A “darker” as you can get hacking a
“foreigner” under the pretext of his being too dark — self hate par excellence?
Of course all of that at once! Yesterday I asked a taxi driver: “why do they need
to kill these “foreigners” in this manner?”. His response: “because under
Apartheid, fire was the only weapon we Blacks had. We did not have ammunitions,
guns and the likes. With fire we could make petrol bombs and throw them at the
enemy from a safe distance”. Today there is no need for distance any longer. To
kill “these foreigners”, we need to be as close as possible to their body which
we then set in flames or dissect, each blow opening a huge wound that can never
be healed. Or if it is healed at all, it must leave on “these foreigners” the
kinds of scars that can never be erased.
I
was here during the last outbreak of violence against “these foreigners”. Since
then, the cancer has metastized. The current hunt for “foreigners” is the
product of a complex chain of complicities — some vocal and explicit and others
tacit. The South African government has recently taken a harsh stance on
immigration. New, draconian measures have been passed into law. Their effects
are devastating for people already established here legally. A few weeks ago I
attended a meeting of “foreign” staff at Wits University. Horrific stories
after horrific stories. Work permits not renewed. Visas refused to family
members. Children in limbo in schools. A Kafkaian situation that extends to
“foreign” students who entered the country legally, had their visas renewed all
this time, but who now find themselves in a legal uncertainty, unable to
register, and unable to access the money they are entitled to and that had been
allocated to them by Foundations. Through its new anti-immigration measures,
the government is busy turning previously legal migrants into illegal ones.
Chains
of complicity go further. South African big business is expanding all over
the Continent, at times reproducing in those places the worse forms of racism
that were tolerated here under Apartheid. While big business is
“de-nationalizing” and “Africanizing”, poor black South Africa and parts
of the middle class are being socialized into something we should call “national-chauvinism”.
National-chauvinism is rearing its ugly head in almost every sector of the
South African society. The thing with national-chauvinism is that it is in
permanent need of scapegoats. It starts with those who are not our kins. But
very quickly, it turns fratricidal. It does not stop with “these foreigners”.
It is in its DNA to end up turning onto itself in a dramatic gesture of
inversion.
I
was here during the last “hunting season”. The difference, this time, is the
emergence of the rudiments of an “ideology”. We now have the semblance of a
discourse aimed at justifying the atrocities, the creeping pogrom since this is
what it actually is. An unfolding pogrom to be sure. The justificatory
discourse starts with the usual stereotypes — they are darker than us; they
steal our jobs; they do not respect us; they are used by whites who prefer to
exploit them rather than employing us, therefore avoiding the requirements of
affirmative action. But the discourse is becoming more vicious. It can be
summarized as follows: South Africa does not owe any moral debt to Africa.
Evoke the years of exile? No, there were less than 30,000 South Africans in
exile (I have been hit with this figure but I have no idea where it is coming
from) and they were all scattered throughout the world — 4 in Ghana, 3 in
Ethiopia, a few in Zambia, and many more in Russia and Eastern Europe! So we
will not accept to be morally blackmailed by “those foreigners”.
Well,
let’s ask hard questions. Why is South Africa turning into a killing field
for non-national Africans (to whom we have to add the Bengalis, Pakistanis, and
who knows whom next)? Why has this country historically represented a “circle
of death” for anything and anybody ‘African’? When we say “South Africa”, what
does the term “Africa” mean? An idea, or simply a geographical accident? Should
we start quantifying what was sacrificed by Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe,
Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and others during the liberation struggle? How much
money did the Liberation Committee of the Organization of African Unity (OUA)
provide to the liberation movements? How many dollars did the Nigerian state
pay for South Africa’s struggle? If we were to put a price tag to the
destructions meted out by the Apartheid regime on the economy and infrastructures
of the Frontline states, what would this amount to? And once all of this has
been quantified, shouldn’t we give the bill to the ANC government that has
inherited the South African state and ask them to pay back what was spent
on behalf of the black oppressed in South Africa during those long years?
Wouldn’t we be entitled to add to all these damages and losses the number of
people killed by Apartheid armies retaliating against our hosting South
African combatants in our midsts, the number of people maimed, the long
chain of misery and destitution suffered in the name of our solidarity with
South Africa? If black South Africans do not want to hear about any moral debt,
maybe it is time to agree with them, give them the bill and ask for economic reparations.
Of
course we all see the absurdity of this logic of insularity that is turning
this country into yet another killing field for the darker people, “these
foreigners”. But it would not be absurd, since the government of South
Africa is either unable or unwilling to protect those who are here legally
from the ire of its people, to appeal to a higher authority. South
Africa has signed most international conventions, including the Convention
establishing the International Penal Tribunal in The Hague. Some of the
instigators of the current “hunting season” are known. Some have been making
public statements inciting hate. Is there any way in which we could think about
referring them to The Hague? Impunity breeds impunity and atrocities. It is the
shortest way to genocide. If these perpetrators cannot be brought to book by
the South African State, isn’t it time to get a higher jurisdiction to
deal with them?
Finally,
one word about “foreigners” and “migrants”. No African is a foreigner in
Africa! No African is a migrant in Africa! Africa is where we all belong,
notwithstanding the foolishness of our boundaries. No amount of
national-chauvinism will erase this. No amount of deportations will erase this.
Instead of spilling black blood on no other than Pixley ka Seme Avenue (!), we
should all be making sure that we rebuild this Continent and bring to an end a
long and painful history — that which, for too long, has dictated that to be
black (it does not matter where or when), is a liability.
*Joseph-Achille Mbembe,
known as Achille Mbembe (born 1957), is a philosopher, political scientist,[1]
and public intellectual.[2] He was born near Otélé in French Cameroons in 1957.
He obtained his Ph.D. in History at the University of Sorbonne in Paris,
France, in 1989. He subsequently obtained a D.E.A. in Political Science at the
Institut d’Etudes Politiques in the same city. He has held appointments at
Columbia University in New York, Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.,
University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Berkeley, Yale
University, Duke University and Council for the Development of Social Science
Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in Dakar, Senegal.
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