Why is South Africa still so anti-black, so many years after apartheid?

| Panashe Chigumadzi | Opinion | The Guardian 06/09/17 15)24

Why is South Africa still so anti-black,

so many years after apartheid? |
Panashe Chigumadzi
Panashe Chigumadzi Friday 10 March 2017 15.16 GMT

A mural on Nelson Mandelas former house in Johannesburgs Alexandra township. Foreignness, or the notion of
other, has a long, anti-black history in South Africa. Photograph: Reuters

In 1994 Shoshozola became the unofficial anthem of South Africas miracle

transition into democracy. Taking its title from the Ndebele word for going
forward, it was a song expressing the hardship of the lives of migrant
labourers from what was then Rhodesia, who travelled on steam trains to
work in South Africas mines. Today it has a painful irony as migrants find
themselves no longer welcome in post-apartheid South Africa.

A recent spate of violent attacks led to an anti-xenophobia protest on 9

March. About 200 locals and foreigners, under the banner of the Coalition of
Civics against Xenophobia, took to the streets of Pretoria calling for an end to
the violence against foreign-born Africans and South Asians in South Africas
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/10/south-africa-anti-black-violence-afrophobic?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Pgina 1 de 4
Why is South Africa still so anti-black, so many years after apartheid? | Panashe Chigumadzi | Opinion | The Guardian 06/09/17 15)24

townships and inner cities.

Having been born in Zimbabwe and lived in South

Today Africa for as long as it has been a democracy, I was as
Shoshozola warmed by the solidarity as I was upset by the
violence. I am reassured especially to see reports of
has a
the march acknowledge that issues of
painful unemployment housing and crime are central to the
irony as attacks.

migrants Understanding and acknowledging the root causes of

find the violence has been largely missing from the public
themselves discourse here in South Africa. Too often the
attackers have been dismissed as irrational, or
no longer provoked calls for more hospitality that defines our
welcome in democratic order, in the words of the Nelson
post- Mandela Foundation. Both reactions seem to miss
two key facts: South Africa isnt anti-immigrant, its
apartheid anti-black, and this violence is evidence that the
South Africa miracle has failed the very people it should have
uplifted poor black South Africans.

Explaining why the violence is specifically anti-black or Afrophobic, the

University of South Africa professor Rodney Tshaka described xenophobia as
the fear of the other, while Afrophobia is fear of a specific other: the black
other from north of the Limpopo river [in other words, from Zimbabwe or
Mozambique and beyond them, the rest of Africa]. If foreigners generally
were the main target, those who are anti-foreigner would no doubt have
sought out all foreigners and made it known that they are not welcome in this
country.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/10/south-africa-anti-black-violence-afrophobic?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Pgina 2 de 4
Why is South Africa still so anti-black, so many years after apartheid? | Panashe Chigumadzi | Opinion | The Guardian 06/09/17 15)24

The fact that Africans bear the brunt of the violence isnt simply about the
numbers, though over 75% of international migrants living in South Africa
come from the rest of the continent. Foreignness, or the notion of other, has
a long, anti-black history in South Africa. Until 1994s elections, black South
Africans were not citizens of South Africa, but of homelands or
Bantustans, areas where the black population was resettled under
apartheid. The South Africa of postcards was the preserve of the white settler
minority, who did not see themselves as part of the African continent.

An anti-xenophobia march in Durban on 16 April 2015. Until 1994s elections, black South Africans were not
citizens of South Africa, but of Homelands or Bantustans. Photograph: STR/EPA

Dismissing the attacks as common township thuggery or having nothing to

do with xenophobia also ignores the fact that the post-apartheid
dispensation has yet to deliver economic justice for black South Africans. A
black-led government presides over an economy that is white-dominated, and
which frequently ranks among the most unequal in the world. Economic
inequality is said to have exploded after the end of apartheid, with the wealth
of the top 10% growing by 64% in the first 17 years while the poorest 10%
have seen no financial growth at all. It is not insignificant that the recent
violence comes at a time when calls for radical economic transformation,

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/10/south-africa-anti-black-violence-afrophobic?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Pgina 3 de 4
Why is South Africa still so anti-black, so many years after apartheid? | Panashe Chigumadzi | Opinion | The Guardian 06/09/17 15)24

which specifically includes land redistribution, have grown louder from

factions within the ANC and opposition parties such as the Economic
Freedom Fighters.

The accusation that (black) foreigners are stealing South African jobs also
ignores the long history of regional migrant labour, predominantly from
Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

My family became a part of that history when we emigrated from Harare in

Zimbabwe to Umlazi, a township outside Durban. My father, like many other
doctors from Zimbabwe, was recruited to staff South Africas public hospitals
under the structural adjustment programmes of the 90s. After the turn of the
millennium we moved to Polokwane, 200km from Beitbridge, the busiest
border post on the continent. Although my classmates would call me
lekwerekwere (a pejorative term for black foreigners), I knew even then
that we were different from the so-called border jumpers, the thousands of
informal, hospitality and agricultural sector workers who fled Zimbabwes
economic collapse. Though I am often made aware of my foreignness, I like
many other foreign-born nationals with good papers have not
experienced the same degree of physical vulnerability as other Africans living
in the townships and inner cities because I have been insulated by my class.

South Africa is a hostile place for the poor and working class, but economic
migrants will continue to come, attracted by the opportunities made possible
by democratic government, good infrastructure and economic stability. Still,
without social justice and a radical economic transformation that includes
land redistribution, the promise of South Africas miracle will become
increasingly untenable.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/10/south-africa-anti-black-violence-afrophobic?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Pgina 4 de 4