Go Home or Die Here , livre ebook

WITS University Press - Véronique Tadjo , Pumla Dineo Gqola , Andile Mngxitama , Cathi Albertyn , Anton Harber , Tanya Zack , Melinda Silverman , Julia Hornberger , David Coplan , Loren Landau , Devan Pillay , Stephen Gelb , Noor Nieftagodien , Daryl Glaser , Rolf Maruping , Alex Eliseev , Eric Worby , Tawana Kupe , Shireen Hassim

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160 pages

English

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The xenophobic attacks that started in Alexandra, Johannesburg in May 2008 before quickly spreading around the country caused an outcry across the world and raised many fundamental questions: Of what profound social malaise is xenophobia – and the violence that it inspires – a symptom? Have our economic and political choices created new forms of exclusion that fuel anger and distrust? What consequences does the emergence of xenophobia hold for the idea of an equal, non-racial society as symbolised by a democratic South Africa?
Go Home or Die Here hopes to make sense of the nuances and trajectories of building a democratic society out of a deeply divided and conflictual past, in the conditions of global recession, heightening inequalities and future uncertainty. The authors hoped to pose questions that would lead both to research and to more informed, reflective forms of public action. With extensive photographs by award-winning photographer Alon Skuy, who covered the violence for The Times newspaper, the volume is passionate and engaged, and aims to stimulate reflection, debate and activism among concerned members of a broad public.
Foreword – Bishop Paul Verryn
Introduction – Eric Worby, Shireen Hassim and Tawana Kupe
Chapter 1 A Torn Narrative of Violence – Alex Eliseev
Chapter 2 I Did Not Expect Such a Thing to Happen – Rolf Maruping
Chapter 3 (Dis)connections: Elite and Popular ‘Common Sense’ on the Matter of ‘Foreigners’ – Daryl Glaser
Chapter 4 Xenophobia in Alexandra – Noor Nieftagodien
Chapter 5 Behind Xenophobia in South Africa – Poverty or Inequality? – Stephen Gelb
Chapter 6 Relative Deprivation, Social Instability and Cultures of Entitlement – Devan Pillay
Chapter 7 Violence, Condemnation, and the Meaning of Living in South Africa – Loren B Landau
Chapter 8 Crossing Borders – David Coplan
Chapter 9 Policing Xenophobia – Xenophobic Policing: A Clash of Legitimacy – Julia Hornberger
Chapter 10 Housing Delivery, the Urban Crisis and Xenophobia – Melinda Silverman and Tanya Zack
Chapter 11 Two Newspapers, Two Nations? The Media and the Xenophobic Violence – Anton Harber
Chapter 12 Beyond Citizenship: Human Rights and Democracy – Cathi Albertyn
Chapter 13 We Are Not All Like That: Race, Class and Nation after Apartheid – Andile Mngxitama
Chapter 14 Brutal Inheritances: Echoes, Negrophobia and Masculinist Violence – Pumla Dineo Gqola Chapter 15 Constructing the ‘Other’: Learning from the Ivorian Example – Véronique Tadjo
End Notes
Author Biographies

Sujets

Public Policy

Political Science

Migration

Immigration

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Publié par	WITS University Press
Date de parution	01 novembre 2008
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776143757
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	8 Mo

