Abstract
In examining the manifestation of racism(s) against immigrants in the post-1994 South Africa, one sees a transmogrification of pre-1994 racism, which characterised black and white relations, into the post-1994 period that defines relationships between black African immigrants and black South Africans. These reflect the nature of South African social formation. Cultural semiotics of signification in Alexandra, representation and negotiation of difference through space, time and social distance is explained by the fact that although immigrants and South Africans live in the same space, their social distance is nonetheless further than near. It is a synthesis of both remoteness and nearness.
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Notes
- 1.
The Native Labour Regulation Act (1911) established control over migrant labour, contracts and the compound system; the Mines and Works Act (1911) gave white workers access to better jobs and pay.
- 2.
I have contested the term xenophobia in depth elsewhere (see Chap. 2 of this book). I would rather prefer black-on-black racism, as part of the motley of racisms , to describe anti-immigrant attitudes in South Africa townships which are similar to white anti- black racism that has characterised the country’s historiography.
- 3.
Most residents still use the apartheid lexicon, pass, to refer to the identity book.
- 4.
Conversation with a South African man, 10 June 2009.
- 5.
Interview with a South African man, 10 June 2009.
- 6.
S’bali is Nguni word that might mean brother-in-law. However, it can be used interchangeably by both sexes.
- 7.
South African residents were the first to call the area “Maputo”. However everyone including immigrants and Mozambicans themselves call it by the same name.
- 8.
Conversation with a Mozambican immigrant , 23 June 2009.
- 9.
Conversation with an immigrant man , 1 July 2009.
- 10.
Conversation with a South African, 30 June 2009.
- 11.
The Green ID book is currently being replaced with a smart ID card.
- 12.
Interview with a Zimbabwean immigrant , 26 June 2009.
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Tafira, H.K. (2018). Politics of Difference. In: Xenophobia in South Africa. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67714-9_5
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