Tag: South Africa

Remembering Hector Pietersen : South Africa and Xenophobia

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great PeopleLeave a comment
Soweto Uprising (Source:kilimedia.com)
Soweto Uprising: children running away (Source: kilimedia.com)

Today marks the celebration of the 1976 Soweto Uprisings which have been seen historically as the beginning to the end of apartheid in South Africa, and which is a public holiday celebrated South Africa as Youth Day. Remembrance: 16 June 1976 Soweto Massacre. It is also celebrated as the International Day of the African Child. On June 16, 1976, thousands of Black students in Soweto, South Africa, marched to protest the compulsory use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in schools, seen as a tool of oppression under apartheid. The peaceful protest escalated when police responded with tear gas, batons, and live ammunition resulting in the deaths of hundreds of students including 13-year-old Hector Pieterson whose image became the international symbol of the uprising.
I visited the Hector Pieterson’s memorial in Soweto and talked about it here extensively. Visiting the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum. June 16 is a day to commemorate and remember the ills of apartheid and their treatment of the Black community and how children who were just protesting for some basic rights, the right to education were massacred.

Hector Pieterson being carried away by Mbuyisa Makhubo, with his sister running alongside (Photo by: Sam Nzima)

Now, 50 years later, South Africa is back to being a xenophobic country … I don’t like using such words because it implies a generalization which should not be done, but how do you explain the current division or hate for African foreigners in South Africa? We all remember how, during the apartheid era, many African governments supported, hosted, and even funded the ANC for the liberation of the Black population of South Africa and now this? After apartheid, attacks on migrants in townships started becoming more prevalent and cyclical. Foreign shop owners are accused of “stealing jobs” or undercutting local businesses, especially in the informal economy. Around the world, migrants are frequently cast as scapegoats for deeper structural problems, reaching from inequality and corruption to weak economic growth and state failure. In South Africa, this scapegoating overwhelmingly targets Black and African migrants: Zimbabweans, Nigerians, Mozambicans, Ghanaians, etc.

Plaque to the Hector Pieterson Monument

When will the Black South African population realize that this is just a division tactic used by politicians to shift the blame for their poor performance or lack thereof? In other parts of Africa, they use tribalism, but in South Africa it is xenophobia. Black South Africans are taking their frustrations at unemployment, social inequality, on other Africans who they claim take their jobs or are illegals! Yet, they say nothing about the Europeans who come and stay or take jobs, or own lands, or who inherited from the wealth that came from the apartheid regime. Instead of blaming their governments who have been misappropriating funds, they take it out on the rest of Africans residing in their country. They forget that over 90% of the wealth is still in the hands of Whites or people who profit from separation. That just because ‘apartheid’ no longer exists or rather its name, it still is present, and they still own nothing! They don’t realize that this is a tactic for those in power (the government and more) and to keep them down, distracted from the real issues of economic empowerment, land ownership, and more. Even former President Thabo Mbeki addressed this, when he warned against blaming immigrants for South Africa’s unemployment crisis, urging citizens to reject xenophobic narratives that scapegoat other Africans for domestic governance failures.

Map and Flag of Ghana
Map and Flag of Ghana

The governments of Nigeria and Ghana have now started repatriating their citizens. Over 1,000 Ghanaians have been repatriated. The Nigerian government has threatened to retaliate by boycotting South African assets by giants like MTN in their country; let’s see if it it not all fluff. This spat has even showed its face at the FIFA 2026 World Cup last week during the opening game between Mexico and South Africa played in Mexico City, where many African fans were supporting Mexico against South Africa.

Our African ancestors must be rolling in their graves wondering how their support to end apartheid could have paved the way to such behavior! They must be rolling in their graves as they watch us fight, while the real culprits stand on the sides and fill their pockets with our minerals, our resources, and more. In reality, we should be united, and the enemy will use every technique known in the book to keep us down… anything that divides us is not good. Xenophobia is no way to celebrate the memory of Hector Pieterson

Excerpts below is from Al-Jazeera

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Nigeria has threatened retaliatory measures against South Africa after Abuja began repatriating hundreds of Nigerians from South Africa this week amid alleged xenophobic attacks by South African protesters.

Flag and map of Nigeria
Flag and map of Nigeria

Diplomatic tensions between the two countries have spiked since the latest wave of violent anti-immigration protests by thousands of South Africans calling for strict, mass deportation measures.

… There have been three waves of anti-immigration protests since 2008, all turning violent and resulting in casualties and the looting of shops and other property. Much of the anger has targeted, in particular, nationals from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, as well as Nigeria and Ghana.

