Before making this post, I went through the forum for people intending to visit, study or work in South Africa (SA) https://www.nairaland.com/944102/general-south-africa-visa-enquiries/568. It is interesting that despite the recent and ongoing Afrophobia or xenophobia in South Africa, many visa applicants are not deterred. Some of the reasons some SA immigrant dwellers or visa applicants gave was that "life is per head", "Anyone who has legitimate reasons to visit SA has nothing to be scared of". Some others think that the news making the round on xenophobia in SA is exaggerated as seen in this quote "the reports you are reading and watching are largely exaggerated". One Nigerian who claimed to be living in SA currently even claimed that the xenophobia against Nigerians and other African immigrants are restricted to "places that are largely populated by Nigerians and other foreigner, places like hillbrow, rossentenvile, tuffortein, Pretoria Sunnyside and Johannesburg CDB".

When we look at all the reasons given by those who are currently unaffected by the violence, but living in SA or those who are still aspiring to enter Southy from Nigeria, it is clear that they think they are immune from xenophobic attacks as long as they are in SA legitimately, or as long as they avoid certain places. While this advice from fellow Nigerians about what can be done to avoid being a victim of xenophobia in SA seems straightforward, the reality of xenophobia in South Africa is complex than that because not all xenophobia attacks are physical or violent in nature. The less violent “ordinary” experience of xenophobia are part of the everyday lives of African immigrant in SA, and most black immigrants don't even experience the violent xenophobia like the one we saw last week. The reason for this is that South Africans across race, class, and gender lines hold deep-seated anti-foreigner sentiments and attitudes and this means regardless of whether you are in the country legally or illegally, your experience as an immigrant will most likely range from mockery to murder. So, unlike the socioeconomically deprived areas where xenophobia is manifested through physical violence, an African immigrant with a study or work permit or even a permanent residency will experience xenophobia in more subtle ways that will make him, or her feel so unwelcome because the environment is psychologically hostile. This means that staying away from certain areas that are known for violence does not mean you will be immune from experiencing xenophobia and I will use my lived experience as a past legal resident of South Africa as an example. My experience may help you assess whether the benefits of leaving Nigeria for South Africa outweigh its risks.

My first time in South Africa was in 2013, and that was the second country that I would visit in my international travel experience. Like many other Nigerians, what took me to South Africa was education. After my bachelor's degree in nursing in Nigeria, I wanted to experience an educational system that is a little bit smoother and immune from endless strike actions. In 2012, I departed Nigeria for Botswana to pursue a two-year master's degree in nursing. But after the first year of my course work master in Botswana, I was offered an admission in one of the premier university in SA to complete my master's by research. I was very excited about this opportunity in South Africa because I felt it would afford me more opportunities than Botswana since it is a bigger economy. Most especially, there was a fee-waiver for master's by research provided the student is able to complete the masters in one year. Unlike SA visa application in Nigeria that takes months, my visa was approved by the SA high commission in Gaborone, Botswana in just three days and it was a two-year visa. I was then looking forward to my adventure in South Africa.

Before detailing my experience in South Africa, I want to state that between 2012 and now, I have lived in three different countries (both developing and developed) outside Nigeria. By living, I mean I stayed in a foreign country for more than one year. In addition, I also want to state that between 2012 and now, I have visited over eight different countries and some of this countries are Australia, USA, Turkey, Hong kong and other African countries like Kenya and Ethiopia. It would interest you to know that it is only in South Africa that the immigration officers detained me in order to find out from the University that I was truly offered an admission. As I was held in detention in this room that is stenching from body odour due to overcrowding, many Nigerians are being ushered in. Fortunately for me, the university confirmed my admission, and I was allowed to go. But while I was lucky that I did not arrive on a public holiday where there would be no one in the university to authenticate the veracity of my master's admission, some Nigerians were being held to be deported because their accommodation or reason for visit could not be confirmed, During my short stay in temporary detention, you can see the sadness, dread and agony of my fellow Nigerians whose dream of exploring SA ended before it began. South Africa opened my eyes to my identity as a Nigerian. The perception that South Africans (including the police, immigration officers and common people) have about Nigeria is that we are crooks, bribe-givers and illegal). Despite what I went through in the hands of the immigration, unknown to me, some police officers stationed in the airport stalked me to the lift, hoping to get a bribe from me. This is just because I was carrying a Nigerian passport and they think Nigerians are easy targets for bribes since we are used to it in our country. Although some readers may argue that immigration officers were merely doing their job, but the way it was handled made me feel unwelcome and it dawned on me that I have to be looking over my shoulders. Immigrations officers are like the first person that welcomes a visitor to a house. The way you are treated at the gate or at the door stays with you for the remainder of your stay.

