Xenophobic Violence In South Africa Research Articles

Responding to xenophobic violence in South Africa: identity negotiation and language practices of Nigerian immigrants in Cape Town and Johannesburg

This study reflects on language use and identity navigation in the context of xenophobia. It specifically examines language practices by Nigerian Igbo immigrants as they relate to negotiating social and national identities, as well as motivations of the language practices and how they relate to evading xenophobic attacks. The study employs an interactional sociolinguistics framework, and drew on semi-structured interviews, ethnographic, participant observation, focus group discussions and documentation of lived experiences involving 20 participants in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The study identifies language practices such as code- (or emblematic) switching, translanguaging, language learning and innovations and adoptions employed by the immigrants to navigate social and national identities. Key themes relating to the motivations for the language practices include the need for integration, safety and livelihood. The language practices tell a story of xenophobic experiences, and of the immigrant’s response to try to evade such attacks, violence, or threats. This represents original insight into the South African context, as well as a unique contribution to knowledge in terms of how language and language use mirrors life in society.

Petty corruption experiences and xenophobic violence in South Africa

ABSTRACT Past studies have shown that corruption can promote conflict and instability. However, the capacity for corruption to influence anti-immigrant violence has received little academic attention. This article examines the relationship between experiences of petty corruption and public participation in violent xenophobic behaviour. It draws on Moral Foundations Theory to argue that corruption experiences undermine the moral inhibitors that prevent an individual from engaging in violence. The study focused on South Africa (where xenophobic violence seems to have accelerated during the last two decades) and used data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey. It found a robust association between the frequency of petty corruption experience and participation (past and intentional) in xenophobic violence. This finding holds even when controlling for variables that capture anti-immigrant sentiment, material deprivation and socio-political mobilisation. The article concludes by arguing that reducing xenophobic violence in South Africa will require strengthening efforts to decrease petty corruption.

Church and xenophobia: The tension between nationhood and God’s mission in South Africa

The perennial scourge of xenophobic violence in South Africa raises some questions about the nation’s hospitality to immigrants. Unexpectedly, Christians are also torn between loyalty to the prevailing anti-immigrant sentiments and the obligation to be hospitable to foreigners. This article, therefore, seeks to explore this tension, and the objective is achieved by surveying pertinent literature.Having traced the history of xenophobic violence from the dawn of South Africa’s independence in 1994 to the present day, the article discusses the involvement of Christians in xenophobic violence, which can be viewed as a paradox. Thus, the article thoroughly reflects on God’s mission to foreigners and how the Church, a God-ordained community, fulfils that mission, which began in the Old Testament, when God anointed Israel as the vehicle of redemption for the world. Unfortunately, Israel failed to accomplish the mission, which was ultimately fulfilled by Jesus Christ, who ordained the Church as the new covenant community that would fulfil the aforesaid mission. This study reveals that all people, including foreign nationals, bear the image of God, who indiscriminately loves and cares for all of them. God’s legislation in Israel’s history and the New Testament Church attest to that. The article concludes by exposing the tension experienced by South African Christians, as well as proposing a thrust for Christians to participate in God’s mission by practising sacrificial love and hospitality to foreigners.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This is an interdisciplinary article that looks at theological and sociological issues of co-existence.

Students’ perceptions of the influence of media on perpetuating xenophobia in South African universities

Immigration and emigration are inevitable however, some South Africans have shown a strong dislike of those coming from other countries, in the form of xenophobia. Several studies have attributed the prevalence of xenophobia in South African communities to socio-economic, sociopolitical and scapegoating issues, with some researchers highlighting the role of the media in perpetuating xenophobia-related violence. On the other hand, xenophobia in institutions of higher learning in South Africa, which are a microcosm of society, has been under-prioritised in exploring the prevalence of xenophobia. This article aims to explore students’ perceptions on the influence of media stereotypes of foreign nationals on xenophobia-related behaviours in selected higher education institutions. In part, it aims to explore students’ perceptions on the influence of media-perpetuated stereotypes that may be attributed to possible symbolic xenophobia among university students. Therefore, this article looked at three South African universities, namely the University of Fort Hare, Alice Campus in the Eastern Cape province; the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard Campus in KwaZulu-Natal province; and the University of Johannesburg, Soweto Campus in Gauteng province. To achieve the aims of this study, a qualitative case study approach, based on the interpretivist design, was adopted. A nonprobability sampling method, based on purposive sampling and the snowball sampling technique, was used to select participants in this study. Data were generated through focus group discussions and analysed through thematic analysis. The findings of this article revealed that xenophobic attitudes, behaviour and perceptions were prevalent among university students. The South African print media’s perpetuated negative stereotypes and its adoption of derogatory names – amakwerekwere, amagrigamba, aliens, illegal immigrants, ‘my friend’ – to represent immigrants (especially from other African countries) were highlighted as some of the contributing factors toward ongoing xenophobic violence. As part of the recommendations of this study, the Student Representative Council (SRC) and other student communities, together with students in general, have a role to play in promoting xenophobia-free university campuses through antixenophobia campaigns.Transdisciplinarity Contribution: Most xenophobic-related studies show that media reportage has an influence on xenophobic violence in South Africa. This study therefore shifts its focus toward South African universities to investigate the prevalence of xenophobia among students and explores students’ perceptions of the influence of media in perpetuating xenophobic-related violence

