Soul Famine

fyeahafrica:

Many thousands of Somalis have fled famine and warfare at home, braving a treacherous journey across the continent to reach South Africa but some feel their new lives in Africa’s richest country are little better than the misery they left behind.

“If we wanted to fight we would have stayed in our land. We didn’t come here to die we came here to take care of our families,” says Qorane Haji, 29, whose shop was looted and burnt down in recent months.

Mr Haji has been living in South Africa for over five years. He owns a shop in Motherwell, a township in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape Province.

More than 300 shops are owned by Somalis in the area, he says.

Most of the Somali population in South Africa lives in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces.

But business has not been easy.

Poverty and unemployment are high in South Africa - many people in the poor communities believe that foreigners are “stealing their jobs”.

Somali-owned shops have been looted or burned down as a result.

In 2008, South Africa saw a wave of xenophobic violence which shocked the nation and shook up the world’s view of the “rainbow nation”.

Some foreigners were necklaced - set alight with petrol doused tyres around their necks - and their shops were burned down.

Mostly Somalis, Zimbabweans and Mozambicans were targeted during the violence which left more than 100,000 foreigners displaced and at least 60 people dead.

The government’s response to the crisis was to increase police presence in affected areas and to send its officials to address disgruntled communities.

But after a while the police patrols stopped and with them, the visits by officials.

Those behind the attacks were never brought to justice - after some months it was as though the attacks had never happened.

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