Unisa online - Towards problematising xenophobia: understanding its complexitie

"We are here today because of the recent violent upheavals, and continuing simmering incidents both of overt violence, and muted responses to resolving it are tugging at our hearts, making us wonder how could it have happened … what did we not see, and if we saw, why did we feel so paralysed?" With this searing question, Prof Catherine Hoppers, NRF South African Research Chair in Development Education at Unisa, set the tone for a morning of intense discussion and discourse on the topic "Towards problematising xenophobia: understanding its complexities, contradictions and ambiguities".

"Angels on our shoulders", a short film by Andy Spitz, explored how a small group of Zimbabwean teachers tried to establish some structure and healing for the displaced children and for themselves after the destruction, chaos and trauma of the recent xenophobic upheavals.

Although there is no quick fix for the underlying trauma and pain that people experienced, their resilience and dignity shone through in this story, told through the eyes of the children. The mad destructiveness of random hate was breathtakingly obvious through the film, without a single image of physical violence.

Other speakers included Javu Baloyi, spokesperson for the Commission for Gender Equality, and Jeanne Pierre Misago, researcher at the Forced Migration Studies Programme.

The colloquium was hosted by the Vice-Principal: Academic and Research, the School for Graduate Studies and the Research Directorate.

Prof Catherine Hoppers, Prof Greg Cuthbertson (Director: School for Graduate Studies) and Prof Tinyiko Maluleke (Executive Director: Research)