Go Home or Die Here: Violence, Xenophobia and the Reinvention of Difference in South Africa

The xenophobic attacks that started in Alexandra, Johannesburg in May 2008 before quickly spreading around the country caused an outcry across the world and raised many fundamental questions: Of what profound social malaise is xenophobia – and the violence that it inspires – a symptom? Have our economic and political choices created new forms of exclusion that fuel anger and distrust? What consequences does the emergence of xenophobia hold for the idea of an equal, non-racial society as symbolised by a democratic South Africa? On 28 May 2008 the Faculty of Humanities in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg convened an urgent colloquium that focused on searching for short and long-term solutions. Nearly twenty individuals – mostly Wits academics from a variety of disciplines, but also two student leaders, a journalist and a bishop – addressed the unfolding violence in ways that were conversant with the moment, yet rooted in scholarship and ongoing research. Go Home or Die Here emanates directly from the colloquium. It hopes to make sense of the nuances and trajectories of building a democratic society out of a deeply divided and conflictual past, in the conditions of global recession, heightening inequalities and future uncertainty. The authors hoped to pose questions that would lead both to research and to more informed, reflective forms of public action. With extensive photographs by award-winning photographer Alon Skuy, who covered the violence for The Times newspaper, the volume is passionate and engaged, and aims to stimulate reflection, debate and activism among concerned members of a broad public.

Table of Contents:
Foreword – Bishop Paul Verryn Introduction – Eric Worby, Shireen Hassim and Tawana Kupe Chapter 1 A Torn Narrative of Violence – Alex Eliseev Chapter 2 I Did Not Expect Such a Thing to Happen – Rolf Maruping Chapter 3 (Dis)connections: Elite and Popular ‘Common Sense’ on the Matter of ‘Foreigners’ – Daryl Glaser Chapter 4 Xenophobia in Alexandra – Noor Nieftagodien Chapter 5 Behind Xenophobia in South Africa – Poverty or Inequality? – Stephen Gelb Chapter 6 Relative Deprivation, Social Instability and Cultures of Entitlement – Devan Pillay Chapter 7 Violence, Condemnation, and the Meaning of Living in South Africa – Loren B Landau Chapter 8 Crossing Borders – David Coplan Chapter 9 Policing Xenophobia – Xenophobic Policing: A Clash of Legitimacy – Julia Hornberger Chapter 10 Housing Delivery, the Urban Crisis and Xenophobia – Melinda Silverman and Tanya Zack Chapter 11 Two Newspapers, Two Nations? The Media and the Xenophobic Violence – Anton Harber Chapter 12 Beyond Citizenship: Human Rights and Democracy – Cathi Albertyn Chapter 13 We Are Not All Like That: Race, Class and Nation after Apartheid – Andile Mngxitama Chapter 14 Brutal Inheritances: Echoes, Negrophobia and Masculinist Violence – Pumla Dineo Gqola Chapter 15 Constructing the ‘Other’: Learning from the Ivorian Example – Véronique Tadjo End Notes Author Biographies

About the Author :
Shireen Hassim is Professor of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. Tawana Kupe is Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria. Eric Worby is Professor of Anthropology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand. Shireen Hassim is Professor of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. Tawana Kupe is Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria. Eric Worby is Professor of Anthropology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand. Paul Verryn is an ordained minister of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. Alex Eliseev is a freelance journalist. Daryl Glaser is associate professor in the department of Political Studies at Wits University. Noor Nieftagodien is the Deputy Chair of the History Workshop and is Senior Lecturer in the History Department at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Stephen Gelb is a political economist at Wits University and executive director of The EDGE Institute in Johannesburg. Devan Pillay is an associate professor and former head of the Department of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Loren B. Landau is the South African Research Chair in Human Mobility and the Politics of Difference at the African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. David Coplan is Professor Emeritus and Chair in Social Anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Julia Hornberger is a senior researcher in the Department of Social Anthropology, Wits University. Melinda Silverman is an urban development specialist and lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning, Wits University. Tanya Zack is a town planner. The focus of her research and practice is on housing and urban poverty. Anton Harber is the Caxton professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Wits University. He was the co-founder and co-editor of the Weekly Mail (now the Mail & Guardian) and was editor of both the first and second editions of The A–Z of South African Politics. Cathi Albertyn is a Professor of Law and South African Research Chair in Equality, Law and Social Justice in the School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand. Andile Mngxitama is the co-editor of Biko Lives! The Contested Legacies of Steve Biko (2008), and president of Black First Land First (BLF). Pumla Dineo Gqola is Professor in the Department of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Véronique Tadjo is a senior lecturer and the head of French Studies in the School of Literature and Language Studies, Wits University.