Uneven Development: Listening to the 'South', Listening to Vancouver

There are roughly between 3-5 million African refugees in South Africa. Xenophobic attacks have taken place for many years but in March of 2008 there was a huge increase and over 100 people were killed. The attacks started in the community of Alexandria, outside of Johannesburg. Zimbabweans, Malawians, Nigerians and many other foreigners were physically attacked, their homes set of fire, and their shops vandalized and other were threatened with death unless they left the area. This violence spread throughout most of South Africa. It took the government a lot of military manpower to end the attacks and by the end of the violence over 200,000 people were displaced, many fearing to go ‘home’ to the squatter camps they lived in before.

In this clip Majirano Muderlua, a man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo explains his experience of the attacks. Here, he is the subaltern, a foreigner in a strange land where he is not accepted. Not only have he faced atrocities in the DRC and had to seek refuge in South Africa but here he is once again marginalised and silenced. In this clip he is able to speak, it is just him and the camera man, no images or sound effects are used. Interesting points to note was that he spoke in English (not French) and that he answered the camera man’s questions, it was not simply him speaking from his own thoughts. Yet, the cameraman’s questions do not seem too leading, and do not direct him to speak about a specific topic over another.

Muderlua may be unaware, but he uses strategic essenssialism. He is only one man from one African country yet he speaks on behalf of all foreign, abused refugees.  I also found the idea and importance of scale prevalent here because what started as a neighbourhood problem soon spread and became a national problem and when people died it came into view on an international level. Muderlua can be seen jumping scales as he asks for help from the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) to create a peaceful and safe environment for all refugees to live in.

Although it is not specified in this video the reasons for these attacks are common problems in development: unemployment, lack of social/government housing and poverty. South Africans who were part of the attacks have a discourse created through their history of discrimination during Apartheid.  Throughout the Apartheid government and until present there are large income inequalities and this has led to a large amount of uneven development. Many black South Africans have never had access to proper land, and social facilities. They create a binary between themselves and ‘the foreigners,’  and believe that with more and more foreigners arriving in South Africa their hopes for houses, jobs and a higher standard of living are getting driven further and further away.

Whether or not these South Africans’ claims have any validity the attacks were an atrocity and it is clear that the government needs to deal with the issues that both these refugees and also poor South African citizens face.

For further information, in particular looking at the view of South Africans on the matter, please watch the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl8PRMHFF_U