BLACK SOUTH AFRICA'S DISGRACEFUL MOMENT OF XENOPHOBIC MADNESS

As a pan-Africanist from Nkrumah's Ghana, I am horrified, by the turn of events, in some of the poorer parts, of the townships, which surround South Africa's major cities.

The idea, that fellow Ghanaians, as well as fellow Africans, from other nations on the continent, who had settled in South Africa, could become the victims, of murderous mobs of mindless and brutish myrmidons, who seem to have suddenly forgotten the rest of Africa's support for them, throughout the years of apartheid, saddens one a great deal.

The abominable and unspeakable events happening in South Africa, are particularly galling, for someone from Nkrumah's Ghana. For, Ghanaians, in particular, made great sacrifices, for black South Africans (as well as for the citizens, and nations, of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa), as well as their leaders, during their struggles against the white Fascists, who murdered and committed countless crimes against humanity, as they suppressed South Africa's black population, during the apartheid era.

Sadly, it appears that the virus of hatred, which so infected so many white citizens, during the era of the settler regimes in Eastern and Southern Africa, did transmit itself, to many of the black Africans, in the region. It also bred an abiding sense of inferiority, in so many of them: leading to a sense of self-hatred and self-loathing, which has made them, the type of black people, who hate their fellow Africans, even more, than the white settlers, ever despised them.

I have experienced this sad phenomenon, in my own encounters, with some of the ordinary Africans, from many of the nations, in the area - mostly from the lower rungs of the social ladder. And a dense miasma of envy, and disdain for their fellow Africans, hangs heavy, in the atmosphere, in most of the poorer parts, of the cities of Eastern and Southern Africa.

It is so sad and shocking, that in a world that is increasingly becoming smaller, as technology and global trade, draws humankind ever closer together, black Africans, anywhere, on the continent, could harbour such feelings of hatred against their fellow Africans: to the extent that they were prepared to murder them, for no other reason, than that those poor and defenceless wretches, were non-nationals, of their home country, South Africa.

The running mobs rampaging through South Africa's townships, murdering their fellow human beings, whose only crime was that they elected to go and live in South Africa, in order to earn a living there, are a disgrace to the Africa of today.

And they must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. As things currently stand, those decent-minded South Africans, who have rightly condemned the criminal elements, amongst their compatriots, who are busy murdering their way, across South Africa's black townships, really ought not to be surprised, if some of the ordinary citizens, of sister nations in Africa, supported any sudden FIFA move, to take the 2010 World Cup, to a more civilised and safer environment, to host the next FIFA World Cup tournament.

This inexplicable moment of xenophobic madness, will be a permanent stain, on South Africa's image, for many years to come - and all those who have taken part in those appalling crimes against humanity, must bow their heads in shame. For, they must rank as some of the most barbaric, of individuals, on the continent of Africa, today!