South Africa has taken a dangerously xenophobic turn

year after becoming South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela gave a speech in Alexandra, a township in Johannesburg. “It saddens and angers me to see the rising hatred of foreigners,” he said, chastising residents for destroying migrants’ homes. “We cannot blame other people for our troubles.” Under Mandela, the African National Congress (), many of whose fugitive leaders had been sheltered by other African countries during apartheid, took in Africans fleeing wars in Congo, Somalia and elsewhere. The new government also made it easier for Africans to work and settle in South Africa. They have not always felt welcome. Xenophobic locals occasionally attacked immigrants in the 1990s in poor urban areas like Alexandra, and there was more widespread violence against foreigners in 2008. In general, however, South African politicians have refrained from inciting such horrors. Unfortunately, that is changing. Today politicians from several parties are vying to see who can blame immigrants most loudly for the country’s . The virulence of their rhetoric varies, but the consequence is the same: life for immigrants has grown nastier and more perilous.