Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi delivers a provocative and wide-ranging keynote address at the symposium “Samora Machel, Liberation Movements and the Unfinished Decolonial Project,” hosted by the Samora Machel Foundation and Rhodes University in Makhanda, marking 40 years since the death of Mozambican revolutionary leader Samora Machel.
In one of the most controversial sections of the address, Ndlozi directly challenges the response of Nigeria and Ghana to xenophobic violence and anti-foreigner sentiment in South Africa, arguing that their condemnation of South Africa represents a form of Pan-African hypocrisy and risks contributing to the isolation of South Africa from the rest of the continent.
He contrasts the reactions of Nigeria and Ghana with the approach of countries such as Mozambique, Angola and Zambia, invoking the devastating role that apartheid-era South Africa played in destabilising Southern Africa and arguing that the region’s liberation struggles cannot be separated from one another.
Ndlozi asks a fundamental question:
Can Southern Africa develop a genuine economic and political future if its countries continue to think of themselves as isolated national entities?
A particularly striking argument in the keynote is that treating SADC as a single regional developmental project does NOT necessarily mean creating “one country.” Ndlozi compares the proposal with European regional cooperation and argues that Southern African states need greater coordination if they are to confront global economic power.
He also argues that the frustrations driving xenophobic sentiment in South Africa cannot simply be reduced to the presence of African migrants. Instead, he connects the anger in townships to unemployment, poverty, inadequate services, overcrowding, landlessness and the enduring spatial legacy of apartheid.
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