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The Melanin Dilemma By Adesina Adesida I salute you for the opportunity given to your news readers to air their views in an otherwise voiceless world. I just want to use this medium to implore our news media in Nigeria to focus also on the plight of Nigerians living outside the shores of our dear country. The play a very important role in educating the masses, and as I say well done to them, I feel a lot needs to be done in order to educate and enlighten our people, especially the youths who are apt to want to leave Nigeria, of the true situations in the countries of their aspirations, so that they could make an informed choice. I will elaborate especially on the plight of “foreigners” in South Africa, where I currently reside ( but wish so badly I could leave as soon as its expedient), but more specifically on the plight of Nigerians, being the main constituency of my immediate concern. South Africa suffered under an inhumane and disgraceful regime of apartheid, where some homo-sapiens of doubtful origin, misguided by an unproved theory that the lack of melanin pigment in their skin automatically imbues them with superiority (in what sphere, I do not know), and the liberation of majority of their citizenry who are blacks is not without the efforts of our country (Nigeria), as well as some other well meaning African countries. The battle was lost and won and the majority regained their “independence” from their erstwhile “masters”. There is nothing novel or new in all I’ve been saying to any good student of world history. What is new or rather unexplainable to me however is the tenacity with which these former underdogs or if you wish,” previously disadvantaged people” cling to servitude of their former masters in everyday life. They want to be white, they dress white, eat white , and even clownishly advance the interests of whites over their African brothers and sisters, especially from outside South Africa. There are a few of them that I’ve met though that understand that to truly free yourself, you have to break away from the mental shackles of a propaganda that taught you that nothing is good about your own kind, but alas, they are very few indeed. I daresay you only find these select group of forward thinkers amongst their political and business class that has traveled outside their borders during the days of the liberation struggle, or shortly thereafter. Oh yes, you do find some of our citizens here who are up to no good, whose only idea of making money is through illegal deals, 419 scams (I have received more than my own share of such e-mails), drugs and the lot, and I am by no means holding brief for such criminals. If you enter another man’s house and you defecate on his floor, then he should deal ruthlessly with you (courtesy of Prof. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart). What I disagree with however is the way the black on black hatred and xenophobia has been foisted on the Africans from outside, especially Nigerians, under the obnoxious excuse that “foreigners are the only criminals in South Africa, they are taking our jobs, our wives,” etc as the average black South African would readily tell you. I have been living here legally for ten years now, and in all those years, my documented encounters with xenophobia from blacks would fill a volume. I am an employer of labour, yet the white man next door with a business that is hardly a quarter of mine in size could still commandeer or poach my staff at a whim, because the blacks still believe “anything white is good, anything black is doubtful, and if it is foreign black owned, even worse.” Their attitude reflects this on a daily basis It is only in this country that you get scared to speak in public for fear of being targeted by the native blacks, and believe me, when they target you, you are truly doomed. I and my wife have been shopping at the same grocery outlet for over 8 years, and up till today, the hostility towards us, as well as other foreign blacks, dubbed “amakwerekwere” by the locals is palpable. If you buy things worth R1000 (One thousand Rands for example, and you need to wheel the trolley to your car to offload, and a white person buys things worth R100 Rands at the same time, you will see the black staff would look pass you struggling with your cart, and help the white person (with all slavish courtesy) push his own cart. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been their customer, its just enough to know you are a makwerekwere (foreigner), whether you are legally in the country or not is irrelevant. Besides, you are not even white. I don’t even want to go to Police harassment. Buses (called Taxis here), are routinely stopped, and your Identity card (carried by all South Africans) are checked, and God help you if you are carrying a non-South African document on you. The legality or otherwise of it does not matter, as far as they are concerned, you are another money making opportunity. If you are naďve and you open your mouth in the bus to ask for your change, you are immediately spotted, and handing you over to the Police would be a lucky break if they don’t kill you first. Yes, the killings. Human life here ,especially a black foreigner’s, is worth not even a dime. The locals could no longer contain their deep seated xenophobia and hatred, even to those Africans coming from nearby “sister” countries, hence, like rabid dogs who need to vent their spleen, went out on the rampage and killed, raped and looted their fellow African’s homes and businesses in Alexandra, near Johannesburg. Ask the Somalians, they would tell you aplenty. What is their crime? “They are taking our jobs, and our women”, the South African would readily tell you. Now which jobs are we talking about? The jobs that South Africans would apply for, you employ them, and they stay away, rest assured that even if they don’t come to work for most of the week (which is their usual practice, especially after getting paid), all they have to do is run to their “big brother” CCMA?. If they steal or commit any atrocity at work, which is very common, you cannot fire them unless you go through some rigorous procedures, which could and in most cases is faulted by CCMA, thus condemning you to pay up to twelve months unearned salary to the thief. .CCMA is a body set up by Government to try and redress the old draconian employment practices under apartheid, but it has been turned on its head as an instrument to foster laziness, non-productivity, and the average black South African’s sense (or culture?) of entitlement. Like late Fela said :Dem don free monkey, but monkey no gree free himself”. Our brothers here still suffer under a great delusional of wishing they were whites. The only African features left of them is their black skins and their native language, which they arrogantly insist on speaking to you whether you understand them or not. I am writing this to let our fellow brothers and sisters know that South Africa is not a land flowing with gold, as some unscrupulous people who want to make money out of them would portray. Stay at home and make it better. Those of us that are making some kind of living came with money from Nigeria to set up a small business or two, and even at that, your life will be very miserable if you think there are jobs to be had here. I cannot wait to come back home. A word is enough…….. I would dwell more on “White Parochialism” in my next article. Once again, thanks for giving me this opportunity.
Yours truly, Adesina Adesida. PROUDLY NIGERIAN.
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