Life for refugees is always having to be on the run
Xenophobic violence in SA has caused a Congolese family to continuously seek refuge
XENOPHOBIA was one of the first “big words” that Fidel Byemba, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) living in South Africa, learnt as a primary school pupil. As a 12-year-old he experienced hatred from fellow Africans simply because he lived in a country not of his birth.
“We lived in a flat (in) Sydenham and one day I came back from school and people from the informal settlement near the flat surrounded me saying they don’t want us here.”
Within hours, he and his two brothers, sister and parents had to flee the place they had called home since he was five.
The country which had given them refuge, spewed thousands of people from other African countries into makeshift shelters.
That was May 2008, when xenophobic violence which had begun in Joburg spread throughout the country.
The country, which had suffered and emerged victorious from the grip of institutional racial discrimination, was shrouded in shame as some of its people turned on people from other African countries. Like Byemba and Mozambican Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave, who was beaten, stabbed and set alight in an informal settlement in Gauteng.
“We were kept in a church in Berea for a month, then we came here,” said Byemba.
Now, eight years later, he is back in the same shelter for the homeless in the Durban CBD.
The 19-year-old sleeps in a room reserved for men on the second floor of the shelter.
Most of the floor space in the room is covered with bed bases on which he, his father and other men sleep. His mother and sisters occupy a 15-bed room with the rest of the women and children of the 108 refugees from DRC and Burundi, who said they were still too afraid to return to their communities.
In July 2008, Byemba and his family had been among the 40 evicted from the old SPCA site.
In protest they camped in front of the city hall when the municipality stopped paying for their stay at the shelter, and moved to a camp in Albert Park.
“After some time we were told to reconcile with our attackers and go back to Sydenham because there was peace.”
But Byemba’s family had lost everything they owned and instead moved to Welkom in the Free State to start life anew. His farmer parents did well, growing and selling fresh produce.
“I lived with xenophobic hatred everyday, but one day I was stabbed for being a Shangaan.”
A school friend turned on him, stabbing him in the arm with the knife of a nail cutter.
“That reminded me that South Africa was not home for me, not because I didn’t want it to be, but because I would never be accepted no matter how many languages I speak or who I am friends with.”
In Durban, he had been a Zulu speaking kwerekwere, while in Welkom he was a Sotho speaking “Shangaan”.
Although Shangaan is a synonym for Tsonga, which describes a language and a people, it is sometimes used in a derogatory way to refer to foreigners, as it is spoken in other African coun- tries, particularly Mozambique.
The family returned to Durban, only to be attacked again last year.
Although many others who were displaced returned to their home countries or eventually back to their communities, Byemba and his family do not trust the “peace”. “We want the UN to take us somewhere safe, a third country maybe.”
As one of the 108 refugees, his life is in limbo. What should have been his second year at university has become a year sitting around in a shelter and, before this, at Hope Farm before relations soured with the owners.
“Each time there were attacks I had to drop out of school because we ran for our lives and never looked back. Right now I can’t even think of a future for myself when my whole family doesn’t know where they will spend the next night.”
They fled their home country for the safety of a country where people understood the pain of persecution, but some turned on them, making them, “citizens of nowhere”.
After surviving the xenophobic violence of 2008 and last year, Fidel Byemba says he would not take a chance and return to the community he lived in before the attacks.
THE COUNTRY, WHICH HAD SUFFERED AND EMERGED VICTORIOUS FROM THE GRIP OF INSTITUTIONAL RACISM, WAS SHROUDED IN SHAME AS SOME OF ITS PEOPLE TURNED ON OTHER AFRICANS I LIVED WITH XENOPHOBIC HATRED EVERY DAY, BUT ONE DAY I WAS STABBED FOR BEING A SHANGAAN. THAT REMINDED ME SA WASN’T HOME FOR ME. NOT THAT I DIDN’T WANT IT TO BE, BUT BECAUSE I WOULD NEVER BE ACCEPTED