JUST THE other day I was listening to a local radio station and they were playing Juluka’s Scatterlings of Africa (do you remember Johnny Clegg?) I reflected on some of the lines of the song:

Copper sun sinking low
Scatterlings and fugitives
Hooded eyes and weary brows
Seek refuge in the night

Chorus:
They are the scatterlings of Africa
Each uprooted one
……I love the scatterlings of Africa
Each and every one

A great song you would agree but one that does a pretty job romanticising reality – Africa is one. We are all Africans – very much like the screaming headline in the Mail & Guardian the day Ghana played Uruguay in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. “We are all Black Stars” shouted the full page advert. We were, momentarily, it seems. Now of course the morning after the World Cup brought back the reality of xenophobia.

The issue has many experts, that is, everyone has an opinion on the matter. What seems to be missing from the discourse on xenophobia are the hard questions. There is amazing ignorance of history and the lucky Africans who have lived the history and/or have access to literature practice what Thabo Mbeki called “calibrated amnesia” – selective remembering. It is this dissembling I find galling when it comes to xenophobia. As always when one discusses South Africa there is the issue of the country’s exceptionalism – real or perceived. Every country is unique in its own way but there are so many events and occurrences that produce typical conditions. Xenophobia is not uniquely South African. Ask the people of Arizona who have even gone a step further and drawn up laws which hark back to the Jim Crow days – only that now it’s the Hispanics that will pay the price.

So let us explore just five questions:

1. Is xenophobia unique to South Africa?

If 1 million Chinese and 500,000 Indians rocked up on the shores of Harare armed with two things: IT skills and cheap labour what would be our reaction? Before you can even answer reflect on the case of Telecel Zimbabwe where we are told by the media (quoting vested interests) that the mobile phone company’s hierarchy is largely foreign – a Rwandese-born Canadian, a German and a Tanzanian. Now the question Mrs. Jane Mutasa would ask would be; “Why are they employing these foreigners when we have the skills here.” The deportation of Rwandan Telecel executive, Aimable Mpore on spurious charges (he was allowed back three months later) is an illustration of something that reveals how the competition for resources by the national bourgeoisie can entail the use of ethnicity and race to exclude. At the heart of all this is competition by the uncreative elite for primitive accumulation of wealth: asset stripping and downright underhand acquisition of public resources. You can call it a revolution or can be genteel and call it Black Empowerment.

Mpore’s response to his travails is quite revealing: “I am surprised that certain people view a fellow African as a foreigner. This is completely contrary to moves towards regional and continental integration.”

Well, the reality is that the history of Africa is littered with violent xenophobic acts. The http://www.worldsocialism.org website puts it graphically:  “In 1969/70 the government of K.A. Busia (which replaced the Nkrumah regime after a short period of military rule) came up with the infamous and disgraceful Aliens Compliance Order which saw the brutal and compulsory expulsion of "aliens" mostly from Nigeria and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). In the early 1980s, Nigeria followed suit (and more brutally) by burning alive hundreds of Ghanaians in Nigeria in an attempt to flush them out as ‘aliens’".  

Cote d’Ivoire periodically engages in its ritual of deporting Burkinabes and other people who might have lived all their lives in that country. I should know a bit about Cote d’Ivoire where I had a harrowing time in 1997 at the hands of the police, military and immigration officials. I have since made a solemn promise I will never step on the Ivorian soil again (sorry about that Drogba, I wear your shirt though).  

And why is no one except GAPWUZ making a fuss over the hundreds of thousands of people of Malawian and Mozambican descent who cannot access certain privileges because they have been rendered stateless?  

2.     Should South Africa simply accept people into its own borders on the basis that the whole continent assisted in the fight against Apartheid?

This is one of those woolly arguments that seem to be used in South Africa’s case only. The Mozambicans paid the ultimate price for Zimbabwe’s liberation but how did we treat them when they came streaming in running away from the terror of Alfonso Dlakama and RENAMO? Well we put away “MaMosken” into refugee camps like Tongogara in Nyanga and we routinely rounded them up. Of course they made good gardeners and cooks and even us in the township had our good loyal Mozambican. Years later when our economy was melting and we started streaming into Chimoio, Beira and Maputo, the Mozambicans avenged. We posed an economic threat.    

3.     Do migrants add any value to the economies that they move into? Do they add any other value?

A paper by American academic, Gordon Hanson, titled “The Economic Logic of Illegal Migration” summarises the key “contributions” of illegal migrants which mostly have to do benefits to employers: cheap pay, short contracts, limited benefits, long hours, easier hiring and firing. This is in contrast to the legal migrants who tend to be the highly-skilled and contribute to creativity, innovation and wealth creation.  

4.     What has Zimbabwean civil society done for migrants since the 2008 violence?

The reality of that is quite uncomforting. When I toured the camps in June 2008 what was clear was the absence of community leadership amongst Zimbabweans. It looks like it is easier to run countless leadership courses at the Meikles Hotel than it is to establish leadership structures where it matters. The dislocated youths we came across on the East Rand and in Cape Town wanted one thing: to go back to school or college (some had had their university education interrupted because of student activism). But no scholarships were forthcoming because, I suppose, there were greater challenges to attend to in Johannesburg, London or DC.

5.     Does the Zimbabwean middle class in South Africa experience xenophobia?

It is interesting how hypocritically this issue is dealt with. The reality of being middle class is that you move in social circles that tend to accept you as an insider – afterall you share the same interests – gastronomy, golf, travel and your children meet at your private schools. The only point of conflict comes when there is competition for resources especially via tenders or acquisition of companies/shares. At that point a whole host of factors that affect both locals and foreigners come in: political connectivity, ethnicity and personal relations.

One should also probe the Zimbabwean attitudes towards black South Africans. If the general attitude is to create the myth of the educated, highly-skilled, diligent Zimbabwean versus the less educated, unskilled and lazy South African then Zimbabweans have to look in the mirror and give a name to that attitude.  Also why is it that Zimbabweans generally do not make an effort to integrate into South African culture via learning the languages and making the necessary personal connections?  

Let us get one thing straight: the Zimbabwean youths crossing the border every day are looking for exactly what the South African youths are looking for: an opportunity. If someone does not give you an opportunity how do you realise your potential. Everyone that became somebody had that little break.

Until the US of Africa is created we will all have to carry our passports and identity cards on the continent. To wish away issues of identity, location and opportunity is only to postpone the inevitable.

Surely, we should be doing a lot more studies on the impact of migration on the South African society in a multi-faceted way (economy, security, politics etc) just like the numerous studies in the United States on the Mexican-American relationship and the wider migration issues.  Every society has to deal with its neighbours – to wage war, make peace or make love…And in stating this I am not justifying xenophobia. Just don’t try to make black South Africans feel guilty all the time and not raise legitimate issues around foreigners and their place in their society. It is both illogical and ahistorical.

The last word belongs to Dr. Owen Sichone, a professor in the Department of Social Anthropology, at the University of Cape Town:

“So let us not portray South Africans as ignorant, ungrateful or just bloodthirsty. The only way to reverse xenophobia, whether in Nigeria, Russia or South Africa is by exposing its roots in social inequalities and joining the struggle against social injustice.”

Chris

pictures: Lead - Nelson Mandela canvas on the Nelson Mandela Bridge, Johannesburg. Support - A young Zimbabwean man, Joshua in his tent at the Rand Airport Camp, Jo'burg in 2008; Joshua posing outside his tent at the Rand Airport Camp, Jo'burg in 2008.

Publisher: Chris Kabwato (chris@digitalartsafrica.org)

Editor: Levi kabwato (levi@zimbabweinpictures.com)

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