… On Monday, Nigerian Foreign Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu accused South Africa’s government of failing to forcefully denounce violence against Nigerian nationals in South Africa. She said this had damaged the bond the two countries have enjoyed since the solidarity Nigeria showed during South Africa’s fight against apartheid. Legitimate businesses are being “looted” while children are forced to stay away from school, she said. “The police refused to do anything,” the minister added. “Nigeria is not happy because Nigeria has sacrificed much for the South African independence struggle,” Odumegwu-Ojukwu told journalists on Monday. “My own generation, we carried placards, we demonstrated in front of South African assets, sometimes we even got arrested.” At least 1,000 Nigerians were initially scheduled for repatriation this week, but Abuja says the number of people wishing to return home is rising

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So Long to Sam Nujoma, Namibia’s First President

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great PeopleLeave a comment
Sam Nujoma (Source: newscentral.africa)
This past Saturday, February 8 2025, Sam Nujoma, Namibia’s first president and founding father passed away at the age of 95. The ancestors are greeting this illustrious brother who fought for the independence of his country. Nujoma led the long fight for independence from South Africa for many years, which culminated with independence on 21 March 1990 of South West Africa, as the country was formerly known. Nujoma helped found Namibia’s liberation movement known as the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) in the 1960s. After independence, Nujoma became president in 1990 and led the country until 2005.
Flag of Namibia
Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma was born at Etunda, a village in Ovamboland, on 12 May 1929, to Daniel Uutoni Nujoma and Helvi Mpingana Kondombolo, an Uukwambi princess. From his mother, he inherited his strong charismatic influence during his political career.  He was the oldest of 11 children. His childhood was spent taking care of his siblings, tending to the family’s cattle, and farming.
Statue of Sam Nujoma in front of the Independence Museum in Windhoek, Namibia
At the age of 17, Nujoma moved to the harbor town of Walvis Bay, where he slowly learned about the plight of Black people under white-minority rule; he also worked at a general store and later at a whaling station. In 1949, Nujoma moved to Windhoek where he worked as a railway sweeper for the South African Railways (SAR), while he went to night school. It was there that he was introduced to the Herero tribal chief Hosea Kutako, who was lobbying to end apartheid rule in Namibia, then known as South West Africa. Kutako took the young Nujoma under his wing, and mentored him as he became politically active among Black workers in Windhoek who were resisting a government order to move to a new township in the late 1950s. First, he joined with the Ovamboland People’s Congress (OPC) co-founder Jacob Kuhangua to start a Windhoek branch; at its first congress, he was elected president. At Kutako’s request, Nujoma began life in exile in 1960, first to Bechuanaland (now Botswana), then Bulawayo in then Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), and later ending in Tanzania where he was welcomed by President Julius Nyerere. The same year, he was elected president of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) in abstencia. The problem of South West Africa, similar to Kamerun, was that they were former German colonies, which had been placed under League of Nations mandate of South Africa in the case of South West Africa, and France and Great Britain for Kamerun; thus the country should have been independent a while back. Nujoma spent a few years asking the United Nations to ensure that the occupying power that was South Africa released control of South West Africa. After many unsuccessful tries, while shuttling from capital to capital in quest for support, he authorized the launch of armed resistance in 1966 against South African forces. The attack marked the beginning of the Namibian War of Independence, which would last more than 25 years.
Sam Nujoma on a plaque to Early Resistance Leaders inside the Independence Museum in Windhoek, Namibia
On 19 March 1989, the signing of the cease-fire agreement with South Africa took place. After 29 years in exile, Nujoma returned to Namibia in September 1989 to lead SWAPO to victory in the UN-supervised elections that paved the way for independence. Nujoma was elected first president of the new nation which became independent on 21 March 1990. He was re-elected in 1994 and 1999, and stepped down in 2005. The current president of Namibia, President Nangolo Mbumba said of Sam Nujoma, He “inspired us to rise to our feet and to become masters of this vast land of our ancestors,” … “Our founding father lived a long and consequential life during which he exceptionally served the people of his beloved country.” Namibia’s Vice-President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who is due to be inaugurated as president in March after leading SWAPO to victory in elections, said his “visionary leadership and dedication to liberation and nation-building laid the foundation for our free, united nation“.
Bust of Sam Nujoma, inside Independence Museum, in Windhoek, Namibia
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said the former Namibian president was an “extraordinary freedom fighter” who played a leading role in not only his country’s fight against colonialism, but also in the campaign that led to the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1994. “President Nujoma’s leadership of a free Namibia laid the foundation for the solidarity and partnership our two countries share today – a partnership we will continue to deepen as neighbours and friends.” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Nujoma led Namibia’s independence movement “against the seemingly unshakeable might of colonial and apartheid authorities and forces” and spurred the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa on its own final steps to freedom. “Sam Nujoma inspired the Namibian people to pride and resistance that belied the size of the population,” Ramaphosa said. “Namibia’s attainment of independence from South Africa in 1990 ignited in us the inevitability of our own liberation.”

