South Africa's Xenophobic attacks expose continent's disjointed agenda

South Africa has experienced a series of xenophobic attacks .[ File , AFP]

In 1994, majority rule came to South Africa with song, tears and the promise of Nelson Mandela's rainbow nation. The country taught the world forgiveness. Behind that miracle stood Pan-Africanists — Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Samora Machel, Kenneth Kaunda, and Kwame Nkrumah, who sacrificed so much for Mandela's release and majority rule. They believed in freedom and a borderless Africa.

Thirty-two years later, South Africa stands as Africa's richest country, with a GDP of about $400 billion. It outpaces Egypt, Algeria and Nigeria. This wealth is a magnet; attracting Teachers from Zimbabwe and Kenya, builders from Mozambique, traders from Nigeria who board buses while others fly to the Rainbow Nation not to invade but to survive.

Consider Kenya. For over three decades, the country has hosted Somalis and Sudanese fleeing war. Kakuma and Dadaab are proof that we can share space with the stateless and afflicted. We have our own troubles: unemployment, debt and corruption, but we have never blamed the Ugandan maid or the Rwandan coffee pedlar. We accommodate them as brothers and sisters.

Recently, when black South Africans turned against blacks from other African countries, it ripped open a debate we have avoided for too long: what is the future of Pan-Africanism? War cries dominated the streets. Mobs wailed, chasing Nigerians, Mozambicans, Zimbabweans, Kenyans and Ghanaians back to their countries. We survived colonialism and slavery because we knew the enemy did not look like us. Today, the South African street calls a Mozambican trader the enemy and a Zimbabwean nurse the enemy. It is shameful that we show open hatred towards each other before the world.

What we saw wasn’t spontaneous rage. It was an organised hate crusade. Who gave the mob its swagger? Who let them demand passports on corners? Did they have immigration files, or were they profiling by accent, skin tone and dress?

It is anarchy, not patriotism, when citizens anoint themselves immigration officers. Look at Durban and Johannesburg. The shops torched belonged to Nigerians and Somalis. The men beaten were Zimbabwean and Mozambicans. Yet Chinese and Indian communities stood untouched. Are we to believe every Chinese shopkeeper and Indian technician holds papers?

If not, this is not law enforcement. It is prejudice wearing a flag. Hardship at home never grants a licence to harass, beat or kill those branded "makwerekwere", a derogatory term for black immigrants.

If this is state-sanctioned sabotage, what is the role of Ramaphosa's government? What is the work of Home Affairs if the street now does deportations? Has immigration become a cancer the state cannot cure, so it outsources the scalpel to the mob? A government that fears diplomatic backlash for deportations cannot hide behind lawlessness and baptise it anger.

Last year Ramaphosa visited the White House and Donald Trump used the meeting to push claims that white farmers are targeted in South Africa. Ironically, with footage of blacks attacking blacks flooding screens, Trump's argument writes itself: if blacks do this to their brothers, what would they do to whites they don’t trust? During Trump's own crackdown, American farmers begged him to ease up because deporting Mexicans crippled harvests. Mass expulsions rarely deliver prosperity.

Sixteen years after hosting the World Cup, South Africa faced Mexico and Africa cheered Mexico. Fans in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and Senegal donned Mexican jerseys, telling the Rainbow Nation its xenophobia will leave it isolated continent-wide.

Where is Africa's voice? The AU was born to silence the guns and unite the people. SADC was created to bind the region in solidarity. ECOWAS exists to guard Africa's dignity. Yet when migrants run for their lives, their statements arrive late, read soft and die by morning. If citizens in Mozambique, Ghana, and Nigeria honour their vow to smoke out South Africans in revenge, where will be our unity as a continent?

The real crisis is not immigration. It is leadership. It is our failure to industrialise, create jobs and give young people a reason to stay home. Until we fix that, the buses to Johannesburg will keep coming. And until Pretoria makes clear that the rule of law binds the mob as tightly as it binds the migrant, African unity will remain a slogan on AU letterheads.

If every African country copies this madness, we face hostility, economic disruption and endless revenge. South Africa's greatness was built on reconciliation, not exclusion. Immigration must be firm, but handled by institutions, not angry crowds. Replace diversity with fear and we bury the dream our fathers died for.

 The writer Is a Kenyan public affairs commentator and governance advocate based in Washington, US