Xenophobic violence in South Africa, online disinformation and offline consequences

ABSTRACT Despite the paucity of evidence determining the aptitude of malicious online content to influence people to resort to violence, social media is fast becoming one of the catalysts of contemporary xenophobic narratives. Malicious contents in the form of fake news and hate speech are increasingly contributing to enflame online and offline tensions and violence. Focusing on September 2019 anti-foreigner violence in South Africa, this paper aims to assess the way misleading online content migrates into real-word attitudes and actions such as anti-migrant violence, reprisals, and counterviolence actions. Based data collected online and group discussions with young Africans in two African countries after the September 2019 outbreak of violence, our findings indicate a consistent positive association between exposition of young Africans across the continent to online content on violence in South Africa and their resentment against South Africans. Nevertheless, our findings could not establish a strong positive correlation between exposition to fake news and outbreak of violence. It is then not sure if messages shared on social media resort to violent offline actions. Taking the example of South Africa, our discussion assessed the propagation of deceitful content via social media, as a strategy for actors (community and political leaders) to advance ideas and social positions in the struggle for livelihood, identity, and sovereignty. The paper concludes that investing in digital media literacy could contribute to reduce the belief in online disinformation and the migration of emotions they create, into offline attitudinal and behavioural actions.

Factors Underlying Return Migration Decisions among Nigerian Victims of 2019 Xenophobic Violence in South Africa

Abstract Studies on xenophobic violence have mainly focused on their causes and effects, but have yet to probe how victimisation experiences of xenophobia trigger migration intentions and actual practices. In a balance of tales, I examine how families contributed to staying put/return decisions by Nigerian migrants in South Africa following the September 2019 xenophobic violence. The study asks: to what extent do family facilitate and/or contribute to the decision to return? And how do return strategies unveil the centrality of family in taking migration decisions? Data emerged through online interviews with Nigerian immigrants in South Africa who stayed put, and six family members in Nigeria were reached through snowball sampling. This was supplemented with secondary interviews conducted with Nigerian returnees in three National newspapers (The Punch, Vanguard, Nigerian Tribune and The Nation newspapers). Findings show the centrality of family in both migration intentions, staying-put, and the actual practices of Nigerian victims of xenophobia in South Africa.

MEDIA COVERAGE OF XENOPHOBIC VIOLENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA: A CASE STUDY OF THE SUNDAY TIMES E-EDITION AND TIMESLIVE

Ponte Academic JournalApr 2022, Volume 78, Issue 4 MEDIA COVERAGE OF XENOPHOBIC VIOLENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA: A CASE STUDY OF THE SUNDAY TIMES E-EDITION AND TIMESLIVEAuthor(s): Yolokazi Nokwe ,Nisha Ramlutchman, Shaun RuggunanJ. Ponte - Apr 2022 - Volume 78 - Issue 4 doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2022.4.5 Abstract:News media play an important role in not only informing the public, but also in shaping public opinion. Whether unconsciously, or consciously, the media frame and set the agenda of news by the selection of news items. In doing so, public opinion is thus shaped and framed. It is therefore imperative and critical that news is presented in a fair, unbiased and responsible manner. This paper analysed online media coverage of the April 2015 xenophobic attacks in South Africa. Specifically, the focus was on the Sunday Times E-edition and its counterpart TimesLive. Online news articles result in the rapid dissemination of news stories and therefore have the potential to influence and precipitate discourse on a range of issues. The April 2015 xenophobic attacks resulted in extensive media coverage across South Africa and prompted both national, pan-African and global discourse. The research employed a qualitative research methodological approach through a thematic analysis of selected online newspaper articles focusing on the xenophobic attacks. The findings revealed that although the media under analysis reported on the event in a fair manner, priority was given to news items focusing on violent xenophobic attacks rather than other related news stories (like, for example, protest marches against the xenophobic attacks). Download full text:Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Username Password

