Features
The recurring xenophobia in South Africa
I am an unapologetic Pan-Africanist. I love my roots, first as Ewe, Ghanaian and then African. Even if I had the chance I would not take on another nationality. I am no racist either, and I hate to see one group of people look down on another. Though, the news of imminent xenophobic attacks must be worrying.
I have followed the history of South Africa for as long as I can remember. The first I heard of that country was one Chaka Zulu. It turned out he was a King of the Zulu kingdom, King Chaka. He was said to be a fierce and ruthless warrior king and tyrant who loved to see his own people killed at a whim, according to the narrative at the time.
I again read of the arrival of the Boers in that country in 1652 and later, the domination of the natives by the settlers. As time went on, a system of government was introduced that made the blacks/natives subservient to the settlers/Boers/whites; a system christened Apartheid. It took a lot of agitation by the rest of the world, especially the rest of Africa, and economic strangulation for the whites to relinquish their political hold on the country.
Under Apartheid, the only source of release for the blacks was through music, aside of their compatriots who took the fight to the Boers. It was then easy to describe South African music as music of suffering people. Their music was distinct and it brought emotions to us who knew of their suffering. We simply called it Zulu music.
The vocals, instruments and the rhythms carried a certain bone-chilling resonance that caught one’s attention. It still has same effect on those of us old enough to know what South Africa was going through.
We heard of freedom fighters like Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Albert Luthuli and many more. Archbishop Desmond Tutu fought the system from within. Some were in prison and others fled the country and fought the cause from exile. By his oratory, courage and principle, Mandela became the face of the struggle against the Apartheid regime. His persona loomed large even from the notorious Roben Island prison.
The Sharpville Massacre, followed later by the murder of Steve Biko on September 12, 1977, gave impetus and momentum to the struggle. All of Africa took the fight to the world, asking for the isolation of South Africa from all world events, including sports and trade. Many countries, including Ghana, hosted their exiles, educated some of them and trained quite a number in the art of the military.
However, the blacks were not denied formal education; their textbooks tailored in servitude to the whites and their businesses. The men broke their backs in the mines and the women were mostly domestic servants to the whites. The rest of us felt their pain.
Trumpeter Hugh Masekela came to Ghana after his divorce from his then wife, Miriam Makeba, who later married African-Amerrican civil rights activist, Stokely Carmichael with whom she settled in Conakry, Guinea. Masekela and Makeba projected their cause to the world with their music.
When I saw Mandela on our High Street in Accra in 1992, I could see in his aura a man destined to champion a purpose. The Madiba did not mean for his people to become xenophobic in their national life. Sadly, that is what has lately become an annual affair in south Africa.
A friend told me only recently that we should have allowed the whites to continue their domination of the blacks if we knew this is how we shall be repaid for our support for the black cause.
Now, whites, coloured and Indians are accepted even if they are visitors or legally resident in that country. Africans of other nationalities, irrespective of their immigrant status, are regarded as foreigners and must be attacked, their businesses destroyed or are hounded out of the country.
It makes sense for us to feel betrayed and angered by the xenophobic attacks on other Africans in South Africa. But wait a minute: do those folks know the role played by the rest of Africa in their struggle against Apartheid? If they knew, I believe the narrative will be different.
Did the likes of Mandela, Govan Mbeki and others tell their people about those other countries that supported their struggle? None that I heard of. Even in his autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom Mandela only mentioned his military training in Libya in passing. Because the whites controlled the media in that country at the time, the blacks had no idea who were fighting for them from outside.
As far as they were concerned, it was their struggle. Not even the role of neighbours Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe was known to them. So, citizens of these neighbours who are in South Africa are seen as parasites feeding on their country’s wealth and depriving them of job opportunities.
West Africans, especially Nigerians and Ghanaians, have distinct features from the Southern Africans, so they are easier targets.
Until their textbooks are rewritten to reflect the true history of the global fight for their freedom, many South Africans, in their ignorance, will blame “foreigners” for all their conditions. Their government must make it a clear policy to tell the story truthfully for the education and understanding of their people. This needs a conscious effort to accomplish.
But if their leaders are as ignorant as the people they lead, the likelihood of South Africa facing isolation once again is on the horizon. After all, migrant labour is known to have helped in developing economies worldwide.
