‘Strangers in their own country’: interpreting xenophobic symbology and gang subcultures in vulnerable coloured communities

Abstract

Strangers in their own country': interpreting xenophobic symbology and gang subcultures in vulnerable coloured communitiesIn South Africa, xenophobia is most used and understood in relation to people from different nationalities, cultures or languages other than South African. Xenophobia is often interpreted as South Africans exhibiting prejudice or discrimination against people of other nationalities. This article seeks to reconstruct this "externality" notion, by arguing that xenophobic attitudes can also be directed internally. Du Pre (1992) in Strangers in their Own Country provided a political history of the coloured people of South Africa. A dominant feature of his analysis is the stigmatisation and marginalisation of coloured people throughout their history. This article posits that the stigmatisation and marginalisation of vulnerable coloured communities continue, and should be regarded as xenophobia. With reference to gang subcultures, the article shows how this xenophobia manifests in vulnerable gang-affected coloured communities, not only from the outside, but even within coloured communities themselves.

Racial discrimination in post-Apartheid South Africa? The stories of Coloured people in Johannesburg, South Africa

“…Race-based discrimination and marginalization has characterized the history of South Africa for centuries. Race has always been a primary organizing factor to access economic resources and political power (Chen, 2021; Frederickson, 1981; Maylam, 2001; Petrus and Uwah, 2022). Racial discrimination in South Africa emerged when European settlers appeared in the Cape in the 17 th century (Christopher, 2001; Guelke, 2005; Maylam, 2001).…”

“…Many race scholars have examined the lived experiences of Coloured South Africans in regards to racial marginalization in the post-Apartheid democratic dispensation (e.g., Battersby, 2002; Kenny and Davids, 2022; Petrus and Uwah, 2022). For example, in a doctoral thesis entitled, ‘A Question of Marginalization: Coloured Identities and Education in the Western Cape, South Africa’, Battersby (2002) investigated experiences of racial discrimination of Coloured people in the Western Cape province and writes about the socioeconomic condition of Coloured people after the end of Apartheid as,socially and economically marginalized under the current government as they were under apartheid, Coloured population continue to be marginalized by educational practices in the Western Cape…many members of the Coloured population believe that they are as marginalized in the post-apartheid era as they were under apartheid.…”

“…In their article entitled, ‘Strangers in their own country’: interpreting xenophobic symbology and gang subcultures in vulnerable Coloured communities’, Petrus and Uwah (2022) describe the post-Apartheid situation of Coloured people in South Africa as internalized xenophobia where Coloured people in contemporary South Africa are racially marginalized under the Black African-majority government. Petrus and Uwah (2022) write that[l]ack of service delivery, poor socioeconomic conditions, unemployment and various other indicators of marginalisation, all form part of the structural violence perpetrated against these [Coloured] communities…the present perceptions of marginalisation and stigmatisation of vulnerable coloured communities is partly the result of historical factors, but now they are also the result of macrolevel structural violence against these communities…Post-1994, the negative meanings attached to coloured identities persisted, and this is what has given rise to what we call internalised xenophobia. (pp.…”

“…The above quote suggests the structural/institutional racial marginalization Coloured people face in post-Apartheid South Africa due to their non-Black African racial status. Petrus and Uwah (2022) further suggest thatcoloured communities also feel themselves targeted by external macro-level policies that entrench their marginalised and stigmatised status in the minds of those outside of these communities.” (pp. 172).…”

“…Regarding negative collective self-image that experiences and perceptions of racial discrimination created among Coloured, Petrus and Uwah (2022) also write that “…stigmatisation and marginalisation, engender within vulnerable coloured communities’ perceptions of being unwanted strangers.” (pp. 174).…”