Now to my three years experience of living in SA. I lived in Durban and Pietermaritzburg between 2013 and 2016. It may interest you that out of the countries that I have lived and visited; South Africa is the only country where you have to carry your passport around. The dangers of not carrying your passport is that during stop and search, your inability to produce your passport will end you in detention centre to be deported home. You may not end up in detention centre if you can pay bribe. You may be wondering how police are able to single out foreigners for targeted harassment despite being black like any other black South African. The main reason is your accent, even if you know how to speak any of the local dialects. I have many examples of this, and I will attempt to share a little. I can never forget the day my cousin and I were publicly ridiculed in Pretoria. We were walking to catch a bus from Bosman station and immediately this police noticed our accent, they started shouting at us, but we were not aware because they were speaking in their language and were not wearing uniform. For some of you who have naively said those who have fallen victim to police brutality in SA are drug dealers, I hope my own experience will teach you to never jump into conclusion. As I was saying, as these police officers were shouting and approaching us, the next thing that I felt was a shove. I was very frightened because we did not see it coming and these officers were not in uniform. Fortunately, we had our passports, but they looked through our phones, checked everything in our bags and this was in the full glare of the public. We were ridiculed like common criminals. The second example is that of my friend, a lady from Zimbabwe who was assaulted in a public taxi. This lady and I were tutors in a university in KZN and while commuting in a combi one day, she tried to pay her fare with a R50 bill, only for the conductor to say he does not have change. But the conductor said it in Isizulu, and when it became clear that she was a foreigner, the conductor asked her where she is from and where was she coming from. The Zimbabwe girl said she was coming from work and the conductor responded by slapping her on her face twice, saying she is one of the people stealing their jobs. The saddest part of the experience for this lady was that no one in the taxi, including the women, berated the conductor or tried to protect this lady. The implication of this is that as a black foreigner, you hardly go out at night and you have to minimise your use of public transport because you can be attacked without any provocation. Luckily for this lady, her father was one of the rich people left in Zimbabwe and he bought her daughter a car to avoid contact with the locals. As you are going to SA, can you afford to buy your own car? Lastly, I also want to recount how a police harassed and embarrassed me in Johannesburg park station just because I was a foreigner. As our bus was getting ready to depart for Pietermaritzburg, the police came into the bus to do a routine check. After cracking a joke in their language which I did not laugh to, as I have no clue what he was saying, he asked me for my passport. In my passport was boarding passes of my earlier flights to Cape Town and this guy started insinuating that I must be a drug dealer for travelling to so many places in South Africa in the previous weeks. Unknown to him, it was my employer that sent me to all these workshops and conferences. I remember myself asking him if there was a policy or law that stipulates the number of trips a foreigner is supposed to take within a certain period. The question that I asked him made him realised that his questions were stupid. He gave me my passport and left, but he has already singled me out to the other locals that I was not one of them. That means throughout the whole trip, I was very vulnerable to being lynched, and the next thing you would have been hearing is that a Nigerian who was selling drugs to the kids have been killed by concern locals.

