This archive report was first published on 9 September 2019.
Published on September 9, 2019, a Brazilian educator and philosopher, Paulo Freire, shed light on the root causes of xenophobia in his masterpiece, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire argued that the best system of education for the marginalized is one that aims to transform oppressive structures by engaging the oppressed in their own liberation process.
According to Freire, the oppressed are the only ones who can liberate society. This is evident in the xenophobic attacks witnessed in South Africa, a society emerging from an oppressive regime.
The indigenous South Africans have been subjected to dehumanizing conditions of oppression and exploitation since the Great Trek of the Voortrekkers in 1835. The struggle for independence has characterized their lives, and even after they attained independence, they still suffer from the hangover of the struggle.
Similar behavior was witnessed in France during the 1794 Reign of Terror, a period of violence during the French Revolution. The underlying purpose was the struggle for egalitarian justice, which led to the guillotining of many aristocrats.
The Congo crisis in 1960 was another African state that experienced an upheaval immediately after independence. It was a situation of unpreparedness of the indigenous population by the Belgians, whose political and economic interest was to promote their self-interest.
The xenophobic crisis in South Africa results from a long period of struggle by the people against marginalization. Attention to the acquisition of essential economic skills was suspended, and education was constantly disrupted during the Apartheid regime, leaving the indigenous Africans ill-prepared to develop themselves economically.
Despite the economic resources, African nations continue to be arenas of struggles for economic independence. Bodies such as the African Union and Comesa should address this persistent menace of the xenophobic complex before it becomes a full-blown catastrophe for the entire Africa.
