by Zamakhize Mkhize, October 2013
In
From Foreign Natives to Native Foreigners
Michael Neocosmos attempts to make sense of the xenophobic incidents that
have plagued South African society since its liberation in 1994. He finds this
wave of xenophobia particularly puzzling and deplorable in light of the support
that South Africans received internationally in the struggle against apartheid.
In May of 2008, a series of riots motivated by xenophobia left 62 people dead.
This book endeavours to provide an all-inclusive and thorough explanation of
the events leading up to this appalling incident. Neocosmos interrogates the political
and social discourse surrounding the incidents.
As
a point of departure Neocosmos questions the existing explanations for acts of
xenophobia and the difficulties inherent in them. One of the main problems he
identifies is that the NGO’s focused on finding such explanations are not so
much concerned with the intellectual understanding of Xenophobia but rather
they are more concerned with ensuring
that foreigners in South Africa have access to their inalienable human rights.
Neocosmos does not contend that this is not a worthy project but it is one that
falls short because “a human rights perspective militates against understanding
for it appears to provide a readymade solution which requires very little
intellectual effort” (Neocosmos, 2010; 3). Such a perspective merely leads to
the conclusion that there is an inappropriate application of the law by the
appropriate state organs. Neocosmos
dismisses other prominent explanations as fundamentally speculative. He
identifies two problems with popular explanations. Firstly he argues that these
explanations do not explain why South Africans scapegoat foreigners and
secondly these explanations do not account for the xenophobic and exclusionary
practices of state institutions and their officials. A solution proposed by
Neocosmos is the bringing back of politics and theory, he argues that xenophobia
should be understood as political discourse and practice.
Neocosmos
draws on Frantz Fanon and states that xenophobia does not amount to one of the
pitfalls of post- modernity but rather it is a problem of the post colony. He
attributes this to the politics of the dominant group following independence.
Fanon argues that the post- colony is founded on indigeneity and is fundamentally
exclusive.
The
second chapter of the book establishes the relationship between the political
economy and the apartheid state. Neocosmos contends that in South Africa
xenophobia is closely connected to the contested terrain of citizenship. The
colonial state in South Africa ruled through a distinction between citizens and
subjects. The result of this was that only those who could show a family
relation to with colonial creation of South Africa. Those who could not prove
this connection were excluded from claiming any of the national resources at
liberation. The interesting aspect of this argument is that during apartheid
the state systematically de-nationalised black South Africans to the point that
they were turned into foreigners. “There was no fundamental distinction drawn by
this state, especially as Bantustans came to be granted independence, between
Black South Africans and Africans from other parts of the region” (Neocosmos,
2010;58). Neocosmos argues that a contributing factor to post independence
xenophobia in South Africa is the way party politics were organised. Xenophobic
discourse perpetuated by the state came about as the result of efforts to
militate against the violent interaction between the UDF/ANC and Inkatha
Freedom Party supporters.
The
third chapter of the book focuses the construction of xenophobic discourse on
post-apartheid South Africa. The South African method of nation building
differed from the international trend and thus opposed the recognition of
ethnic divisions, in stark contrast to the status
quo under apartheid. However noble this cause was, this method of nation
building led to the exclusion of those who were not considered to belong to the
nation. “This process provided one of the conditions within the configuration
of power relations for post-apartheid xenophobia” (Neocosmos, 2010; 62).
Neocosmos
makes a compelling argument for the suggestion that xenophobia is also a legacy
of both the colonial era and the apartheid regime. Victims of xenophobia in
South Africa have consistently been working class black people from other
regions in Africa and not white people from the West. According to Neocosmos
this is indicative of racist practices inherited from the apartheid state.
From Foreign Natives to
Native Foreigners takes a different path
from other texts discussing xenophobia in South Africa. The fundamental
difference is that Neocosmos does not focus solely on the actions of the
so-called perpetrators of xenophobic violence. He also explores the role played
by state institutions and xenophobic discourse propagated by the government.
After apartheid, migrant labour was automatically viewed as intrinsically bad.
Thus an automatic result of the democratic transition was to replace foreign
labour with South African labour. This process was understood as fundamentally
democratic as it worked towards ridding South African society if the remnants
of apartheid. “Clearly the process of
nation building (whether implicit or explicit) is not simply about the creation
of national unity around a common political project, it is also about
demarcating that unity from others – from foreigners (Neocosmos, 2010;77). Thus
we need to understand nation-building as not only the creation of a new
community but also the exclusion of other communities.
With
reference to government xenophobic discourse, Neocosmos uses the example of a
former director General of Home Affairs who was quoted as saying that a large
amount of foreigners are in the country illegally, on top of being in country
illegally they were guilty of an array of other crimes, as well as a former
minister of Home Affairs insinuating that all Nigerian immigrants were
criminals. The effect of this is that statements made by government officials
contribute to the public culture. This fuels the hatred that already exists on
the ground based on economic factors.
Michael
Neocosmos provides the reader with a book that seeks to explain xenophobia in a
uniquely South African context. Neocosmos argues that the roots of xenophobia
are to be found in the politics of the post –apartheid era, where the state
continually stressed the importance of indigeneity. The role played by the
government has led to the hegemony of xenophobic discourse. Ultimately it is
clear that Neocosmos is rejecting the popular explanations for xenophobia and
directs us to look towards political discourse and practice in post-apartheid
South Africa.
