A number of foreign nationals were attacked in Johannesburg, South Africa last month as part of a wave of anti-immigrant violence and sentiment in the country. This xenophobic violence has once again reminded us of the politics of citizenship and what it means to belong and not to belong in the post-colony. What we need to do now is decolonize, ideologically and practically, the colonial notion of citizenship.
A 23 year old Congolese woman told Human Rights Watch that the soldiers "raped us and dragged us to their camp which was not far away. I stayed there for one month, under constant supervision. Even when I went to fetch water, he came with me to ensure that I did not run away.... There was no conversation between us, he had sex with me at any moment, when he felt like it, and with a lot of violence. I spent my days crying. I begged God to free me from this hell." Stories of this nature are not unusual in the DRC.
The notion of a 'Mother City' is seriously misleading and far from the truth. The available evidence compels one to conclude that Cape Town is a mother only to white people; the few people of color that the 'Mother City' adopts as its sons and daughters are adopted on specific, regulated conditions."The Other Mother City" Photo: Thomas Sly
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019