Xenophobia in South Africa: A Brotherhood destroyed?

BrandPower Magazine 03/09/2019Last Updated: 03/09/2019

4 minutes read

Despite Nigeria’s solid support for the freedom of black South Africans from the shackles of Apartheid, South Africans have continued to curiously pay us back with tainted coins. Nigerians have for long been the target of vicious violent attacks on their persons, homes and businesses for reasons bordering on envy. As the targeted attacks on fellow black Africans, and Nigerians in particular, continue unabated with a recent spike drawing wide condemnation across the globe, BRANDPOWER examines what the trending issue portends for African brotherhood and business survival.

In the past few weeks, Nigerians in South Africa have known no peace as the South Africans have continued to snuff lives out of them, looting their shops and destroying their businesses in dare-devil fashion. Instead of rising to stem the ceaseless homicide, the South African police have offered little or no protection to the legal immigrants. As the issue becomes heightened with massive traction on the social media and wide condemnation across the globe, one begins to wonder whether Nigerians truly deserve the inhumane treatment when placed against the massive unrivalled support Nigeria gave the South Africans in the fight against apartheid.

The Roles Nigeria played in the freedom of South Africans from Apartheid

During the apartheid era in South Africa, Nigeria played a very key role by fully supporting the anti-apartheid movements, including the African National Congress (ANC), which eventually ended the apartheid regime. The editor of SiliconAfrica.com, Mawuna Remarque Koutonin, in an interview, narrated the crucial roles Nigeria played in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the liberation of the country after more than 100 years in the apartheid regime’s jaw.

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (Left) and Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (Right) both made huge contributions to the freedom of South Africans from apartheid.

He said in March 1960, the year Nigeria got liberated from the British, 69 black people were massacred in Sharpeville, South Africa, by the white apartheid police. And as a show of brotherhood, the then Nigeria’s Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa sent a letter to the African National Congress (ANC) militants on April 4, 1961, requesting for the effective expulsion of South Africa from the Commonwealth in 1961. Mawuna said, aside political support, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the first leader to provide a direct financial aid to the ANC from the early 1960s. At the height of the liberation movement in the 1970s, he said Nigeria alone provided $5-million annual subvention to the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) annually.

As if that was not enough, in 1976, Nigeria set up the Southern Africa Relief Fund (SAFR) in a bid to bring relief to the victims of the apartheid regime in South Africa, provide educational opportunities for them and promote the general welfare.The military administration of General Obasanjo contributed $3.7 million to the fund. General Obasanjo made a personal donation of $3,000, while each member of his cabinet also made personal contributions of $1,500 each. All Nigeria’s civil servants and public officers then made a 2% donation from their monthly salary to the SAFR. Students skipped their lunch to make donations, and just in 6 months, in June 1977, the contribution to the fund had reached $10.5 million. Between 1973 and 1978, Nigeria contributed $39,040 to the UN Educational and Training Programme for Southern Africa, a voluntary trust fund promoting education of the black South African elite. But barely four decades afterwards, the same South Africa, helped by Nigeria, have started killing the citizens of the country.

Nigeria was also home to many South African activists at different times including Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. Nigeria offered many scholarships to South African students and provided traditional African hospitality to all of them. Simply put, Nigeria was South Africans brother’s keeper par excellence.

Statistics of Nigerians Killed so far in South Africa

Findings reveal that out of the 30,000 Nigerians that live in South Africa, 127 Nigerians have been killed between 2016 and 2019, while 13 out of these were reportedly killed by South African police. From January to June 2019, 10 Nigerians have been killed, either by citizens of South Africans or South African Police Service.

Causes and implications of the xenophobic attacks

A Pew Research poll conducted in 2018 showed that 62% of South Africans viewed Nigerians and other immigrants as a burden on their country as they take their jobs and social benefits. The poll also revealed that 61% of South Africans thought those immigrants were more responsible for crime than other groups. Further research by the Human Sciences Research Council identified four broad causes for the violence. Among which were relative deprivation, specifically intense competition for jobs, commodities and housing; group processes, including psychological categorisation processes that are nationalistic rather than super-ordinate; South African exceptionalism, or a feeling of superiority in relation to other Africans; and exclusive citizenship, or a form of nationalism that excludes others.

The ongoing homicide of Nigerians will no doubt slash the ropes of brotherhood shared between Nigeria and South Africa. And if it continues especially with the destruction of Nigerian companies and businesses in South Africa, it will have severe implications on the economy of both countries and the continent at large. The likes of MTN, Shoprite, Stanbic IBTC and other South Africa companies which have greatly reduced unemployment in the country might be shut down. Same thing goes for the Nigerian companies currently operating in South Africa.

Reacting to the recent attacks, Nigeria’s Foreign affairs minister, Mr. Geoffrey Onyemato has called on the South African government to end the carnage, lest Nigeria will take a ‘decisive action’. As at the time of filling this report, the Nigerians in Johannesburg are mobilising in various cities of South Africa to hold their respective grounds and fight back. This implies that there’s likely to be more havoc and loss of lives as the day goes by. Meanwhile, Nigerians at home are agitating for a mass boycott of South African businesses. It is also possible that the agitation might spiral out of control and lead to physical attacks of the said companies.

Clearly, the South African government needs to do more to stop the unsavoury trend which bodes no good for its citizens and fellow black Africans. They should remember that we defeated apartheid because we stuck together as brothers, now we need to rekindle that spirit of brotherhood to fight this ugly evil of xenophobia and poverty among its disgruntled citizens.