Kojo Parris

This is tragic and painful to watch. A South African telling another fellow South African that they cannot work in another South African province simply because they come from a different province. Someone once warned that when xenophobes and Afrophobes are done targeting foreign nationals in South Africa, they will eventually turn on fellow South Africans. That warning is now becoming reality. Imagine a black South African telling another black South African that they do not “look like people from this province”, therefore they cannot work there. How painful is that? To be told in your own country that you do not belong because of how you look, how you speak, or where you come from. This is backward. This is dangerous. This is a tragic failure of critical thinking and leadership. South African leaders should never allow this poison to grow. History has already shown us where this type of thinking leads. In Rwanda, people were divided, dehumanised and eventually butchered on the basis of identity and appearance. We should never allow Africa to move anywhere near that darkness again. What is happening is unacceptable on every level. It is heartbreaking as a black African to watch fellow black Africans treat each other this way. Those of us perceived to be elites are often insulated from this madness because we live in affluent areas and work internationally. But what about ordinary people trying to survive? Are we now saying a carpenter from Gauteng cannot travel to North West to look for work because he “does not look like people from there”? Come on. This is bad. Very bad. Africa cannot progress while people are taught to hate one another over provincial identities, ethnicity or nationality. Leaders across the continent must stand up firmly against this nonsense before it destroys communities and generations. Africa needs unity, dignity, tolerance and opportunity, not this shameful politics of division.