Every time African migrants are attacked in South Africa, outrage ripples across the continent.
Governments issue condemnations, civil society mobilises, diplomatic tempers flare and then, within a news cycle or two, the story fades.
That condemnation is justified. No African should be assaulted, displaced or killed for having crossed a border in search of safety or opportunity.
The recurring violence against migrants in South Africa is a real and continuing moral and political failure.
But if the rest of the continent keeps treating xenophobia as something that happens in South Africa rather than something that runs through Africa, we are letting ourselves off far too easily.
The…
Nelson Mandela: Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid revolutionary, was
imprisoned for 27 years and became South Africa’s first black president in 1994.
spit turanga
Fun South African Fact: Vilakazi Street in Soweto has been home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners. A tour through Soweto will always stop at Vilakazi Street to reveal a number of heritage sites of great importance to democratic South Africa. Both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu lived here at some point in their lives. In 1984, Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition for his non-violent fight against the apartheid regime. Nine years later in 1993, Nelson Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with then-president F.W. de Klerk as an award for their role in bringing about the peaceful end of apartheid. Nelson Mandela then went on to become South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994.
Racy Lady
Slap chips – French fries [slup-chips] An Afrikaans word meaning limp and describing soft, fat French fries. These are usually mixed with tomato sauce and vinegar.