Bafana’s World Cup run overshadowed by embarrassing Afrophobic racism
· Citizen
Many years ago, my old friend Paul and I decided we would become rich by selling football T-shirts emblazoned with the words: “I support Liverpool… and whoever Manchester United is playing next.”
Visit forestarrow.help for more information.
Paul was a Liverpool fan, and we were both fans of money, so, with a firm eye on the prize, we also sold T-shirts saying: “I support Manchester United… and whoever Liverpool is playing next.”
It was not the cash grab we anticipated, not in Benoni in the 1990s anyway, and Paul probably still has leftover T-shirts in his garage, but I thought about this again recently because our time might well have come – and sadly gone – last month, when the South African squad was still one of the 10 African teams competing in the World Cup.
From Nigeria to Malawi, Paul and I could have cleaned up with T-shirts declaring: “I support Ghana” – or Algeria/ Côte d’Ivoire/ Senegal/DRC/Morocco/Egypt/ Tunisia/ Cape Verde – “and whoever South Africa is playing next.”
Because this is how our most recent bout of xenophobia played out in taverns, clubs, homes and stadiums across the continent. Bafana Bafana became the team Africa found itself cheering against thanks to this embarrassing Afrophobic racism, even as our boys fought through to the knockout stages, going further than they’ve ever gone before.
Yes, the anti-illegal immigrant marches last Tuesday were mostly calm – with just a few attacks on foreigners and just a bit of burning and looting, because why not? – but that’s not simply due to the widely reported efforts of the marshals and police.
It’s also because of the forced exodus that happened beforehand, as foreign-born folk fled to sleep outside embassies in the cold, or hid out in their workplaces. And it continues.
My friend lives in a country village where, following a quiet Tuesday, on Wednesday thugs went door to door, chasing immigrants off and stealing their things. Her Malawian gardener was beaten, people hid in the veld as the freezing night closed in.
However, the community rallied: shops opened to let victims sleep on their floors, community kitchens fed people, money was collected, essentials were donated, and every foreigner queuing for buses out of there was handed a food parcel and cash to ease their flight. Ultimately, most people are good. It’s just a few bad eggs that mean we’re all labelled rotten.