Before I left SA in 2016, I was a lecturer, and I was earning R24,000 (gross per month). My tax every month was around R6,000, and I never used their public health hospitals. I am aware of many Nigerians who hold similar positions and are contributing to the SA economy. To paint all Nigerians as criminals who are causing mayhem and misusing the public facilities is just not true. This is not to deny that some Nigerians are into shady business. But many of these criminals are working in harmony with law enforcements and they are even given VIP treatment than some of us who are doing legitimate work. In 2016, I left SA for a developed country to pursue my PhD. To the glory of God, I am now a PhD holder and now a lecturer. There are many people who will not leave SA if they are lucky to have the kind of job and such salary I had in SA. But throughout my three years stay in SA, I never felt I belonged in the community because of the aggression and intimidation of the black South Africans. Visa renewal is a problem. Just because you are Nigerian, they can accuse you of submitting fake medical insurance and deny you visa and put your through rigorous process of appeal, even when they made a mistake in adjudicating your application. For those who are applying for visa as a family, they may grant husband and wife and deny the children, putting families through emotional stress and agony. During the xenophobia violence, they sometimes mount roadblock and remove foreigners from commuting vehicles. In 2015, I almost not attend my graduation, despite that I was graduating with a distinction. The reason was that the locals were killing foreigners in Durban, and my supervisor had to advise that I should not attend because of fear. This is not to say that there are no few exceptions to the xenophobic tendencies of South Africans. Till today, I still have South African friends and students who will always be part of my story and I am grateful to these few people. In fact, it was a South African lady who made my graduation attendance possible. She personally drove me from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. However, it is just few South Africans who are welcoming to strangers, especially those who have lived in other countries.

So, as you are embarking on your South African adventure, ask yourself whether the money you have spent on visa etc worth the psychological trauma your adventure in SA will cost you. Be ready to live in fear. You will be continuously asked when you are going back to your home country. This thing is deep than what you see on social media. It is only who have lived it who can tell you what it means to be unwanted. Living in a place where you perpetually feel like you are not wanted is something that I wish no immigrant will go through just in the name of survival. I hope God will heal our land, because there is no place like home. For the name checkers association, there is only one identity outside Nigeria, and that is the Nigerian identity. No matter how much you can say one tribe is the one into drugs or 419 or skull mining or kidnapping, all those lines are blurred in the eyes of the those who are not Nigerians. This is why we should collectively work together for a new Nigeria.

tosintonero:
Before making this post, I went through the forum for people intending to visit, study or work in South Africa (SA) https://www.nairaland.com/944102/general-south-africa-visa-enquiries/568. It is interesting that despite the recent and ongoing Afrophobia or xenophobia in South Africa, many visa applicants are not deterred. Some of the reasons some SA immigrant dwellers or visa applicants gave was that "life is per head", "Anyone who has legitimate reasons to visit SA has nothing to be scared of". Some others think that the news making the round on xenophobia in SA is exaggerated as seen in this quote "the reports you are reading and watching are largely exaggerated". One Nigerian who claimed to be living in SA currently even claimed that the xenophobia against Nigerians and other African immigrants are restricted to "places that are largely populated by Nigerians and other foreigner, places like hillbrow, rossentenvile, tuffortein, Pretoria Sunnyside and Johannesburg CDB".

When we look at all the reasons given by those who are currently unaffected by the violence, but living in SA or those who are still aspiring to enter Southy from Nigeria, it is clear that they think they are immune from xenophobic attacks as long as they are in SA legitimately, or as long as they avoid certain places. While this advice from fellow Nigerians about what can be done to avoid being a victim of xenophobia in SA seems straightforward, the reality of xenophobia in South Africa is complex than that because not all xenophobia attacks are physical or violent in nature. The less violent “ordinary” experience of xenophobia are part of the everyday lives of African immigrant in SA, and most black immigrants don't even experience the violent xenophobia like the one we saw last week. The reason for this is that South Africans across race, class, and gender lines hold deep-seated anti-foreigner sentiments and attitudes and this means regardless of whether you are in the country legally or illegally, your experience as an immigrant will most likely range from mockery to murder. So, unlike the socioeconomically deprived areas where xenophobia is manifested through physical violence, an African immigrant with a study or work permit or even a permanent residency will experience xenophobia in more subtle ways that will make him, or her feel so unwelcome because the environment is psychologically hostile. This means that staying away from certain areas that are known for violence does not mean you will be immune from experiencing xenophobia and I will use my lived experience as a past legal resident of South Africa as an example. My experience may help you assess whether the benefits of leaving Nigeria for South Africa outweigh its risks.

