Mob Rules (Zulu Scorn)

Photo: Loud Records

Picture goes wavy and we’re back in the past….

Meanwhile somewhere….

Me: So here I am once again on the streets looking to speak with a bunch of people raging against immigration…

[embed]Mob Rules (Thug Life) Picture goes wavy and we’re back in the past….medium.com

Not Britain, not the island of Ireland, not even somewhere in Europe. No. South Africa. A Black man in Africa, looking to speak with Black people who aren’t happy with Black people in their country. You couldn’t make it up.

South African: It was a one-word answer, man. Yes or No to you being English. The protest is that way.

[later-ish]

Me: ….At least there’s no vuvuzelas ….

[loud monotone droning sound]

Me [muttering]: Curses, foiled again. ….What is it with you lot, home and away, setting fire to shit? I thought South Africa was a welcoming country. Many African migrants moved to South Africa around the time White-minority rule ended in 1994.

Protestor: Good Africans!

Protestors: Good Africans!

Protestor: Not Makwerekwere!

Me: Don’t know what that means but I imagine it might be a derogatory slur against foreign nationals, particularly black Africans.

Photo: nathab.com. “They must go!”

Protestor: All undocumented migrants need to leave the country!

Protestors: Leave the country!

Protestor: We will march every week until they are gone!

Me: Can’t you do what we do in the UK? Put your demands in a politely worded petition with racist undertones?

Protestor: Why talk of racism? They’re Africans.

Me: So what’s the problem then?

Protestor: They’re not South African!

Protestors: Not South African!

Me [muttering]: Maybe the mistake we make in the UK is seeing the issue of expressing concerns over immigration as being black and white, pun intended. If you have concerns you are a racist, however as soon as someone who isn’t White pops up moaning about immigration our superficial argument is toast. Perhaps unhappiness with immigration will always come down to xenophobia?

Photo: Jonathan Growcott et al. “Leave now!”

Protestor [talking to protestor next to them]: Why does he mumble xenophobia?

Protestor: We are not xenophobic!

Protestors: Not xenophobic!

Protestor: We’re protecting our country. We’re patriotic!

Protestors: Patriotic!

Me [ducking flying rock]: Sounds…. [ducking flying brick] ….and feels, familiar.

Protestor [cracking whip]: They’re taking jobs from locals, putting pressure on public services and causing crime!

Me: Whoa Billy Smart! Are your concerns about undocumented migrants legit? How are threats and intimidation legit? How is running around smashing windows in neighbourhoods with high migrant populations legit?

Protestor [waving stick]: You’re not here wanting to genuinely engage with the issues affecting our country. Aren’t you just an outsider reading off a simplistic analysis?

Me [looking at notes]: Nope.

Protestor: Bloody hack!

Me: One thing’s for sure, men drive this kind of violent toxic behaviour at protests.

Photo: Alan De Witt. “Enough is enough!”

Female Protestor: Ag, man! Are you fokking blind?!?

Me [ducking flying rock]: Feminism, eh? Sharon Ekambaram, who heads the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights said, “This level of inhumanity against our fellow Black brothers and sisters from the African continent is a serious stain on South Africa.”

Protestor: This funda…this expert knows nothing!

Me: You sound like Michael Gove. Your President Cyril Ramaphosa said, “ Some foreign nationals who live in South Africa are here lawfully. They work, study, raise families, invest in our economy and contribute positively to our society.”

Protestor: They contribute nothing!

Protestors: They contribute nothing! Absolutely nothing!

Me: Your evidence base?

[silence]

Photo: animalworldus.1. “Go home!”

Protestor: They contribute nothing!

Protestors: Absolutely nothing!

Me: Your sometimes violent protests are having unexpected consequences. Migrants who have lived in South Africa for ages are leaving because they are scared; they no longer consider your country safe. Most didn’t arrive here in boats on the Limpopo River….

Protestor: Stop the boats!

Protestors: Stop the boats!

Me: ….Of course. They arrived by buses holding visas looking for a better life.

[silence]

Protestors: Stop the buses!

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Special thanks to my girlfriend Hen.

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