Sandile Dikeni
It does not sound nice the way that foreigners are treated in South Africa. I don’t like the way we treat people who helped us achieve this freedom. We treat them with disgust. They don’t deserve it! Let me explain: remember that time we were in exile? The ANC and PAC were organisations banned by the Nationalist Party, but looked and found refuge in the many countries in Africa and the world. This is not a secret.
Remember Pallo Jordan, our ex-minister of culture, or our current Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu? Well they were in exile! Sonder passport nogal. Why now when people from Tanzania, Angola and Zambia come to South Africa do we treat them with disgust.
It is my opinion that on the continent called Africa, this country should be the last to treat the foreigner with the current disgust vented by the South African citizen.
It is embarrassing the way the foreigners are treated. Especially the poor ones. The rich are salvaged by their wealth, something which in my opinion should not be understood as South African. The poor of the world coming to our country are chased and murdered by the ignorant South African for no convincing reason.
I am humbly asking, why? Why when Mozambicans and Zambians welcomed and defended us in their countries. For God’s sake why? It does not only make me angry, it is also embarrassing to take note of these xenophobic tendencies. Twenty years into a democracy that we achieved mostly through the assistance of the international community, we turn around and spit in the faces of the world. I want the world to know that I am not part of this cruel charade.
It is peoples of the world that helped us confine apartheid and racism to the dustbin of history. It is people and love. How are we not able to read the book of history correctly? How are we not able to know the fact that in the 300 years of racism in this land we were absolved by the love granted to us by the “other”? We, in my opinion, are supposed to show the world our gratitude. I still do not know how a South African can despise a fellow African that gave him/her accommodation and a place of refuge during Nationalist racist rule. Amazingly, I have noticed that much of South Africa’s xenophobia is from its black populace. Black, to me, means coloured, Indian and African in this country. The foreigners suddenly chased away are the people who defended us, sometimes physically, against the cruelties of our racist regime.
The defence that we experienced was not only military action. It was a roof over the head and, in some instances, love in the bed too. We liked that very much. What kind of people are we who cannot see their plight? It is worse when we are unable to give thought to the Zimbabwean whose plight is clear for the whole world to see. It is not only ignorance at play here. I also see some venom. Inexplicable venom.
I am tempted to believe the apartheid myth that blacks in this country are a little less than human. Our humanity should be expressed by our acts of understanding the other that understood our cause during our dark days. This moment is uncomfortable, not only for the thinker but also for the one who feels that we as South Africans are supposed to pay back to the continent and the rest of the world the compassion their humanity lent us through the dark times of a mean history.
It is my humble opinion that we are not exhibiting that at the moment. I wish to be proven wrong.
Excuse me, but I cannot help the sense of misery that shrouds the self at the moment that our peoples show their disgust at poor miserable peoples.
Maybe my shout now is not at a mere silly nationalism but a retort against the self-hatred the black soul has managed to achieve.
Blacks all over the world are in an unhappy state, but there is in me a feeling that people in this country are playing a major role in deepening that melodrama.
I am calling for a depth in the South African human soul; something that will help us walk away from the narrow channels of fake and shallow superiority. Let us embrace the wide passions of humanity and the world. Can we? Yes, we can. We can look beyond the narrow borders presented by the current world sociology of nations and state. Look at Rwanda and Burundi, and help me laugh at the nation state as a creation of current world thought. Let’s agree that issues like xenophobia are encouraged by the seemingly undying nation state. Eysh!