PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

The issue of xenophobia has become a common phenomenon in South Africa, where significant numbers of innocent lives have been lost, properties worth millions of dollars destroyed, and many people displaced. The victims of these attacks were majorly black Africans. Surprisingly, the molestation and attacks originated from Africans and targeted at fellow Africans particularly the blacks. The ugly trend which has been linked to the parochial mindset among South Africans with the belief that the foreign nationals in their land are the cause of unemployment, poverty rate and spreading of deadly diseases in the country. Given this fact, it has become a notion within the country that foreigners have hijacked the socio-economic sector of South Africa and the solution was to frustrate the migrants out of the society. However, the attacks on Africans and Nigerians in particular is a barbaric and disturbing scenario which definitely has implications on the external relations of both countries (Nigeria and South Africa). Thus, it is cogent to explore the xenophobic violence in South Africa with special focus on Nigerians. The paper infers that Africans need to embrace tolerance and treat foreign nationals in their countries, irrespective of race or gender, with high sense of brotherliness to promote cooperation among the African States as well as enhance peace and development of the continent.