Tuesday, July 1, 2008

XENOPHOBIA: REFLECTION AND RESPONSE

BY: Peter Qeko Jere.

Introduction.

The current brutal killings of foreigners in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and some other parts of South Africa has hit headlines across the globe and the world has been taken unaware with this confusing event at this moment in time. The photo of a burning young men with police trying to rescue him from the flames has circulated in all he major media houses and the one question that people ask is, “ why should black South Africans do this to fellow black man? Why should things go this far? What is the problem and the key reason behind all this madness? What does God say about such situation? What should Christian and the church of God do?

In this paper, I want to lay out a theological response to this issue. But before I go any further, I guess it Is vital that I should say some few things about Xenophobia and its implication in South African society today. I will argue my position in relation to the questions that PASM has raised in connection and concern with the entire killings taking place in South Africa.

THE MEANING OF THE WORD-XENOPHOBIA
The world Xenophobia is not an English word but it’s a word which has its deep root and meaning in Greek. This word comes from two major word, xenos and phobos.

Firstly the word “xeno” comes from the Greek word “xenos” which has the connotation of “foreign” or something which is “strange” or “stranger” (if it’s a person).

Secondly the word phobia comes from the Greek word “phobos” which means “fear” or fearing something.

Literally, xenophobia means the stranger or foreign’s fear. This is also defined as the fear of the coming in of some strange ideas or foreign people into a community. This is the fear which the locals have due to the coming in of stranger or someone from another country or tradition. There has to be someone called a stranger or foreign (xenos) which means that he or she is in a place which is not his or his original home. She or he may have come into this new place looking for opportunities, as refugee, aslylum seekers or something. So his or her coming becomes a problem or creates fear (phobos) in the lives of the inhabitants. Locals have this fear because this stranger comes in to invade their space. The locals in the first place are not told in advance about the coming in of this stranger or foreigner. Locals get surprised that when they work up, their neighbour is a new person from across Africa. Locals are not involved in the whole process which leads to the settling down of these foreigners. Now fear (phobos) breaks loose in the locals because they realize that due to limited education and profession experience, they may not be able to compete with their non local experienced Africans.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE
After the successful gains of defeating apartheid, it is sad to note that a new wave of segregation and victimization is taking place in society today. After going through five decades of apartheid brutality, one would expect that South Africans would be the first people to exactly know what it means to victimize and abuse someone due to their long painful history. Their history of torture and segregation was not a game but a real thing and many died in the course of fighting for freedom and justice. After 1994 when apartheid was officially buried and wiped off the political line, one would think that the nation was gonna move in the right direction without allowing any should go through pain and torture. But the recent xenophobic attacks on defenseless foreigners in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and other areas across the country, has reveals that something has gone wrong somewhere and somebody didn’t tell somebody something about the negative effective of doing such a barbaric attack on people. This xenophobic experience is interesting to study and watch because it has to a larger extent affected non South Africa blacks as opposed to their whites’ counterparts from overseas. It has become a problem where black people have taken up arms to kill and wipe away those who are not inhabitants of the land.

APARTHEID STRUGGLE AND NON SOUTH AFRICANS ROLE
This xenophobia sentiment has enabled us to look into the role of non South Africans in the fight against apartheid. There is a role that nations and people in Africa did in helping South Africans successfully dismantle apartheid. It was the people outside South Africa who by and large sacrificed their security and decided to be in solidarity with the suffering South Africans. Many of the ANC leaders stayed in exile outside South Africa where some where in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Tanzania to mention but a few. While South Africans were directly fighting the brutal white regime, outside South Africa, black people were in total solidarity helping the suffering South African brothers. In particular nations like Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have a very special place in the entire anti apartheid revolution because these nations directly suffered from the white man’s brutal attacks for harboring ANC leaders. If it was not for these nations’s sacrificial position in helping fellow South Africans in the struggle, we are not sure if apartheid could have been dismantled with the internal pressure alone. This is the kind of history which has not possibly been effectively communicated to the many young people in South Africa. May be no-one has said anything to them regarding the role that nations outside south Africa played in helping ANC leaders. They have not been told that dismantling of apartheid was not the work of internal pressure alone but the entire world and particularly SADC countries.

