The big news this past week was the xenophobic attacks by black South Africans on fellow black Africans. The history of these xenophobic attacks in South Africa is beginning to read like an annual festival of hate. Even a cursory look into the archives would show attacks from 2008 where more than 60 people were reportedly killed in South Africa. Then, there was Johannesburg in 2012; KwaZulu Natal in 2015…and this is only from a cursory search. Like clockwork, this year’s edition of the ‘Festival of the Xenophobes SA’ kicked off last Sunday in Pretoria, South Africa. No one can say with certainty what started this latest round of violence- not that there’s any reason good enough to justify the horror visited on fellow human beings.
Now, I get to the informed commentary (or what should be informed commentary) on the airwaves. Often times, there is a lot of ambiguity and no real difference between what the supposed informed commentators and lay people are saying- Nigerians are into crime in South Africa (so they deserve to be burnt?); those who attempted to retaliate back home are only hurting Nigerian businesses; if our economy were better, people would not leave Nigeria, etc. Mind you, it wasn’t only Nigerians who were attacked in South Africa. Citizens of Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania were also not spared. Otherwise, some government leech would have said 100 per cent of those being attacked were from a certain part of Nigeria. But I digress.
I watched the breakfast show, Your View on TVC (on YouTube), and the women made useful points- chiefly that no one deserves to be killed via mob action when there are proper legal channels to address whatever grievances. One of the panellists, Morayo Afolabi-Brown, asked whether anyone in the audience knew any South African living in Nigeria (the idea being that there are zero to few South Africans living in Nigeria while we (over) populate their country). Meanwhile, can someone take the pain to collect real data because we cannot depend only on our narrow circles to conclude that there are too few South Africans living in Nigeria. As an Abuja resident, from going to the hair salon alone, I can tell you that the number of South African women ‘working’ in Nigeria is significant and this is from data gathered from one hotel alone. Anyhow, from what we read of these South Africans killing people, do they have it in them to rough it out in Nigeria the way our people do over there? What special skills would they be bringing to the table? I could mention a few not so endearing skills, but that’s not my focus.
On Wednesday morning, a Nigerian teaching in a Cape Town university was interviewed on Channels TV. I was interested in what he had to say as someone ‘on the ground’. One of his solutions to stopping these attacks was that South Africa should limit the immigration of Nigerians to South Africa, but isn’t that already happening? Is any Nigerian strolling into South Africa? Not sure what obtains now, but it used to be that Nigerians had to deposit some considerable amount of money when applying for visas. And when approved, the duration is short even for some highly placed Nigerians in South African companies here who never get more than a three- month visa.
By all means, we should condemn the violence and destruction carried out by those who hijacked the protests in Nigeria. Cool FM OAP, Daddy Freeze, on his Youtube channel, ended up banning members of his online church from joining any protests. He was understandably shaken because he and his family had come close to being harmed by people who were targeting white people. He was warned that his fair complexioned mixed-race colour could be misconstrued. Still, how can banning protests altogether be the solution? Aren’t the police supposed to be able to manage that?
Meanwhile, can we examine South Africa’s growing xenophobia and how the so-called Rainbow Nation has added the colour of fire (from burning fellow black Africans) to their multi-coloured flag? As for how Nigerians should have reacted, doesn’t the real problem come from the failure of our leaders? Is there any Nigerian confident they can be protected outside the country? Heck, they are not even safe back home.
A few years ago, editorials were being written about how South Africans were taking over Nigerian companies. Let’s not talk about the advertisements and music videos Nigerians have shot in South Africa. What about our (South African) wine consumption? Remember when MTN Nigeria shot MTN to the number one position in Africa?
If we stop at saying that protests in Nigeria are harming only Nigerians, then we miss the point, are not being sincere, are being less than smart or all of the above. When will enough be enough?
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