Strangers or neighbours?

By Rampe Hlobo SJ

Refugees and non-nationals have had to endure unspeakable treatment and sometimes even atrocities in South Africa. Some of them they have had to overcome almost insurmountable obstacles just to live a decent human life. Last year’s barbaric and shocking attacks on non-South Africans that made international headlines were an indication of how sick and strange our society is.

These xenophobic attacks have been interpreted as an externalisation of what is alien within us. They have been seen by some as a denial that we are strangers to ourselves, that this behaviour is most probably a symptom of an internal need that wants to be acknowledged.

One wonders if it is the cultural diversity presented by the refugees and other immigrants that is unbearable. Or is it the non-conformity of the “stranger” or refugee to our conceptualised identity- — who we are or ought to be and how we should behave — that influences our resentment for non-South Africans? More than being different, the “others” suffer this detestation simply because they do not act and believe or even dress as we do. Thus the non-South African has become an image of hatred and is ironically perceived as indolent and an intruder, responsible for the ills of our society.

Although one may be tempted to argue convincingly that we are not obliged to extend our hospitality to strangers, there are compelling factors and nobler arguments for the support and hospitality of foreigners. Human dignity is something that every one of us has innate within us irrespective of any background of faith or none.

Christians hold that the incarnation has conferred on everyone the dignity that we believers possess and therefore demands that we be hospitable to those in need as Christ taught us. “In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these ones, you did it to me” (Mt 25: 40). The incarnation shows that here is only one proper image in which God manifests himself in the world, that is in the human person — man and woman.

But despite being created in the image of God, foreigners still experience hostility and bad treatment for reasons mostly beyond their control. Irrespective of their skills or talents, they are quite often perceived as liabilities and an unnecessary burden on our depleted resources. This perception is almost always applied to black non-South Africans from other African countries. We often fail to see them as people bringing skills into our country and contributing to the cultural diversity of South Africa.

Having considered that we may be as alien as those we perceive to be strangers and noting the fact that human beings have this human dignity, we should perhaps in our imagination put ourselves in the place of the non-South African or foreigner in our midst.

In that way one can think of others as people who are part of me. This will enable us to share their joys and sufferings, to sense their desires and to attend to their needs, to offer them deep and genuine friendship, as John Paul II urged in his Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte.

As a result, forced migrants, refugees and strangers in our midst will cease to be refugees or strangers but neighbours and fellow human beings with dignity and rights.