I think knowledge of history would go a long way to combat xenophobia such as we are currently seeing in some parts of our South Africa.

From time immemorial, people have moved in masses across borders mainly for economic and political reasons. The blacks in SA migrated from East Africa as part of the Bantu people, displacing the Khoisans in the process. The Afrikaners mainly came from the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Asians who are ironically mainly populated in Durban, the hotbed of xenophobia against black Africans at the moment, of course came from Asia.

Zimbabwe includes people from Kwazulu Natal (the Ndebeles) who fled from the rule of Shaka ONLY 175 years ago. Therefore, should these Ndebeles first be asked to go back to their KZN land before Zimbabweans (who include the Ndebeles themselves) and other "foreigners" vacate SA? Should hundreds of thousands descendants of Malawian and Mozambican economic migrants who flooded the then Southern Rhodesia/Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) be send packing back to their origins? Oh, what about the descendants of the Spaniards in Argentina and the Europeans in general in America and Australia who all predominantly make up the populations of the lands they occupy today?

Someone came to SA in 1652 and another one this year. So what's the difference between the two? One was early and the other was late, but the fact remains that they both came from somewhere.

Ola Kris is a Nigerian Pastor and Movie Director in South Africa, one day after he had briefly shared with a young girl about the history of world migrations, she responded, "So we all have origins"! "Yes, we do", he said.

You see, if we start to demand that such and such people move away from our respective countries because they are "foreigners", history will demand that we all get back to where we came from and if you are a Bantu person are you prepared to go back to Tanzania or somewhere in East Africa where your forefather came from? So let's not throw stones when we all live in houses of glass.

Every country belongs to all the people who legally live in it so we may as well stop this xenophobia nonsense. Birds never collide in the sky. There's enough space in any country for anyone to fly as high as he or she wants. So don't blame a so-called foreigner for your plight. We live in a world full of opportunities; a global village. If you fancy you can better your life in Afghanistan, for example, then for goodness sake try your luck there. You would not have harmed anyone.

If everyone was xenophobic, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria, could not have become the 38th Governor of California and Obama, a son of a Kenyan, would not be the sitting President of America. This makes me think that its only a tiny minority amongst us who need to be freed from the yoke of xenophobia.

A "foreigner" who adds value to his adopted country is a good "foreigner" who deserves same respect given to a citizen who does the same. And there are many "foreigners" who are earning a honest living; from domestic workers to captains of industry. On the other hand, a "foreigner" who engages in criminal activities is as bad as a citizen who does the same. So crime has nothing to do with someone's nationality.

Let's combat xenophobia. Let's live in harmony regardless of our different nationalities, races and tribes in all the nations of the world. We all belong to the human race, which once shared one common land in the Garden of Eden!

Remember, a pen is mightier than the sword. So share this message to as many South Africans and non-South Africans as possible.

God bless South Africa. God bless Africa

Only if that Oba of Zulu will listen..