6 - Shooting the Messenger: Mediating the Public and the Role of the Media in South Africa’s Xenophobic Violence

In the wake of the outbreak of xenophobic violence in South Africa in May 2008, in which sixty people died and tens of thousands were displaced, a fierce debate erupted on the role of the media. The focus of the criticism was South Africa’s newly-established tabloid press which is accused of fomenting violence and exacerbating tension by publishing inflammatory headlines and posters. But to what extent can the tabloid press really be blamed for aggravating the conflict? The scholarly literature on media effects suggests that direct causality is hard to prove. The accusation says much, however, about media-state- society relations in post-apartheid South Africa; it also raises questions about the state of the public sphere and the role of the media within it. Field work conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council in four South African informal settlement areas affected by the recent violence indicates that the tabloids certainly cannot be blamed directly for fanning the violence. But it does seem to confirm what thousands of protests in the past year have strongly hinted at: there has been a communications breakdown in South Africa at a local level between communities and the state, as well as within communities, which lies at the root of much of the anger and violence. By failing to respond to this breakdown and act on its liberal imperative of providing a “voice for the voiceless”, the media may be more complicit than it, or the literature, is willing to acknowledge.

The Roots of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa—A Pan African Response

The Roots of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa—A Pan African Response

Decolonization, Neo-Apartheid and Xenophobic Violence in Phaswane Mpe’s Welcome to Our Hillbrow

ABSTRACT South Africa is undoubtedly one of the most unreceptive destinations in the world for black African refugees due to the prevalent xenophobic violence since the dismantling of apartheid in 1994. Previous research claimed that attitudes of intolerance and xenophobia towards foreigners were results of social and economic insufficiencies. Yet, this study argues that apartheid was not really dismantled, and that incomplete decolonization led to a state of neo-apartheid which catalysed citizens towards aggression and intolerance against foreigners. The article looks at Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001) by Phaswane Mpe through the lens of Fanons’ concept of decolonization, and attributes the actions of xenophobic violence in South Africa to the incomplete process of decolonization after apartheid. The article concludes that unsuccessful liberation and incomplete decolonization can lead to a state of neo-colonialism and ultimately, neo-apartheid. Xenophobic violence is triggered and motivated by the reality that nothing has really changed in South Africa even after the dismantlement apartheid.

Xenophobia in South Africa: An Insight into the Media Representation andTextual Analysis

This paper examines print media coverage of xenophobicrelated behaviours and its possibility to incite xenophobic violence in South Africa considering the fact that the press has had accusations of publishing unbalanced and inconsistent stories about xenophobic-related violence. The method adopted was textual analysis of the selected South African newspapers’ headlines. Thus, this paper has made use of headlines from the Daily Dispatch, The Citizen, Sunday Times, Business Daily, and Independent Online news (IOL), between the period of May 2008 to August 2018. Interestingly, most of the selected newspapers in this paper have published vastly during this period, and they have been accused of misrepresentation, biasness, unbalanced reportage mostly on xenophobic-related violence. The findings of this paper revealed that these headlines are capable to putting readers on the edge and thus incite xenophobic violence across the country. In an attempt to discourage xenophobic behaviours, this paper has therefore recommended peace journalism and Ubuntu journalism as alternative models for reporting xenophobic violence and conflict.

Imagining Zimbabwe as home: ethnicity, violence and migration

Abstract:Migration debates tend to focus on the numbers of people moving, whether they are economic migrants or asylum seekers, deserving or not of protection. This categorization usually rests on national identity, necessitating simplified one-dimensional representations. Ndlovu uses a case study of Zimbabwean migrants memorializing Gukurahundi in Johannesburg to highlight the ways in which migration narratives can be more complex and how they may shift over time. She presents Gukurahundi and the formation of the MDC in Zimbabwe, along with xenophobic violence in South Africa, as examples of the ways that the meanings of national and ethnic identities are contested by the migrants and influenced by political events across time and space.