My first time in South Africa was in 2013, and that was the second country that I would visit in my international travel experience. Like many other Nigerians, what took me to South Africa was education. After my bachelor's degree in nursing in Nigeria, I wanted to experience an educational system that is a little bit smoother and immune from endless strike actions. In 2012, I departed Nigeria for Botswana to pursue a two-year master's degree in nursing. But after the first year of my course work master in Botswana, I was offered an admission in one of the premier university in SA to complete my master's by research. I was very excited about this opportunity in South Africa because I felt it would afford me more opportunities than Botswana since it is a bigger economy. Most especially, there was a fee-waiver for master's by research provided the student is able to complete the masters in one year. Unlike SA visa application in Nigeria that takes months, my visa was approved by the SA high commission in Gaborone, Botswana in just three days and it was a two-year visa. I was then looking forward to my adventure in South Africa.

Before detailing my experience in South Africa, I want to state that between 2012 and now, I have lived in three different countries (both developing and developed) outside Nigeria. By living, I mean I stayed in a foreign country for more than one year. In addition, I also want to state that between 2012 and now, I have visited over eight different countries and some of this countries are Australia, USA, Turkey, Hong kong and other African countries like Kenya and Ethiopia. It would interest you to know that it is only in South Africa that the immigration officers detained me in order to find out from the University that I was truly offered an admission. As I was held in detention in this room that is stenching from body odour due to overcrowding, many Nigerians are being ushered in. Fortunately for me, the university confirmed my admission, and I was allowed to go. But while I was lucky that I did not arrive on a public holiday where there would be no one in the university to authenticate the veracity of my master's admission, some Nigerians were being held to be deported because their accommodation or reason for visit could not be confirmed, During my short stay in temporary detention, you can see the sadness, dread and agony of my fellow Nigerians whose dream of exploring SA ended before it began. South Africa opened my eyes to my identity as a Nigerian. The perception that South Africans (including the police, immigration officers and common people) have about Nigeria is that we are crooks, bribe-givers and illegal). Despite what I went through in the hands of the immigration, unknown to me, some police officers stationed in the airport stalked me to the lift, hoping to get a bribe from me. This is just because I was carrying a Nigerian passport and they think Nigerians are easy targets for bribes since we are used to it in our country. Although some readers may argue that immigration officers were merely doing their job, but the way it was handled made me feel unwelcome and it dawned on me that I have to be looking over my shoulders. Immigrations officers are like the first person that welcomes a visitor to a house. The way you are treated at the gate or at the door stays with you for the remainder of your stay.

