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When the xenophobic attacks broke out and dominated the media, I noted that I would rather wait and watch. I rather celebrated Chief Akintola Williams whose centenary year in August was a landmark in a clime that seems to be averse to longevity. I watched both governments react to the issue. All manner of sentiments came from the people. Nigerians railed against South Africans for their astounding level of ingratitude, given that Nigeria was in the ring with that country when it fought against apartheid; it was, therefore, unthinkable that their citizens would attack Nigerians and their shops, and help themselves with loot from such shops.
Now both nations seem to have stepped up their game in settling the issues. President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa has sent special envoys to affected countries, including Nigeria, on the heels of President Muhammadu Buhari’s instruction to evacuate willing Nigerians from that nation. Chief Allen Onyema, CEO of Air Peace, took the patriotic lead of flying his plane to the tarmac to evacuate his compatriots in the face of sever danger. He knew many of them had become stranded and would be marooned in that nation if no help came their way. As the next evacuation plane touches down from South Africa this week, nearly 500 Nigerians, would have returned to their nation. They have escaped from a place where they have been unwanted in recent times to their fatherland, where, from the warm reception accorded them, they are wanted. In any case, they could not but be welcome in their own country.
Nigerians in that nation say the people are envious of their hard work and success. Foreigners seem to have edged them out of their own economy, which is why they now fight back, to take back their nation and economy, a move akin to President Donald Trump’s propagation of the doctrine of America for Americans.
But the South African situation is radically different. There were fundamental errors trailing their freedom from the clutches of apartheid. The white minority were left to own 45 per cent of the property. The black majority struggled with the rest in a country that Time magazine has described as the most unequal in the world. A World Bank report I saw in my search gave more startling statistics. It stated that apartheid may have been abolished but the effects have become so rooted the people may never get out of them, no matter how hard they tried. Non-whites have fewer skills, not just on account of prolonged past exclusion from some jobs, but also because their segregated education, in the days of apartheid, was skewed. In 2017, black South Africans had 31.4 per cent unemployment level against whites’ 6.6 per cent. To make matters worse, the average white worker earns five times more than his black counterpart. These are anomalies the late Robert Mugabe stood against for which the West maligned and ran him down. I do no advocate the perennial sit-tight syndrome pervasive in Africa’s political class, which Mugabe symbolised, but that does not deny credit to whom it is due. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has told South Africans to refrain from xenophobic attacks, put in a word in support of Mugabe when the whole world seemed to be the late President’s adversaries. Mugabe insisted on re-distributiion of land to stem the lopsidedness that had become manifest. They hit on his obvious weak point of long stay in power to rail against him. I do not know the impact of his input, but the possibility is lean that Zimbabwe is as unequal as South Africa.
Apartheid died only politically, it prospered economically. Xenophobic attacks would not redress the prevalent economic disparity. Political leaders in the land have a herculean task in that area. There are little chances that this figure now appearing as six would change even if they renamed it half a dozen. The economic domination seems to be the ultimate price for the death of the apartheid regime in that nation. It takes deeper thinking than crude attacks on foreigners to redress the ugly trend. The leaders need deliberate and measured moves to redistribute wealth in the land.
The worst hit masses of South Africa have begun to react in a manner that may well be termed transferred aggression or sheer ignorance. If they chased away all foreigners in their land, their economic pot would remain black. They would need another type of soap to clean it. What they have used so far, if they had made any attempts, has not cleaned the pot. Such residues of apartheid as Group Act of 1950, which segregated on areas of residence, is said to be implicitly operational. As the saying goes, the people have ignored the ass that farted and landed knocks on the innocent head. When they come to terms with the root of their woes, that nation may have a revolution on its hands. The people would literally say, thus far and no more. They would troop into the streets and seek to take their fate in their hands. Political leaders in the land had better read the writing on the wall.
Xenophobic attacks are early warning signs of impending revolt. Their real enemy has not changed. He has only shifted base from politics to economics. I dare say, it may well be intractable for that nation. It would seem that the quest for an end to apartheid became the overriding force that blinded the negotiators to the implications of a lopsided economy. The chicken is coming home to roost. Revolutions are not spontaneous. They are reactions to accumulated suppression and frustration. The snag here is that the people have vented their spleen on the wrong people. It does not matter how many envoys the South African President sends across the continent, such envious attacks would continue.
