The African hair salon: mitigating xenophobic violence through feminist solidarities in post- apartheid South Africa.
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Date
2024
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Publisher
Univeristy of the Western Cape
Abstract
Xenophobic violence first entered the post-apartheid South African public imagination in 1994 when community organizations in Alexandra accused migrants from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi of causing crime, sexual attacks and unemployment and forcefully evicted them in a campaign called ‘Operation Buyelekhaya’, meaning ‘go back home’. In 1999, six white police officials were shown on national television racially assaulting and abusing eight illegal immigrants from Mozambique. From about 2006 onwards the number of immigrant shopkeepers killed has increased significantly. The violence toward immigrant shopkeepers intensified in 2008, but was overshadowed by the wide-scale xenophobic attacks that swept the country in May and June, which started in Alexandra, Johannesburg, in which violence was extended to individuals believed to be ‘foreigners,’ regardless if they were shopkeepers or not. The 2008 attacks saw sixty-three people killed, including twenty-one South Africans, nearly 700 injured, and thousands forced to flee their homes and businesses. The attacks also drew wide-scale international media coverage and condemnation from the South African government. In all of these cases, male immigrant shopkeepers represent the dominant imagenof African immigrants that are subject to xenophobic violence in South Africa.
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Keywords
Hair salons, African Hair, African Immigrants, Migration, Xenophobia