Now to my three years experience of living in SA. I lived in Durban and Pietermaritzburg between 2013 and 2016. It may interest you that out of the countries that I have lived and visited; South Africa is the only country where you have to carry your passport around. The dangers of not carrying your passport is that during stop and search, your inability to produce your passport will end you in detention centre to be deported home. You may not end up in detention centre if you can pay bribe. You may be wondering how police are able to single out foreigners for targeted harassment despite being black like any other black South African. The main reason is your accent, even if you know how to speak any of the local dialects. I have many examples of this, and I will attempt to share a little. I can never forget the day my cousin and I were publicly ridiculed in Pretoria. We were walking to catch a bus from Bosman station and immediately this police noticed our accent, they started shouting at us, but we were not aware because they were speaking in their language and were not wearing uniform. For some of you who have naively said those who have fallen victim to police brutality in SA are drug dealers, I hope my own experience will teach you to never jump into conclusion. As I was saying, as these police officers were shouting and approaching us, the next thing that I felt was a shove. I was very frightened because we did not see it coming and these officers were not in uniform. Fortunately, we had our passports, but they looked through our phones, checked everything in our bags and this was in the full glare of the public. We were ridiculed like common criminals. The second example is that of my friend, a lady from Zimbabwe who was assaulted in a public taxi. This lady and I were tutors in a university in KZN and while commuting in a combi one day, she tried to pay her fare with a R50 bill, only for the conductor to say he does not have change. But the conductor said it in Isizulu, and when it became clear that she was a foreigner, the conductor asked her where she is from and where was she coming from. The Zimbabwe girl said she was coming from work and the conductor responded by slapping her on her face twice, saying she is one of the people stealing their jobs. The saddest part of the experience for this lady was that no one in the taxi, including the women, berated the conductor or tried to protect this lady. The implication of this is that as a black foreigner, you hardly go out at night and you have to minimise your use of public transport because you can be attacked without any provocation. Luckily for this lady, her father was one of the rich people left in Zimbabwe and he bought her daughter a car to avoid contact with the locals. As you are going to SA, can you afford to buy your own car? Lastly, I also want to recount how a police harassed and embarrassed me in Johannesburg park station just because I was a foreigner. As our bus was getting ready to depart for Pietermaritzburg, the police came into the bus to do a routine check. After cracking a joke in their language which I did not laugh to, as I have no clue what he was saying, he asked me for my passport. In my passport was boarding passes of my earlier flights to Cape Town and this guy started insinuating that I must be a drug dealer for travelling to so many places in South Africa in the previous weeks. Unknown to him, it was my employer that sent me to all these workshops and conferences. I remember myself asking him if there was a policy or law that stipulates the number of trips a foreigner is supposed to take within a certain period. The question that I asked him made him realised that his questions were stupid. He gave me my passport and left, but he has already singled me out to the other locals that I was not one of them. That means throughout the whole trip, I was very vulnerable to being lynched, and the next thing you would have been hearing is that a Nigerian who was selling drugs to the kids have been killed by concern locals.

Before I left SA in 2016, I was a lecturer, and I was earning R24,000 (gross per month). My tax every month was around R6,000, and I never used their public health hospitals. I am aware of many Nigerians who hold similar positions and are contributing to the SA economy. To paint all Nigerians as criminals who are causing mayhem and misusing the public facilities is just not true. This is not to deny that some Nigerians are into shady business. But many of these criminals are working in harmony with law enforcements and they are even given VIP treatment than some of us who are doing legitimate work. In 2016, I left SA for a developed country to pursue my PhD. To the glory of God, I am now a PhD holder and now a lecturer. There are many people who will not leave SA if they are lucky to have the kind of job and such salary I had in SA. But throughout my three years stay in SA, I never felt I belonged in the community because of the aggression and intimidation of the black South Africans. Visa renewal is a problem. Just because you are Nigerian, they can accuse you of submitting fake medical insurance and deny you visa and put your through rigorous process of appeal, even when they made a mistake in adjudicating your application. For those who are applying for visa as a family, they may grant husband and wife and deny the children, putting families through emotional stress and agony. During the xenophobia violence, they sometimes mount roadblock and remove foreigners from commuting vehicles. In 2015, I almost not attend my graduation, despite that I was graduating with a distinction. The reason was that the locals were killing foreigners in Durban, and my supervisor had to advise that I should not attend because of fear. This is not to say that there are no few exceptions to the xenophobic tendencies of South Africans. Till today, I still have South African friends and students who will always be part of my story and I am grateful to these few people. In fact, it was a South African lady who made my graduation attendance possible. She personally drove me from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. However, it is just few South Africans who are welcoming to strangers, especially those who have lived in other countries.

So, as you are embarking on your South African adventure, ask yourself whether the money you have spent on visa etc worth the psychological trauma your adventure in SA will cost you. Be ready to live in fear. You will be continuously asked when you are going back to your home country. This thing is deep than what you see on social media. It is only who have lived it who can tell you what it means to be unwanted. Living in a place where you perpetually feel like you are not wanted is something that I wish no immigrant will go through just in the name of survival. I hope God will heal our land, because there is no place like home. For the name checkers association, there is only one identity outside Nigeria, and that is the Nigerian identity. No matter how much you can say one tribe is the one into drugs or 419 or skull mining or kidnapping, all those lines are blurred in the eyes of the those who are not Nigerians. This is why we should collectively work together for a new Nigeria.

