I was recently visiting Lagos – the city of my birth – when I
found myself feeling a sense of déjà vu as I watched South African
mobs on television looting and attacking shops owned by Nigerians and other
Africans. We have been here before. Nigerians were among those hurt in the
horrific xenophobic attacks of 2008 when 62 people – mostly Zimbabweans,
Mozambicans, and Malawians – were killed, and 100,000 displaced. More
recently, in March 2017, South African vigilantes burned and looted scores
of homes and businesses belonging to Nigerians in Rosettenville, Mamelodi, and
Atteridgeville in Gauteng province, which they alleged were drug dens and
brothels.
Having lived in South Africa for 16 years, one of my biggest
frustrations is the failure of so many of its citizens to embrace an African
identity and of the government to attract more skilled Africans to its shores
in order to create an “America in Africa”. America’s genius has, of course,
been its ability to attract the best and brightest from the rest of the world –
trained at huge expense by these countries – and to turn them into American
citizens or green-card holders.
