and others tacit. The South African
government has recently taken a harsh stance on immigration. New,
draconian measures have been passed into law. Their effects are
devastating for people already established here legally. A few weeks
ago I attended a meeting of "foreign" staff at Wits University.
Horrific stories after horrific stories. Work permits not renewed.
Visas refused to family members. Children in limbo in schools. A
Kafkaian situation that extends to "foreign" students who entered
the country legally, had their visas renewed all this time, but who
now find themselves in a legal uncertainty, unable to register, and
unable to access the money they are entitled to and that had been
allocated to them by Foundations. Through its new anti-immigration
measures, the government is busy turning previously legal migrants
into illegal ones.
Chains of complicity go further. South African big business is
expanding all over the Continent, at times reproducing in those
places the worse forms of racism that were tolerated here under
Apartheid. While big business is "de-nationalizing" and
"Africanizing", poor black South Africa and parts of the middle
class are being socialized into something we should call "nationalchauvinism".
National-chauvinism is rearing its ugly head in almost
every sector of the South African society. The thing with nationalchauvinism
is that it is in permanent need of scapegoats. It starts
with those who are not our kins. But very quickly, it turns
fratricidal. It does not stop with "these foreigners". It is in its
DNA to end up turning onto itself in a dramatic gesture of
inversion.
I was here during the last "hunting season". The difference, this
time, is the emergence of the rudiments of an "ideology". We now
have the semblance of a discourse aimed at justifying the
atrocities, the creeping pogrom since this is what it actually is.
An unfolding pogrom to be sure. The justificatory discourse starts
with the usual stereotypes they are darker than us; they steal our
jobs; they do not respect us; they are used by whites who prefer to
exploit them rather than employing us, therefore avoiding the
requirements of affirmative action. But the discourse is becoming
more vicious. It can be summarized as follows: South Africa does not
owe any moral debt to Africa. Evoke the years of exile? No, there
were less than 30,000 South Africans in exile (I have been hit with
this figure but I have no idea where it is coming from) and they
were all scattered throughout the world 4 in Ghana, 3 in Ethiopia,
a few in Zambia, and many more in Russia and Eastern Europe! So we
will not accept to be morally blackmailed by "those foreigners".
Well, let's ask hard questions. Why is South Africa turning into a
killing field for non-national Africans (to whom we have to add the
Bengalis, Pakistanis, and who knows whom next)? Why has this country
historically represented a "circle of death" for anything and
anybody 'African'? When we say "South Africa", what does the term
"Africa" mean? An idea, or simply a geographical accident? Should we
start quantifying what was sacrificed by Angola, Mozambique,
Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and others during the liberation
struggle? How much money did the Liberation Committee of the
Organization of African Unity (OUA) provide to the liberation
movements? How many dollars did the Nigerian state pay for South
Africa's struggle? If we were to put a price tag to the destructions
meted out by the Apartheid regime on the economy and infrastructures
of the Frontline states, what would this amount to? And once all of
this has been quantified, shouldn't we give the bill to the ANC
government that has inherited the South African state and ask them
to pay back what was spent on behalf of the black oppressed in South
Africa during those long years? Wouldn't we be entitled to add to
all these damages and losses the number of people killed by
Apartheid armies retaliating against our hosting South African
combatants in our midsts, the number of people maimed, the long
chain of misery and destitution suffered in the name of our
solidarity with South Africa? If black South Africans do not want to
hear about any moral debt, maybe it is time to agree with them, give
them the bill and ask for economic reparations.
Of course we all see the absurdity of this logic of insularity that
is turning this country into yet another killing field for the
darker people, "these foreigners". But it would not be absurd, since
the government of South Africa is either unable or unwilling to
protect those who are here legally from the ire of its people, to
appeal to a higher authority. South Africa has signed most
international conventions, including the Convention establishing the
International Penal Tribunal in The Hague. Some of the instigators
of the current "hunting season" are known. Some have been making
public statements inciting hate. Is there any way in which we could
think about referring them to The Hague? Impunity breeds impunity
and atrocities. It is the shortest way to genocide. If these
perpetrators cannot be brought to book by the South African State,
isn't it time to get a higher jurisdiction to deal with them?
Finally, one word about "foreigners" and "migrants". No African is a
foreigner in Africa! No African is a migrant in Africa! Africa is
where we all belong, notwithstanding the foolishness of our
boundaries. No amount of national-chauvinism will erase this. No
amount of deportations will erase this. Instead of spilling black
blood on no other than Pixley ka Seme Avenue (!), we should all be
making sure that we rebuild this Continent and bring to an end a
long and painful history that which, for too long, has dictated
that to be black (it does not matter where or when), is a liability.
