Black on Black Hate
My heart wept when I saw the picture of the Malawian man set ablaze by the angry mob in South Africa on the front page. My first thought was, how can they do this to their fellow brother? All over, Zimbabweans, Malawians, Mozambicans and Somalis are being targeted. Due to poverty, rising unemployment and lack of adequate housing foreigners are being hunted down like animals in Alexandria township. Homes and properties destroyed. Many have escaped persecution at home only to be facing murder.
This is not the first time. Immigration related hate crimes have been in existence for over a decade and continue to get more violent. Sporadic violence anywhere in Africa smacks of an unseen hand. According to a BBC radio interview with the president of the Somalian Association in South Africa who has been risking his life to help his countrymen/women, the mob were organized and well armed. Some with AK47s! Till date almost five hundred Somalians have died in xenophobic attacks in SA.
The lackadaisical nature of African rulers and their persistent failure at addressing issues in real time often culminates in death and destruction. Still, why does the failure of leadership blow up in the people’s face? And why don’t the people ever take out their frustrations on the progenators of their predicament? If they can be organized enough to lynch foreigners, why can’t they petition the government for a better quality of life?
As desperation and frustration continues to deprive people of a productive life and drive them out of their countries, xenophobia in Africa and racism outside Africa has left me wondering if African’s will ever have a place they can truly call home. A place where they are not persecuted or discriminated against for their skin color, tribe, or language. All this has taught me is; if you’re going to be killed for leaving your home you might as well stay, fight and die to make it better for your children.
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Meanwhile, I’m holding my breath for when Nigerians will be angry enough to storm the corridors of power to demand redress and renovation.
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I personally belive someone in outh Africa, high up in ANC is behind this wave of attack. Just take a look at who gets political milage while Foreigners suffer. The ANC leadership has failed to give leadership when it most needed. Perhaps foreigners should take the law into their own hands. The should drive the ZULUs out of Johanesburge and remind them that its ZEZURU(Now called Shona) land that Shaka pushed them up north to modern day Zimbabwe. That is true. If boaders where correctly drawn, that would leave Pretoria and Johanesburg in Zimbabwe, with MUNHUMUTAPA empire streatching to the Indian Ocean.
Zimbabwean CONCERNED Says:
May 19, 2008 at 3:59 am
I am a Zimbabwean of African descent. I was living in Zimbabwe during the days of South Africa’s quest for self determination. I still remember days when certain places in Harare where no go areas, for fear of bombings from Apartheid South Africa’s terrorist Agents. Innocent Zimbabweans paid the Ultimate Price. Many of them with their lives.
Zimbabwe led the FRONT-LINE states, a coalition of African states determined to see an end to apartheid. After a protracted fight, at the expense of development in Zimbabwe, Africa prevailed. The end of apartheid was the hope, dreams and aspirations o all Africans, of all races, of religions, of all nationalities.
Today the independence of South Africa is unfortunately a partial success. Black South Africans own less than 15% of private wealth in South Africa. The figure is much less for combined black ownership of major South African Corporation. None of the top 15 companies are black owned. This is despite the black South Africans constituting 80% 0f the total population. In terms of inequality and poverty that is rampant, South Africa internal cohesion remains ticking time BOMB.
Black Zimbabweans had nuclear weapons hanging over their heads, during the apartheid days. Zimbabwe was the CLEAR and PRESENT danger to Apartheid. Now black Zimbabweans fleeing economic hardship in their country have become a convenient scapegoat for the problems faced by black South Africans. NONE of the xenophobic anger expressed by South Africans’ is aimed at their WHITE MASTERS. (I don’t mean this in any racist way) South Africans have collectively accepted that there are inferior to White people. Their residual feelings of grander, and perhaps relative superiority is falsely contrasted against other poor black immigrants ironically the very ones that paid the price for South Africa’s independence. You should never bite the hand that feeds you and hope to get away . Not forever.
I have personally lost a dear brother because of this hatred, lack of respect for black life (especially foreigners – Bro. Chigutire shot in the head at point blank range. No day goes by without me thinking of him.). I feel for my fellow Zimbabwean who have to endure this hatred, violence and abuse at the hands of other black people. Tribalism for Zimbabwean in South Africa has become just as bad as Apartheid used to be for us. The MEDIA have found something to fend and feast on. What do their care; they have fired up some of this hatred by their sensational and heartless reporting. The South African leadership couldn’t care less. They have never truly cared for Zimbabweans, and they will not start even with ZUMA. They stand and do nothing, and in a way, the violence against Zimbabweans, works as a tool in their hands, a scapegoat for their failure to truly liberate South Africans financially.
What shall we then say as Zimbabweans? APARTHEID WILL RISE NEVER AGAIN. NEVER!
It’s not only Zimbabweans. There have been recent attacks aimed at Nigerian business owners in South Africa with most of their homes and shops loted and razed to the ground.
Currently, most of them are taking refuge in Nigeria’s Consular Office afraid for thier lives. I agree with Karikoga on the inequality between black South Africans and their white counterparts.
This is the first thing you notice when you leave the airport. Even when you pass through the black settlements and white settlements, there’s a huge disparity. Unlike Nigeria, where we own our businesses and reach the highest cadre of the coporate ladders, black south africans are not so lucky cos about 70-80% of them are uneducated and like Kari said have accepted their inferiority to the whiteman. My brother in law has a printing firm in Lagos and he has to be in south africa almost on a weekly basis to finish production and machinery issues. anytime he comes back, he says that black south africans are amazed that such a young black man can own such a thriving business (so you can imaging their mentality)
I spent most of my vacation wondering how they could go on as a nation where there was such a huge racial divide (it’s a slow ticking bomb that has finally exploded). The annoying thing is that Thabo Mbeki’s government has been paying lip service to this issue. Anyway our president is meeting with Thabo Mbeki in Tanzania to iron out this complex issues.
@ Karikoga, thanks for your thoughts. Lets hope the SA gov steps in and brings the situaton under control.
@ Jan, I heard the Nigerian government is seeking compensation for the citizens whose businesses were looted in SA.
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Eventual!!!!
Nice post sister. I had stumbled upon your blog a while back (I think you had a post about Purple Hibiscus…and all those nice African Novels) and it happened that I forgot to bookmark your page and lost it…and here I found you again
Very good insight on why Africans (myself being one) would not put all the effort in making an effect on the gov’t on power…yet we see and hear of countless ‘we can do it’ showdowns all across the continent. This issue is one I’m continuously working on…African Politics and Autonomy. There isn’t one particular or set of things we can point at and declare to be the cause of the many problems. So there won’t be one fixed answer either…it takes times and dedication. The only question that remains is how wise we play the game…
(more i can say…more in my mind. But we’ll leave it at that for today.)
I’ve made sure I marked your blog now…take care
H_