An Associate Professor of International Affairs and Diplomacy at the University of Ghana, Professor Daniel Dramani Kipo, has cautioned the public against attempts to engage in reprisal attacks against South Africans following recent wave of xenophobic attacks.
The caution follows the decision by the Mahama-led government to evacuate over 800 citizens living in South Africa.
Speaking to Star News, Professor Daniel Dramani Kipo called on the public to exercise restraint, urging the government to stick to its evacuation plan by evacuating the first batch of 300 Ghanaians.
“It may not necessarily lead to retaliation because the circumstances are not the same. What South Africans have done is actually not the best. It’s against the continental unity that we we are looking for. But as you said it, it is just a few people who have taken the law in South Africa into their own hands. This situation is unfortunate. The way the South Africans have taken the law into their own hands, we may not be expecting that from Ghana,” he said.
Professor Lipo further diagnosed the xenophobic problem with South Africa insisting that the colonial past of the country had led to their current state.
“South Africa has a very unique problem. You see, because of their colonial past, because of the apartheid regime, they went through suppression, uh, segregation in schools and rules, and everywhere in the housing. So, after that liberation, I don’t know what have come out of them,” he said.
He further described the attitude of the South Africans as ‘very strange’ since according to him, the citizens of the Rainbow Nation ought to blame their colonisers for their current predicament other than fellow Blacks who helped them attain freedom.
“Instead of seeing who created the problem for them, they rather think that the problem they are having is as a result of other African migrants, which is quite strange. The very regime, the very minority ruling group that suppressed them is not their target. But they are turning to other Africans – Nigerians, Malawis, Zimbabweans. That is their target and that is unfortunate. And not even the Indians, not the Lebanese, not the Asian. But they target Africans. It’s quite strange,” Prof Lipo said.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
