PAN-AFRICANISM SLOWLY FADING IN SOUTH AFRICA

With news of people having been killed in the recent flare up of xenophobic violence in South Africa, I have had to ask myself very hard questions: How can Africans be foreigners in any part of Africa? Do black South Africans know that Kenya and other African states housed their freedom fighters during their Apartheid struggle? Do they even know that Kenya and other African countries also provided them with economic and military support and asked for nothing in return? Surely, have black South Africans ever heard of Pan-Africanism? How can they use colonial boundaries to determine who is welcome and who should be killed for being a foreigner in South Africa? And why are black South African intellectuals who should be articulating the real problems not vocal on this issue?

Xenophobia is a fear bred from bigotry and lack of education and results in anger, which is aggravated by conditions of poverty, unemployment and hopelessness. Unemployed locals see foreign immigrants as a threat. They are even scared that these people will take away their jobs, their wives, their own opportunities. What they fail to realize is that these enterprising immigrants do not take away anybody's opportunities; they create their own. Through sheer hard work and entrepreneurship they start small businesses in order to make a living. Any unemployed South African local could do the same. But instead of building their own opportunities, they destroy the lives of others. What our xenophobic black South Africans also fail to realize is that, in most cases, these people fled desperate conditions back home. For them, South Africa represents a beacon of light, a candle of hope, the chance of a better life here on the African continent. Before they attack African immigrants, black South Africans need to reflect on their history for a while.

In helping South Africa topple the Apartheid regime, Africa had a unity of purpose, we knew that Africa could not be truly free until South Africa was free, but these black South Africans either have selective amnesia or have clearly not been emancipated from their mental slavery. Dear black South Africans, where did the ‘Ubuntu” philosophy vanish to? Am I not because We Are?

As I listen to Roger Whittaker’s song “My Land Is Kenya”, I am moved by what Kenyans and other Africans have been subjected to over the past couple of weeks in South Africa. Xenophobia, just like racism and tribalism, should be condemned in the strongest terms possible. We know what happened in Kenya in 2008. Maybe we have forgotten given our so called “accept and move on” mentality. In fact, we may argue we have no moral authority to condemn the happenings in South Africa. But having witnessed what tribalism could do, I believe it’s important to understand the root causes of these xenophobic attacks and stop them once and for all.

Illiteracy, ignorance, limited intellectual capacity and poverty have been cited as the main causes of the xenophobic attacks in South Africa. However, for all the critics, I believe the root of these attacks is the white monopoly capitalism still prevailing in South Africa. Yet the majority of black South Africans mistakenly believe that their continued poverty is a result of the influx of foreigners, and has nothing to do with the Apartheid economy which is still very much intact. The black South African can vote, but thanks to their constitution, they cannot do anything to redistribute wealth or correct the imbalances of the skewed Apartheid economic system which continues to concentrate wealth in the hands of the white minority and marginalizes the black majority. Sadly, the same constitution seems to be silent when it comes to acts of barbarically butchering other Africans.

South Africa has about 80% of its wealth held and controlled by 9% of the white population- about 5 million, and the majority of the black population-about40 million only controls 20% of the economy. On a light note, someone once referred to modern day South Africa as a “cappuccino society”, a mass of black at the bottom, a thin layer of white froth at the top and a sprinkling of cocoa on the top. I totally agree. And yet they actually think that the problem lies in foreigners taking up opportunities in this 20%. Does this really make sense or are there other hidden issues we don’t know? I think black South Africans actually suffer from Blancophobia, which by definition is the irrational fear of white people, which is why, again on a light note, South Africans will kick down the statue of a dead white man but won’t even attempt to slap a live one. Yet they can stone to death a black man simply because he is a foreigner.

But black South Africans cannot blame the whites for their economic woes because as the focus of South African government policy turned to drive black economic advancement, the whites were driven into entrepreneurship, which today explains their continued relative economic prosperity. They also had access to what has come to be referred to as “White Capital” without which they would not have prospered. If black South Africans want to drag themselves out of poverty, they need to invest heavily in education to truly integrate themselves into the economy, and make most of the opportunities out there.

Unreasonable killing of other Africans does not address the real root of their problems. They need to invest in modern capital and move away from the Apartheid economy. You do not need a rocket science student to tell you that black-on-black crime is fuelled by self-hate; I mean, you have to hate yourself immensely to do what the black South Africans have been doing to other Africans.

Black South Africans need to learn their history first and then understand that the real root of their socio-economic problems is not with fellow Africans with whom they have a shared history, but is more to do with white monopoly capitalism and the Apartheid economy which continues to exist to this day. Knowing their history well, and knowing its significance may help these black South Africans to actually value themselves, and more importantly to value other African lives. South Africa needs to take steps to address this elephant in the room, unless they are planning to remove themselves from the rest of Africa or build the great wall of South Africa to keep other Africans out. They seem to have learnt well from the Apartheid system which they are now applying to their fellow Africans!