Nicely put

tosintonero:
Before making this post, I went through the forum for people intending to visit, study or work in South Africa (SA) https://www.nairaland.com/944102/general-south-africa-visa-enquiries/568. It is interesting that despite the recent and ongoing Afrophobia or xenophobia in South Africa, many visa applicants are not deterred. Some of the reasons some SA immigrant dwellers or visa applicants gave was that "life is per head", "Anyone who has legitimate reasons to visit SA has nothing to be scared of". Some others think that the news making the round on xenophobia in SA is exaggerated as seen in this quote "the reports you are reading and watching are largely exaggerated". One Nigerian who claimed to be living in SA currently even claimed that the xenophobia against Nigerians and other African immigrants are restricted to "places that are largely populated by Nigerians and other foreigner, places like hillbrow, rossentenvile, tuffortein, Pretoria Sunnyside and Johannesburg CDB".

When we look at all the reasons given by those who are currently unaffected by the violence, but living in SA or those who are still aspiring to enter Southy from Nigeria, it is clear that they think they are immune from xenophobic attacks as long as they are in SA legitimately, or as long as they avoid certain places. While this advice from fellow Nigerians about what can be done to avoid being a victim of xenophobia in SA seems straightforward, the reality of xenophobia in South Africa is complex than that because not all xenophobia attacks are physical or violent in nature. The less violent “ordinary” experience of xenophobia are part of the everyday lives of African immigrant in SA, and most black immigrants don't even experience the violent xenophobia like the one we saw last week. The reason for this is that South Africans across race, class, and gender lines hold deep-seated anti-foreigner sentiments and attitudes and this means regardless of whether you are in the country legally or illegally, your experience as an immigrant will most likely range from mockery to murder. So, unlike the socioeconomically deprived areas where xenophobia is manifested through physical violence, an African immigrant with a study or work permit or even a permanent residency will experience xenophobia in more subtle ways that will make him, or her feel so unwelcome because the environment is psychologically hostile. This means that staying away from certain areas that are known for violence does not mean you will be immune from experiencing xenophobia and I will use my lived experience as a past legal resident of South Africa as an example. My experience may help you assess whether the benefits of leaving Nigeria for South Africa outweigh its risks.

My first time in South Africa was in 2013, and that was the second country that I would visit in my international travel experience. Like many other Nigerians, what took me to South Africa was education. After my bachelor's degree in nursing in Nigeria, I wanted to experience an educational system that is a little bit smoother and immune from endless strike actions. In 2012, I departed Nigeria for Botswana to pursue a two-year master's degree in nursing. But after the first year of my course work master in Botswana, I was offered an admission in one of the premier university in SA to complete my master's by research. I was very excited about this opportunity in South Africa because I felt it would afford me more opportunities than Botswana since it is a bigger economy. Most especially, there was a fee-waiver for master's by research provided the student is able to complete the masters in one year. Unlike SA visa application in Nigeria that takes months, my visa was approved by the SA high commission in Gaborone, Botswana in just three days and it was a two-year visa. I was then looking forward to my adventure in South Africa.

