Al Kafi
WAR
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2020/03/11/south-africa-xenophobia-migrants-refugees-afrophobia
What occurs in South Africa can more accurately be described as Afrophobia – an intolerance towards other black Africans. It is manifest in the daily insecurity of living as a foreigner in the country, and the menace implied by the whisper of amakwerekwere – a pejorative label reserved specifically for African foreign nationals. Afrophobia has gathered pace since the end of apartheid and the arrival of migrants from beyond the southern Africa region. The first large-scale outbreak of violence was in 2008, beginning in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township. It quickly spread nationally. Officially, more than 62 people were killed, and hundreds of thousands displaced. There have been further spikes, including in 2015 in the port city of Durban when five people died. Between March 2018 and April 2019, South Africa’s Road Freight Association, representing road freight providers, said more than 200 drivers – mostly foreign nationals – were killed. The attackers used Molotov cocktails, knives, and rocks. The All Truck Drivers Foundation, a local drivers association, went on strike demanding the sacking of all foreigners. “We are sick of you [foreign nationals] now, and we are not going to let you take our job [sic],” an ATDF statement said. The government’s usual position is that violence is just crime related rather than a reflection of xenophobia. Anti-immigrant sentiment is far from universal in South Africa. Many senior government officials spent the apartheid years in exile in African countries and, along with many ordinary South Africans, speak the language of pan-Africanism and ubuntu – a South African concept of humanity towards others. There was also initial public sympathy for the protesters in Greenmarket Square, although that faded as the sit-in dragged on.
What occurs in South Africa can more accurately be described as Afrophobia – an intolerance towards other black Africans. It is manifest in the daily insecurity of living as a foreigner in the country, and the menace implied by the whisper of amakwerekwere – a pejorative label reserved specifically for African foreign nationals. Afrophobia has gathered pace since the end of apartheid and the arrival of migrants from beyond the southern Africa region. The first large-scale outbreak of violence was in 2008, beginning in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township. It quickly spread nationally. Officially, more than 62 people were killed, and hundreds of thousands displaced. There have been further spikes, including in 2015 in the port city of Durban when five people died. Between March 2018 and April 2019, South Africa’s Road Freight Association, representing road freight providers, said more than 200 drivers – mostly foreign nationals – were killed. The attackers used Molotov cocktails, knives, and rocks. The All Truck Drivers Foundation, a local drivers association, went on strike demanding the sacking of all foreigners. “We are sick of you [foreign nationals] now, and we are not going to let you take our job [sic],” an ATDF statement said. The government’s usual position is that violence is just crime related rather than a reflection of xenophobia. Anti-immigrant sentiment is far from universal in South Africa. Many senior government officials spent the apartheid years in exile in African countries and, along with many ordinary South Africans, speak the language of pan-Africanism and ubuntu – a South African concept of humanity towards others. There was also initial public sympathy for the protesters in Greenmarket Square, although that faded as the sit-in dragged on.
