ON THE CONTINUED XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS IN SOUTH AFRICA, THE HYPOCRISY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT, AND THE URGENT NEED FOR PAN-AFRICAN ACCOUNTABILITY
Date: May 28, 2026
The Afrocentric Council unequivocally condemns the recurring xenophobic violence against fellow Africans in South Africa. Once again, black brothers and sisters are being attacked, killed, looted, and driven from their homes under the false banner of “protecting jobs” and “fighting crime.” This is not patriotism. It is misplaced anger, fuelled by a failing government and opportunistic elites who scapegoat the vulnerable immigrant instead of confronting domestic bourgeois exploitation and imperialist stranglehold.
Let us call this what it truly is: not xenophobia – but Afrophobia. The targeted hatred of black Africans by other black Africans.
WE REMEMBER – WITHOUT AFRICA’S SACRIFICE, APARTHEID WOULD NOT HAVE FALLEN
Your freedom was paid for in African blood:
· Over 3,000 Cuban soldiers – and many Continental African soldiers – died at Cuito Cuanavale (1987–88), defeating the apartheid army. Fidel Castro sent them for the liberation of black humanity.
· The Frontline States (Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique) sacrificed their economies and hosted liberation armies.
· Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria, and the OAU funneled millions to isolate the apartheid regime.
To now butcher, deport, or dehumanise the descendants of those who bled for you is historical amnesia of the most shameful kind.
EMPTY RHETORIC, REAL FAILURE
The South African government issues endless condemnations, yet violence continues. Police stand by while shops are looted. Politicians fan the flames. The same government that preaches “African Renaissance” fails to provide jobs, services, or security – then blames the foreigner.
No condition is permanent. If war, famine, or pandemic makes South Africa uninhabitable, where will you run? Will other Africans turn you away? An African is never a foreigner in Africa.
“IT’S ONLY ONE PROVINCE” IS A LIE
If even a single household is attacked because of nationality, the entire country is responsible. Silence emboldens the violent minority. South Africans own this problem collectively.
ADDRESSING THE EXCUSES – POINT BY POINT
1. “Foreigners commit crimes and deal drugs.”
Crime has no nationality. Labeling all undocumented Africans as criminals is giving a dog a bad name to hang it. Arrest the guilty, not the ethnic group.
2. “Foreigners take our jobs.”
Unemployment plagues all of Africa. As Kwame Nkrumah wrote in Class Struggle in Africa, joblessness results from neocolonial agreements that keep economies dependent. Direct your anger at Pretoria and global financial institutions, not your fellow African. The same trick was used in Ghana in 1969 – after Nkrumah’s overthrow, Nigerians were scapegoated to expel Pan-Africanists. Do not be a tool of divide and rule.
3. “Foreigners overwhelm our healthcare system.”
Denying a pregnant woman or a child a hospital bed is not a solution; it is cruelty. Negotiate with China, Cuba, or others to build more hospitals. Never strip a fellow black person of dignity. Africans must look to African medicine – where natural remedies grow freely for everyone, cannot be truly privatised or commercialised, and remain accessible to all. Instead of depending entirely on Western medicine – whose entire value chain we lack the resources to import and sustain – we should invest in our own indigenous knowledge, herbs, and healing systems. The answer to healthcare pressure is not denying fellow Africans hospital beds; it is building self-reliance from the roots up.
4. “They don’t have papers. They must legalise first.”
The costs of work visas, permits, and legalisation are extortionate – designed by elites to keep the poor out of the formal economy. This monetization of immigration forces desperate people into corruption and trafficking. It must be stopped. Africans must be made to live freely anywhere they want on the continent.
5. “If you cannot afford papers, do not travel.”
By that logic, half of Europe would be empty. Africans risk the Sahara and the Mediterranean because survival demands movement. Deprivation strips humanity – but we are not animals. Do not turn on each other.
THE GREAT LIE: “WHITES MAKE OUR ECONOMY BOOM”
Some South Africans have internalised the racist myth that the economy depends on the white minority. Wake up:
· Nigeria, with virtually no white-owned commanding heights, now has a larger GDP than South Africa.
· Namibia’s economy has not boomed despite preserving white commercial farms.
Apartheid left a distorted, extractive economy. The ANC failed to restructure it – partly due to IMF/World Bank conditions that protect white capital. Blaming a Somali shopkeeper is inferiority complex. Remember what apartheid did to you – forced removals, Sharpeville, Soweto, Biko – then ask why you copy the oppressor’s playbook.
WHO IS LAUGHING? THE OPPORTUNISTS
Every looted shop gives a politician votes; every stabbed immigrant gives a policeman a bribe; every deportation removes a competitor. You are being used. The real enemies – monopoly capitalists, land barons, mining houses – laugh while poor South Africans and poor immigrants kill each other over scraps.
A RHETORICAL QUESTION
What if every country chased out non-citizens? The USA expel 45 million immigrants? Saudi Arabia send home 10 million workers? Europe empty its hospitals of African nurses? Xenophobia is a poison. If South Africa does not end it, every South African business and government interest abroad will be shut down.
DEMANDS AND CALLS TO ACTION
1. South African government must arrest and prosecute perpetrators – not just “condemn.”
2. Equal application of immigration laws – if a French or American investor gets a permit in weeks, so should a Nigerian or Ethiopian.
3. Review business and visa regulations to make legal entry affordable.
4. Rehabilitation and compensation for all victims.
To Ghana’s government: You promised to take South Africa to the Human Rights Court over the 2019 & current attacks. Do it now.
To South Africa’s government: Cuba sacrificed 3,000 sons for your freedom. Today, the US blockades Cuba & is in the process of attacking it. Return the favour – defy Washington, send oil, gold, medical aid, and support Raúl Castro against American madness.
FAKE VIDEO ALERT – STOP DISINFORMATION
A disturbing video of two beaten women stripped naked, one in a coma, is circulating as “See what South Africans do to foreigners.” The Afrocentric Council confirms this incident did NOT happen in South Africa. We call on the government to debunk false information and on the public to report accounts spreading fake news – xenophobia is too deadly for clout.
FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Director, Communications & Media
Stanley Egholo
📞 +234 816 805 7905
Director, Membership & Community Engagement
Efua Victoria Harford
📞 +44 7941 880 979
Director, Pan-African Affairs & International Relations
Nana Aboagye-Boampong
📞 +233 244 250 053
Director, Arts, Culture & Education
BADJI Alfouseynou
📞 +221 760 145 542
Director, Environmental & Indigenous Justice
Seyram Fiakeye
📞 +233 245 727 181
AN AFRICAN CAN NEVER BE A FOREIGNER IN AFRICA
· An African in Africa is not a foreigner.
· Borders drawn in Berlin 1884 have no moral authority.
· The Afrocentric Council will fight xenophobia everywhere until every African walks from Cape to Accra without fear.
ANTI-XENOPHOBIA WEEK 2026 – PETITION LAUNCH
After a successful maiden edition, this year we focus entirely on South Africa’s xenophobia canker.
Sign the petition now: https://chng.it/NwdTvCgWNL
Join us:
WhatsApp: https://chat.whatsapp.com/CifBsaCICPxE6HCbFyEjms
Email: info.afrocentriccouncil.org
ONE STRUGGLE. ONE PEOPLE. ONE CONTINENT.
This is not a fight against South Africans – it is a fight for a future where every African is treated with dignity. The enemy is poverty, inequality, and the system that profits from our division.
AFRICA MUST RISE. AND WE MUST RISE TOGETHER.
In Militant Solidarity,
The Afrocentric Council