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GO HOME OR DIE HERE

GO HOME OR DIE HERE
VIOLENCE, XENOPHOBIA AND THE REINVENTION OF DIFFERENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA
EDITED BY SHIREEN HASSIM, TAWANA KUPE AND ERIC WORBY
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALON SKUY
FOREWORD BY BISHOP PAUL VERRYN
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg, South Africa
http://witspress.wits.ac.za
© Text 2008: Individual contributors
© Photographs 2008: Alon Skuy
First published 2008
ISBN 978-1-86814-487-7 (Paperback) ISBN 978-1-86814-642-0 (Web PDF) ISBN 978-1-77614-375-7 (EPUB) ISBN 978-1-77614-376-4 (Mobi)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express permission, in writing, of both the copyright holder and the publishers.
Cover photograph by Alon Skuy
Layout and design by Hybridesign
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword Bishop Paul Verryn
Introduction Eric Worby, Shireen Hassim and Tawana Kupe
A Torn Narrative of Violence Alex Eliseev
I Did Not Expect Such a Thing to Happen Rolf Maruping
(Dis)connections: Elite and Popular ‘Common Sense’ on the Matter of ‘Foreigners’ Daryl Glaser
Xenophobia in Alexandra Noor Nieftagodien
Behind Xenophobia in South Africa – Poverty or Inequality? Stephen Gelb
Relative Deprivation, Social Instability and Cultures of Entitlement Devan Pilla y
Violence, Condemnation, and the Meaning of Living in South Africa Loren B Landau
Crossing Borders David Coplan
Policing Xenophobia – Xenophobic Policing: A Clash of Legitimacy Julia Hornberger
Housing Delivery, the Urban Crisis and Xenophobia Melinda Silverman and Tanya Zack
Two Newspapers, Two Nations? The Media and the Xenophobic Violence Anton Harber
Beyond Citizenship: Human Rights and Democracy Cathi Albertyn
We Are Not All Like That: Race, Class and Nation after Apartheid Andile Mngxitama
Brutal Inheritances: Echoes, Negrophobia and Masculinist Violence Pumla Dineo Gqola
Constructing the ‘Other’: Learning from the Ivorian Example Véronique Tadjo
End Notes
Author Biographies
FOREWORD
Like an unexpected thunderstorm, the ‘xenophobic’ attacks swept across our country with unprecedented horror and unabated anger. The warning signs were very much in place before the full onslaught happened. But somehow we were completely unprepared as a nation for the unleashing of such violence towards some of the most vulnerable people in our midst. The image of a pleading, burning Mozambican met by laughing onlookers is etched in our memories. Is this what we have come to?
Xenophobic attacks were not unknown in South Africa, but their manifestation in this instance was distinctive in several respects.
Firstly, the attacks were on black foreign nationals. There is no record as far as I understand of any whites or Indians being caught up in the attacks. It does seem as if these categories fall into another classification, i.e. tourist, visitor, investor or something far more elevated.
Secondly, although many nasty things might well have been said to the wealthier of those foreign nationals amongst us, by and large it was the poorer and more vulnerable foreign nationals that were exposed to the most vicious onslaught. As we know, some of those who were most seriously affected had been in the country for more than 35 years and the attacks destabilised their entire livelihood and family.
Thirdly, at least a third of the people killed were South African and so the violence was visited on the particularly marginalised of our society, taking on ethnic and xenophobic connotations. There were 62 people killed in the attacks; tens of thousands of people were displaced and fled for their lives to police stations and other places of safety.
Clearly, these attacks have exposed a raw nerve in society. One can see from the deluge of donations and gifts and compassion that this issue deeply affected the nation. It somehow exposed the fact that after 14 years of democracy all is far from well in the psyche of the people. It seems as if the nation is suspicious and fearful and vexed with profound disparities between the haves and the have-nots. Whether that disparity is felt more keenly in discrimination with regard to service delivery or whether it is an indication that we have not transformed as a nation in our political mindset is a moot point. The fact is that we are in a state of great ambiguity and dysfunction.
It would not be completely fair if one also did not note that the entire phenomenon of migration has become more and more of a global issue. More people, for whatever reason, are wanting to explore, to migrate, to seek different opportunities for their lives, and the global community is going to be faced with the issue of how to respond appropriately to this phenomenon. There is no doubt that the way in which we treat the stranger reflects our humanity; whether that stranger be from another country or whether those strangers be strange because they are poor is beside the point. If we are going to survive as a human race we are going to have to reassess our fundamental value system.
