The Scourge of Xenophobia: From Botswana to Zambia

Adeoye O. Akinola ()
Additional contact information
Adeoye O. Akinola: University of Zululand

Chapter Chapter 3 in The Political Economy of Xenophobia in Africa, 2018, pp 23-35 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Xenophobia has been a consistent feature of Botswana’s policymaking and social reality for decades, Zambia only awoke to this scourge as a result of the looting of about 60 Rwandan-owned shops during the 2016 xenophobic violence that resulted in the loss of lives and property. While locals accused foreigners, especially Rwandans of ritual killings; this appears to have been an excuse to attack foreigners and loot their tuck-shops. Although there have been few incidents of xenophobia in Zambia, the country’s image as a haven for refugees and other immigrants has been dented. In contrast, dislike of foreigners continues to rise in Botswana. The study found similar patterns of xenophobia with Zambians singling out Rwandans for attacks, while in Botswana, Zimbabweans were targeted. Foreigners have been blamed for spiralling crime and other social ills in the two countries, dwindling economic opportunities and challenging economic realities, political discontent, and poor service delivery continue to aggravate social tension and reinforce xenophobia in the Southern African region. It is thus concluded that governance failure explains xenophobic attacks in these countries. To stem the tides of xenophobia, it is imperative for the government to exploit the opportunities presented by foreigners in terms of skills acquisition and transfer, and also implement pragmatic policies for effective governance and improvement in the lives of the masses.

Keywords: Xenophobia; Violence; Immigrants; Scapegoating; Botswana; Zambia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:aaechp:978-3-319-64897-2_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319648972

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-64897-2_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().