Murdered by a mob, a victim of xenophobic violence lies in the street. Makausi Informal settlement, Primrose, Johannesburg. May 2008. © James Oatway
James Oatway, a South African photographer with the Sunday Times in Johannesburg, South Africa documented the xenophobic violence that swept through South African townships last year, leaving 61 dead and thousands more beaten or injured. 150,000 refugees left the township areas for refugee camps until the violence abated. The majority of the casualities were immigrants from neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique. In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe’s brutal regime forced thousands to leave Zimbabwe. Every month hundreds risk their lives to cross illegally into South Africa. There may be over a million Zimbabweans living in South Africa… most of them illegal.
In the South Africa media the violence is described as xenophobia, or the fear of foreigners. But there seem to be many factors that fueled the mobs violence, not the least of which is economics. Much of the violence was directed at Somalis, some of who had shops in the townships and were notorious for underselling the local merchants. Unemployment in South Africa is also at 40%, a staggering figure, and certainly contributed to the anger, especially as many of the migrants were perceived to be willing to work harder, and for less, than native South Africans.
A tribute to the dynamic narrative of composition and content. Oatway joins a long and storied legacy of photo journalists with courage and compassion that identify and document the stories that need to be told. Thank you A. Levin for helping him find an additional forum to exhibit his gift and Oatway for pushing himself to be at the right time and right place to record the fleeting nature of mortality and the struggle for humanity.
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