World

South Africa’s Image Suffers After Anti-Immigrant Attacks

Published

10 years ago

April 23, 2015

A man hold a placard prior to a march against immigrant attacks in South Africa, in Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday, April 22, 2015. Police and soldiers officers raided a hostel considered a hotspot for anti-immigrant attacks in downtown Johannesburg as South Africa continued a crackdown in xenophobic violence. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Only a few kilometers (miles) separate Alexandra, a gritty Johannesburg township where South Africans attacked immigrants last week, from Sandton, a district jammed with high-end stores, restaurants and gleaming office towers symbolizing the upper reaches of the prosperity that attracted so many job-seekers to South Africa.

Adding to South Africa’s allure was its image as a “rainbow nation” of diversity and inclusion after white racist rule ended in 1994. Now a nation that seeks to lead in Africa is struggling with perceptions that some of its communities breed intolerance toward foreigners, many from elsewhere in Africa.

The violence against immigrants and the looting of their shops that erupted this month in parts of Johannesburg and the coastal city of Durban appear to have abated after the deaths of three South Africans and four foreigners. On Tuesday, Alexandra was bustling as uniformed students walked home after school and a few police cars patrolled streets lined with shacks made of sheet metal.

The unrest, however, has been a public relations disaster for South Africa, a country that a visiting Zambian said had been perceived as a “heaven of Africa” because of its relative wealth, stability and freedom.

The Zambian, Dennis Nyati, was attending a Johannesburg conference hosted this week by African Monitor, a South Africa-based group that promotes development. Another delegate, Yoadan Workneh Shiferaw of Ethiopia, speculated that South Africans involved in the attacks had forgotten “how cruel it was during apartheid,” when the country’s white minority rulers harshly suppressed dissent.

She said: “Now they’re doing it to someone else.”

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, on Wednesday condemned “the wave of xenophobic violence in South Africa” and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

In a statement, he said he welcomes the public expressions of the many South Africans who have been calling for peaceful coexistence and harmony with foreign nationals. He also urged that all efforts are made to avert future attacks.

More than 2,000 Mozambicans have returned home from South Africa because of the violence, Mouzinho Saide, Mozambique’s deputy health minister, said Wednesday. Hundreds of immigrants have also taken buses back to Malawi and Zimbabwe. As many as 7,000 immigrants are living in South African refugee camps after fleeing their homes, according to Doctors Without Borders.

In Nigeria, South Africa’s diplomatic mission in Lagos decided to close for two days because of demonstrations against the anti-foreigner violence.

More than 300 suspects in the unrest have been arrested, the South African government said, including several people accused of attacking a Mozambican man in Alexandra while a local photojournalist took pictures of the fatal assault.

Namibia’s chamber of commerce and industry canceled a trip to South Africa that was scheduled for May because of the anti-immigrant attacks, the Namibia Press Agency reported. No official business delegation from Namibia will visit until “we are assured that the South African government is in full control of its unruly citizens,” the agency quoted chamber head Tarah Shaanika as saying.

Many South Africans have organized marches, concerts and social media campaigns to condemn the violence. It is a bitter time for a country that was the focus of international attention in December 2013 when foreign leaders traveled to Johannesburg to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa’s first black president, after he died at the age of 95.

“Our rainbow nation that so filled the world with hope is being reduced to a grubby shadow of itself more likely to make the news for gross displays of callousness than for the glory that defined our transition to democracy under Nelson Mandela,” said a statement from a foundation named after retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah. Tutu and Mandela were both awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end apartheid.

South Africa’s national parks service, a key driver in the tourism industry, said some bookings from neighboring countries had been canceled because of the anti-immigrant attacks.

“A large proportion of guests to our national parks are international visitors and we appear to be sending a message that foreigners are not welcome in our country,” the parks agency said in a statement.

Tensions with immigrants, accused by some South Africans in poor areas of seizing economic opportunities at their expense, set off attacks that killed about 60 people in 2008. Several people died in similar attacks in Johannesburg’s Soweto area in January.

High unemployment, a deep gulf between rich and poor and one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world cause social tensions in South Africa, even though it has one of the biggest economies on the continent. The recent attacks mostly targeted low-income areas where immigrants are embedded in the communities, and wealthy areas such as Sandton were untouched.

Some South Africans wondered what happened to the early promise of post-apartheid South Africa, recalling a comment by Mandela during his inauguration in 1994.