Disputed Land Issues: The Case of the Khoi and San People and Amazon’s Headquarters

On By Dr. Y.In Great Civilizations10 Comments
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Flag of South Africa
Flag of South Africa

The recent struggle faced by the Khoi and San people of South Africa over their land being used to build Amazon’s African headquarters brings back to light never ending issues: the appropriation of indigenous land by mega corporation, with the cooperation of local governments. While sometimes these local governments are powerless in the face of seemingly great deals that will “foster the local economy”, very often the governments are led by corrupt or ignorant individuals who seek immediate personal gains at the expense of the well-being of their communities (recent events in Sierra Leone). Lastly, why is it that it is always on “significant” indigenous lands that this occurs? Why not elsewhere? Of all places to build headquarters, couldn’t Amazon with its money find another piece of land in Cape Town? I am not against “development” or providing jobs to communities, but I wonder why these disputes are always recurrent. The excerpt below is from the BBC.

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Campaigners in the South African city of Cape Town are trying to halt the building of the African headquarters for Amazon. It’s a battle that pits cultural concerns against economic interests, as the BBC’s Vumani Mkhize writes.

San (Basarwa/Bushmen) hunters
San (Basarwa/Bushmen) hunters

It is an overcast day in Cape Town and the scenic Table Mountain is shrouded in a ghostly cloud that silently cascades down the rocky green slopes. At the foot of this historic landscape, a small group of activists from the Khoi and San communities have gathered near the entrance of a huge building site known as the River Club. The communities are seen as some of the earliest inhabitants of southern Africa.

… Across the road from where the activists have gathered, construction is already under way. …

The first phase of the nearly $300m (£215m) development, which will include the Amazon offices, is set to be completed in two years. However the Khoi and the San are determined to stop it.

Tauriq Jenkins, of the Goringhaicona Khoena Council, a Khoi traditional group, says the land has profound historical and cultural value to his people. “This place for us is sacred because it’s on a confluence of Liesbeek and Black Rivers. These embankments are known as the birthplace of the Khoena [Khoi] people,”
he tells the BBC.

It is also where the European colonisers had their first battle with South Africa’s indigenous people, which is marked with a blue plaque.

The 150,000 sqm development will include residential properties and shops as well as offices.

The Amazon site, which is seen as key to pulling in other companies, is set to take up nearly half the space, from where it will run its bourgeoning operations across Africa.

… Jody Aufrichtig, who heads the project, says the development will provide a massive boost to Cape Town’s tourism-reliant economy, hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. He said it would create 6,000 jobs during construction and about 13,000 indirect jobs. “It’s so desperately needed, especially post-Covid and some of the riots and troubles we’ve had in South Africa. It will give the people of Cape Town and South Africa hope and economic development.” [yeah right… so unless it is built on this specific site, there will be no jobs for South Africans? Of all the places to build, it had to be that one? Will elsewhere in Cape Town still not provide jobs to South Africans?]The tussle between the developer and the indigenous people of Cape Town comes amid the biggest unemployment crisis South Africa has ever faced.

… The site of the development is where the first conflict between the indigenous people and the Dutch colonisers took place in 1659.

“This very place is where land was stolen for the first time in South Africa,” Mr Jenkins says. The dispossession of Khoi and San land set in motion centuries of land seizures across the rest of the country. The issue of land ownership, or the lack of it, remains a thorny issue.

… Mr Jenkins and members of the Khoi and San communities remain unmoved by the argument that the new development will bring much-needed jobs. “The reason why this development is so expensive is because it’s on a floodplain. If Amazon and the developer could take its money and build the same scale development off this flood plain, you’d find the size of the development three to four times bigger, which means you’d be able to employ exponentially more people.” [So Amazon is building on floodplains, and it costs more to build there?… so why is the government allowing it? Are there not better sites in Cape Town that will be cost-efficient to the parties involved? Or is there something missing in this information? … doesn’t this scream of corruption?]

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