African Feminists Reject Xenophobic Violence in South Africa
In recent weeks, a wave of xenophobic and Afrophobic violence in South Africa has targeted Black and South Asian migrants in poor and working class communities, culminating in a call for them all to leave the country by June 30th. This statement is a response from the African Feminist Initiative.
—Shailja Patel, Public Affairs Editor
“a book knows its place in the library
but I have no address in this wide world.”
—Epiphanie Mukasano, 2010
“later that night
i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?
it answered
everywhere
everywhere
everywhere.”
—Warsan Shire, 2015
We are a collective of artists, writers, scholars, teachers, activists and community members brought together by our commitment to African feminism. Precisely because of this, we abhor and reject any attempt to divide us and instill hatred and violence against our fellow African friends, colleagues, teachers, neighbours and loved ones.
We stand with our friends, colleagues, family, neighbours and loved ones suddenly labeled “foreign” and “undocumented” and with those in South Africa who reject the latest xenophobic and Afrophobic acts of violence. We stand with all those who have been victimized and been made to feel unsafe and unwelcome.
We note that some sectors in South Africa are deliberately exploiting and inflaming such rhetoric and violence. The consequences for members of our communities who are called “foreign” or “undocumented” are catastrophic. Yet we know from the long, vital and loving connections sustained over the decades—that literally kept South Africans alive and played a central role in our struggle for freedom—that our real communities cross the divisions created by passports and borders.
We call on all South Africans, Africans and especially those in positions of leadership to refuse, reject and take action to stop all xenophobic actions and rhetoric. For those in the academy, our voice and actions can also reassure our students and others who suddenly find themselves labeled “foreign” and “undocumented,” sometimes by those who themselves a generation ago would have been called the same. Of course, labeling people as “other” is a violent way to claim a sense of legitimacy and belonging.
South Africa has always been infused with and strengthened by our connections with people across our borders. We in the African feminist community live this reality each day. Let us stand up for that reality and refuse the one created by malicious forces who are deliberately fomenting and exploiting divisions between us.
“no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well.”
—Warsan Shire, 2009
“Dispossessed
Is not the same as empty
I was born into extraction
I still choose creation
The atoms of this body remember abundance
I receive
because I am part of the making”
—Lebo Mashile, We Are Not Waiting, 2026
This statement is endorsed by the African Feminist Initiative, the English departments at University of the Western Cape, Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town, the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies, the Wits Department of Political Studies and the Palestine Solidarity Coalition at the University of the Western Cape (PSCUWC). It joins a growing chorus of voices against Afrophobia/xenophobia inside and outside the academy. A selection of mobilizations and readings follows:
- Latest Anti-Xenophobia Campaign
- The Economic Freedom Fighters political party has been consistent on the non-negotiability of Pan Africanism. Multiple EFF leaders speak out regularly against Afrophobia. The EFF has also mounted counter-marches to the xenopobhic March-on-Marches in different cities.
- The nationwide mass-based shack dwellers movement Abahlali BaseMjondolo and the Unemployed People’s Movement have led grassroots resistance to xenophobia for many years. Several months before the current wave was reported in mainstream national and international media, Abahlali partnered with the Congolese Solidarity Movement in Durban to defend African migrants against violence in poor communities. This clip shows the aftermath of Abahlali and their allies successfully ending a xenophobic march. Abahlali have organized several marches that centered their rejection of anti-poor and anti-African violence and rhetoric.
- Go home or die here: Violence, xenophobia and the reinvention of difference in South Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
