Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa Represents Failure of Its Government

By Dr. Samuel Adjei Sarfo

Attorney and Counselor at Law

The recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa has been strongly condemned by the civilized world. The attacks were allegedly instigated by the Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini’s statement that all foreigners should leave that country because they are taking jobs from the citizens. Following this statement, widespread killings of foreign immigrants from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique and Ghana have occurred. Shops have been looted and set ablaze. Terrified foreigners are said to be hiding in police stations and stadiums. Machete-wielding attackers are said to be hacking immigrants to death or burning them alive in major cities in South Africa.

Of relevance is that this present wave of attacks is not the first in South Africa and will probably not be the last. That is why it is simplistic to lay the blame for the present attacks on a single statement by the Zulu King. Xenophobia in South Africa has been allowed to fester for some time now. We remember that in 2008, similarly widespread attacks occurred in which over sixty people died in that country. That a second wave of attacks will follow that massacre of innocent people reveals the incapacity of South Africans to apprise themselves of the basic rudiments of their own history. It is barely over two decades since the country emerged from a dark chapter of its political history much to the euphoria of all people of goodwill. In the era of apartheid which began in 1948, the Whites had seized control of the whole country and introduced draconian laws that made Black South Africans second class citizens in their own country. White privilege was deeply entrenched and taken for granted and job and human movements and habitation were strictly limited along color lines.

This type of servitude imposed on South Africans lasted for over a generation until it began to unravel in the beginning of the 1990’s. But before the collapse of the apartheid system, every African and Black person throughout the world had experienced a vicarious shame and misery suffered by the people of South Africa and stood up on their side, fighting with them, suffering with them, praying for them and speaking for them. Most South African freedom fighters went into exile in many African and foreign countries where the host governments disbursed huge resources on them to give them training and education. Many Africans will recollect the huge media blitz against apartheid through radio and TV programs and newspaper publications, the strident cries in multinational fora for international support against apartheid, the constant marches in the sun, as well as the raw anger and emotions unleashed on behalf of the suffering Blacks in South Africa who were smarting under the shackles of apartheid…..

In the end, freedom came to South Africa, and the country saw the establishment of the first Black majority rule in the country in 1994. The end of apartheid and the liberation of South Africans were thus the handiwork and pride of all Africans and Blacks everywhere, and more than any country in the world, South Africa should be the first to recognize the huge debts they owe to all Blacks and people of goodwill everywhere. The people of this country should properly document and propagate their existential struggles and all the support they received from the whole of Africa and the world, lest they forget the vested interest in their country held by the countries whose citizens they now persecute. Especially Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and many other countries were at the forefront of the fight for the freedom of the South African citizens, but it appears the present generation is oblivious of the sacrifices made by citizens of these countries on their behalf.

This is because the authorities in South Africa have miserably failed to inform, educate, or celebrate the huge contributions made by outsiders to their struggle for freedom. Thus most young people in South Africa have not had the opportunity to appropriate to themselves the history of the struggle and the contribution of the many. That is why in less than a generation, the country now has a breed of nationalists whose hatred for the foreigners within them borders on sheer savagery. To these skinheads, the foreigners within them are nothing but leeches to be summarily executed or burned alive. And they blame them for their own predicament brought upon them by the crass ineptitude of their own government.

It also reflects the failure of the South African cultural establishment-its traditional organs and educational and religious institutions- to raise a breed of citizens who would be patriotic while still recognizing the unique South African story in which the foreigners within them have had a huge stake. And this fact causes outrage and heartbreak for many who remember the horror of the struggle, the final triumph and the euphoria of the yesteryears. Was it all intended to lead to the betrayal by the South Africans?

Indeed, no nation will thrive which puts its immigrants under such scorching treatment, killing them and looting their property or even expelling them wholesale. And in this instance in South Africa, that country’s xenophobic expression represents a new low in the hatred of foreign immigrants, insofar as that country’s citizens have massacred some and burned some alive and looted the properties of others. But even countries that did far less suffered disproportionate repercussions. In the late 60’s, Ghana slapped foreigners within it with the Alien Compliance Order and expelled thousands. Thereafter, Ghana’s economy was never anything to write home about. The country began its steep descent into economic doldrums from which it has never recovered. Nigeria reciprocated in the early 80’s, much to its own chagrin. These two countries are a testament of the folly of seeing fellow Africans as outsiders from which the country must be purged. For this less extreme xenophobia, these countries suffered extreme economic downturns. The citizens of South Africa must learn the lessons of xenophobia.

And the South African government must hold itself responsible for the present xenophobic attacks on the citizens of countries which were critical in the country’s struggle for liberation, and indeed all foreigners within its borders. As a result of South Africa’s unique history, the least South Africa’s Black majority government could do is to provide security for all those foreign individuals within the country. And while the police and security forces may be used to effectuate this end, the larger and more arduous task involves a constant reminder to the people of the huge debt of gratitude the country owes Africa and the civilized world. If the government fails to stem the prevailing savagery and barbarity now prevailing, a worse fate will befall South Africa than those other countries which did much less to harm the immigrants from within. And when the day comes for South Africans to flee their own country as a result of the final horror perpetrated by themselves on themselves, they will no longer find refuge or comfort among many.

Samuel Adjei Sarfo, J.D. M.A, B.A. is a practicing attorney in Austin, Texas, USA. This article first appeared in his New Statesman column “Voice of a Native Son” which is featured every Wednesday. You can email him at sarfoadjei@yahoo.com