Join together instead of fighting each other
THE scourge of an identity crisis is starting to raise its head in our society.
We are Africans living on the African continent.
We are from different parts of this wonderful continent north, east , south and west.
We are Africans who have been categorised by different laws. We have been exposed to colonialism, socialism, imperialism, capitalism.
We have been classified during the apartheid regime as a people who do not have an identity of our own. We fought these laws at a high price.
Some have paid through sacrificing their right to education, their right to normal family life, their right to economic well-being ...
Some have paid the ultimate price.
Yet since 1994 we are still filling in forms that classify us as white, black, coloured, Indian, Asian, continuing to create an ethnic phobia that divides the nation.
We then further divide ourselves through our social status of upper class, middle class or lower class. We are still shocked when South Africans intermarry across these lines.
The lines that demarcated our identity are inherited from a previous regime. The present scenario has introduced a spirit of entitlement.
We have been resisting each other, but now we unite to resist foreigners in our neighbourhoods. Let us learn from each other. Let us work as Africans to grow a stronger people on this continent. Let us stop the xenophobia before we find ourselves isolated from the rest of the continent.
This present generation does not understand the price the rest of Africa paid to ensure the freedom of the people from apartheid.
No matter what the reasons given for the recent spate of violent attacks on foreigners, it is not justified.