I suggest to governments whose citizens are mostly affected by these xenophobic attacks make a representation to the South African government to tell its citizens what role their countries played in that country’s anti Apartheid struggle. The rest of Africa needs South Africa as it also needs the rest of us.
Personally, I have no appetite for visiting South Africa under a cloud of unannounced burst of anger and revulsion towards foreigners. If our countries had refused to shelter their exiled freedom fighters, where would that country be at this point in their history?
Instead of getting angry at this behaviour of these people, I pity them rather. I pity them because if they continue on this trajectory, by the time the realisation of reality dawns on them, there will not be even one friend standing by their side.
I do not yet know if the African Union (AU) has said anything about this phenomenon in South Africa, a country that wants to be known as Azania. Asking the leaders of South Africa to rein in this emerging rowdyism cannot be tantamount to interference in that country’s internal affairs.
What does it profit these people to attack foreigners, loot their property and live off the spoils of the attack and when all is finished, regroup and launch fresh attacks? Then the cycle continues. Meanwhile, South African businesses are opening up all over the African continent without hindrance, so what is their beef with foreigners?
South Africa risks isolation if their leaders look on while this becomes a national character. If that is what they want, the choice is entirely theirs.
By Dr. Akofa K. Segbefia
Writer’s email address: akofa45@yahoo.com
Features
The West African Samba dance
I was in sixth form! Precisely, I was in lower sixth, bubbling with enthusiasm for life. Incidentally, I wasn’t particularly a good dancer but liked watching others dance. When my pal Billy (Butter) did the ‘old man boogie,’ dance, he did so with passion, with contortions and distortions of the human frame. He often needed artificial respiration after a good dance.
Old man Boogie was the dance form adopted at the time. The more you danced like a bony and fragile old man, the more you got applauded. It was fashionable at the time to go to disco with a walking stick to simulate an 80-year-old boogeyman.
On the disco dance floor, everyone was crumbling over and if you didn’t know what was in vogue at the time, you’d be tempted to order an ambulance to cart the entire gang of dancers to the nearest hospital to check their sugar levels. No doubt, you were likely to mistake for old diabetics lapsing into coma on the dance floor.
The Old man Boogie did not last very long. Soon it was replaced with ‘dog’. The dancer was expected to have the men mentality of a dog, and that included baring teeth and ‘pissing’ with one leg raised. When you saw Korkorti on the floor, you thought he was directing traffic with his left leg.
FRENZY
The ‘dog’ gave way to ‘cat’, a frightening choreographic innovation that put the ladies to flight. If dog produced vampires, cat engendered tigers on stage, complete with claws to show for it. The ladies were not brave enough to encounter large human cats in a frenzy, boogeying to funk. They simply fled!
Finally ‘horse’ arrived on the dance floor and you could see Ghanaians galloping with care-less abandon. What saved the situation was the advent of break-dance which shortly superseded the era of freestyling captured in the musical movie “The Music Machine’, starring Gerry Sundquist and Pati Boulaye, a Nigerian performer.
Break-dance brought home an exciting dance variety with equally exciting medical problems. Youngsters began spinning on their heads and broke their necks. They were put in collar and never tried it again.
All the above mentioned dance forms were amply exhibited last Saturday when the Black Stars went on a demolition exercise in Cape Verde.
The 4-0 hammering reflected the level of determination of the Stars to get to Germany in 2006 to showcase samba made in Sikaman.
Soon after the victory, ECG went on ‘strike.’ The nation was plunged into darkness. I heard someone say the power off was deliberate to tone down the celebration, lest people drunk themselves to death. I wondered whether anyone needed electric power to drink himself to death. The lights came on at last.
I quickly drove through parts of Tema. Celebrations were not mass, but pockets of celebrants amply typified the general mood.
CARNIVAL
A group of about eight youngsters apparently charged beyond measure, with akpeteshie running through their veins and arteries, organised a mini-carnival from Site 14 and took to the streets. “God bless our home-land Ghana… they sang the Black Stars cheer song, while hopping like delighted kangaroos. Others were dancing like cats, others like horses.
The beer bars in Tema overflowed with booze. Huge loudspeakers were mounted at Emefa Bar, Site 14, to begin a night of music, booze and chops. Khebab stands smoked freely as sausages and suya were dished out hot, charcoal-grilled.
