Attacks: Many South Africans have always been hostile, by Adekunle Adekoya,
I first came into contact with South Africa remotely, through a book, Cry, the Beloved Country, written by Alan Patton ( 11 January 1903 – 12 April 1988). It was a novel given to me to read by my father, in 1974. It was the first introduction to my growing mind on what life was like in South Africa. Cry, The Beloved Country was published in 1948, a few months before Apartheid became the official policy of the ruling white minority government.
My second introduction to South Africa was through another novel, Mine Boy, written by Peter Abrahams ( 3 March 1919 – 18 January 2017). The story revolves round a character, Xuma, who experienced a number of struggles, including political and social trauma. Xuma left his town for Malay camp, a black area of Johannesburg, in search of work at the gold mines. Xuma would later meet an illegal beer brewer, Leah at a shebeen where he had gone to drink. Xuma is against the racist treatment of black Africans and fights it.
The third introduction to South Africa was about the death of Steve Biko in 1977. Steve Biko died on September 12, 1977, at age 30 from brain injuries and, according to Britannica, a massive brain hemorrhage sustained while in police custody. After his arrest at a roadblock on August 18, 1977, he was tortured and assaulted by security officers in Port Elizabeth, left naked and shackled, and denied proper medical care for 24 days. Biko was an activist who fought against the apartheid system of government, for which he was the target of the authorities. His death made headlines worldwide, and I remember reading about his death on the cover pages of our own Daily Times, and Daily Sketch. I was still in secondary school then.
Fast forward to the 1990s, Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) had been released after 27 years in jail, and instantly became a celebrity and icon of the new South Africa expected to emerge after the collapse of apartheid. In 1994, an election in which all the peoples of South Africa — white, coloured and black — participated was held and the African National Congress, ANC, won. Mandela, leader of the ANC became president. Archbishop Desmond Tutu later coined the term, Rainbow Nation, to describe post-apartheid South Africa, symbolizing unity, peace, and diversity among its peoples. The Rainbow Nation moniker was for a multi-cultural society with 11 official languages, aiming for equality and reconciliation following a history of apartheid.
Then, in October 2000, I had my first opportunity to visit South Africa. The country’s airline, South African Airways had invited me and a few other journalists to do a tour of its facilities in Johannesburg, which is the commercial capital of South Africa, as well as the administrative capital of the province of Gauteng.
Landing in Johannesburg for the first time, I immediately fell in love with the city, though I couldn’t understand why they drive the way we did till 1972 when we changed to left hand drive system. I admired their land use; which I think made it possible for the city to be beautiful. We visited quite a few places, apart from Airways Park base of South African Airways. We went to Soweto (Soweto was formed from the first two letters of South Western Township), Sun City, Pilanesberg Games Reserve, Gold Reef City, and a few other places. During the trip, as I am wont to do when I travel, I ventured out from our hotel in Sandton City, Johannesburg, to feel the city, if you get what I mean. I was wearing an ankle-length embroidered caftan. A few metres down the road, towards Michelangelo Hotel, I was stopped by a man. “Hi, how are you?” he asked.
“Fine, and you?” I replied.
“Where’re you from? he asked.
“Lagos, Nigeria” I replied.
“Yeah. I know! Only Nigerians tread the grounds of another country as if it’s their own.”
With that the fellow turned, and walked away. That left me with a chill, and I decided to end my exploration. I turned and walked back to the hotel. I have visited South Africa about ten more times since, and I never wandered out of my hotel beyond my stated itinerary. From my experience, I can say that these rampaging mobs attacking other African nationals in their country have always had it in them. Xenophobia had been latent in them, now finding expression as their economic woes deepened. Apart from Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, which other South African leader, excepting perhaps Jacob Zuma has spoken against or condemned entirely the xenophobic attacks in their country, targeting fellow Africans?
Even Ramaphosa, incumbent president is rationalising the ugly development, describing it as mere criminality. Do mobs fight crime? My take is that these frustrated South African men are like that, and I don’t see how they can be cured. They are simply jealous of what they can’t be that they see in other Africans. The gall of it all is that the government of South Africa is acting as if what is going on is normal. Go to South Africa if you have to, but beware, those guys no send, as we say here, even as everything is going down south there. Botswana is reported to have cut off power supply to them, while Tanzania has even implemented harsher measures. There are calls for sanctions here. I hope diplomatic engagements can send desired signals to the right quarters. TGIF.
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I first came into contact with South Africa remotely, through a book, Cry, the Beloved Country, written by Alan Patton ( 11 January 1903 – 12 April 1988). It was a novel given to me to read by my father, in 1974. It was the first introduction to my growing mind on what life was like in […]
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