The horror!

I, II, III

South Africa - "Their Brothers' Killers"

The Guardian Editorial, Nigeria, Sunday, May 25, 2008

Murderous Xenophobia In South Africa

EVERY right-thinking African would be embarrassed and mortified by the horrendous images that have emerged from South Africa over the past fortnight. In premeditated and well-orchestrated xenophobic attacks, black South Africans have set upon immigrants from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and elsewhere, looting their homes, destroying their businesses, and inflicting grievous bodily injuries with clear intentions to kill. As at last count, no fewer than 42 immigrants had been killed in the townships around Johannesburg, the country's economic capital. Thousands of immigrants have since sought refuge in churches, police compounds and other temporary safe havens.

A good many who have survived have begun an exodus back to their countries of origin. Nothing could have been more touching than the desperate remarks of a Zimbabwean survivor, who said that it was better for him to return home to adversity, rather than allow himself and his family to be butchered by the rampaging bands of lawless black South African youths. He said that if he died at home, in Zimbabwe, his parents could locate his grave.

No rationalization can justify these murders, wanton looting and lawlessness that are dreary reminders of black-on-black violence in the dark days of apartheid. Perpetrators of this mayhem claim that African immigrants are taking over their jobs, and therefore aggravating the rate of unemployment, which is at 23 per cent, or 40 per cent (by some independent estimates). The hooligans also charge that the migrants have accentuated the pressure on infrastructure, especially housing. Above all, they allege that the foreigners are largely to blame for the escalating rate of crime in the country, which ranks as one of the highest in the world. But these are, at best, unsubstantiated allegations.

There is also the implied insult that other Africans are predominantly responsible for some of South Africa's socio-economic challenges. Those who know the country well enough need little persuasion about the abundance of indigenous criminal elements, who are capable of committing unlawful killings, rape, and running drug rings for which foreigners are being made scapegoats. It is even more shameful that the "houses" from which the immigrants have been sacked are more or less shacks in the townships of Alexandria, Soweto, and Diepkloof. There is no evidence that African immigrants have usurped or abused South Africa's welfare system.

The evidence, though, points in the direction of displaced aggression. The country held so much promise and hope, with the collapse of apartheid in 1994. But the government led by the African National Congress (ANC) has not been able to deliver fully on its promises - on jobs, housing, and general economic well-being of the black majority. The white minority still lives in opulence, while the black majority contends with squalor. Even with the enunciation of a black economic empowerment scheme, the beneficial effects are taking so long to trickle down to the majority. This has created a crisis of expectations.

Yet, there is no justification for the harassment and extermination of foreigners, more especially black Africans. Some of the black South Africans, who appeared on television and were heard boasting that they were indeed out on a pogrom against foreigners, are certainly not teenagers. They are much older, which presupposes that they were born well before 1994 when the walls of apartheid came tumbling down. That being the case, they are expected to have a sense of history - of where they are coming from, and how they arrived at where they are today. It smacks of extreme ingratitude that nationals of countries, which wholeheartedly and sometimes at great cost supported the anti-apartheid struggle to the hilt, are now being targeted for elimination in the raging paroxysm of xenophobia among black South Africans.

Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Mozambique were among the Frontline States. These countries provided sanctuaries for South Africans who fled the apartheid enclave. These countries utilized their resources to educate black South Africans, to aid their quest for freedom and non-racial rule. Indeed, the anti-apartheid struggle was one that engaged the energies of the entire black race, because of the firm belief that we are our brother's keeper. The murderous attacks on fellow Africans now show clearly that these criminal black South Africans are their brother's killers. Decent South Africans must ask themselves whether this is the image they want to showcase to the world during the World Cup in two years' time. They must also ask themselves whether these attacks in any way further or derail the cause of integration of the Southern African Development Commission.

Nevertheless, it is reassuring that eminent South Africans have spoken up against the unwarranted mayhem. Former President Nelson Mandela, his ex-wife, Winnie; incumbent President Thabo Mbeki, and ANC leader Jacob Zuma have lent their voice and authority in condemnation of the attacks. Also, last Thursday, both Presidents Mbeki and Umaru Yar'Adua of Nigeria met in Arusha, Tanzania, to discuss, among other issues, the maltreatment of Nigerians by both citizens and law enforcement agents in South Africa. We would expect President Mbeki to appreciate the urgency and gravity of the current state of affairs, which is undesirable and unacceptable. The South African government has a duty under international law to protect all foreigners living in its territory.

