uman migration is an inevitable phenomenon that is as old as mankind; according to new world encyclopedia, human beings have always moved from one place to the other, often, over long distances, sometimes, in large group, through out prehistory and human history. Migration has continued in modern times voluntarily and involuntarily to some extent as a result of varying factors. It is clear that international migration is corollary to aspect of citizenship acquisition. In terms of South African citizen act which is in line with the international best practice; one becomes a citizen by birth, descent and naturalization. Naturalization follows upon a specific period of residence in conjunction with satisfying the applicable legislative requirements. Logically, for acquisition of citizenship through naturalization to occur, effectively, there must be some kind of international migration, which could be permanent or semi permanent.
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Human migration made for what ever reasons have affected the course of human history; it has changed demographic land scapes of the world, brought innovations and mutual benefit as well as destructions and sufferings. A critical look at the development of Modern world could attest to this fact. Some of the great nations of the world have undoubtedly achieved unsurpassed economic growth and development through the positive effort of migrants.
South Africa is no exception to this achievement. According to a historical report compiled by South African tour and travel, it was revealed, in view of submissions made by some anthropologists that, the "southern migration" brought a huge number of Bantu people, a linguistically related group of about 60 million people living in equatorial and southern Africa. They most probably originated from West Africa, migrating downward gradually into Southern Africa, over two thousand years ago as a result of the discovery of iron blade which made agriculture easier and eventually led to population explosion and scarcity of land, culminating in mass migration for expansion of territory. Early in their history the Bantu people split into two major linguistic branches, the eastern and western branches. The eastern branch migrated through present day Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa, while the western branch moved into what is now Angola, Namibia and north-western Botswana. Some of the ethnic groups that descended from the black settlers include the Xhosas', Shonas', Tsongas' and Zulus'.
www.south-africa-tour-and-travel.com/black-people-in-south-africa.html
In the same vein, the report also high lighted how the white population arrived in South Africa long after the black people. The Portuguese in 1486 first sailed the southern part of Africa known as the Cape of Good Hope, through Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama. The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle in South Africa, Jan Van Riebeeck and his crew in1652; he brought in the Malay and Indian slaves respectively within a short period of their arrival. The French otherwise known as the "French Huguneot" arrived in 1689 after Louis XIV banned Calvinism in France. The British following the outcome of Napoleonic wars were experiencing a very serious unemployment problem, the British government sent lots of Immigrants to South Africa in 1819 and the first settlers arrived in 1820. Nationals from Germany, Scandinavia, Flanders and Switzerland contributed to the diverse population of immigrants. This is an indication that South Africa from its earliest period was tremendously influenced by migrants from Africa, Asia, Europe and other parts of the world.
Modern development coupled with the discovery of Gold and Diamond in the 19th century triggered urbanization. There was a great influx of people from all over the world who came to stake claims in the gold and diamond fields of South Africa. Suffice is to say that it is a country built by migrants, who by implication became naturalized South Africans.
It is common knowledge that we have South Africans; especially black South African natives who may have migrated to other parts of Africa, and, equally acquired citizenships of those countries of Africa, and, whose citizenship status may never have been subjected to any form of dehumanizing scrutiny or investigations. During the apartheid era a good number of black South Africans became citizens of many African countries, late Miriam Makeba, a South African music icon was a citizen of Guinea, Tsietsi Mashinini a well known youth leader who was one of the mastermind of the 1976 Soweto students uprising, lived in Nigerian before he moved to Liberia where he got married to Welma A Campbell, a Liberian beauty queen with whom he had children and equally became a Liberian citizen. Max Sisulu the ANC stalwart, who is currently the speaker of parliament, was issued Sierra Leonean passport as a citizen which allowed him to make his travels during the struggle years. Hugh Masekela, an accomplished South African trumpeter lived in Nigeria in the 1970's and currently, he is married to a Ghanaian woman, which more or less makes him a Ghanaian citizen. The government of Nigeria made a whole lot of South Africans their citizens by issuing them with Nigerian passports. Many of them received quality education, better jobs and even got married and raised families in Nigeria.
President Thabo Mbeki and some other prominent South Africans who were probably accepted as Nigerian citizens also lived in Nigeria; they are a living testimony to the great African hospitality.
Over a period of time, the hostile attitude towards naturalized black South African citizens who are genuinely committed, towards contributing their quota regarding the progress of the country they consider their home, particularly Nigerians, is somewhat dehumanizing and degrading, putting into picture the role migrants have played in the history of the country and its cosmopolitan disposition as well as its exemplary position as arguably the best constitutional democracy in the world. It now appears to leave a very bad taste in the mouth of Africans to acquire citizenship of this great country called South Africa, which most black countries of Africa fought so hard for its liberation.Ironically, it seems a good number of the natives have suddenly developed some kind of historical amnesia which has set them on a mischevious path of constant insult and hatred towards Africans who are supposedly their fellow citizens. Protections in terms of the aggregate of civil, political and economic rights in view of the constitution, especially, the right to human dignity enshrined in the bill of right, to which naturalized citizens ought to be entitled to, rarely exist.
