Social media is not helping matters when it comes to xenophobia.
Today, April 27, is Freedom Day in South Africa.
The public holiday is meant to remember and recognize the importance of this day back in 1994, when the first democratic elections took place in South Africa under the new African National Congress party led by Nelson Mandela.
The significant day comes at a time when xenophobia, though under control thanks to efforts from the police and people of South Africa, is in the hearts and minds of many who call South Africa home, or who hold a stake in the country’s future.
Xenophobia took hold in South Africa some weeks ago, affecting the lives of many immigrants and leading to the death of seven people, three of whom were South Africans.
The vast majority of South Africans have been furious with the disgusting scenes that have been playing out in certain areas following the pathetic actions of cowards who do not in any way represent South Africans in general or their collective mentality.
The country saw a number of xenophobic attacks grip Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng. Violence against African immigrants in South Africa prompted the government and police to act quickly in an attempt to stop the attacks that caused deaths, injuries and damage to property. Some of those affected were forced to leave their homes for special camps set up to assist them.
While a small section of frustrated South Africans undertook such ridiculous acts of violence spurred on by their difficult social and economic realities, criminal elements determined to take advantage of the situation piggybacked on the xenophobia by looting shops and stealing from foreigners.
This is criminality, and should not be lumped into the category of xenophobia, though both should be swiftly and mercilessly punished before they damage a country with incredible potential.
Social media surrounding the attacks has been incredibly irresponsible. Posts on Facebook and Twitter have been shared and retweeted countless times, sometimes with images that are supposed to represent this year’s xenophobic violence being recycled from previous situations in 2008, and even some images reportedly being shared involving violence from other African countries, not South Africa.
Social media has no gatekeepers or manner of real policing. There are no editors who scour Facebook, Twitter and GooglePlus with the aim of insuring that content or imagery that is being shared is verified and credible. That means anyone with the ability to do a Google images search and post content can suddenly become a publisher of anything they wish on social media, and the speed at which such content is shared means that any attempt to rectify wrongly shared content later is virtually impossible and almost pointless.
All too often people share content without clicking to see what the content is really all about, or where the images come from. And once they do, and perhaps notice that the content they shared is misleading or completely fabricated, how often do they delete the content or print any sort of retraction? Even if they did, it would be somewhat pointless, as the same people who shared and reshared the content, giving it an even wider platform, are not usually the same people that would view the retraction. Such content spreads like wildfire. By then, the damage is done.
Such falsehood can hurt an entire country’s reputation, affecting the economy and scaring off investors, as well as those South Africans who may be considering returning home to contribute to the continued growth and betterment of a great nation that is attempting to deal with its problems.
The outpouring of love and care shown by South Africans has been the important counterbalance to the violence. South Africans have been coming out in numbers to denounce the scourge of xenophobia and march, pray and call for peace and brotherhood amongst Africans.
Communities have banded together to provide relief, collecting food, clothes and various other items needed by immigrants from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and other countries who have been displaced by these horrible and unwarranted attacks.
Many foreigners have now gone back to their communities in South Africa, while some have returned to their home nations. The efforts by ordinary South Africans have not been documented nearly as much, or with as much emphasis, as the attacks themselves, which were relatively short-lived. The empathy that others displayed continues by caring for our fellow residents in South Africa, who may not necessarily have been born here.
I shudder at the thought of how former President Nelson Mandela would feel about the xenophobic violence that put South Africa in such a terrible spotlight, but I know that he would have been proud of the general reaction of South Africans who have condemned the violence.
They have ensured that their actions speak much louder than any words, or any social media posts.
