It is a popular belief that the dog does not eat its own kind. In the past few weeks, this assumption has been proved wrong in South Africa. The camaraderie in animal kingdom if threatened by any enemy incursion is aggressively resisted. It is however surprising to see humans who are more developed care less about one another in similar circumstances. South Africans woke up to use the same cudgels and machetes hitherto used against racists to cut down their fellow Africans to the admiration of their policemen.
The same Africans who formed the vanguard of solidarity to help in the struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa are now being maimed, burnt and slaughtered like chickens. This happened to Nigerians after our soldiers’ shed blood alongside other peace keepers to bring dignity and democracy to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Just last year, in far away Sudan, faceless Sudanese opened fire on our troops on a peace keeping mission in that country. How long our country shall be so shabbily treated by fellow Africans whom we have contributed so much energy, emotions and money to save them from the trauma of apartheid and the ruins foisted on them by their own brothers beats my imagination.
It has been forgotten so soon, how Nigerian musicians and social crusaders sang to fight racism and the apartheid regime in South Africa. One of such popular songs towards this cause is fire in Soweto by the Oziddi King, late Sonny Okosuns. It goes thus “Fire in Soweto, burning all my people……..shooting in Soweto, shooting in Soweto, killing all my people,…..tell me what you gonna do, when the Lord comes down? Tell me where you gonna hide when the Lord says come or what you gonna say when you find out the truth? We need something, nothing that we owe you” this song that was relevant decades ago is even more relevant today. There is fire in Fire South Africa burning all my people. There is fire in Cape Town, rendering my people homeless. They are confiscating the belongings of my people and inheriting what they worked so hard to get. I wonder where those guys carrying out this horrendous and condemnable crime would be when the Lord calls them to account for their roles in this show of shame. Tell me what Mbeki gonna say, when the Lord calls him to account for his stewarship in the protection of immigrants in South Africa during his rule. This is even more shocking because they were not reprisal attacks, but a criminal act stemmed from pure jealousy and man’s inhumanity to man.
I watched the gory sight of a widow whose only son re-entered their apartment to pick a wrapped gift item from the rubbles of what was left of their belongings and in shock over how her former neighbours hooted and booed her and her son as they left their apartment, which had been pad locked and confiscated by the hoodlums. She later told the reporter she didn’t know where to go from there. How can fellow Africans drive Zimbabweans in this their moment of need back into the evil enclave of Robert Mugabe thereby sentencing many of them to further torture and untimely death?
I have delayed this post to see the reactions of Nigerians when the Super Eagles played against the Bafana Bafana team from South Africa in the African nations and world cup qualifiers at AbujaNigeria. During the match, we saw the way our security men came out on horses, with guard dogs to protect any infiltration into the field of play as against the attitude of South African policemen who looked the other way only to leave people to be so brutalized and worst still, watched the victims bleed to death. This is not the first time South Africans have shown utter hatred for Nigerians. Was it not in the same south Africa that our own Wole Soyinka, an acclaimed international figure treated with so much disrespect? Was Soyinka coming to apply for a job in their country too? This ugly incidence occurred in 2005. It took the intervention of the wife of legendary Papa Nelson Mandela to prevent the deportation of Wole Soyinka from South Africa
I have been a victim of the wickedness of some of these criminals in February this year. They ripped my box and bag open at Oliver Tambo airport. The valuables I bought from South Africa were stolen. The case is still before Virgin Nigeria authorities in Nigeria. Mine was nothing compared to those travelers followed from Oliver Tambo airport, stripped and robbed of their foreign currencies. If the reason for this mayhem is poverty and immigrants taking up all available jobs in South Africa, what reasons have they to attack those coming into South Africa to invest their own money or those coming into the country to inject their hard earned money from other lands into their economy in the name of tourism? When my things were stolen on my way back to my country from South Africa, was it done because I had gone to South Africa to take anybody’s job or had also contributed to make anyone poor in South Africa?
It is even more unfortunate that South Africans accusing other immigrants of taking their menial jobs are running into the banks with multi billion dollars from South African investments in other lands. For instance, more than 90% of the communication outfits in Nigeria are corporate citizens of South Africa. While they are busing chasing us away over cleaning services, their investors are repatriating billions of our hard earned money to develop the South African economy.
This wanton destruction of the lives and properties of black immigrants in South Africa marks the descent of black solidarity into the cemetery of darkness and infamy. If uncontrolled, it will mark the beginning of the end of African solidarity. This is where I appeal to Africans to rise against this wicked act and the dehumanization of any human being within and outside the continent. We are a community of people that believe in being our brothers’ keeper. This milk of kindness must not be allowed to run dry. Rather than kill our fellow masses, let us network and form a vanguard of opposition against corruption and greed of our political leaders. We cannot be killing ourselves while those who plundered our resources to build empires for themselves and their families outside their countries are left to enjoy such loots. This current act of South Africans is a distraction from the genuine struggle against poverty, hunger and disease. It is a misdirected attack and should not be encouraged in any land.
If Tambo Mbeki and other regional leaders have ostracized Mugabe, spoken against his misrule, perhaps true democracy would have been enthroned in Zimbabwe thereby preventing this senseless act. Our leaders must be strong in condemning corruption and sit tight leaders. They must be more responsive and sensitive to the plight of immigrants in their countries. They should stop paying lip service to internal security. They must provide their citizens with the basic necessities of life to prevent hunger, disease and poverty, which are the trade marks of African communities. It is in the restoration of human dignity that we can experience the most needed peace. We demand this, and nothing less from all world political leaders. This is a moral debt they owe the people, which must be paid and very soon too.
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