reblog: suren pillay on the scandal of xenophobia

10Sep10

The Scandal Suren Pillay, Cape Town Guest Blogger The World Cup had just ended, and there were stories in the newspapers, telling us that foreign nationals were going to be killed  as soon as the event was over. These stories immediately mobilized many of us in civil society, and it even mobilized the state into action. The army was deployed as a visible deterrent to prevent future attacks. Although I had read reports over the last ten years, and heard … 

Throughout colonized Africa, indigeneity has become a politicized matter. The colonial state distributed rewards and punishment along these lines, turning where you came from into a political issue.

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Lets adapt Arendt to speak to our condition, to say that we are not talking about the rightless in this instance, but different ways in which rights are being engaged, claimed and protected. And that rather than between a first world and a third world, or a colonized and colonized, or developed and underdeveloped as different entities, were are talking about geographically proximate but economically, socially and culturally distinct communities of apartheid within the same state. … Read More

via AFRICA IS A COUNTRY

Bang on target again, Dr. Pillay.