Mandela said at the time: “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Jamaican Teen Stopped from Joining Islamic State

Don't Miss

Boko Haram Crisis: Nigeria Begins Sambisa Ground Offensive

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Newsom, Pelosi Welcome Election of First American Pope; Call for Unity and Compassion

“In his first address, he reminded us that God loves each and every person,” said Newsom. “We trust that he will shepherd us through the best of the Church’s teachings: to respect human dignity, care for the poor, and wish for the common good of us all.” Newsom also expressed hope that the pontiff’s leadership would serve as a unifying force in a time of global instability.

Published

2 months ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Pope Leo XIV. Screenshot.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom on May 8 issued a statement congratulating Pope Leo XIV on his historic election as the first American to lead the Catholic Church.

The announcement has drawn widespread reaction from U.S. leaders, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who called the moment spiritually significant and aligned with the values of service and social justice.

In their statement, the Newsoms expressed hope that the newly elected pope would guide the Church with a focus on compassion, dignity, and care for the most vulnerable. Newsom said he and the First Partner joined others around the world in celebrating the milestone and were encouraged by the pope’s first message.

Newsom also expressed hope that the pontiff’s leadership would serve as a unifying force in a time of global instability.

“May he remind us that our better angels are not far away — they’re always within us, waiting to be heard,” he said.

Pelosi, a devout Catholic, also welcomed the pope’s election and noted his symbolic connection to earlier church leaders who championed workers’ rights and social equality.

“It is heartening that His Holiness continued the blessing that Pope Francis gave on Easter Sunday: ‘God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail,’” said Pelosi.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Retired Bay Area Journalist Finds Success in Paris with Black History Tours

In the late 90s, Stevenson finally realized her dream of living in Paris, now with her daughter. She started exploring the history of Africans in the city and would go on to teach others the same. Her business, which she named Black Paris Tours (BPT), received a significant boost when a family friend gave her a stack of cash and encouraged her to expand on the knowledge that she had only started to share with people she knew.

Published

5 months ago

February 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Ricki Stevenson, Blacks in Paris. Courtesy photo.

By Post Staff

There were two things Oakland-born, East Palo Alto-raised Ricki Stevenson always dreamed of:

Going to New York as a newscaster to tell the true story of Blacks in America.
Living and working in Paris one day.

Her dreams of life in Paris began when she was three years old and her mother, a former professional dancer, took her to see Josephine Baker perform. She was 11 when her parents took her to the Stanford University campus to meet James Baldwin, who was speaking about his book, “The Fire Next Time.” Ricki says that’s when she knew she’d one day live in Paris, “the city of light!”

But before that would ever happen, she had a tumultuous career as a newscaster across the country that was inspired by her family’s history.

Stevenson recalls marching with Cesar Chavez as he fought for labor rights for farm workers in California.

“Are we Mexican too?” she asked her parents. “No, but we will fight for everyone’s human rights,” they responded to her.

Ironically, Ricki’s paternal family roots went back to Greenwood, Oklahoma, infamous for the 1921 bombing of Black Wall Street. A time when Black people had oil wells, banks, and a thriving business community.

This background would propel her into a 25-year journalism career that gave her the opportunity to interview greats like President Jimmy Carter, PLO leader Yassir Arafat, James Baldwin, Rev. Jesse Jackson, UN Ambassador Andrew Young, Miriam Makeba, and the leaders of South African liberation movements.

A job offer from KCBS radio brought her back to the Bay Area in the 1980s. Then came the switch to TV when she was hired as a Silicon Valley business reporter with KSTS TV, working at the first Black-owned television station in northern CA (created and owned by John Douglas). Along the way, Stevenson worked as an entertainment reporter with BET; coproduced, with her disc jockey brother Isaac, a Bay Area show called “Magic Number Video;” lived in Saudi Arabia; worked as an international travel reporter with News Travel Network; and worked at KRON TV a news anchor and talk show host.

In 1997, Stevenson realized her dream of living in Paris with her young daughter, Dedie. She started exploring the history of Africans in the city and would go on to teach others the same. Her business, which she named Black Paris Tours (BPT), received a significant boost when a family friend, Admiral Robert Toney put a chunk of money in her hand. He said, “Ricki, my wife and I have been coming to Paris for 20 years, but in just two days with you and Dedie, we’ve learned and seen more than we ever did before.”

Years after BPT took off, Ricki met Nawo Carol Crawford and Miguel Overton Guerra, who she recruited as senior scholar guides for Black Paris Tours.

Guerra says he is proud of his work with Black Paris Tours in that it provides a wealth of information about the rich legacy of African and African American history and influence in Paris and Europe.

