Magnus Eze, Enugu
Isu Nwachi, popularly called Superman Nwaching, hails from Ngodo, Afikpo in Ebonyi State. People would recall the days of yore when the likes of Kiliwee Nwachukwu went from school to school, displaying raw strength. Superman Nwaching belonged to this class of men of brawn, having been groomed by the legendary Power Mike of Africa. He eventually found himself in Zimbabwe and later, South Africa where he lived for over 20 years. Following the ugly happenings in that Southern African country, Nwanching returned back to Nigeria recently. He recounts his experience there.
What was your experience like in South Africa regarding xenophobia?
South Africa is not really a bad country, but xenophobia has really painted it black; making it look like they’re bad people. The issue is that there’s a way they see foreigners there, particularly blacks, but they channel their whole grouse against Nigerians; they complain about Nigerians because they say they’re selling drugs and stuffs like that. But there are other nationals who are also doing the same thing, yet they point accusing fingers on Nigerians. It’s not that they just see you and attack you; but the fact is that country is very violent. I had seen people being shot right before me, people being killed; just standing together, the next thing you see is that people are shot. It was very hectic and tough living there for 21 years because the bouncer or security work I did in clubs wasn’t easy. There was a time I beat up an Inspector of Police, but I didn’t know he was a law enforcement agent because he came on mufti and didn’t want to obey the rules. He was busy insulting my boys that they were foreigners and must go back to their countries. The boys working under me were Congolese and Zimbabweans; he knew they were foreigners and was taunting them. I can’t remember how many people I hit each day or week because of their behaviour. So, in doing such job, we had to be prepared because we knew that the people we were dealing with were violent; we behaved like soldiers so, when they come, we fight, but they never crossed me because they also knew that I am also tough. They even called me ‘tough man’. I was always sorry for my other brothers because we’re foreigners, so, there are always attacks, sometimes they could attack people from Mozambique or Zimbabwe; they kill them. For the Nigerians, the list is just uncountable because they run ‘Turkey’ (provision) shops, but they’re other foreigners who are running ‘Turkey’ shops like the Pakistani and Indians, but they don’t attack them. The greatest victims of these shop owners are Ethiopians; they give them a lot of hard time because they’re the ones in majority in the business. It is just very easy pointing a gun at somebody in South Africa. I can’t remember how many times they had pointed gun at me, but they failed to harm me. I was always ready if it’s to die or live. I’m fit, so, I knew I can always handle them.
Nigerians seem to be the major target of xenophobic attacks there; why?
Yes; I said it earlier that they channel their attacks mainly on Nigerians just because they say they dress well; drive big cars and live well. They struggle to make their money, by doing one thing or the other, but the South Africans don’t want to work; you could say that they’re lazy, if you give them a job, they’ll work and after a while abandon it. So, when they see you working, they become jealous. Many times, they would shout when they saw me ‘You Power, you must go back to your country or we kill you’, but we heard all those things and never mind them because they are not God to take somebody’s life.
Why is it that despite the hostile attitude to Nigerians, many of them don’t want to leave South Africa?
The issue is that life there is completely different from life in Nigeria. Their system is very weak; there, if you commit crime, you can easily settle the police with money, unlike in Nigeria, where if you are arrested, you go in. There is serious corruption in South Africa, especially from the top, so, nobody can try such thing here in Nigeria. Here, nobody can openly do drugs; but there, it’s common and if they are arrested; from behind, especially those of them who have South African girl friends; they go talking to their brothers: ‘He’s my boyfriend; he’s my husband, he’s the one taking care of me’ and the next thing, the person is off the hook. Too many things they do there, you can’t just try in Nigeria. If you want to get money there, you just do crime. They sell drugs, rob, all manner of things. Do you know how many Nigerians who are there in Sandston? They’re there doing crime, they kidnap Nigerians; once you have money, somebody will alert them and the next thing is that you’re kidnapped and all that. So, it could be said that life is easier in South Africa. They get jealous because Nigerians come with nothing; the next thing you see them displaying wealth; they take their sisters; marry them. The people get jealous and say, look at these Nigerians, they said they came here with nothing, yet see them driving flashy cars, living in big places while the South Africans manage to survive; some of them are living in Soweto.
But what do you think is the solution to these frequent attacks?
One could have said if you go to a place and see that things are not all right; where you find hostile people, it’s just to make another plan; you leave to another country and leave them alone because the apartheid thing really got into them. In 2015 or 2016 when there was serious xenophobic attacks, the former President Jacob Zuma had told them, listen guys; ‘let’s forget about all these things; let’s think about something better, love one another; don’t hate anybody because these people you’re calling foreigners, they were the same people who helped us out when we were fighting apartheid,’ but they’ve since forgotten these people. Most of us paid our hard earned money to see that the apartheid struggle was sustained. So, there’s violence everywhere in the world, Nigeria inclusive, but theirs is something else. In that place, every time you’re being called names. I know here in Nigeria, if you’re fighting a foreigner, you can find other Nigerians asking you: why’re you fighting him tomorrow you might go to their country, but there, I think they don’t travel at all. In fact, it’s only now that a few of them started traveling and began seeing that other countries do not treat them the way they treat other foreigners that maybe, it’ll begin to stop. I saw the other day on television where one of their big politicians; Malima was saying that the people are angry that foreigners are taking their jobs and they’re asking them to go, but if the foreigners go, there’ll still be no jobs for them. Unfortunately, he said that there’s nothing anybody could do about it.
Now that you’re back home; what’s your next line of action?
My next line of action is just to help develop this state; Ebonyi is just a young state. I’ve gone round and seen there’s a way I can help out, at least, especially the young ones who are roaming the streets; everywhere the story is that the jobs are not there. That’s why I’m trying to see if I can put up something like set up a gym to train the people and make them useful and give some other people jobs to work there with me so that they can also be out of the street. You see, right now, the street is full of people doing nothing. I took my proposal to the Government House in Abakaliki thinking that I’ll have a brief one-on-one with the governor to explain to him why I want to open this private gym. There are so many opportunities in sports; I can get the young ones and groom them to even win laurels in various sports for the state and the country. I had done it in South Africa; but at a point I said how long will I keep developing other people’s country and leave my own; that’s why I said no, enough is enough, let me be home and help my people. I had trained and brought up a lot of people there that even some of those people who were saying that I must leave their country, eventually started working for me. I pulled them out from the street. I did a lot of things in South Africa; I joined the movie industry there, acted in a few blockbusters, but there was discrimination there too, once you don’t speak their language. They would want to pay you peanuts. Even when I made it to the MTN Gladiator show there; and did well after coming second, they could not progress with us including the overall winner because we were foreign nationals. It was a very bad experience. That show is like a military kind of programme; first you must go to touch something on top. Who first touches is the winner. When we finished; I only got an Acatel phone. They said ‘you guys are not from here and we need people that come from here’. But I asked them why they allowed us to compete when they allowed us compete in the first place when they knew that we were foreigners. We were only given medals and Acatel. So, I am thinking of starting people’s court here in Afikpo; buy TV right and be showing the programme. People from all over the world would see how we treat cases traditionally. I have ideas and with government support, I can impact seriously on the society.