In a globalised world, the gory images of African immigrants burnt to death by South African mobs will elicit horror and anger and a quest for justice. Significantly, the attacks of the past fortnight are not isolated. In 2005 and 2006, black South Africans in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces attacked Somalis. We are sure that black South Africans are well aware that they do not possess a monopoly of cruelty. They also need to be reminded that there are South Africans living elsewhere on the continent, who have a need to be safe too. The South African government must put an end to this shame on the black race.

• Culled from The Guardian, Sunday 25 May, 2008

On Winona Rasheed and that 'Africa-country' gaffe

From Bruce Cook of Author-Me.Com on the Winona Rasheed post

Hello everyone,

I just learned about this blog, and I want to speak in Winona's behalf.

As publisher of author-me.com, I am the one who should claim primary responsibility for failing to notice the error cited - referring to Africa as a country. I agree that this is quite serious, although I imagine that similar errors occur with many who have not had the opportunity to visit a distant country.

As soon as I can, I will re-issue the books with corrections to the foreword. Regretfully, with a book, the issues already sold will contain the error.

Please permit me to speak in Winona's behalf here, for I read your blog as an unfair personal bashing of her, with complete failure to recognize her work. She has worked for author-me.com for over 4 years and has freely (no compensation) devoted at least 20 hours a week to helping African writers and managing an international crew of editors. I believe that judging her person by this one error is unfair.

I do not mean to minimize the importance of the error, for ignorance of Africa and its situation is so prevalent in the USA that it distresses anyone who cares. When I listen to the news, I can count on hearing about Africa only when the most grievous events happen. And, as a result, our idiom is full of erroneous references to Africa. However, there is no excuse for author-me to perpetuate these errors, and we can only apologize for our mistake.

If you will, please give Winona the credit she deserves for working so hard in behalf of African writers, who deserve to have much greater opportunities in the literary world.

Thank you for your consideration.

Bruce Cook,
PublisherAuthor-me.
comcookcomm@gte.net

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Wordsbody Responds

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Thank you for this, Mr. Cook.

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However, your comment that my blog post was "an unfair personal bashing" of Winona Rasheed, is a view I cannot share.

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I do not know Winona Rasheed. I did not attack her in any capacity as regards her personal life or character. I attacked her in her capacity as editor of the 'Africa' anthologies published by Author-Me.Com.

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You ask that we give Ms Rasheed "the credit she deserves for working so hard on behalf of African writers". You add also, that your Africa editor has devoted 20 hours a week to this task for 4 years with no compensation. Worthy indeed. But you may be surprised how many out there work for the same goals with no compensation or recognition, African and non-African. Winona Rasheed is not alone therefore. None of this means that we overlook that which should not be overlooked.

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I welcome your statement, which sets out an acceptable way forward on this matter.

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Wordsbody.

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Winona Rasheed, in her own words

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This message is being sent in regards to your blog on African writings and literature. This is my first experience with your blog, and it has been bought to my attention that I made an error in a work done by me representing the fiction of African writers.

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My name is Winona Rasheed, and I am asking that you please except my sincere apology in referring to Africa as a country instead of the continent that it is. This anthology of African writers will be revised so that it refers to Africa as a continent.

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It was not my intentions to offend anyone with my mention of Africa. Author Africa 2007 and 2008, are a reflection of the works by some of our talented writers that we have on our website, www.author-me.com, authors who are inspiring and of whom we are very proud.

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Regardless of the error, country versus continent, it does not take away from our writers, or any human being who has literary talent. That's what we are promoting in these two anthologies, not the question of Africa being as a country or a continent.

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Does this error take away from me as the managing editor who compiled this collection of short stories? I believe it does not because the anthologies are not about me, it is the writers that they are showcasing. These books aren't about Winona Rasheed. These books even with the error in Africa's description, are about the heart of Africa and its people. It is about the talented artist who are making a name for themselves; and yes, I am proud to be able to help them accomplish this goal.

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It is true, I made a mistake, but let the fact be known that no one is perfect...no one except God, and I do not claim to be better than he. For these anthologies, the best intentions were given, and I shall continue to give my best in compiling anthologies for African writers in the future; not because I have to, but because I want to, because it is a pleasure to work with such talent.

