This archive report was first published on 8 September 2019.
Published on September 8, 2019, by Charles Onyango-Obbo, the curator of the Wall of Great Africans and publisher of explainer site Roguechiefs.com.
South Africa's recent bout of xenophobic attacks on African foreigners has left a trail of destruction and bloodshed. However, one of the most haunting aspects of this crisis did not come from a news story, but from an opinion column in the City Press by Sipho Masondo.
Mad as hell, Masondo threw political correctness out the window, calling black South Africans 'barbarians.' He painted a picture of out-of-control men raping and murdering women in record numbers, with gangs running amok and lawlessness reigning supreme.
During the three and a half year period to January this year, arsonists burnt 214 train coaches, while over 100 trucks and cargo valued at 1.5 billion rands were set alight and looted. The really shocking part: Masondo alleged that over 200 drivers, many of them Zimbabweans, have been killed in the process.
South Africa's xenophobia has been a long-standing issue, with Nigerians bearing the brunt of the attacks in recent months. The Nigerians finally snapped, going on their own wave of attacks on South African businesses, burning and looting them. MTN and supermarket chain Shoprite were forced to close shop.
Some Nigerians even called on the extremist militant group Boko Haram to attack South Africa in retaliation. Last month, Sahara Reporters reported that 127 Nigerians have been killed in xenophobic attacks in South Africa between 2016 and 2019.
Analysts see South African xenophobia and Nigerian retaliation as two sides of the same coin, with both countries struggling with high rates of unemployment, poverty, and corruption. In South Africa, the world's most unequal country, the black population has been betrayed by the ruling ANC's incompetence and corruption.
Nigeria, on the other hand, has become the poverty capital of the world, overtaking India as the country with the highest rate of extreme poverty globally. Successful African foreigners, like those in South Africa, hold up a mirror to their failures, but only for now.
As one publication put it, 'in the goodness of time, they will break down the walls guarding the homes of the wealthy and powerful—and burn everything down.' And in Nigeria, if there aren't dramatic improvements, soon they will be burning down the stores belonging to its corrupt elite who have grown fat off pillaging oil revenues for decades.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is curator of the Wall of Great Africans and publisher of explainer site Roguechiefs.com.