My wife had gone to Lome, Togo for the weekend with the kids. And what she saw marvelled her. The Togolese national team hitherto known for its disastrous performances suddenly came alive and surprised their own selves. In the final qualifying game, they came back twice to beat Congo in a spectacular display of skills and artistry.
The rain was pouring in sheets in Lome but the celebrants hit the streets in carnival fashion. My little daughter joined them in the rain. When I heard it, I was angry. Why allow the little girl to join in the fanfare?
My wife explained that the situation was so spontaneous that everybody was overwhelmed. Every kid was on the street dancing in the carnival, so why not my little girl? Nobody could stop her. It would have been a sin to stop her. The young and the old were dancing. Old men and women with walking sticks limped to the streets and lock to boogie, the Togolese style.
For me, the exciting aspect of it all is that West African football has come of age. If Nigeria had qualified it would have been a West African affair. Even without Nigeria, it is. Ghana, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire are going to play in Germany in 2006. It is a new beginning for West Africa.
PRESTIGE
Egypt, Senegal, Zaire, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Morocco have participated in the World Cup but did not shine. Other nations must slug it out there, because it is time an African country won the prestigious World Cup.
If African countries have won in the Olympics and the Junior World Cup tournaments, there should be no reason why they cannot make a mark in the seniors. They only have to shed the inferiority complex bothering some of the teams. Africa must shine!
Now, some Nigerians are saying Ghana, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire will be the whip-ping boys at the World Cup. I’ll advise those Nigerians to cry their own cry.
This article was first published on Saturday, October 15, 2005
Features
Legacy is important in life
The Bible which is usually referred to as the good book, says that good name is better than riches according to Proverbs 22:1. Our generation has turned this sound, Godly advice upside down and has put the love for riches first before good name.
Instead of making the right choices, we are all in a mad rush for money, fame and selfish ambitions. Morality is far from our minds and comes nowhere near the top of our list of priorities.
The first thing most people think of, when given a position as a leader, especially in government, is to look for opportunities to make money. It is a worrying trend in our society that should not be encouraged at all. Gradually our society is placing value on riches than integrity.
Time tested values that have characterised activities of churches are even being compromised to the extent that, leadership roles in churches, are being given to people, based on wealth. No wonder, scandals are manifesting in various churches.
Every person has the freedom of choice. You can decide to choose good or choose evil; it is in your power so to choose. However, what we should all realise is that, choices have consequences.
Decision making is all about choices. If you make the right choice as a leader, your name could be forever etched in gold and your descendants, shall forever benefit from your good choices.
Lee Kuan Yew, said that he had the option of being selfish and making himself and his family rich or to seek the welfare of the nation but he chose the latter because that was the right thing to do.
Today, his name has been etched in gold in Singapore forever. His descendants are revered simply because of what their father and grandfather and great grandfather, did for the nation of Singapore. He left a legacy, a legacy of selflessness, a legacy of patriotism, a legacy of honesty and integrity and finally a legacy of leadership.
I listened to a story about Peduase Lodge. Apparently, it was a gift to Dr Kwame Nkrumah out of love and appreciation by an Akuapim woman, for him to build his private residence. Dr Nkrumah not being selfish but full of patriotism, decided to use it as official residence like Camp David in the US.
He is widely acknowledged also as incorruptible and this has endeared him to the hearts of many Ghanaians although there were some governance issues like the PDA, which somehow dented his otherwise excellent legacy.
Whenever his name is mentioned, his legacy is remembered and wonderful things are said about him. Such legacies, buy favour for his descendants, which in the case of Dr Nkrumah, led to people voting for his daughter to be elected as Member of Parliament for the 5th Parliament under the 4th Republic.
Recently, the passing of a prominent chief in the Asante Region, was announced. This chief has been acknowledged as one of the chiefs in the country, who have banned Galamsey in their area of jurisdiction.
Given the national outcry against illegal mining as a result of the devastating consequences to our environment and related health problems, this fantastic legacy, will go a long way to create favour for his children wherever they find themselves in this country.
Compared this to the son of a notorious armed robber seeking favour for say admission to an SHS. I guarantee you, the moment you mention your name and confirm that you are the son of Ataa…, the legacy of your father will immediately start working against you.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
