Africa, do not be tempted

Many hundreds and thousands of mostly native Africans have been slaughtered, gunned down, burnt or buried alive on our continent as a result of conflicts. A publication by Global Issues puts refugees and internally displaced Africans at over 9 million as at 2010. In fact, it has been very difficult for any agency to state a clear total number of lives lost to the continent from conflicts.

The reason? Think of any kind of conflict around the globe, and Africa has a record of it. It is painful to accept, as an African, the fact that we are home to all manner of violence. Is it political conflicts of internal and inter-state types? Is it ethnic, religious, economic (class-based) or urban conflict? Name them!

As we grapple with these diverse evils on the land, there are two of them that have been so prominent lately. Much attention will have to be quickly turned to them if Africa can survive its many teething threats. They are the deeply painful xenophobic attacks and the so sensitive religious conflicts.

Xenophobia is basically an extreme dislike for foreigners. A mention of this quickly takes our minds on an unpleasant tour to the Republic ofSouth Africa. Xenophobic attacks in that country has been, in recent years, sadly aimed at fellow African migrants. In pre-1994 South Africa, such acts were committed against both Africans and some non-Africans.

Strangely enough, the post-1994 South African society now sees brutal attacks on immigrants from Zimbabwe, Somalia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Burundi and almost every African nation. Thus, the emergence of the word 'afrophobia' coined by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, is very exact.

The attacks are in the form of mob killings, the looting of shops belonging to African foreigners, physical assault, the driving away of foreigners from their homes and so on. The Human Right Watch released a report in 1998 that indicated that immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi were subjected to physical assault for several weeks in 1995. It was reported that a deliberate campaign tagged 'Buyelekhaya', meaning 'go back home' was waged at the foreigners.

It went on through to the 2000s till date. What makes the current one more precarious is the comments reported to have been made by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini to the effect that foreigners should 'pack their bags' and leave. Many critics believe it is that which has triggered the on-going attacks. At least five people, had been killed, some burnt alive, in Durban by the second week into the violence in the month of April. Reports had it that similar attacks had been started within the central business area of Johannesburg. Over one thousand immigrants have fled to police stations and camps set up for them, most of them empty-handed.

The South Africans are accusing the foreigners of taking up the job opportunities available to the disadvantage of the natives. They also blame them for crimes and sexual attacks. All these have not been substantiated. The Human Sciences Research Council, in its report, identified, among other things, that most South Africans have the feeling that they are superior in relation to other Africans.

It is, however, sad to think how South Africans seem to have forgotten so quickly. They might have forgotten the massive role played by most of these African countries to get them out of the inhumane apartheid movement. Now, it looks like other Africans are getting their fair share of the apartheid ills from the very nation that just got out of it. Has history been so quickly washed away? Even if the current generation has no clue of that history, can't the elderly teach them? Have they read these lines at chapter thirteen of Nelson Mandela's No Easy Walk To Freedom: 'We also thank all those States that have given asylum and assistance to South African refugees of all shades of political beliefs and opinion.'? Madiba might be weeping in his grave for this!

Such cruel behaviours have clearly left both the direct victims and all other Africans disappointed, shocked and embittered. It is more murky since most of these immigrants come from countries with economic pains and other brands of conflicts.

Consequently, Malawi has decided to evacuate all its citizens from South Africa. A popular Zambian Pan-Africanist, Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika, has called for a boycott of all South African products. He has also called on the African Union to suspend the country from the continental body. The Amnesty International-SouthAfrica has also called on the government to do more than arrests in order to protect foreign African nationals. A look at Africa's myriad of religious conflicts tells no better story than the xenophobic attacks.The trend is the mischievous selective killings around the continent. In both the Westgate mall and Garissa University attacks in Kenya, there were reports that the Al-Shabab terrorists spared Muslims and killed the Christians. In the latter attack, 148 Kenyans, mainly Christians, were killedwhile over 79 sustained various degrees of injuries.

The Boko Haram, on beginning itsgruesome slaughter of Nigerians, also fiercely targeted churches or Christians in general. Later, their critics, including some Muslims, were added to their unfortunate victims before finally extending their atrocities to all and sundry. A mention could, as well, be made of the ISIS-linked militants in Libya who gruesomely killed some mainly Coptic Christians this year.

Another ugly type of such killings has been that between the anti-balaka Christian militia and Seleka Muslim militia groups in the Central African Republic (CAR). By September 2014, the calamity had recorded 2,600 deaths, and close to 1 million citizens had been displaced. You can imagine the humanitarian crisis caused by the internal displacementalone! It is reported that almost all mosques in the country have been destroyed by the Christian activists.

Apart from the CAR case which is evidently two-sided, the others are chiefly one section against the other. What may be baffling most worried observers and even the victims is why the selective attacks. One will not be wrong to assert that these terrorist are clearly capitalising on the sensitive nature of religion to perpetuate their barbaric acts. The trick is that by killing some members of one religion, the sympathisers will be moved to also attack members of the other religion both in the respective countries and even beyond. By that, a full scale, national and even continent-wide inter-religious conflict could spark off. If that happens, those terrorists will celebrate it as an achieved goal.

We must applaud Nigerian and Kenyan Christians for not engaging in reprisal attacks on their Muslim brothers and sisters. Though, the Kenyan government has threatened to sack Somalian refugees in its Dadaab Refugee Camp after indicating the Al-Shabab has been recruiting militants from the camp, I urge the government to look at its course of action more carefully.

Regarding the xenophobic attacks in South Africa, other Africans have not so far had any retaliatory attacks on South Africans in their respective countries, and we pray the status quo should remain same.

What we should be mindful of as a continent is that not all South Africans cherish what is going on. Some are actually condemning the acts. Moreover, many a Muslim hates what these supposed Islamists are doing on the continent. We remember the beautiful incident of that Muslim gentleman who saved the lives of some Christians within the Westgate mall during the attack. He quickly taught them some few Quranic verses which the Christians could recite to the Al-Shabab heartless beings, and that saved them.

We should let love remain supreme as both religions preach that. We should not behave like Odewale in Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not To Blame who said, 'I once slew a man on my farm I could have spared him (but) I lost my reason'.