Ambiguities of xenophobia in a border town: inner city informal traders and Ekasi shopkeepers in the city of East London, South Africa

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the livelihoods, experiences and identities of immigrant informal traders and shopkeepers in the Buffalo City Metropolitan area, which encompasses the centres of East London, Mdantsane and King Williams Town. We primarily use a socio-spatial perspective to analyse informal activity, and offer a particular perspective on how informality has encouraged a type of ‘informal citizenry’ among traders. We argue that informal trading has a very particular history in the region, and that East London’s notoriety as a ‘border city’ and a regional frontier has created a fractured space, which is best expressed through the experiences of migrants and entrepreneurs. We point out that informality is a driver of economic empowerment and equality among traders, but also of xenophobia and difference.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrants
• traders
• informality
• borders
• frontiers

Notes

1 Ekasi, or kasi, is an informal term used in South Africa to refer to a township, a segregated neighbourhood where black people were forced to live under apartheid. However, it also refers to ‘soul’ or an authentic identity: the heart of black South Africa.

2 Also known as terantala, this fabric was reportedly named after Moshoeshoe, the King of Lesotho in the 1840s, where the material is also popular. Others say that the name comes from the sound that is made when the fabric is worn around the legs.

3 During 2018, foreign owners (mostly Somalis) of small shops were accused of selling ’counterfeit’ food and expired items to customers, which caused a violent xenophobic flare-up in many townships in South Africa. Accessed at https://qz.com/africa/1390293/south-africas-fake-food-and-xenophobia-against-shopkeepers/