Et, Tu, Azania?

Caesar: Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?
Casca: Speak, hands, for me [They stab Caesar]
Caesar: Et tu Brute. Then fall, Caesar. (He dies)
Cinna: Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!
Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.
Julius Caesar Act III Scene l
On March 15, 44 BC (the Ides of March) Emperor Julius Caesar was attacked by some senators.  After an initial resistance, he recapitulated when he saw Brutus, his close friend and protégé leading the group of assassins.  He exclaimed in bewilderment: 'Et tu, Brute? (And you, Brutus? OR You too, Brutus?)

'Incroyable', (French: 1796) literally meaning 'incredible', 'unbelievable' is apposite, for the story of xenophobic attacks in South Africa–And you, Azania?

'Xenophobia' is irrational fear of foreigners; sometimes the irrational fear is backed by irrational actions perpetrated by those not willing to share their rights and wealth with others described as aliens.

South Africa had been on the agenda of almost all Black Africa, and Ghana typified it at independence when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah proclaimed: 'The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent'. Ghana became the centre-piece of the liberation struggles for the whole of Africa.  Most freedom fighters were trained here, with the establishment of military camps, at the taxpayer's expense…There were prayers in our churches and collections were gathered from the ordinary citizens for the cause. Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president stayed here and got married to a Ghanaian - There was a programme in GBC's External Service entitled 'Way Down South', and only South African music was played…There was talk at OAU of an African High Command - to establish an African military force to support the struggle for independence.

One of the reasons for the anti-Busiaist coup of January 13, 1972, was Busia's support for 'Dialogue', even though in Parliament in 1971 Busia had stated that dialogue was additional to the armed struggle.  Houphoet Boigny of Cote Ivoire organized an international conference a year later at which he lined up his reasons for supporting dialogue in South Africa, and he was called a white puppet, a European stooge.

On 21^st March, 1960, Africans protesting the 'Pass Laws' of apartheid South Africa were mowed down with 69 people losing their lives in the 'Sharpeville Massacre' in Transvaal, now part of Guateng Province.  The 'Umkhonto we Sizwe; the military wing of the ANC stepped up its activities.

Nelson Mandela who symbolized the struggle for independence was imprisoned in 1964 and not released until 1990, at the age of 71.  In 1993, Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize together with the then South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk.

When independence came to South Africa in 1994, the whole of black Africa jubilated. Mandela, at the age of 75, became President of South Africa, adopting a national flag of rainbow colours: red, white, blue representing the Dutch and English communities; black, green and gold, from the flags of the black liberation movements (ANC, Inkhatha, PAC).  It is to the credit of the designer, Fred

Brownell, that the symbol Y was incorporated, to mean a convergence or unification.

There were agitations for independent South Africa to adopt the name 'Azania' which is said to be originally Hebrew (heard by God), but which was applied to the area occupied by the Bantu people, as narrated in 'The Periphus of the Erythraean Sea' and Ptolemy's 'Geographia.' Black Consciousness movements had used the term 'Azania',– the Socialist Party of Azania; the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania; Azanian National Youth all of whom had insisted 'Africa for the Africans' and that whites did not belong there.  The Blacks were the sons of the soil, and a national poem was entitled 'Bring back Azania':

Is the African capable of managing his own affairs, as Kwame Nkrumah insisted?  Ghana in 1970 introduced the 'Aliens Compliance Order', and the target was to get rid of 'aliens' engaged in various atrocious activities. But the way the security agencies handled the issue brought untold hardships to our own brothers and sisters, typically Nigerians with whom we have a twin - like fate.  In the latter part of the 1970s, oil wealth and rapid development in Nigeria made Nigerians come to Ghana to recruit Ghanaians.  In 1983, there arose in Nigeria 'a new Pharaoh who knew not Joseph'.  Ghanaian returnees and deportees were driven back in droves, some got burnt alive (torched), and others tortured and killed openly in the streets of Lagos and other Nigerian cities. Painful pay-back time.

Where are Bob Marley, Lucky Dube and Miriam Makeba to urge Africans to emancipate ourselves from 'mental slavery?'

Jacob Zuma, the President had stated that the government was addressing the socio-economic issues brought up by the citizens.  He argued: 'While some foreign nationals have been arrested for various crimes, it is misleading and wrong to label all foreign nationals as being involved in crime in the country'.

In 2008, dozens of immigrants, mostly Zimbabweans, were killed in attacks in the poorest areas of Johannesburg.

Various theories may be framed to explain away these xenophobic attacks.  The foreigners may be accused of taking the jobs of the South Africans and committing crimes.

In 2007, some foreign participants to a conference in South Africa were trailed attacked and robbed of all their luggage, even to the point of de-robing them.  Passers - by dared not turn their eyes to look at the horrible scene, else they stood the risk of being victims themselves.  In South-West Township (Soweto) one would encounter groups of young men openly and defiantly smoking substances banned by law.

Lest anyone accuse Nelson Mandela of not solving the vexed issue of land - ownership during the tenure of his presidency, one should note what he himself said: 'After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb'.

Aristotle wrote over 2,300 years ago in 'Natural History' (Historia Animalum) that there is

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always something new coming out of Africa. Pliny, the Elder perfected this in 'Historia Naturalis:  'Ex semper aliquid novi'; 'Always something new from Africa'.  Is the adjective 'new' translated as 'strange and undesirable' or as Zenobius thinks 'evil' or as Thabo Mbeki noted before the European Parliament in November 2004, 'depressingly familiar'?

The Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini is eating back his own words which had fomented the troubles: now foreigners need not 'go back to their countries'.  South Africa's High Commissioner to Ghana, Lulama Xingwana, had better not hold a press conference at all, to add insult to injury.  She thinks no Ghanaian has died as a result of the xenophobic attacks.  Diplomacy is hinged on 'give - and - take'—a reciprocity…  One need not be surprised at the reprisals.

Is the ordinary Azanian Youth, a land-lubber for whom the struggle for independence in South Africa is a fable and one who has been deprived of education, capable of appreciating the issues? Asem beba dabi!

Africanus Owusu-Ansah.
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