Responding to Xenophobic Violence in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Barking Up the Wrong Tree?

Misago, Jean Pierre

doi:10.14426/ahmr.v2i2.765

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Moreover, as government and civil society interventions have largely struggled to stem xenophobic attacks in South Africa (Misago, 2016) there is a need to adopt community dialogue and inter-community linkages especially when dealing with grievances. Community dialogue is vital for creating a communication line between different groups to resolve conflicts or differences that may emerge.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Xenophobia in urban spaces: Analyzing the drivers and social justice goals from the Ugandan-Asian debacle of 1972 and xenophobic attacks in South Africa (2008-2019)

Sempijja

Mongale

2022

Front. Sustain. Cities

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Xenophobic attacks have long been prevalent in post-independence Africa, as shown by the expulsion of Ugandans of Asian origin from Uganda in 1972. Post-apartheid South Africa has experienced continuous xenophobic attacks on Africans since 2008. In both cases the attacks were not framed as xenophobic by the state. Instead, they were framed within a socio-economic context, where the targeted groups were criminalized and securitised by the general population. The goal of this qualitative study is to analyse the drivers and social justice goals of xenophobia in urban spaces. This is done by looking into case studies of the 1972 Ugandan-Asian expulsion in Uganda, and the xenophobic attacks on foreigners in South Africa (2008–2019). The case studies provide key debates surrounding the drivers and social justice goals of xenophobic attacks in both Uganda and South Africa. The paper thus examines the relative deprivation in both countries, which assists in explaining the onset of the xenophobic attacks. Findings are that although the Ugandan-Asian debacle and xenophobic attacks in South Africa were triggered by drivers such as income inequality, inter-group hatred, racism, poverty, unemployment and competition for resources, the quest for social justice emanating from historical socio-economic grievances was deeply entrenched in both cases. Yet the paper further argues that rather than addressing social injustice, xenophobia perpetuates it by creating new victims and shielding the governments from the spotlight on their failings especially in addressing poverty, inequality, and overall access to economic opportunities to mention but a few. The paper recommends a need for political will to tackle xenophobia and the socio-economic challenges and a need for community dialogue and inter-community linkages crucial when dealing with grievances.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Xenophobia in urban spaces: Analyzing the drivers and social justice goals from the Ugandan-Asian debacle of 1972 and xenophobic attacks in South Africa (2008-2019)

Sempijja

Mongale

2022

Front. Sustain. Cities

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“…In between the 2008 and 2015 attacks, it is believed that more than 360 immigrants lost their lives in isolated attacks across the country (Misago, 2016). All along, the site of these attacks was mainly the townships and informal settlements, where poverty and unemployment are most acutely experienced.…”

Section: Historicising and Contextualising Migration And Xenophobia I...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“South Africa belongs to all who live in it”

Chiumbu

Moyo

2022

JCSA

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A growing body of literature on media and xenophobia in South Africa has shown that the depictionof immigrants by the mainstream print media is overwhelmingly negative, and this in turn enforcesnegative stereotypes that contribute to further xenophobic attacks. This paper adds a dimensionthat is missing from existing research to focus on media representation of immigrants withinquestions around citizenship and identity.. The arguments driving this paper are inspired by theproclamations in the South African Constitution preamble, which states that “South Africa belongsto all who live in it, united in our diversity”. This paper analyses how selected print media in thecountry construct immigrants in the context of identity and belonging. We start from the premisethat as a social institution, the media play an important role in shaping policies on immigrationthat have a bearing on these matters. Using theories of media and national identity, the paperexamines thematic frames used by the selected newspapers to construct the image of immigrantsduring three periods of xenophobic violence, in 2008, 2015, and 2017. Our main argument isthat while the media have played a significant role in creating awareness about the scourge ofxenophobia, they have, wittingly or unwittingly, used narrative frames that justify the exclusion offoreigners, thereby entrenching a perception of insiders and outsiders, citizens and non-citizens.In the process, they also reinforce fears of a national takeover by the foreign “other”. Thesearguments hold significance in the broader debates about the transformation of the print mediaand its role in the on-going process of nation-building.

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“…They develop imaginaries about the people with whom they share space. Some of these imaginaries approach a cautious cosmopolitanism (Landau and Freemantle, 2010) while others are intolerant (Misago, 2016). Many residents of the province are alienated, describing their acquisition of citizenship as empty given their material poverty .…”

Section: Imaginaries Of the De-racialisation Of The Good Life Have Be...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: The urbanisation of imagination in South Africa

Ballard¹,

Mapukata²

2022

South African Urban Imaginaries: Cases From Johannesburg

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Richard completed an honours degree in Geography at the University of Natal (1994) and a PhD at the University of Wales-Swansea (2012). He worked as a researcher at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on contract from 2000 to 2006. From 2006 to 2014, he held an academic position in the School of Development Studies, initially on Senior Lecturer level and then at Associate Professor level. He joined the Gauteng City-Region Observatory in 2015 as a Principal Researcher. He has published on the dynamics of race and urban desegregation, gated communities, social movements, participatory processes, local democracy, cross-border migrants, urban developers, megaprojects in the human settlement sector, the middle class and development, cash transfers, governance and development, and industrial restructuring.

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Responding to Xenophobic Violence in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Barking Up the Wrong Tree?

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Xenophobia in urban spaces: Analyzing the drivers and social justice goals from the Ugandan-Asian debacle of 1972 and xenophobic attacks in South Africa (2008-2019)

Xenophobia in urban spaces: Analyzing the drivers and social justice goals from the Ugandan-Asian debacle of 1972 and xenophobic attacks in South Africa (2008-2019)

“South Africa belongs to all who live in it”

Introduction: The urbanisation of imagination in South Africa

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