Xenophobia in South Africa: Re-thinking the Nigeria foreign policy of Afrocentrism

Abstract

The pervasive nature of xenophobia in South Africa interrogate the ethos of Africa Renaissance and provides alibi to the dysfunctional character of the Africa project. This paper interrogate the essence of Nigeria foreign policy of Afrocentrism against the backdrop of xenophobic manifestation in South Africa, it attempted to deconstruct the axiom that limit the anomie to street urchins by providing evidences for institutional implications. It created a platform of discourse of xenophobia in relation to enabling international law. This work concludes that the continuous outburst of negative collective ideas, social stereotypes and prejudices especially to black immigrant is a share display of majority insecurity defined by the defensive internal identity, which is constructed on strong ethnic or national basis. The work therefore, recommends a re-evaluation of Nigeria foreign policy to pursue strict national interest while tending to domestic challenges.

Keywords: Xenophobia, Afrocentrism, foreign policy, violence, foreigners, discrimination