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It is also true that in the minds of most people, Africa has been looked upon as a land of great promise, although it is also a land of suffering and war, famine and disease. However, we know that there is more to Africa then these atrocities. In compiling the anthologies, Author-me and Winona Rasheed are showing another side of Africa that most people do not get a chance to see, and that side is talent growing out of adversity, talent growing out of struggle. Would anyone say that Africa is a nation without conflict and turmoil? Is everything paradise and peaches and cream?

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Africa has some beautiful and talented people and it shows on Author-me, and it shows within the pages of the anthologies, regardless of the mistake that is in the "foreward" message. The heart of the book is its content, and that to me is more important because that is where and when Africa speaks and can be seen. I do not make Africa shine, it is the writers who do that. I have not shortchanged them. However, your comments and bashing do not put the anthologies in a good light. Are you hurting me? No! You are hurting those whose works are being shown in the anthologies, because you aren't letting readers get past the first page with your negative response to the "foreward." I know this message is important in a book; however, it is the pages that follow which bring the greatest importance, and you and your readers have failed to mention that important factor. Remember, it is not the "foreward" that makes up an anthology, it is the artist and their content that make a book a treasure and the 2007 and 2008 Author Africa anthologies are without a doubt........a treasure.

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Again, please except my sincere apology for my mistake in the description of Africa.

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Sincerely,

Winona Rasheed

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Blogger's Note

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I never sought an apology, nor do I consider it my place to receive one. Still, one recognises the spirit of Ms Rasheed's communication. I note that Africa is down as a 'nation' here again, but we won't dwell on that.

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Wishing Ms Rasheed the best in all her endeavours.

Please Winona Rasheed, Africa is not a country

It is a constant source of frustration, despair almost, for the average African - this Western mindset that insists on seeing the African continent as one unfathomable mass of misery. From the language employed to describe Africa and Africans in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to present day news-network-speak, we are faced with this daily, to the extent that we don't bat an eyelid most times. It's the reason why, when a Western celebrity or leader goes to a small corner of an African country, the headlines simply say he/she "went to Africa". As if Africa were one formless, unchartered space, as if Africa were the moon - some outer limit destination you venture into at your own risk.


It baffles me, this stereotype of an indistinct Africa. An Africa whose separate entities are not worth recognising or getting to know. Chicago can be Chicago, New York is New York; my television is currently talking about the US Democratic primaries results in Florida. No one presumes to think I don't know where that is, nor do they purport to enlighten me as to where it might be. I'm supposed to know, period. And if I don't know, that, frankly, is my own headache. The idea is that I ought to know Florida. Why then is the average Westerner excused from knowing about the parts of Africa that any educated person in the world should be ashamed not to recognise? Why is it only a mild educated joke that George W Bush once called Africa "a country"? Why didn't the Senate pass a vote of no confidence on him for the pitiful ignorance that should have rendered him unfit to rule the most powerful nation on earth?


I am tired of it. The West's lack of education, or the refusal to be educated, about Africa. The lack of curiosity about her except to the extent to which she reinforces deep seated stereotypes. Because of the unhelpful, unreflective language used to paint Africa, these attitudes seep into the collective unconscious and make their bed there. There's a book being promoted in London's bookshop windows right now. From the title, (Blood River) I can tell that it is about a journey up the River Congo (the same river on which Conrad's Marlow travels to the 'heart of darkness' to meet Kurtz); Blood River's subtitle reads: A Journey Into Africa's Broken Heart. First time I saw that subtitle, I gasped in the bookshop and my upper body jerked forward a little, as though someone punched me in the stomach. Africa's broken heart? How dire. Our heart, needless to say, is not broken.


So what do we say when literary editors who compile anthologies of writings by African writers go on the printed page and call Africa a "country"? That was my bafflement when I saw Winona Rasheed's foreword to a new anthology published by Author Me. Africa 2008 includes works by writers some of whom are not unknown to me, but Rasheed's foreword does those writers a disservice, to say the least. She compiled the anthology, and her foreword is not only an opportunity to rehash the most simplistic themes about Africa as exists in the Western imagination, but she goes on to describe Africa, somewhat condescendingly, as "this courageous country".


