Black Looks

Xenophobia deflects government failures
on May 19, 2008
Category: Poverty, Social Movements, South Africa, Refugees, Africa

My friend Beauty at “Nigeria What’s New” posted on the violence against immigrants taking place in South Africa and wonders

why bloggers in the diaspora are not screaming about this horrible human rights issue since the story broke on May 1st.

Good point, Beauty after all if this was happening in Spain, France, Britain or any where else in Europe we would be screaming. In fact I was screaming the other day about asylum seekers in Britain. Talk to any African foreigners and they will tell you their own experience of xenophobia in South Africa. But these encounters are superficial and hide the truth. What is happening is far more complex than is being presented in the reports as violence and xenophobia. Nonetheless, these very disturbing videos here and here and here, fit well with the one posted from last week on Race Hate in Russia. More importantly the videos tell us how governments with the support of the media can and have used immigration as a way of deflecting people away from the real issues and their failure to meet the valid expectations of the people.

Dear Friends

I am writing to ask for your urgent support for Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine who was kidnapped on 12th August 2007 in Haiti. He is the highly respected and well known human rights activist who co-founded of Fondasyon Trant Septamn (30th September Foundation). His abduction has had a devastating effect on family and community.

I am working with the Global Women's Strike and Haiti Action, and the wide international network of people calling for Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine's safe return.

I had arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as a guest of members of the women in the Lavalas Movement, on the day Lovinsky disappeared, and experienced first hand how distraught his friends and community were when news began to circulate that his car had been found abandoned by the roadside. Lovinksy Pierre- Antoine had just finished a series of meetings with an international human rights delegation from the US.

Mobile phone activism in South Africa

6^th July 2007

Sindy Mkhize of the Abahlali baseMjondolo Shackdwellers Movement of Durban speaks to Sokari Ekine of Pambazuka at the Pan African Mobile Activists workshops held in Nairobi in June. Sindy who is a member of the Abahlali Women's League discusses the pressure of living under constant attack from local government and local police and also the recent detention of members of the Kennedy Road location on charges of murder. Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement is the largest organisation of the militant poor in post-apartheid South Africa and is presently engaged in fighting the proposed "KwaZulu-Natal Elimination & Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Bill".

Music in this podcast is brought to you by Busi Ncube from Zimbabwe, kindly provided by Thulani Promotions.

The excellent Pambazuka News has just put online an interview with System Cele from the Abahlali baseMjondolo Women's League. You can find it at http://www.pambazuka.org/en/broadcasts/podcasts.php and download it directly here.