In the recent time, the activities of some government officials, particularly, the South African Immigration officials and police service members have become a source of serious concern for lots of law abiding naturalized black African professionals living and working in South Africa. On occasions a combined team of Immigration and police officials have raided the business premises and homes of South African citizens perceived to have come from other parts of Africa and make demands to inspect their residence status. Some who are naturalized citizens by virtue of being married to South African women would be instructed to bring their wives, children and their marriage certificates to prove that they are legal immigrant, in as much as the record on the data base would always confirm the persons' status as a citizen. People have been thrown into jail in the absence of not meeting up with these appalling demands, and, in most cases deported hurriedly without room for legal representation, irrespective of what ever you may have achieved and left behind. The most amazing thing is that this nefarious act is mostly perpetrated by officers of colour.
A Nigerian national who operates a super market business with his South African wife in the Germiston area of Johannesburg, got caught up in this web of uncivilized attitude. He is a South African citizen by naturalization, through marriage to his wife, with whom he has three children. On the day in question, the wife travelled to her home town in rural Kwazulu natal for a funeral, when the team of immigration officials and police men arrived at his business, he produced his identity document which indicated that he is a citizen and more so eligible to own the business, they were able to confirm through their mobile data base that he is actually a citizen. Now, the immigration officials insisted that he has to physically produce his wife and children, he was arrested and by afternoon of that particular day he was deported to Nigeria, without allowing him any form of
legal representation.
The prejudices being exhibited against foreigners could be attributed to a particular mind set that is presumably common amongst some of the native South Africans, where every black person, who does not have a trait that is deemed peculiar to the natives, is considered a foreigner irrespective of the fact that they have acquired South African citizenship. Africans perceived to be foreigner are referred to as "Makwerekwere", which is a derogatory word for black foreigners. White foreigners are just known as "Abelungu" which means white people, which really does not differentiate them from other white South Africans. They are considered tourists, investors and South Africans, unlike black African foreigners who may not be good enough to be South Africans and are only in South Africa to steal jobs and women.
Some of the native South Africans appear to find it hard to acknowledge the fact that black Africans, could also be citizens like them, even though, they may have shown exceptional patriotism, the question would always arise as to where they come from. But a white foreigner may never be subjected to that sort of nationality enquiry, because he is an "Mlungu".
There are instance where black African immigrants are stopped by policemen or traffic corps and request for identification, as soon as they present their identity document or drivers license, which most probably indicate that they are South African citizens, it does trigger a sarcastic line of questioning, "where you born here", once the answer is in the negative, that, they were born some where else, they would be sternly told that they are not South African citizens, since they were not born in South Africa. It could be reasonably possible that Gracia Machel, who is President Nelson Mandela's wife, may not have been considered a South African citizen because she was not born in South Africa, irrespective of the fact that she has been married to Nelson Mandela for a good number of years and most probably have acquired her citizenship by naturalization.
It is a very negative development that innocent children, even those of them that are adopted, who were born in South Africa, are also getting caught up in this hostility towards their naturalized parents, who are South African citizens. They are growing up experiencing and observing all the insults, harassments, and intimidation being given their parents. Some of these children have had first hand experience, by being called derogatory names at school by their peers based on the fact that their names and surnames are unique (perceived foreign). Indeed, this is very damaging to the psychological well being of these children and a time bomb which its explosion could trigger terrible consequences. Children are the future of every nation.
Naturalized Africans in South Africa have made an indelible contribution towards achieving the developmental goals and better life for all South Africans, which is glaring for all to see. There are seasoned academics that are among the best in the world, originally from various countries of Africa who are consistently contributing immensely in putting South Africa on the world map and also towards its socioeconomic development. We have Professor Shedrack Gutto, the director and chair of Centre for African Renaissance at the University of South Africa, born in Kisii, Kenyan and currently a South African citizen. Professor Raymond Nnaemeka Nkado, was the first ever black dean of faculty in the history of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (dean faculty of Engineering and Built Environment),he broke down barriers for a good number of native black south African students, who may now account for half of the nation's engineering students. Professor Herbert Uzoegbo, a renowned authority in structural engineering and a professor at the school of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Witwatersrand has participated in several research and engineering projects in South Africa. Professor Vincent Orlu Nmehielle, who is a professor of Law; currently, Bram Fischer Chair, in Human Right Law, University of Witswatersrand.It is impossible not to acknowledge the presence of Africans, especially Nigerians in almost all the big five universities in South Africa. Dr Enyinnaya Agbonta a French trained Economist, was a parliamentarian who exhibited outstanding qualities in parliament during his tenure.
Recently, the South African minister for health Aaron Motsoaledi in a written reply to parliamentary question confirmed that " we have 950 African medical doctors registered in South Africa between 2004 to 2009 and 336 were from Nigeria". There is a probability that some of them may have naturalized as South African citizens by now, to actually add to the numbers already registered as South African citizens.
In central Johannesburg district which has become the hive of informal commercial activities, the Nigerians, Ethiopians, Mozambicans and others are making a huge stride regarding their trading activities in Chinese imported Clothing and other consumables, thereby, making concerted effort towards the building of the informal sector of the South African economy.
The contemptuous behavior of some members of the police and immigration services towards naturalized black African citizens could be a logical explanation for the terrible hostile treatment that is manifesting itself in some of the ordinary South African natives. The minister of police, Mr Nathi Mthethwa, together with his Home Affairs counterpart, Mrs. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma should investigate this ugly situation and device a progressive approach in tackling this problem which is making a mockery of the citizenship law of the country and truly a serious embarrassment to the government of President Jacob Zuma and the entire people of South Africa.
