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Big Joe was a popular Nigerian businessman in Witbank, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. He was fatally shot at close range and killed by unidentified gunmen outside his shop in South Africa amid rising xenophobic tensions. Expectedly, the tragic attack sent shockwaves through the Nigerian diaspora because it occurred amid heightened security concerns following anti-immigrant ultimatums that were set to take effect on June 30. The world saw clearly how some South African outlaws and non-state actors went around to warn foreigners to leave South Africa before 30 June 2026 or face instant destruction. They bluntly told the people not to rely on any protection from the government. The killing of Big Joe on 28 June 2026 was therefore a warning and signal that their threats were not empty. The foreigners got the message and many of them opted to leave South Africa in droves.
It may not be appropriate to describe the incidents as xenophobia because on a closer scrutiny, it is only black Africans who are attacked in a country populated by people of all races. Nelson Mandela held out his country when he was alive as a rainbow nation made up of all races. Xenophobia is the irrational fear, hatred, or deep-seated prejudice against people from other countries, cultures, or those perceived as outsiders. One might not even strictly describe it as Afrophobia, because Afrophobia is the hatred, fear, or discrimination directed specifically at individuals of African descent. It is a form of xenophobia that leads to the dehumanization, stereotyping, and exclusion of African people worldwide. What is happening in South Africa is directed at black Africans only. There are other races in Africa who are not blacks. Citizens of North Africa, who are mostly of Arab descent, are not blacks, and they seem to be excluded from these wars of attrition against black Africans.
It may be apt to describe what is happening in South Africa as Blackafrophobia. This may be used to describe xenophobic violence and discrimination directed by local populations against Black immigrants, refugees, and entrepreneurs from other African nations.
This turn of events is really shameful, judging from the historical past of South Africa. This country was colonised, subdued, and subordinated by the White men who landed on its shores as strangers but got captivated by the beauty of the land and decided to overthrow the existing native authority of South Africa, and in its place establish the worst brand of an apartheid system of government. Apartheid is a word, which means “apart” and “hate”. The established White government structured the South African system of government along racial lines. The whiter you are, the higher your position of authority. Even their infrastructure was marked to be used based on the colour of your skin. A black man dare not enter a bus or toilet used by the white men.
This terrible system of government stretched to the economic empowerment of the people. The Whites enjoyed the highest standard of living in South Africa, while the blacks enjoyed the worst standard of living in South Africa. The Whites owned more than 87 per cent of the arable land while the blacks were compressed in squalors and batches of unfruitful lands in the remaining 13 per cent. The Blacks were even disallowed to study certain courses in schools. They were allowed to do only menial jobs for their White counterparts. The White dominated government even made identity cards for the Blacks which they must carry like passports before they enter the White men’s quarters to work for them. They were treated like property not persons in their own land.
It is pertinent to note that even the international community supported the apartheid government in South Africa in their subjugation of the Black Africans in South Africa. Or at best refrained from positively doing anything against the apartheid system. The United Nations Security Council could not rise early enough to confront the apartheid system, making it the longest Black country that were enslaved in their own land in history.
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Ironically, it was only the same poor, newly liberated Black African countries that fought for the liberation of South Africa. Nigeria is in West Africa, but recruited itself as a front line country in the war against apartheid in South Africa. It spent billions of its revenue supporting the dismantling of the apartheid system. The citizens of Black South Africa, who were denied education in South Africa, were brought in by the Nigerian government into Nigeria to study on scholarship, and stipends were paid to them to enable them live a decent life away from the hardship and segregation in their native land. I recall with nostalgia how some of them would be telling us about the gory stories of their land in University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, in our Kenneth Dike hostel. They were brought in to read professional courses in Nigeria like Medicine, Law, Business Administration, or Environmental Studies, which their own country could not afford them.
The neighbouring Black African nations and Nigeria continued fighting until they convinced the world that apartheid was an evil system that ought to be dismantled. This followed the Soweto massacres of the Black South Africans and the other senseless killing of Blacks in South Africa. The United Nations agreed to impose sanctions on South Africa culminating in the release of Nelson Mandela from the prison, which led to the collapse of the apartheid government. South Africa, on 27 April 1994, marked the true democratic independence day and the end of the apartheid regime, as the black majority was finally granted the right to vote in the country’s first multiracial, universal elections.
After the independence, Nelson Mandela became the first Black President of South Africa. Unfortunately, the successive Black Presidents failed and neglected to improve on the economy of South Africa and the impoverishment of their people. They couldn’t address the lingering economic inequality between the Whites and the Blacks, thereby widening the gap. Agitation against their maladministration gradually started gaining momentum. The dominant African National Congress (ANC), the political party with which the black majority came into power, gradually started losing political relevance after the death of Nelson Mandela. The two next Presidents after Mandela, Thomas Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, were removed for breaching one or the other of the rules and regulations of their party or country. Indeed, Zuma was brought down for corruption related matters.
Rather than solve their societal problems, in order not to lose political relevance, they started creating the impression that it was the poor foreign Black Africans who are usurping the jobs, businesses, and opportunities which ought to have been reserved for indigenous Black South Africans.
First, this is disingenuous. After the collapse of apartheid, the initial government of the Black majority rule discovered that a lot of their men were heavily depleted as a result of the massacres they were subjected to during apartheid, leaving most of their women emotionally stranded. Also they discovered that because of the long subjugation of Blacks in South Africa, the Blacks developed inferiority complex towards their White counterparts. They needed to ameliorate the situation, and they resorted to opening their doors to Black African foreigners, especially Nigerians, to come to South Africa to fill up the gaps. They were particularly thrilled with Nigerians whom they found to be confident people, and have this culture of dealing nicely with the females. Nigerians swarmed South Africa in droves, and immediately diversified into businesses, and jobs that help to improve the economy. Some of them became wealthy. Certainly, and inevitably, some of them also involved themselves in crimes, which the indigenous Black South Africans are known to be legendary in participation. South Africa is known to be one of the most violent and crime ridden countries in the world.
With the rise of Nigerians in wealth and influence in South Africa came jealousy and envy. With the failure of South African Black government to redress the economic inequality of their Black citizens, they turned against the ordinary Black folks in South Africa as scapegoats. When they realised that their ultimatums against Black Africans were receiving international condemnation, they changed their tune a bit to say that they were only against illegal immigrants. The argument, therefore, is, assuming, without conceding, that they are illegal immigrants, how did they enter South Africa? Is it the duty of the outlaws and non-state actors to deal with them? Isn’t it the duty of the security agencies to deal with the situation? Is murder, through jungle justice, the punishment for being an illegal immigrant? Was Big Joe an illegal immigrant? The answers to these questions expose the fact that the incompetent government of South Africa is complicit and complacent in the avoidable travails of Black Africans in South Africa.
The solution is simple. Nigeria must deploy its arsenals to evacuate Nigerians who are in harm’s way from South Africa. It is acceptable in international law for countries to retaliate promptly, and commensurately to any attack on their citizens and interests. Nigeria has to adopt a retaliatory measure against South Africa that will deter South Africa from future unacceptable behaviour. The South African government should take this as a wake up call to embark on policies that will redress the social and economic inequalities in their country and empower their Black South African citizens with education and the infrastructures they need to become successful. Nigerians must learn to live in South Africa legally and avoid engaging in crimes which will embarrass the country and bring the name of Nigeria to shame. The entire Black Africans must learn to live like brothers. If we are discriminated against by the other races, we must do well not to discriminate against each other.