This argument does not mean that we should use this thinking to invade every space in South Africa. We also don’t mean to say that we have the right whatsoever to come work or settle in any way we want. But that for those with valid legal reason to stay need to be given space and accommodated. Just as ANC were accommodated outside South Africa, South Africans need to likewise accommodate fellow Africans and not kill them. Just as ANC leaders were given food and shelter outside South Africa, South Africans need to do likewise to African brothers who are going through struggles right now. What could have happened if African countries didn’t welcome and accommodate ANC during the struggle?

RESOURCE COMPETETION AND XENOPHOBIA
The first question is about RESOURCE COMPETETION IN CONNECTION TO XENOPHOBIA and answering the question, “where do we draw a line between competition of Resources and Xenophobia?

Before we respond to this question, it’s important to understand some things clearly. Firstly is that competing over limited resources will always be there though what varies is the kind of competition in terms of those involved in this game. Who is competing who? And where do each one of them come from and why do they find themselves in this competition? What are the rules of the game and what safety nets do they put in place to protect the locals while at the same time accommodating those of different origins? What if the locals are not qualified enough to properly handle some other jobs, what do you do? How much of foreign expertise would you accommodate in a particular given time? How long would a nation take to produce its own?

Competition over resources becomes a xenophobic issue when government and faith community are not doing enough to develop and promote its own human capital. When locals are not given enough opportunities to develop their skills, they can be dangerous if one day they would want to take charge of their country’s destiny.

In a situation where good jobs are given to foreigners, naturally as a patriotic citizen of the land you have to react because in a normal way, you don’t expect jobs to be given to foreigners while qualified citizens are there. However in situation where there are no qualified citizen in a particular field, it becomes necessarily to employ other people even if they are foreigners because what you want is the job and things to be properly done. Such situations need to be made clear to avoid resentment from the locals. But the question could be what about those foreigners who come to do vending in a foreign land? Also what if locals don’t like to involve themselves in vending? Why should locals not be interested in vending?

As regard where you draw a thin line between Resource competition and xenophobia, I have this to say: that it’s not easy to have a clear cut thin line between the two because this varies. In a secular thought, some may argue that foreigners need to be given limited access to resources while others would say that it would depend on the professional experience and qualification that someone has. There are times when a foreigner is highly qualified and with superb experience such that his job conditions demands him or her to enjoy more privileges than locals.

But in a theological point of view, competition in the first place is not condoned because it’s not biblical. There is no biblical model which promoted competition in the first place. Anything that promotes elements of competition is outside the original plan of God. The Trinity from where we imitate and emulate from does not have any elements of competition but total unity and equal sharing of Trinitarian life. So I may argue that theologically, we don’t have enough ground of drawing a thin line between the two (locals and foreigners) and that the only thing could be to live in relation to the other based on the imago Dei. Just as the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit live perichoretically together, these different groups could live in unity and total oneness in the spirit of love and sharing.

NATIONALISM VERSUS XENOPHOBIA
The second question is in relation to NATIONALISM AND XENOPHOBIA AND HOW DO WE SEPARATE THE TWO? Before you begin to think of separating the two, it is important to understand what these two stands for. Nationalism is the people’s desire to rule themselves and in this case, they are able to do everything under their power to take control and rule. Xenophobia is the fear local people have when strangers or foreigners invade their space without notice.

Now if the spirit of nationalism is covered in the blanket of xenophobia (fearing of the foreigners) then something serious will have to be done in terms of clarifying the issue. There has to be a point and limit for locals or citizen of the land on how far they can go with issues. Nationalism has to have limits because while people can take control and rule, they will always come a time that they will need some extra expertise from somewhere else something which would force them to consult those of different race or nationalities for help. Now the only point where the two could separate is where great need for expertise from outside arises and in this case, being xenophobic could retard the desired progress and development. Being xenophobic in situation where a nation need extra human capital could be suicidal to national development. Xenophobia is not developmental oriented but is an enemy of progress. Xenophobia chases away potential and needed expertise for development and progress.

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