“I tend to have a feeling for history always being a means of a reference point backwards … you start to understand the history, that it isn’t just the United States, that it began with African people,” Guerra says.

He said that it’s been a pleasure to watch people learn something they didn’t know before and to take them through the city to key points in Black history, like hangout spots for writers like Baldwin and Richard Wright, restaurants in the busiest parts of Paris, the home of Josephine Baker and so much more.

Although the tours are open to all, Guerra hopes that those of African descent from all over the world can embrace that they don’t have to just stay where they are because movies and media have portrayed cities like Paris to be only white, it’s multicultural and accepting to all.

“We’ve been here, and we’ve been there, going way back when. And we shouldn’t be considered or consider ourselves to be strangers in any place that we go to,” he said.

Stevenson notes they’ve had 150,000 people take their tour over the years, with notables like former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Smokey Robinson, Steve Harvey, Miriam Makeba, and more.

Friends and former media colleagues of Stevenson compliment the BPT crew on their knowledge of the city and their ability to always keep it interesting.

“He [Guerra] just had a deep, deep wealth of knowledge and he was constantly supplanting information with historical facts and the like. I love that it was demonstrating and showing how Black people have thrived in Paris or contributed to the culture in Paris,” Candice Francis said.

She toured in the summer of 2022 and stated that in the two weeks that they visited Paris, BPT was the highlight of her trip. She shared that she was proud of Stevenson and the life she’d managed to manifest and build for herself.

“Even if you’re visiting Paris for the tenth time, if you haven’t taken the tour, then by all means, take it,” Francis emphasized.

Magaly Muñoz, Gay Plair and Paul Cobb also contributed to this story. You can book your own adventure with Black Paris Tours at www.blackparistour.com.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

COMMENTARY: Will a Dictator’s Loss Change Trump’s Tune?

What’s happened in Syria has the potential of reshaping the politics of the entire Middle East. The U.S. can’t afford to sit back and do nothing. Now is the time to exert peaceful, diplomatic influence on how Syria maintains stability and goes forward with a new democracy.

Published

7 months ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Emil Guillermo

In our polarized country, half of America can’t wait, while many of us still wonder, “where’s Kamala?”

I hope President-elect Trump — who famously said during the campaign that he’d be a dictator on day one — eats his words.

Dictators aren’t doing so well these days.

Last weekend, the dictator Bashar al-Assad was run out of Syria and sought exile with his puppet master/dictator Vladimir Putin of Russia. In just about two weeks, a coalition of rebels applied enough pressure to end a family regime in Syria that lasted 50 years.

al-Assad’s wealthy family dictatorship plundered Syria and ruled in terror.

It sounds all too familiar to Filipino Americans, many of whom came to the U.S. fleeing the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

al-Assad’s end was different from the Filipinos who forged a peaceful People Power movement that chased the Marcos family to Hawaii where they sought refuge from their U.S. puppet handlers.

But as in Manila, there was cheering on the streets of Syria. Men, women, and children. Christian, Muslims, different sects and ethnicities, all united against al-Assad.

al-Assad has been described as a genocidal narco-trafficking tyrant, whose friends were America’s biggest enemies, Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia, said Mouaz Moustafa, the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, on CNN.

Moustafa said it was amazing that there would be no more Russian airstrikes, no more al-Assad gulags torturing civilians. “To see good triumph over evil is an amazing thing,” he added.

But last weekend has some trickle down.

Consider that we are talking about al-Assad, the one Tulsi Gabbard consorted with and hyped to her colleagues when she was in Congress. Now Assad has been shamed into exile with his puppet master Russia, and Gabbard wants to be the U.S. director of national security? Given her wrongheaded judgment on al-Assad, can she be trusted with any national secrets?

It’s still not over in Syria, as now there will be a scramble to see what kind of governing democracy emerges.

Predictably, Donald Trump has said, “The United States should have nothing to do with it. This is not our fight. Let it play out. Do not get involved.”

Nouveau isolationism?

Overall, the ouster of the dictator should give Trump pause.

If by nominating MAGA loyalists like Gabbard, Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel, Trump’s testing the evolution to strongman rule in the U.S., he should consider what happened before last weekend.

In South Korea, a weak president tried to declare martial law and was voted down by Parliament. That’s a faux strongman.

Let’s hope Trump learns a lesson from the week’s news.

The next president sets the tone for a politics that’s already toxic.

He needs to remember the joy in Syria this week when an autocrat was dumped in the name of freedom and democracy.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning Bay Area journalist. His commentaries are on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. Or join him at www.patreon.com/emilamok