XENOPHOBIA AND CITIZENSHIP IN MEG VANDERMERWE’S ZEBRA CROSSING

Purpose of the study: In the past two decades several researchers have explored the concern of xenophobia in South African fiction. Studies sought to determine the reasons behind the prevalence of xenophobic violence in South Africa. Previous research on xenophobia claims that xenophobic violence is prevalent in the state is, in fact, due to economic and social reasons only. Yet, this article aims to correct the misconception of the Rainbow Nation that South Africa was supposed to have been achieved after 1994. 
 Methodology: The text Zebra Crossing (2013) by the South African novelist Meg Vandermerwe is under the focus. The concept of Michael Neocosmos of Citizenship from the postcolonial theory is applied to the selected text. A close reading of the text and qualitative research is the method of my analysis. The article will focus on the acts of violence reflected in the text in an attempt to find the reasons behind such acts. Neocosmos' valid conceptualization about the outbreaks of xenophobia in South Africa in the post-apartheid is applied to the selected text.
 Main Findings: the article will conclude that the notion of the rainbow nation in South Africa is no more than a dream due to the outbreaks of xenophobia and the ongoing violence against foreigners. It will also prove that the continuous xenophobic violence in South Africa is not because of social or economic reasons only yet, there is a political discourse that engenders and triggers the natives to be more xenophobic. Thus, the state politics of exclusion, indigeneity, and citizenship are the stimuli for citizens to be more aggressive and violent against foreigners.
 Applications of this study: the study will add new insight to the domain of English literature generally and the South African literature specifically. The study will be valuable in immigration literature as it deals with the plights of migrants in South Africa and their suffering from xenophobic violence. The study is located in the postcolonial approach.
 Novelty/Originality of this study: the study offers new insight towards xenophobia in South Africa. The concept applied in the study has not been explored so far in the selected text. Previous research claimed that xenophobia in South Africa is due to economic and social reasons but did not focus on the legacies of postcolonialism nor the new political system. The study is original and new as it discusses an ongoing and worldwide phenomenon utilizing a new concept.

The Implication of Xenophobic Violence on Nigeria-South Africa Relations

The renewed xenophobic attacks in South Africa on Nigerians and other Africans is an ugly trend that raises serious concern among experts and analysts of foreign relations. The latest scenario in Pretoria has resulted in the loss of innocent lives and valuable properties destroyed by some militant youths in South Africa. According to Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Advisor, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the country has lost about 116 nationals due to the unlawful acts of some hoodlums in South Africa. This remains a significant setback and which poses a threat to the external relations of Nigeria and South Africa. The research relies on secondary data, such as journals, books, Internet materials, newspaper and official communications between South Africa and Nigeria. The ugly trend of xenophobic attack has resulted in a cold war between Nigeria and South Africa in their socio-economic and political relationships. However, the paper infers that adequate actions are required to be taken to restore and guarantee peace for the immigrants residing in South Africa. Failure to curb the menace of xenophobic violence in South Africa might degenerate into regional conflict which invariably will affect the relationship between both nations in all ramifications. The research contributes to existing literature on the issue of xenophobic attack and its impact on foreign relations; it also gives insight on the recent xenophobic attack which occurred in 2017 and its impact on Nigeria and South Africa relations.

Xenophobic violence and criminality in the KwaZulu-Natal townships

This study’s focus on the xenophobic violence in South Africa is topical, mostly concentrating on the economic competition between foreign nationals and local people as a root cause. Whilst the South African government’s record of poor governance has led to a high crime rate, poor service delivery, corruption and poorly implemented and enforced legislations have been overlooked and disassociated with xenophobia. The current study explores other forces that have triggered the xenophobic violence in South Africa in 2015 with a clear focus on the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The study aims to ascertain some of the causes and dimensions of the xenophobic violence and the government’s inability to detect and respond to such a catastrophe in KwaZulu-Natal. The research methodology chosen was interpretivism, utilising qualitative in-depth interviews. Seventeen informants, comprised of community activists, non-governmental organisations and government officials, including the South African Police Service, were interviewed. Four major themes that triggered and influenced xenophobia emerged in this study. Firstly, there is economic competition amongst foreign nationals who use local gangs to attack their competitors, as well as competition between foreigners and local business owners. Secondly, the study established an association between xenophobia and criminal business, where both victims and perpetrators compete over turf and skills in committing crimes. Thirdly, the study noted the inability of the state to employ risk-reduction to prevent and mitigate the impacts of xenophobia. Fourthly, the state apparatus’s failed to detect, prevent or mitigate the impact and respond timeously. A number of themes and issues untouched in previous research surfaced. This study necessitates the need for municipalities to develop or review by-laws on economic development in the townships and in the informal settlements by regulating informal businesses. The research study will further encourage the government to apply effective, efficient and appropriate crime-intelligence strategies that can detect or combat any sign of xenophobia in all sectors of society. The study will contribute to the conceptual and theoretical empirical developments and realities regarding the issues, as well as the policy, as most studies published on xenophobic violence have concentrated on the economic dimension, to the exclusion of other underlying causes.

