Xenophobia...Where does one start when it comes to this topic?
Perhaps I should start by it's definition, "Dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries."
So, when people get the news they won't say "certain South Africans killed foreigners", but they will say "South Africans killed foreigners." What does that say about us?
We are facing a sad time, because some people feel they have ownership of this country and that others don't deserve residence in it. What are we forgetting? Where does this hatred come from? How do we burn other people and smile about it? What happened to power to the people? What happened to Africanism? What happened to helping one another?
It looks like this blog will be filled with questions because this situation is confusing, its disturbing and it's crazy! We are a crazy society and if we are not careful this will turn into South Africans killing one another because of their different cultures. If we can do it to our African brothers and sisters, then we can do it among ourselves right?
We are forgetting that we were once in exile and our dear African brothers and sisters took us in their countries with open arms and fought with us against apartheid but today we don't want to do the same for them.
We forget that we are not educated or clever enough to manage our businesses and feel jealous when our African brothers and sisters do what we could have been doing but failed to. We are so stupid to forget that we engage in foreign businesses and that we are killing the friendship we have with them.
We forget that life is unpredictable and that this wheel might turn against us one day. The illiterate and uneducated people who support xenophobia (in its every form) don't see what they are doing for the future generation of this country. One day our children will go to foreign countries and they'll be brutally killed because of our ignorant behaviour.
I hate what we've become as a nation. We forget that we are all Africans and that we think we are better than the others which is not the case. The devil is playing with us and he loves it! People need to be educated, especially those in the townships who support this and see it as an activity to push their miserable lives. We are starting a war that we'll struggle to stop.
I am Paballo Seipei and I say NO to Xenophobia.