A BETRAYAL OF BROTHERHOOD AND PAN-AFRICANISM: SOUTH AFRICA MUST END XENOPHOBIC VIOLENCE NOW

There are moments in history when a nation must pause, reflect, and ask itself a difficult question, have we strayed from the very values that once defined us?

Today, South Africa faces such a moment, and the world is watching.

Africa did not stand aside while apartheid ravaged South Africa. The continent stood shoulder to shoulder in a united struggle for justice, dignity, and freedom.

On March 6, 1957, Ghana, under the leadership of its first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, gained independence and ignited a flame of hope across Africa. Nkrumah’s words still reverberate across generations: Ghana’s freedom would be meaningless unless it was tied to the liberation of the entire continent.

And Ghana lived by those words.

From the late 1950s, Accra became a refuge for African freedom fighters. South African exiles found shelter and dignity. The African National Congress found allies. The struggle against apartheid found momentum.

In December 1958, Ghana hosted the historic All-African People’s Conference, a bold declaration that apartheid had no place in Africa.

By April 1962, a young Nelson Mandela walked the streets of Accra, seeking support for a struggle that belonged not only to South Africa, but to all of Africa.

And Africa answered.

Through decades of diplomatic pressure at the United Nations and within the Organization of African Unity, African nations helped isolate apartheid until it finally crumbled.

In 1994, South Africa became free. And Africa rejoiced.

But today, that proud history stands in sharp and painful contrast to unfolding realities.

Between April 22 and 24, 2026, disturbing scenes emerged from parts of South Africa. African migrants, among them Ghanaians, were harassed, threatened, and humiliated. Some were told to “go back and fix your country.”

These wounds are not mere words.

They cut across citizens from Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Somalia, and Ethiopia, people who have come not to take, but to build. Traders. Workers. Entrepreneurs. Contributors to local economies.

And yet, they are being treated as enemies.

Yes, South Africa faces serious challenges, unemployment, inequality, and economic pressure. But no hardship justifies turning against fellow Africans.

 

Blaming foreigners for domestic struggles is not a solution; it is a dangerous illusion.

History has shown that when frustration is misdirected, it does not solve problems, it multiplies them. It erodes trust, deepens division, and weakens nations from within.

Ghana has not remained silent.

Between April 22 and 24, 2026, its Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, took swift diplomatic action, summoning South Africa’s envoy, demanding protection for Ghanaian citizens, and engaging in urgent dialogue.

Across the continent, voices are rising. The African Union has called for restraint, peace, and respect for human dignity.

This is not interference but responsibility. The responsibility of a continent that understands the cost of silence.

At a time when Africa is striving to reclaim its rightful place in global history, these acts of xenophobia could not be more damaging.

Recently, President John Dramani Mahama, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, championed a powerful cause, that the transatlantic slave trade be recognized as one of the gravest injustices ever inflicted on humanity.

This call reflects a wide African movement to demand historical justice, seek reparations and restore dignity to generations affected by slavery.

Across Africa and the global diaspora, momentum is building for a unified voice, one that speaks with clarity, strength, and moral authority.

But that moral authority is weakened when Africans turn against each other.

An African proverb says “When two brothers fight, strangers take over their property.”

How can Africa demand justice from the world if it cannot uphold justice within itself?

Xenophobic violence fractures solidarity. It undermines credibility. It risks undoing decades of progress in Africa’s global advocacy.

If these attacks continue, the consequences will extend far beyond South Africa’s borders.

South Africans live and thrive across Africa, in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and beyond, contributing peacefully to host economies. Retaliation elsewhere would not only endanger innocent lives but unravel decades of cooperation.

Economically, the damage is already visible, disrupted businesses, shaken investor confidence, and declining stability.

Morally, the cost is even greater. A nation once admired for overcoming division risks becoming defined by it.

South Africa must remember.

It must remember the hands that lifted it when it was down.

It must remember the voices that spoke when it was silenced.

It must remember the continent that refused to abandon it.

 

The Africans being attacked today are not strangers. They are part of the same story. The same struggle. The same dream.

Now is the time for decisive action.

The government must go beyond promises and diplomacy, and enforce the law firmly. Perpetrators of xenophobic violence must be held accountable, swiftly and transparently.

Civil society must act. Citizens must reject hatred in all its forms.

Because silence is not neutrality. It is complicity.

Africa’s strength has always been its unity.

To fracture that unity now is to weaken the entire continent.

Let this be a moment not of division, but of renewal, a return to the ideals that once brought Africa together.

Let South Africa rise again, not only as a nation free from apartheid, but as a nation free from hatred.

Let Africa stand, once more, as one people, bound not by borders, but by history, humanity, and hope.

Long live African.

 

By Sattey Yaw Stephen; Writer, student Leader, Public Servant and Child Right Advocate. Phone:0242308122/0208947308