How do we begin to estimate the value of the vast array of skills and giftedness of those who visit our shores, albeit for five to ten years? How do we begin to enable them to make the kind of contribution to this nation that is transformative and enables us to become more part of the world community and, more specifically, part of the African continent? What kind of curricula should be introduced into our educational institutions to ensure that people are not only computer literate, but are skilled in human relationships and able to deal with their prejudices and fears? How finally do we address our economic philosophies to ensure that poverty is an historical fact by the year 2015?
The contributors to this volume, and the colloquium at Wits University upon which it is based, do not address these large and daunting questions directly. But together, the authors demonstrate why it is so crucial that we face them squarely and unflinchingly if we are to create the kind of human community that we wish to be.
Bishop Paul Verryn
INTRODUCTION
FACING THE OTHER AT THE GATES OF DEMOCRACY
ERIC WORBY, SHIREEN HASSIM AND TAWANA KUPE
On the evening of Sunday, 11 May 2008, a gang of young men in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township forced their way into a hostel on London Road and initiated a merciless attack on residents they deemed to be ‘foreigners’. From this spark, the murder, rape, and looting directed at the bodies and belongings of non-South Africans had spread within days from Alex to informal settlements in Diepsloot and the East Rand, where a Mozambican man, Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuavhe, was burned alive while bystanders laughed. Soon thereafter, similar attacks began to unfold in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern and Western Cape. South African citizens speaking the ‘wrong’ languages – XiTsonga or SiPedi, for example – were also subjected to violent assault. By the time the violence subsided in early June, some 62 people had died – a third of them South African. Hundreds had suffered grievous injuries and tens of thousands had been displaced from their homes, taking shelter in community halls and police stations, or fleeing in terror across the borders in anticipation of an uncertain future.
AN ANXIOUS RESPONSE
Every instance of large-scale civilian violence towards the innocent provokes a response from those not immediately touched by it. Yet in the catalogue of human brutality unfolding daily around the world, 62 murders over a period of three weeks seems barely worth notice. How many times, over the past five years, have roughly that number of bodies been torn apart by a single bomb in a crowded market in Basra or Baghdad? In a blood-soaked, mediatised world, everyday ethnic or religious violence – much less organised warfare – evokes little more than indifference from the jaded audiences of CNN and BBC World.
Yet the South African story clearly struck a nerve, arousing moral outrage on a global scale: ‘The world watched in shock as a wave of xenophobic violence engulfed South Africa,’ wrote a journalist for Spiegel International Online in an article that bore the title ‘South Africa disgusted with itself’ 1 . Had the dream of democratic redemption and reconciliation embodied in the saintly figure of Nelson Mandela reverted to the nightmare of internecine hatred and warfare? Had the daring declaration in South Africa’s pioneering Constitution – ‘ South Africa belongs to all who live in it’ – been dismissed with contempt by the chanting of xenophobic slogans and the flourishing of machetes?
That the events of May 2008 generated profound national shock and soul-searching also requires explanation. After all, this was hardly the first expression of post-apartheid violence targeting ‘foreigners’: Somali traders had been systematically burned out of their shops in the Port Elizabeth township of Motherwell in February 2007, stranding some 400 refugees, while as recently as March 2008, four ‘foreigners’ had been killed in Mamelodi township in Pretoria. 2 One of the country’s largest circulation newspapers, the Daily Sun , was happy to feed its readership evidence of a truth they found to be self-evident – that ‘aliens’ were primarily responsible for unemployment and crime. 3 A national opinion survey conducted in 2007 indicated that over 80 per cent of South Africans felt that the government should ‘severely limit immigration into the country from troubled African countries’. 4 Not surprisingly, the Nepad peer-review of South Africa felt the need to highlight that South Africa had failed to adequately protect its immigrant population. 5 The surprise and anxiety triggered by the violence of May derive from the implosion of a fantasy – the fantasy of an inclusive ‘rainbow’ nation whose citizens regard difference not mere