Open Letter from the Chairperson of the Fernando Leite Couto
Foundation
Mia Couto, Maputo, 17 April 2015
To: His Excellency President Jacob Zuma
Available on-line on multiple sites, including
http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/we-gave-you-refuge-zuma-1.1847441
[This translation from Portuguese by Paul Fauvet]
We remember you in Maputo, in the 1980s, from that time you spent as
a political refugee in Mozambique. Often our paths crossed on Julius
Nyerere Avenue and we would greet each other with the casual
friendliness of neighbours. Often I imagined the fears that you must
have felt, as a person persecuted by the apartheid regime. I
imagined the nightmares you must have experienced at night when you
thought of the ambushes plotted against you and against your
comrades in the struggle. But I don't remember ever seeing you with
a bodyguard. In fact it was we Mozambicans who acted as your
bodyguards. For years we gave you more than a refuge. We offered you
a house and we gave you security at the cost of our security. You
cannot possibly have forgotten this generosity.
We haven't forgotten it. Perhaps more than any other neighbouring
country, Mozambique paid a high price for the support we gave to the
liberation of South Africa. The fragile Mozambican economy was
wrecked. Our territory was invaded and bombed. Mozambicans died in
defence of their brothers on the other side of the border. For us,
Mr President, there was no border, there was no nationality. We were
all brothers in the same cause, and when apartheid fell, our
festivities were the same, on either side of the border.
For centuries Mozambican migrants, miners and peasants, worked in
neighbouring South Africa under conditions that were not far short
of slavery. These workers helped build the South African economy.
There is no wealth in your country that does not carry the
contribution of those who today are coming under attack.
For all these reasons, it is not possible to imagine what is going
on in your country. It is not possible to imagine that these same
South African brothers have chosen us as a target for hatred and
persecution. It is not possible that Mozambicans are persecuted in
the streets of South Africa with the same cruelty that the apartheid
police persecuted freedom fighters, inside and outside the country.
The nightmare we are living is more serious than that visited upon
you when you were politically persecuted. For you were the victim of
a choice, of an ideal that you had embraced. But those who are
persecuted in your country today are guilty merely of having a
different nationality. Their only crime is that they are
Mozambicans. Their only offence is that they are not South Africans.
Mr President
The xenophobia expressed today in South Africa is not merely a
barbaric and cowardly attack against "the others". It is also
aggression against South Africa itself. It is an attack against the
"Rainbow Nation" which South Africans proudly proclaimed a decade or
more ago. Some South Africans are staining the name of their
motherland. They are attacking the feelings of gratitude and
solidarity between nations and peoples. It is sad that your country
today is in the news across the world for such inhuman reasons.
Certainly measures are being taken. But they are proving inadequate,
and above all they have come late. The rulers of South Africa can
argue everything except that they were taken by surprise. History
was allowed to repeat itself. Voices were heard spreading hatred
with impunity. That is why we are joining our indignation to that of
our fellow Mozambicans and urging you: put an immediate end to this
situation, which is a fire that can spread across the entire region,
with feelings of revenge being created beyond South Africa's
borders. Tough, immediate and total measures are needed which may
include the mobilization of the armed forces. For, at the end of the
day, it is South Africa itself which is under attack.
Mr President, you know, better than we do, that police actions can
contain this crime but, in the current context, other preventive
measures must be taken. So that these criminal events are never
again repeated.
For this, it is necessary to take measures on another scale,
measures that work over the long term. Measures of civic education,
and of exalting the recent past in which we were so close, are
urgently needed. It is necessary to recreate the feelings of
solidarity between our peoples and to rescue the memory of a time of
shared struggles. As artists, as makers of culture and of social
values, we are available so that, together with South African
artists, we can face this new challenge, in unity with the countless
expressions of revulsion born within South African society. We can
still transform this pain and this shame into something which
expresses the nobility and dignity of our peoples and our nations.
As artists and writers, we want to declare our willingness to
support a spirit of neighbourliness which is born, not from
geography, but from a kinship of our common soul and shared history.
Additional related links of interest
Abahlali Shackdwellers' Association Statement on the Ongoing
Xenophobic Attacks, April 14, 2015
http://abahlali.org/node/14685/
Palesa Thinane-Epondo, in Mail & Guardian, Apr 16, 2015
http://mgafrica.com/article/2015-04-16-today-as-a-south-african-i-hang-my-head-in-shame
Jay Naidoo, "South Africa, say it loud and clear: NO to
Xenophobia!," in Daily Maverick, Apr 17, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/pcgle2k
Pius Adesanmi, devastating article on South African exceptionalism.
"the urgent task of mass re-education to help citizens understand
that: You are in Africa. This is Africa."
http://saharareporters.com/2015/04/19/i-am-south-african-one-day-i-will-visit-africa-pius-adesanmi
Cawo Abdi, "Labeling South Africa turmoil 'xenophobia' scapegoats poor blacks,"
CNN, Apr 21, 2015
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/20/opinions/south-africa-violence-inequality/index.html
For an in-depth analysis: Jean Pierre Misago, African Centre for
Migration & Society (ACMS), University of the Witwatersrand, in Mail
& Guardian, Mar 5, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/l6up64z
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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