Xenophobia and Politicians

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but it feels like I posted last week when really it was about a month and a half ago!  It’s hard to believe it’s already May…  This place and these people really feel more like more and more every week.  Anyway, here’s a blog post on something I know very little about, and yet still seem to have a strong opinion on:

Perhaps you've heard about the recent violence in South Africa.  You may be shocked and appalled at the xenophobic attacks like I was at first, but everyone else here in Southern Africa is not surprised and disappointed.  Xenophobia is nothing new in SA, and these attacks are just the most recent in a long list of hate crimes against immigrants.  Seven years ago dozens of people died in attacks in Johannesburg that even spread to Cape Town.  In fact, just a few months ago in January, several immigrant-owned businesses were burned.

Supposedly the attacks began after Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini called immigrants lice that must be removed, though he’s since called the violence that broke out “vile”.  The UN, on the other hand, states that the attacks were sparked by labor disputes between citizens and foreign workers.  The truth is that this sparking event matters about as much as the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand before WWI… so none.  When you have that much kindling below that much dry tinder, the thing is bound to catch fire, whether it be from a match, a spark, or even a lightning strike.  So let’s look at the set up towards these events rather than the final strike:

Now I've heard harsh words directed at immigrants everywhere, including the United States.  An annoyingly prevalent theory exists that immigrants are taking jobs from Americans.  My response is always to ask these people if they would like to work on a farm all-day-every-day for less than minimum wage.  No?  That’s what I thought.  The average income of a crop worker in the US is $10,000 to $12,499 a year, so good luck with that.  If farm labor seems too extreme for you I can take it down a notch: be my guest and work at McDonald’s for minimum wage (7.25 an hour).  I invite you to do an activity my mom gives her students at Colorado College and create a reasonable budget with that minimum wage.  Seriously, that’s $15,000 a year.  In no state is it possible for a minimum wage worker to afford a two-bedroom apartment at a Fair Market Rent working the standard 40 hours a week.  I’d also like to point out that while a McDonald’s worker makes $7.75 an hour on average, McDonald’s CEO James Skinner makes $9,247 an hour… I’m just saying!  Okay that little tangent aside, basically people say the same thing everywhere: “Those dang immigrants are taking all our jobs!”  Now in the US, unless stated by someone who truly wants to work for these inhumane wages, this statement is just blatantly incorrect.  In South Africa, this may not be the same situation.

The unemployment rate in SA is a staggering 25% compared to the US rate of 5.5%.  Even more shocking, jobless black South Africans account for half of the young population in SA, compared to 10% unemployment among black Americans.  This foundation is pretty flammable kindling if you ask me.

However, the anger inspired by these staggering statistics should not, in my opinion, be released on immigrants.  The nation has around 2 million documented and undocumented immigrants, comprising of about 4% of the total population.  In the US, immigrants make up 13% of the total population at 41.3 million.  Despite this, I believe the US and SA have something in common when it comes to immigration: I think South Africa is to many Africans what the United States is the rest of the world.  I think there is such thing as the South African dream which is very similar to the American dream: it is the land of opportunity, democracy, and wealth.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Namibia is 28% while the immigration population is also larger than SA’s, making up 6.6% of the population due largely to the booming mining industry.  This begs the question, why aren't Namibians breaking out in regular violence towards immigrants and foreigners too?  All of the Namibians I know are shaking their heads in disappointment at South African xenophobia.  Namibians are proud of their peaceful country and booming economy with a 5.1% GDP growth rate in 2013.  Namibia and South Africa have a similar history of colonial rule and apartheid, so why is Namibia so peaceful?  On the other hand, I have heard countless negative, and even derogatory, comments towards “The Chinese” from many Namibians.  Everything from “they’re taking our jobs,” “they make crap products,” to even “they just smell,” has been stated in conversation.  Now I can’t speak about the role of Chinese immigrants in Namibia, but I can say that a lot of the comments I’ve heard sound pretty xenophobic.  I don’t think violence will break out in Namibia anytime soon, but I wonder how xenophobia took such a strong hold in Southern Africa and what can be done now to turn things around.

So if immigrants are the wrong target for violence in South Africa, who should South Africans be angry at for the huge unemployment rates?  Now I stated at the beginning of this post that this is a blog about a topic that I know very little about but still seem to have a strong opinion on, and I’m about to take that to the extreme, so prepare for some uninformed opinions.  I never cease to be amazed at how loyal Southern Africans are to their political parties.  Jacob Zuma, from the African National Congress won the last presidential election with 62.15% of the vote.  This is a huge win in comparison to Obama’s victory, for example, with 51.1% of the vote.  In Namibia, Hage Geingob from the SWAPO party won with 86.73% of the vote!  I watched a news story on NBC (Namibian Broadcasting Centre) the other day where they interviewed candidates for a leadership position in Swakopmund.  The reporter asked each candidate what they considered to be the big issue of the election.  The candidates gave various answers from jobs to land, until finally the man in the green, blue, and red (SWAPO) scarf approached the microphone and said something along the lines of “Just look at the SWAPO party agenda.”  My jaw dropped; can you imagine a US candidate saying something like that?!  Imagine Hilary Clinton answering a question in a debate about gay marriage with, “just go google democratic beliefs, it’s all there.”  Fact is, the SWAPO candidate will win regardless of what he says, so why put too much effort into it?  At the same time, I’ve heard some discussion on whether Southern African countries should move away from the liberation parties towards other options.  While in Namibia, this does not seem to be happening according to the election numbers, in SA the ANC lost 15 seats in the National Assembly while the DA won 22 and the new Economic Freedom Fighters won 25.  The new EFF party likely split the vote and helped take some of the seats from the ANC, but I think more political debates than ever are occurring all over Southern Africa; liberation parties are ceasing to be a foregone conclusion.  Though I still don’t know enough about Namibian or South African politics to know what each parties believe, and therefore whom I might support, it seems that with such a high unemployment rate, perhaps South Africans and Namibians should be angry at their politicians instead of each other, foreign or not.  I will never cease to be shocked when I pass Topnaar homes hanging the SWAPO flag high and proud.  The Topnaar are some of the most marginalized people in Namibia; why on earth would someone totally ignored by the government still support it?  My guess is a lack of education.  When few Namibians, or South Africans, know about the political ideology behind their parties, and what these ideologies might look like if put into reality, of course they vote for the party that liberated them.  Can’t go wrong there… or could you?  I wonder what Mandela thought of the ANC and the political state of South Africa at the end of his life.

So at the end of this blog post, maybe I’ll go back to the spark: King Goodwill Zwelithini’s cruel comments about immigrants.  Despite the fact that these attacks would have broken out eventually even without the hateful comments from the Zulu King, he is an excellent example of a politician at which South Africans should direct their anger.  Now Goodwill Zwelithini was not elected, but instead inherited his rule from his father, and only serves as a glorified figurehead with no tangible decision-making powers.  However, he rules over the Zulus: the largest ethnic group in SA with 10-11 million people.  Every politician can go on condemning the attacks, but not one will stand up and condemn Zwelithini.  When millions of Zulus respect his opinions, speaking against the King would amount to political suicide.  Perhaps it will take a brave liberation politician standing up against not only the attacks, but also the figure-head who acts as the spark to begin moving forward from xenophobia.