Political Mobilisation as the Trigger of Xenophobic Violence in Post-Apartheid South Africa

What triggers xenophobic violence in South Africa? By answering this deceivingly simple but critical question, this paper highlights an often-missed empirical factor and key element in the xenophobic violence causal chain: mobilization. Drawing from extensive, comparative empirical data and global literature, the paper argues that, while macro and micro-level socio-economic and political circumstances are important elements in heightening tensions and creating collective discontent, anger and resentment towards foreign nationals, it is the mobilization of this discontent and not the discontent itself that triggers xenophobic attacks in locations where they occur. Mobilization is the vital connective tissue between discontent and xenophobic violence. Local violence entrepreneurs use well-known mobilization techniques, including haranguing and parochial patronage, to stir crowds into targeted and well-organized violent attacks of foreign nationals in South Africa. While this argument is in line with existing theoretical approaches that emphasize mobilization as a key causal factor in the occurrence of collective violence, the paper provides useful solid empirical backing these still hesitant approaches require to consolidate their explanatory value and efficacy.

Students’ Attitudes and Perceptions on Xenophobia: A Study of a University in Durban

The recurrence of xenophobic violence in South Africa has been attributed to the proliferation of antimigrant sentiments that stems from social, political, economic and cultural misconceptions and cleavages. The study presents the results of a survey undertaken at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of DUT students on xenophobia in South Africa. A questionnaire was designed and employed to collect data from 547 registered students of a university in Durban. The result reflects the existence of satisfactory awareness on xenophobia and low levels of anti-migrant sentiments which show that the majority of the students are not xenophobic. Traces of xenophobic perceptions and attitudes were observed in the responses of entry-level students from low-income areas, thus pointing to entry-level students and younger students as being more disposed to xenophobic tendencies. This trend echoes normative conceptions concerning xenophobia in South Africa, particularly, as a phenomenon deeply ingrained in socio-economic inadequacies. However, the positive disposition of most students towards xenophobia reaffirms the importance of educational institutions in intercepting negative ethnic/racial sentiments as well as calls for intensified integration programmes and the extension of such into the communities.

Refugees, Violence and Gender: the Case of Women in the Albert Park Area in Durban, South Africa

Women refugees are affected more by violence than any other female group in the world, before, during and after their forced migration experience, because of patriarchy. This paper examines the violence experienced by female refugees in Albert Park in Durban, South Africa. Albert Park is an area dominated by documented and undocumented foreign migrants from African countries, and since 2008, there have been many reported incidents of violence against refugees. The focus of this study is on intimate partner and public violence, the fear of urban public space and the failure of police protection encountered by female refugees as they have attempted to adapt and adjust in a hostile society, in Albert Park. Domestic tensions have emerged from a reversal of traditional patriarchal gender roles as female refugees have often become heads of households, while men had to tend to domestic chores. Female refugees are also afraid of using public space because they were subject to physical attacks, verbal abuse and sexual harassment from refugees, local people and taxi drivers and conductors. This has been aggravated by the high levels of xenophobic violence in South Africa, tensions between local people and foreigners and the knowledge that police protection is limited.

Who Is Welcoming and Who Is Not? An Attitudinal Analysis of Anti-Immigrant Sentiment in South Africa

ABSTRACTRecurrent xenophobic violence in South Africa highlights the strong undercurrent of popular opinion opposition to international immigrants. This article examines public attitudes towards the international immigrant community in South Africa and the factors influencing those attitudes. The author uses public opinion data from the 2014 South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS). The article will show that there is an asymmetry in the processes of opinion formation on immigrants in the country. The findings seemed to call into question the bipolarity of attitudinal measures used in public opinion studies of anti-immigrant sentiment. In addition, the author found that stereotypes about the harmful impact of international immigration were powerful drivers of public antipathy towards foreigners. Greater scrutiny of harmful stereotypes of foreign immigrants voiced by the media, politicians and national leaders is therefore needed.

Xenophobic violence in South Africa: mirroring economic and political development failures in Africa

Xenophobic violence in South Africa existed before the end of the apartheid in 1994 and there lacks evidence that it will end anytime soon. In view of the effects of xenophobic violence on foreigners in South Africa, this article showcases the argument that what regularly happens in South Africa is a reflection of the challenges inherent in African countries. While South Africa has become ‘notorious’ for ‘failing to curb attacks on foreigners working and living in its country, this notion neglects the bigger picture. It is true that South Africa must do more to protect desperate people migrating from their native countries. But the crux of the matter is grounded on why South Africa is a favourite destination for many. The article thus examines two issues – the dynamics of xenophobia and the reasons why people flock to the southern African nation. Overall, the continent’s fathers have failed to deliver on their promise of a peaceful and prosperous Africa thus migration levels continue to soar as people naively search for greener pastures and security.