Foreigners And Xenophobia: Archaeological Evidence

1938 Words8 Pages
Xenophobia is an abnormal fear or hatred of foreigners (Farlex, 2011). This has become a serious issue in South Africa, to the point where foreigners are losing their lives in xenophobic attacks (Yao, 2008). These attacks and the xenophobic craze that is sweeping across townships in South Africa cannot be justified at all. They are taking place as South African citizens are afraid that work opportunities will be given to foreigners. South African citizens also claim that the foreigners are willing to work for a much lower salary than is deemed acceptable . Making use of archaeological and anthropological evidence this essay argues that the so called "foreigners" originated from within South Africa. Therefore they are merely returning to their country of origin in hope of a better and brighter future. The mfecane is an example of an event that led to mass migrations throughout Southern Africa. During this time there was severe competition and fighting for land in Kwa-Zulu Natal (Shillington, 1985). As a result of this many people fled the raiding parties and established new homelands in different parts of Southern Africa. Evidence of Mzilikazi’s people fleeing from Kwa-Zulu Natal to the Pretoria area is evident in the stonewalling which can be found at Doornspruit (Huffman, 2004). This type of stonewalling was based on the Zulu military centres (Huffman, 2004). Herein lays proof that people migrated from Kwa-Zulu Natal, where the Zulu kingdom was based, further north. Mzilikazi's people continued to migrate even further north to southwestern Zimbabwe where his son Lobengula established KoBulawayo (Hughes & Muringaniza, 2003). Pottery from Zimbabwe is another form of archaeological evidence thats origins can be traced back to South Africa (Huffman, 2007). Pottery with a certain ceramic style, that is known as Kalundu, has been found in Zimbabwe (Huffman, 2007). The
Open Document