#Xenophobia: Of South Africa's Warped Protectionism [2]

The film of ignorance, which has caused them to be segregative and prejudicial has blinded some yet powerful South Africans from the above. This dislike of a people because of the fear such people has imposed on the very citizens that should welcome them has become the cradle that has rocked the rude wave of xenophobia.

The spreadsheet ingenuity of the Nigerian person as against been a great source of inspiration has pitched them against the people they've visited. These South Africans do not want to learn from whatever it is that has distinguished their visitor. All they see is the filming fear of dominance, and in no milder term, they want them out.

In the same vein, Nigerians home are becoming worn out by the constancy of the prejudice that their brothers over there have been meted with. The reactionary force within has built up, bursting out of elasticity and pushing them to react, chiefly to show support for their own and to pass the clear message that they aren't weaklings, that they too know how to and can be violent. Threats are been issued and carried out against perceived South African conglomerates in the land.

But then: what is the best form to retaliate a case as this where the person you are visiting is showing a definitive coldness that is buttressed by physical assault? How do you recompense a person who has fought you in his house and gave a chase out because he perceived you've come to show him that he is lazy and that he has in you a stereotype of industry to learn from?

Pick up club and fight him back in his house? Pull off the roof of your house, if you happened to have bought them from his store?

The methodology of retaliation adopted by Nigerians at home speaks of how they have adopted the unconscious approach of pulling down their structures and facilities, simply because they have South African badge. It is pathetic how we do not understand that such steps do not win a fight. Instead, it amount to a doubling of the tragic dose.

1. Nigerians, South Africans (though of an ignorant few) have called the bluff; they've shown us how they are gripped with an  insecurity by the towering level of an interpreting  people. They've shown us how they do not want us in their country so as to enjoy their resources- though we know it's a disillusionment. But we cannot expect to win by destroying those essentials that contribute to our everyday living in our own land- just because we perceive they are South African.

Whether it be MTN, or DStv or Shoprite, these institutions are beyond the petty fight instigated by an unknowing few, who mistakenly have been allowed to represent the greater majority of the good South African people. They are business establishments that have given values, straddling the length and breadth of this nation. They've served many of our modern everyday purposes that it's become irrelevant the poser of whether or not they have elements of Nigerian ownership. 

As such, their values outweigh their respective individual ownership. It is in this light that the act or any planned act of arson, mob and extradition on any of these companies is condemned. We must know how best to reciprocate the gesture of an unappreciated visit. Certainly, not by self-immolation.