Illegal aliens and demons that must be exorcised from South Africa: Framing African migrants and xenophobia in post-apartheid narratives

Abstract

This article interprets narratives that have dominated the public sphere in post-apartheid South Africa, following the influx of African migrants. It uses qualitative data from personal interviews with local South Africans, excerpts from familiar political speeches and print media articles to tease out how the construction and intersection of public messages about foreigners and xenophobia have contributed to the recurrent attacks of African migrants. The article argues that although post-apartheid South Africa has become a prime migration destination, the country’s economic and psychosocial challenges have influenced the way citizens frame narratives about African migrants from other parts of the continent. These narratives are often fraught with images and metaphors that demonise and attempt to justify violence against African migrants. The article attempts to examine how the framing of such narratives provides a discursive space for understanding South Africans’ perceptions about African migrants and the multiple perspectives of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa.

Keywords:

• xenophobia
• Afrophobia
• African migrant
• framing
• post-apartheid
• South Africa

Public Interest Statement

In this article, I write about the relationship between South African citizens and other Africans living in South Africa. I explain how messages and/or stories told by South Africans, including politicians and in newspapers, represent Africans as the architect of all the problems of post-apartheid South Africa, such as unemployment, poverty and crime. Also, I explain how by blaming Africans for their social problems, South Africans incite violence against Africans, whom South Africans now see as the enemy that must be eliminated.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ernest A. Pineteh

Ernest A. Pineteh is senior lecturer and researcher in the Unit for Academic Literacy in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He obtained his PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, for an interdisciplinary research project on the life testimonies of a group of asylum seekers and refugees. He has written and published several articles on the experiences of African migrants in South Africa. His current research interests are: xenophobia, migrant narratives, African transnational students and academic literacies. This article is one of three articles from a broader project on the xenophobic experiences of Somali refugees in Cape Town, South Africa.