Honestly, I thought I was seeing things. Here was a book editor confirming in writing, in the most unambiguous way possible, what we have always suspected. From Winona Rasheed's name and her area of editorial interest (in this specific instance, Africa), you'd think she'd know better than to call Africa a country. How embarrasing.


Well, if you were thinking it was a one-off, a mistake, a slip or the printer's devil - think again. I clicked on an earlier African-themed anthology also edited by Ms Rasheed. Africa 2007 begins, "Africa, a vast country that is full of pain and suffering". Well, maybe we ought to thank God Rasheed knows Africa is vast; the "pain and suffering" we've heard before, so we can hardly sue for that. But Country?! Where's your radar, Ms Rasheed? Did you ever sit through a class in geography? I mean, what's going on here?


In fairness, it is not as though Winona Rasheed did not know of some countries in Africa. She does mention, after all, that the contributing writers come from Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe and what have you. Yet she still calls Africa a country. So what happened? A Freudian slip? A terrible slip that will require some clever words indeed, to explain why this 'slip' occured in 2 separate books over 2 years. No ordinary Freudian slip, that. And we know that Freudian slips only expose deeper things...

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Or is it that the word 'continent' does not exist in her dictionary? Hardly likely, for she does manage to throw in, for good measure, the greatest of Africa clichés - "the Dark Continent". You couldn't make it up.


So, here's a few take-away snappy facts about Africa for Winona Rasheed, from something I read someplace, sometime: Africa has some 50 countries; the continent is 3 times the size of the United States; and you could fit the whole of Western Europe in the Sahara Desert and still have room to spare.

Worth remembering, when next you're thinking of putting together an 'Africa' anthology. If there is, to quote you, "yet another Author Africa Book", we don't expect to see Africa reduced to a measly country.

Africa @ 50

"Only Africa can fight for her destiny. In this struggle we shall not reject the assistance and support of our friends, but we will yield to no enemy, however strong."

- Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah

Africa @ 50 Conference - Friday 6 & Saturday 7 July 2007

Post-Colonial Africa : 2 days of discussion & proposals for action.
School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) Main Building ,
Thornhaugh Street , London WC1 (Russell Square tube; Buses 7, 59, 68, 91, 168, 188)

Organised by the Royal African Society, Centre for African Studies at the University of London and the African Liberation Support Campaign Network (ALISC Network)

Programme

FRIDAY 6 JULY 2007
RALLY FOR AFRICA

• Africa in the Post-Colonial Era: Imperialism and Resistance - 6.30pm in Room G2 - with Madam Amina Adan (former Somalia minister); Dylan Chambers (former president of the African Caribbean & Asian Students' Society, Sussex University); John Rees (author of Imperialism and Resistance); Tafadzwa Sando (International Socialist Organisation of Zimbabwe); Albert Moutoudou (Union of Cameroonian Peoples UPC).
  

SATURDAY 7 JULY 2007
ONE DAY CONFERENCE - Africa in the Post-Independence Era :

• 9am – 5pm: Room G60 - Registration
• 10am – 11.45am: Zimbabwe Today and the Way Forward - Tafadzwa Sando (International Socialist Organisation of Zimbabwe); Alois Mbawara (Free Zim Youth) & Wellington Chibanguza (Free Zim Youth)
• 1.30pm - 3.15pm: Elections & Democracy: Cameroon , Guinea and Nigeria -
  Albert Moutoudou (Union of Cameroonian Peoples; UPC); Fatoumata Koulibay (Fraternitée Guinéene); Dr. Abayomi Ferreira (Democratic Alternative of Nigeria)
• 3.30pm - 5.00pm: Proxy Wars in Africa - Tony Benn (president, Stop the War Coalition UK); Joseph Ochieno (Uganda People's Congress); Dahabo Isse (Somali Civil Liberties and Human Rights Organisation); Dr Haroun Abdulhamid (Darfur Union).
  

Events are free but you must register your intention to attend the rally or the conference - by email to nkexplo@yahoo.co.uk /Tel: 079 844 05 307

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Request for Volunteers - Africa @ 50

Dear All,
This is a special appeal for volunteers to assist in publicising the Africa @ 50 event being organised by African Liberation Support Campaign Network on 6th and 7th July 2007.
We need people to leaflet, put up posters and leave information in African shops and community gatherings. Please email nkexplo@yahoo.co.uk or phone 07984405307 if you can help us with publicising the event. We also need volunteers to help on the day of the event.
Kofi