Before detailing my experience in South Africa, I want to state that between 2012 and now, I have lived in three different countries (both developing and developed) outside Nigeria. By living, I mean I stayed in a foreign country for more than one year. In addition, I also want to state that between 2012 and now, I have visited over eight different countries and some of this countries are Australia, USA, Turkey, Hong kong and other African countries like Kenya and Ethiopia. It would interest you to know that it is only in South Africa that the immigration officers detained me in order to find out from the University that I was truly offered an admission. As I was held in detention in this room that is stenching from body odour due to overcrowding, many Nigerians are being ushered in. Fortunately for me, the university confirmed my admission, and I was allowed to go. But while I was lucky that I did not arrive on a public holiday where there would be no one in the university to authenticate the veracity of my master's admission, some Nigerians were being held to be deported because their accommodation or reason for visit could not be confirmed, During my short stay in temporary detention, you can see the sadness, dread and agony of my fellow Nigerians whose dream of exploring SA ended before it began. South Africa opened my eyes to my identity as a Nigerian. The perception that South Africans (including the police, immigration officers and common people) have about Nigeria is that we are crooks, bribe-givers and illegal). Despite what I went through in the hands of the immigration, unknown to me, some police officers stationed in the airport stalked me to the lift, hoping to get a bribe from me. This is just because I was carrying a Nigerian passport and they think Nigerians are easy targets for bribes since we are used to it in our country. Although some readers may argue that immigration officers were merely doing their job, but the way it was handled made me feel unwelcome and it dawned on me that I have to be looking over my shoulders. Immigrations officers are like the first person that welcomes a visitor to a house. The way you are treated at the gate or at the door stays with you for the remainder of your stay.

Now to my three years experience of living in SA. I lived in Durban and Pietermaritzburg between 2013 and 2016. It may interest you that out of the countries that I have lived and visited; South Africa is the only country where you have to carry your passport around. The dangers of not carrying your passport is that during stop and search, your inability to produce your passport will end you in detention centre to be deported home. You may not end up in detention centre if you can pay bribe. You may be wondering how police are able to single out foreigners for targeted harassment despite being black like any other black South African. The main reason is your accent, even if you know how to speak any of the local dialects. I have many examples of this, and I will attempt to share a little. I can never forget the day my cousin and I were publicly ridiculed in Pretoria. We were walking to catch a bus from Bosman station and immediately this police noticed our accent, they started shouting at us, but we were not aware because they were speaking in their language and were not wearing uniform. For some of you who have naively said those who have fallen victim to police brutality in SA are drug dealers, I hope my own experience will teach you to never jump into conclusion. As I was saying, as these police officers were shouting and approaching us, the next thing that I felt was a shove. I was very frightened because we did not see it coming and these officers were not in uniform. Fortunately, we had our passports, but they looked through our phones, checked everything in our bags and this was in the full glare of the public. We were ridiculed like common criminals. The second example is that of my friend, a lady from Zimbabwe who was assaulted in a public taxi. This lady and I were tutors in a university in KZN and while commuting in a combi one day, she tried to pay her fare with a R50 bill, only for the conductor to say he does not have change. But the conductor said it in Isizulu, and when it became clear that she was a foreigner, the conductor asked her where she is from and where was she coming from. The Zimbabwe girl said she was coming from work and the conductor responded by slapping her on her face twice, saying she is one of the people stealing their jobs. The saddest part of the experience for this lady was that no one in the taxi, including the women, berated the conductor or tried to protect this lady. The implication of this is that as a black foreigner, you hardly go out at night and you have to minimise your use of public transport because you can be attacked without any provocation. Luckily for this lady, her father was one of the rich people left in Zimbabwe and he bought her daughter a car to avoid contact with the locals. As you are going to SA, can you afford to buy your own car? Lastly, I also want to recount how a police harassed and embarrassed me in Johannesburg park station just because I was a foreigner. As our bus was getting ready to depart for Pietermaritzburg, the police came into the bus to do a routine check. After cracking a joke in their language which I did not laugh to, as I have no clue what he was saying, he asked me for my passport. In my passport was boarding passes of my earlier flights to Cape Town and this guy started insinuating that I must be a drug dealer for travelling to so many places in South Africa in the previous weeks. Unknown to him, it was my employer that sent me to all these workshops and conferences. I remember myself asking him if there was a policy or law that stipulates the number of trips a foreigner is supposed to take within a certain period. The question that I asked him made him realised that his questions were stupid. He gave me my passport and left, but he has already singled me out to the other locals that I was not one of them. That means throughout the whole trip, I was very vulnerable to being lynched, and the next thing you would have been hearing is that a Nigerian who was selling drugs to the kids have been killed by concern locals.

