SOUTH AFRICA AND AFRICA: SHAME AND SORROW!
With the intense debate, tempers and wars of words going on in Africa now, because of the “xenophobic attacks” (to quote its most common name!) in South Africa, I had to add my voice of shame and sanity when I came across the latest post by Mark-Anthony Johnson this morning. I find him and Stephen Yeboah to be the two most interesting bloggers on African issues in Linkedin. My comments were in response to very unhappy exchanges between readers on the behaviour of Nigerians and their relations with their South African hosts.
My contribution draws from the fact that only a very few people in this world may know both countries better than I do and that no one is more passionate about African unity (a subject I have worked on at the OAU (now AU) and UN) more than I am. I would like to point out the following:
1) There are good people in Nigeria and good people in South Africa.The later is one of my second homes, where I first set foot in 1982 (4 years before I landed in Nigeria) and saw the worst of apartheid first-hand. Some of my best friends (in fact families!) are South African.
2) Some countries in this world have bad reputations relative to others because of the human tendency to generalize and partly because of the behavior of some of their own citizens, who MAY be VERY small minorities but because, naturally, bad deeds speak louder than the good ones, these minorities paint very negative images of their countries and people. Such generalizations or profiling affects even races and "tribes".
3) NEVERTHELESS, AS AN AFRICAN AND A BLACK MAN, I CANNOT RECALL ANYTHING MORE DISTURBING THAN SEEING AFRICANS BUTCHERING AFRICANS IN SOUTH AFRICA, AS THE WORLD WATCHED!! WHATEVER THE CAUSES (NOT AS SIMPLE AS MOST MAKE THEM), THIS IS A DISGRACE FOR AFRICA AND OUR RACE! HOW CAN WE WALK PROUDLY OUTSIDE AFRICA IF WE RUTHLESSLY SLAUGHTER EACH OTHER AT HOME? HOW CAN WE TALK ABOUT OUR RIGHTS IN FOREIGN NATIONS IF WE DENY EACH OTHER OUR RIGHTS AT HOME? WHERE IS "THE RISING AFRICA", WHEN OUR CONTINENT'S "BIGGEST TWO" (SOUTH AFRICA AND NIGERIA) ARE CHOKING EACH OTHER? WHERE IS AFRICAN UNITY AND THE AFRICAN UNION? WHERE IS OUR PRIDE AS A CONTINENT AND AS A RACE?
Geophysicist
5 年This is a major issue. I lived in SA for 29 years and this development is really bad but occurred over many years. It's not a racial thing but something that comes from how people are brought up as well as the educational and political system. SA is really well developed and has excellent infrastructure, tech development as well as superb shopping and top restaurants. But.. massive corruption is evident and human rights are trampled on. Poor or even normal middle class citizens are under big pressure. This is not a healthy system. The current government can make a difference but there is not enough interest for change. Power is king, not human rights.
Jula Consultancy FZE - the world at your fingertips!
5 年I thought I should share my response to Ms. Buchanan:? "When we give non-Africans reason to laugh at us, we cannot blame them for doing so! They become the exact evidence of why I am not only sad but ashamed of what happened in The Gambia and South Africa, on both of which I have commented in my Linkedin and Facebook pages. However, the crimes in peaceful (or once very peaceful ) Gambia have a different principal cause and perpetrator. As an ardent promoter of Africa, such events are in fact humiliating to me!"
Publisher/Editor-in chief
5 年Your stand is right as I have asked the same question too.
Representative to The Gambia at Swiss-Africa Chamber of Trade and Commerc
5 年And silence about Gambia in the media - decades long systematic xenophobia and harm to their own citizens. Possibly nobody here has even heard of it.
Jula Consultancy FZE - the world at your fingertips!
5 年Dear all, there is encouraging update on this matter here and we need more good news like this:? ? https://www.africanews.com/2019/10/04/buhari-visits-south-africa-on-a-mission-to-secure-nigerians-welfare/