Why the Wretched Kill in Democratic South Africa

Abstract

In South Africa in May 2008 violence targeting foreign nationals resulted in 69 deaths, thousand of displaced people and untold psychosocial trauma. The xenophobic violence has been attributed to a range of factors including criminality, a third force, right-wing elements, persistent culture of violence, globalization and the post-apartheid state’s failure to fulfil social justice needs of the majority of South Africans. Most eminent among these in the idea that xenophobic violence arises from interplay of various socio-economic variables: poverty, inequality, joblessness and poor delivery of municipal services. In this article we take a critical look at such explanations in particular those which resonate with anti-colonial theory and scholarship. While many explanations offer a degree of systemic understanding about violence, they do not explain sufficiently why the “wretched of the earth”, the poor, downtrodden and oppressed kill their own. The article attempts to make sense of heinous acts of xenophobia especially when such acts challenge our assumptions of Ubuntu, namely African humanism and notions of Pan-Africanism articulated by many African nationalist leaders like Thabo Mbeki. An examination of the explanations of xenophobic violence helps to raise critical questions about South Africa’s program for transformation, moral regeneration and compassionate citizenship. These questions are of import to contemporary scholarship on Hind Swaraj and the current increasing focus on self determination, freedom, independence and transformation.