Spatial Contestation, Victimisation and Resistance during Xenophobic Violence: The Experiences of Somali Migrants in Post‐Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This article discusses how violence between South Africans and Somali migrants plays out in different forms of spatial contestation, victimization and resistance during xenophobic attacks. It analyses Somalis’ entrepreneurial strategies and the implications for access and appropriation of social and economic spaces around Cape Town. The article attempts to connect Somali perceptions of xenophobia and South Africans’ claims of spatial entitlement to issues of spatial control, belonging and social inclusion in South Africa. It argues that by establishing businesses in urban spaces and townships, Somali migrants have managed to establish stronger bonds and a collective identity, which give them better control over these spaces. Although their business tactics have propelled spatial contestations in which they have become easy targets during xenophobic incursions, the clustering of businesses has also created Somali‐dominated localities around Cape Town, which facilitates rapid mobilization to respond to or to resist different forms of crime and violence.

Being black and non‐citizen in South Africa: Intersecting race, white privilege and afrophobic violence in contemporary South Africa

“…To spur emotions, anxieties and anger, the narrative is intentionally framed around black misery and pain, claiming that the black-led government is prioritizing the wellbeing of illegal migrants at the expense of its own citizens (Langa & Kiguwa, 2016;Naicker, 2016). Common phrases such as "they are taking your jobs" "they are the reasons for the high crime rates in South Africa" "they are draining state resources meant for the poor" and so on, are used for mass mobilization during afrophobic violence (Mbembe, 2019;Neocosmos, 2008;Nyamnjoh, 2006;Pineteh, 2017Pineteh, , 2018.…”

“…For me, white supremacy and privilege have not only disempowered black South Africans, they have managed to pit blacks against blacks including South Africans against African migrants. In their state of privilege, white South Africans have carefully crafted a narrative that black suffering and pain, as well as the state of criminality and insecurity in this erstwhile apartheid state is partly a consequence of illegal migration (Langa & Kiguwa, 2016; Naicker, 2016; Pineteh, 2018). This narrative absolves whites and their enduring attempts to maintain white supremacy in the new political dispensation.…”

“…The article argues that black South Africans' pain, anger and the performance of crude violence on African migrants are on one level a consequence of resilient structural racism and racial practices, which continue to marginalize, emasculate and dispossess blacks. This argument does not in any way trivialize other triggers of afrophobic violence, including the role that the ANC government and a group of black middle-class South Africans have played to perpetuate this form of violence (see for example Pineteh, 2018Pineteh, & 2017Naicker, 2016;Neocosmos, 2008;Nyamnjoh, 2006). In fact, the article does not seek to simply reproduce very familiar scholarship on xenophobia and afrophobia but rather to understand how racial hierarchies and white privilege contribute to reproduce social violence in black and immigrant communities.…”

The Changing Material Conditions of Cameroonian Migrants in South Africa: What does this say about an “Afrophobic” post-apartheid State?

“…The destruction and looting of African-owned businesses as well as the brutal attacks and killing of African migrants in cities and townships across South Africa have therefore been written as expressions of Afrophobia. Although these forms of attack are common in many postcolonial African states, the gruesome nature of South African cases has managed to fracture diplomatic relationships between South Africa and African states (Hassim et al, 2008;Zondi, 2008;Landau, 2011;Isike and Isike, 2012;Pineteh, 2018).…”

“…These studies have tended to vilify South Africa as a demonic state whose hatred of Africans from other countries and fixation on exorcising them "has short-circuited the process of nation-building since transitioning into a democratic dispensation" (Zondi, 2008: 33). Here, many researchers have consistently represented post-apartheid South Africa as one of the most xenophobic, negrophobic, or Afrophobic countries, not only in Africa, but in the world (see Murray, 2003;Neocosmos, 2010;Amusan and Mchunu, 2017;Pineteh, 2017Pineteh, , 2018. This raises key questions, which this article seeks to address: (a) Why is it that despite the horrific attacks on African migrants, we have not seen a significant decline in the numbers of Cameroonians attempting to emigrate to South Africa or an exodus of Cameroonians from South Africa?…”