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Ruth First annual lecture sheds lights on xeno/afrophobiaAnathi MadubelaBlurb: Has xenophobic language become an accepted part of our political discourse?The department of journalism in collaboration with the faculty of humanities hosted their 16th annual Ruth First lecture on Thursday, October 3. The night’s theme, migrancy and populism was fitting in addressing last month’s events of xenophobic attacks and South Africa’s current economic and political climate. Dean of the School of Humanities, Garth Stevens, in his welcoming address said, “In contemporary SA, themes of migrancy, populism, politics and xenophobia all converge and they often have social consequences.“Given Ruth First’s legacy I think it is perhaps apt that we engage with these questions in this lecture tonight.” The evening’s programme was truly in celebration of Ruth First’s life, contributions and legacy. With students from Jeppe High School for Girls, her alma mater, gracing the theatre in their black and green uniform. “When we plan this event we choose a theme for the year. We look for an important current issue that evokes the tradition of Ruth First in her writings and activism. As we discussed this year’s theme, a number of leading political figures were making anti-immigrant statements that blamed foreigners for the many problems of this country. Particularly in the period in the run up to the national elections.“This is why we posed the question, has xenophobic language become an accepted part of our political discourse?,” asked Anton Harber, the evening’s programme director. Nickolaus Bauer, one of the 2019 Ruth First Fellows, gave his presentation documentary-style where a narrative of the xenophobic events of the past month was visually shown. “What informed my research is this position that South Africa seems to find itself in where we have a long list of challenges that our leaders seem incapable of resolving. They are creating an us versus them situation and unfortunately in the firing line are mostly poor African migrants.“I think it is a fitting tribute to Ruth First who was one of the first great researchers of migrant labour systems and their effect on not only the families but also the effect it has on society, in terms of how people view others that are different to themselves,” he told Wits Journalism Bongani Kono, 2019 Ruth First Fellow, gave his presentation in story form that gave the imagery of migration and the nuances that come with migrancy. “The Ruth First fellowship gives you space to do enterprising research which is necessary work. I chose to base my research in Hermanus because I think it is a microcosm of South Africa. The challenges there are same challenges faced by the broader South Africa. Keynote speaker, Prof Achille Mbembe from Wits WiSER, spoke of a borderless Africa where African would not be migrants anywhere in Africa. He spoke of xenophobia as the consequence of the colonial borders drawn to divide the African people. “These platforms are very important. Part of what we are lacking in most parts of our continent is a sense of futurity. The future has become a scarce resource. It has become very difficult for us to imagine a future of which we are supposed to be active participants in shaping.“Platforms like this are very important especially when they are articulated to a figure like Ruth First. We know who she is. We know how she lived her life and we know how she lost it,” Mbembe told Wits Journalism.Prominent writer and 2016 Caine prize winner, Lidudumalingani Mqombothi said, “The thing that I really enjoyed by it is that the three pieces were very different and I liked the different approaches to the theme. I liked the journalist approached that Nic took, Bongani’s human approach and the academic approach by Professor Mbembe. “It was a good night of not only hearing one narrative about migrancy and populism in South Africa. When we talk about these issues they can be very general, but Bongani’s piece spoke more to me as it gave us names and people’s realities and stories.” ................
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