Let's Talk Xenophobia

Sunday, 08 of December 2019

Xenophobia - the fear or hatred of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange.

In the beginning throughout the end of the month of September of 2019 various xenophobic attacks occurred in a country situated in the southern part of Africa called South Africa, also known as home to CapetonianGirl(Me). This is the 7th Xenophobic outbreak that has occurred in South Africa- the first ones dating back to 2000 all the way to 2005 then 2016 and then 2019 once again, all together they sum up 7 total attacks. Now when this happened I was not surprised but at the same time I was tired, frustrated but most importantly ashamed, ashamed to be called a South African because this was the 7th Xenophobic outbreak and my people still haven't learned from all the previous outbreaks that had already occurred. I wrote a piece about this on the day I found out about the attacks but I'll implement it later in this post because I want us to see or better yet understand what Xenophobia is, why it occurs and why it isn't just the colonisers fault but also the African leaders fault first.

The Wikipedia definition for Xenophobia is - the fear or hatred of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange,

The Dictionary definition for Xenophobia is - 1. fear or hatred of foreigners, people from different cultures or strangers and 2. fear or dislike of the customs, dress, etc..., of people who are culturally different from oneself.

As we can all see the main thing that we get out of these definitions is FEAR and HATRED, FEAR and HATRED is what drives/causes xenophobia/xenophobic attacks, as I searched more extensively I found out that xenophobia/xenophobic attacks presumably originated in ancient greek, where the greek people and their culture were superior to all others so they referred to foreigners as "barbarians" and with that their subsequent conclusion was that barbarians were naturally meant to be enslaved seeing as they were different. The word Xenophobia originates from ancient greek words xenos meaning strange, foreigner and phobos meaning fear, xeno + phobos = xenophobia. Now that we know the meaning, cause and origin of xenophobia let's move on to the blaming parties.

I searched up the following words on the web: "xenophobia and how the colonisers contributed" and nothing came up on the web so I'll be speaking on my own thoughts and beliefs. I believe that the colonisers and African leaders are to blame for all the xenophobic attacks that occur nowadays, I say this because before the colonisers invaded our land, our continent, our home, we were all living in harmony as one, as Africans but then Africa got colonised, conflict and separation was brought with the colonisation and even after each country became independent that separation and conflict was still present and that ladies and gentlemen is where the African leaders failed because if they had focused on restoring the trust, bond and eliminating the conflict and the division that the colonisers instilled in each of us as much as they were focusing on restoring and making a name of their countries, I believe then that the xenophobic attacks that has happened wouldn't have happened if they had focused on the two instead of just focusing on one and with that said and all that we've discovered today I present to you my piece on the day I found out about the xenophobic attacks:

South Africa & Xenophobia

What do they have in common at the moment?

The fear/hatred of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange. Isn't it a coincidence that every time the two major countries in Africa are about to take a step closer conflict strikes. It's as if a mastermind is behind all this?

You see if we take a walk throughout the history of Africa you'll see the coloniser played the biggest role killing, separating, taking, brainwashing but most of all controlling and causing conflict between us but what about the African leaders they to blame as well, they to blame for the separation and conflict still present today just as much as the colonisers.

You see before the colonisers invaded our land, our continent, our home, we were all living in harmony, in peace but most of all we were living as one. Africans. We were all Africans no separation at all, the only separation was the distance between one another and the differences in our tribes, customs and dialect but other than that we were united but then the coloniser came and destroyed all that, As the coloniser once said it's simple to dominate/colonise a continent all you've got to do is break the trust and cause conflict between the individuals aka tribes and with that said we all know what happened next. Africa was no longer just Africa home to Africans . Africa was now divided and soon to be home to 54 individual countries separated beyond measures. So why tell me why my South African brothers and sisters, tell me why do you not see this, why do you not see that you are killing your own, why are you repeating history, why are you tarnishing our home, our land, our name, why are you letting the coloniser win again, why are you making a fool out of yourself. It's time we stop this nonsense, It's time we put an end to this and open our eyes once and for all and be like before the coloniser came. It's time we become united again. It's time we become Africans again.

#Xenophobia