African migrant exclusion in South Africa and its implications for the African Renaissance

Abstract

Whenever the African continent is mentioned, negative connotations such as underdevelopment, poverty, inequality, war, and migration issues are frequently evoked. Migration and issues associated with it also occupy centre stage in public debates about Africa. The aforementioned problems obstruct African growth, which gave rise to the notion of going from "tragedy to Renaissance." This study is centred on the exclusion of African migrants in South Africa and how such exclusion undermines the African Renaissance, a "development plan for Africa" that seeks to unite African nations for stability, peace, and security as well as for improved living conditions across the entire continent. The researcher theorised that the tragedy of the African Renaissance depicts the exclusion, suffering, and xenophobia faced by African migrants in South Africa based on observations on literary arts, particularly tragedy in drama, which is about human suffering or death. In the main, this study aims to ascertain whether or not South African citizens and state institutions exclude African immigrants, and find out what the key causes and dimensions of the exclusion of African immigrants in South Africa are. The study achieves this by combining qualitative and quantitative research approaches or using a mixed/hybrid method of social science research. Since this is a desktop study, data relevant to the study were analysed using both content analysis and critical discourse analysis. The critical finding of the study indicates that the exclusion of African immigrants in South Africa is a result of the state and non-state agents’ failure to build a social infrastructure enabling the peaceful establishment of a two-tier society made up of both citizens and non-citizens. As a result, this study recommends educating the general public about anti-migrant violence and suggests that the commitment and practice of the African Renaissance are important to pave the way for the development, social cohesion, protection and inclusion of all migrants in South Africa, the rest of the continent and the world.