Insiders and Outsiders: Citizenship and Xenophobia in Contemporary Southern Africa

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Insiders and OutsidersCitizenship and Xenophobia in Contemporary Southern AfricaBy Francis B. NyamnjohZed Books LtdCopyright © 2006 CODESRIAAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-84277-676-6ContentsAcknowledgements, ix, Introduction: Globalisation, Mobility, Citizenship and Xenophobia in Southern Africa, 1, 1 Mobility, Citizenship and Xenophobia in South Africa, 28, 2 Citizenship, Mobility and Xenophobia in Botswana, 82, 3 Gender, Domesticity, Mobility and Citizenship, 113, 4 Maids, Mobility and Citizenship in Botswana, 142, 5 Madams and Maids: Coping with Domination and Dehumanisation, 206, 6 Conclusion: Requiem for Bounded Citizenship, 228, Notes, 242, References, 249, Index, 268, CHAPTER 1Mobility, Citizenship and Xenophobia in South AfricaCombing the world for opportunities has historically been the privilege of whites, who have been encouraged by their imperial governments to settle foreign territories, and who have always benefited from fellow whites on the ground, from colonial officers to missionaries through businessmen, journalists and scholars (Cohen 1997: 66–81). Without necessarily being a homogeneous collectivity, whites have always managed to tame their differences in the interest of the economic, cultural and political hegemonies of the West vis-à-vis the rest (Chinweizu 1987). Thus, in South Africa for example, the Dutch who first landed in the Cape in 1652 actively encouraged immigration by whites from Europe and practically allowed them free access to the territory. The price for European domestication was the systematic insulation and subjection of the indigenous populations by freezing migration from elsewhere, except for slaves or labour zombies, and on terms defined exclusively by the interests of the settler whites (February 1991: 12–39; Cohen I997: 59–62; Elbourne 2003: 380–88). While 'virtually anyone with a white skin was welcome', non-whites, particularly from Africa, 'were unwelcome', and, when it suited 'apartheid's pernicious "homelands" strategy of co-optation', the state allowed entry to selected black skilled immigrants and 'honorary whites' from Asia (Crush and McDonald 2001a: 2).Even when the need for devalued labour imposed upon whiteness the necessity of immigration by non-Europeans, migrant labour was heavily confined to life in the mines and hostels for men, and to the whims and caprices of farm and domestic service for women. None was allowed to feel at home by bringing their family with them (Crush and McDonald 2001a: 7–8). This was particularly difficult for foreign migrant labourers in the mines, as they were 'encapsulated in massive single-sex barracks and forced to work in degrading and inhumane conditions' (Crush and Tshitereke 2001: 50). 'Not one of the thousands of migrant workers from neighbouring countries who spent (and often lost) their lives on South Africa's mines and farms ever qualified for permanent residence in the country', as the system of contract labour compelled migrants to 'return home at the end of each contract and at the end of their working days' (Crush and McDonald 2001a: 3). Often they returned home 'physically maimed or crippled with lung disease' (Crush and Tshitereke 2001: 50). Recruited as labour zombies, they slaved away in ultra-subjection under the shadow of segregation, unable to claim belonging in South Africa, and often with little power to articulate meaningful citizenship back home.The fact that employers in other sectors were and still are denied the right to migrant labour from neighbouring countries enjoyed by the South African mines 'has led, perhaps inevitably, to greatly increased usage of undocumented or "illegal" foreign labor' by these other employers (Crush and Tshitereke 2001: 49–52), as well as to some of the excesses of citizenship catalogued below. Policies of selective migration have not changed much with the end of apartheid and the advent of an African National Congress (ANC