WHAT HOSTILITY IS THIS?? CRY THE BELOVED MOTHERLAND - PUTTING XENOPHOBIA INTO PERSPECTIVE

WHAT HOSTILITY IS THIS?? CRY THE BELOVED MOTHERLAND - PUTTING XENOPHOBIA INTO PERSPECTIVE

We are no longer hunters and gatherers as our forebears were, they  used to live on what they killed and gathered and life would go on for them in that order, each man had to "hustle" for his own and literally bring the meat home. There was no economics as we know it today and killing a leopard or lion for its skin was not a crime, it was the order of life then.

Then came civilisation and innovation which brought with it formalised society and technological advancement which facilitated faster and easier movement of people and goods - enter commerce and economics.

With people moving from far apart locations even beyond the seas and oceans it became necessary to monitor and regulate such movement. No longer do people have to literally hunt and gather for sustenance, we now have industry and commerce. As industry and commerce developed so did an economic phenomenon called ENTREPRENEURSHIP.

Entrepreneurship basically is the taking on of financial risks by setting up a business or enterprise with the hope of making a profit from one's investment. Not everyone is cut out for this kind of work called entrepreneurship for many reasons among them risk aversion and lack of funding or ignorance of available funding models yet entrepreneurship especially looking at small businesses is increasingly becoming a major contributor to driving economic activity the world over.

Entrepreneurs are hardly confined by location, they go where they sense and see opportunities, as a result many an entrepreneur finds themselves doing business in other countries or towns other than their places of origin. They stimulate activity where they set up and become part of the local economy as employers or traders in goods and services consumed by that particular area.

Inevitably the effect of their contribution is direct and immediate in that area with the ripple effects going to the mainstream economy of that country.

By virtue of seeking profit from their enterprise it is only normal and expected for their success to show as the risk taking pays off - enter the ugly phenomenon called XENOPHOBIA.

Notwithstanding the many explanations that have been given for  xenophobia, one cannot help but sense jealousy and bitterness on the part of locals who misinterpret the entrepreneur's success as being a result of opportunities stolen from them. People become irritated and agitated when they see an "outsider"
come to their backyard and eke out a living making profit right in front of them when all they have been doing is complain, point fingers and lay all the blame on government.

Xenophobia comes from a place of internal disgruntlement, it is not naturally easy to kick oneself publicly and say; "how did I not see this opportunity till this person came all the way from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Somalia among other countries whose nationals are found in the rainbow nation that is South Africa?"

As a result of the bitterness, instead of taking cues and drawing lessons from these fellow men and women drawn by the opportunities they saw in this country, people vent their anger, disgruntlement and frustration on these people who have managed to make a living from opportunities which they themselves failed to exploit until someone else arrived and made the best of them.

Xenophobia also exposes the short-sightedness of its perpetrators who to some extent are worse than short-sighted but blind to the fact that these entrepreneurs from outside are actually contributing directly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the
host country. GDP is basically the total value of goods produced and services provided in a country in a particular year. So instead of saying the foreign nationals are stealing opportunities one can decide to realise that THEY ARE ACTUALLY MAKING A CONTRIBUTION!

Xenophobia in light of the above presents the host country as a body at war within itself. One part i.e. government prepares  for and encourages Foreign Direct Investment in particular and foreign investment in general  which includes entrepreneurship by foreign nationals whilst the other part of the same body i.e. some of the citizens fight the smaller scale "FDI" by these entrepreneurs from other countries within the continent and beyond. Looking at the immigrant entrepreneur's businesses one by one yes it looks like small-scale investments but numbers add up to make one big number.

Even FDI brought by the  conglomerates and giant multinational companies presents and get presented with challenges unique to their kind in the form of wage disputes and strikes. This also brings out sticky issues which are complicated to solve.

One therefore realises that Xenophobia is NOT the panacea to macro-economic challenges whose responsibility lies with governments, it is just a destructive mentality and thought process which refuses to look at things objectively and undermines human rights which are internationally recognised and expected to be respected and protected by all signatory countries to the United Nations including South
Africa where this phenomenon keeps rearing its ugly head.

We have discussed what one one can
call the economic and academic technicalities pertaining to Xenophobia, bringing it home now to the social perspective one cannot help but ask "Where is the spirit of UBUNTU which Africa is known for and South Africa in particular having hosted the 2010 soccer world cup?"
The spirit of ubuntu was preached and encouraged everywhere to South Africans and other Africans in the region in order to deliver unparalleled hospitality to visitors and tourists from far and wide.

Have we suddenly forgotten where we've come from as brothers and sisters? Does the plight of those from
other countries not  matter at all? Once upon a time the plight of black South Africans under yet another ugly phenomenon called apartheid mattered to other Africans and nations beyond the continent or were the perpetrators of this Xenophobia not born yet?

Crime and related vices including drug peddling happen yes but to attribute them to a whole group of people simply because one of them has been caught red handed is unfair, illogical and illegal. It's stereotyping and the worst part of it is that people can literally get necklaced simply because they come
from a country one of whose nationals has been found guilty of criminal offences. Even then the rogue foreign nationals tend work in cahoots with locals. Let crime be dealt with in its context and rightfully so.

What hostility is this really? For Africans, living communally and in large numbers is not really a new thing as much as it may not be the ideal thing. Our families themselves are testimony to that, the extended family is not a new concept. People could live together as relatives harmoniously sharing whatever little was available amongst themselves because that is how things were.

Uncles and aunts took in nieces and nephews to raise them as their own for one reason or another. Even simply going to stay at one's uncle or aunt was a wonderful thing to experience be it on school holidays or when the school you went to was nearer to the relative's home than your own.

 People looked out for one another, people lived and worked together. That's being African, that's UBUNTU and that's the hospitality Africans are known for. If one made it in life they would move out and move up without forgetting those ones behind.

How hard is it now to accommodate a fellow African or human being without necessarily having to be African? They are not staying in your house literally but they have set up a stall in your community, they pay rent to the their landlord who is a local. By hounding out this foreign national we jeopardise the income of our neighbour who is a landlord to the foreign national, so who gets affected??

Africa is better off united and standing together to support every son and daughter of the soil who wakes up everyday willing to eke out an honest living and make a contribution to the progress of society both economically and socially. It should not matter who they are or where they come from as long as they are law abiding citizens willing to pay their taxes they should be supported because we rise and fall together as a people.

The ever widening gaps between the haves and have-nots will continue to grow as long as the have-nots misdirect their frustrations and vent them out on the wrong people, the same people who would help make the livelihood better by bringing ideas and economic activity to bridge these gaps.

As many a fallen African hero would say; "Simunye ma Africa, we are one! Together we can do more, united we stand & divided we fall"

Let's pause a bit and pose a question to ourselves- what would Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Chris Hani, Oliver Reginald Tambo, Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, Josiah Tongogara, Samora Machel and yes Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela amongst many other counterparts of theirs say if they woke up in the middle of the hot spots of Xenophobia? Aren't they
turning in their graves?

Hayi man ma Africa! We can do better, let us do better, SIMUNYE, SIBANTUBANYE WE ARE ONE!

THE GOLDEN WORD FOUNTAIN - (TGWF)