In the wake of the coronavirus, anti-foreigner sentiments are growing in South Africa. In September, thousands of South Africans marched along the streets with banners and placards demanding that Nigerians, Zimbabweans, and other foreigners leave their country. The protesters claimed that foreigners are taking away their jobs and committing crimes such as drugs and trafficking—the same narratives that have been used to attack foreigners and their properties in the past.
As a Nigerian living in South Africa, I’ve become all too aware of how many people feel about me and my compatriots. It’s a bitter form of discrimination in a country that’s proud of being a so-called rainbow nation itself—one that takes some of the old bigotries of apartheid and repurposes them against other Africans. The divisions weaponized against Black South Africans are now used against foreigners. South Africa’s last census of 2011 showed that there were 2.2 million foreigners living in the country—and the numbers have grown since. We’re all in the firing line.