Before I left SA in 2016, I was a lecturer, and I was earning R24,000 (gross per month). My tax every month was around R6,000, and I never used their public health hospitals. I am aware of many Nigerians who hold similar positions and are contributing to the SA economy. To paint all Nigerians as criminals who are causing mayhem and misusing the public facilities is just not true. This is not to deny that some Nigerians are into shady business. But many of these criminals are working in harmony with law enforcements and they are even given VIP treatment than some of us who are doing legitimate work. In 2016, I left SA for a developed country to pursue my PhD. To the glory of God, I am now a PhD holder and now a lecturer. There are many people who will not leave SA if they are lucky to have the kind of job and such salary I had in SA. But throughout my three years stay in SA, I never felt I belonged in the community because of the aggression and intimidation of the black South Africans. Visa renewal is a problem. Just because you are Nigerian, they can accuse you of submitting fake medical insurance and deny you visa and put your through rigorous process of appeal, even when they made a mistake in adjudicating your application. For those who are applying for visa as a family, they may grant husband and wife and deny the children, putting families through emotional stress and agony. During the xenophobia violence, they sometimes mount roadblock and remove foreigners from commuting vehicles. In 2015, I almost not attend my graduation, despite that I was graduating with a distinction. The reason was that the locals were killing foreigners in Durban, and my supervisor had to advise that I should not attend because of fear. This is not to say that there are no few exceptions to the xenophobic tendencies of South Africans. Till today, I still have South African friends and students who will always be part of my story and I am grateful to these few people. In fact, it was a South African lady who made my graduation attendance possible. She personally drove me from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. However, it is just few South Africans who are welcoming to strangers, especially those who have lived in other countries.

So, as you are embarking on your South African adventure, ask yourself whether the money you have spent on visa etc worth the psychological trauma your adventure in SA will cost you. Be ready to live in fear. You will be continuously asked when you are going back to your home country. This thing is deep than what you see on social media. It is only who have lived it who can tell you what it means to be unwanted. Living in a place where you perpetually feel like you are not wanted is something that I wish no immigrant will go through just in the name of survival. I hope God will heal our land, because there is no place like home. For the name checkers association, there is only one identity outside Nigeria, and that is the Nigerian identity. No matter how much you can say one tribe is the one into drugs or 419 or skull mining or kidnapping, all those lines are blurred in the eyes of the those who are not Nigerians. This is why we should collectively work together for a new Nigeria.

To buttress your point, I know of a friend who went to south Africa for a conference in Pretoria about 9 years ago. At jo' bourg airport while waiting for his flight back to nigeria, he went to the restroom room. Right inside the toilet, he was robbed at gun point by a policeman in uniform. He lost 200 dollars. I asked why he didn't raise the alarm and he said he was scared the iidiot might just shoot him. I didn't blame him because that was his first trip abroad. Besides, I now believe from different reports that there is a well-coordinated gang including security and airport officials in that airport targeting nigerians. One unfortunate nigerian was followed from the airport on arrival to the reception of his hotel and killed there. South Africa is a violent country - go there at your own risk.

tosintonero:
Before making this post, I went through the forum for people intending to visit, study or work in South Africa (SA) https://www.nairaland.com/944102/general-south-africa-visa-enquiries/568. It is interesting that despite the recent and ongoing Afrophobia or xenophobia in South Africa, many visa applicants are not deterred. Some of the reasons some SA immigrant dwellers or visa applicants gave was that "life is per head", "Anyone who has legitimate reasons to visit SA has nothing to be scared of". Some others think that the news making the round on xenophobia in SA is exaggerated as seen in this quote "the reports you are reading and watching are largely exaggerated". One Nigerian who claimed to be living in SA currently even claimed that the xenophobia against Nigerians and other African immigrants are restricted to "places that are largely populated by Nigerians and other foreigner, places like hillbrow, rossentenvile, tuffortein, Pretoria Sunnyside and Johannesburg CDB".

When we look at all the reasons given by those who are currently unaffected by the violence, but living in SA or those who are still aspiring to enter Southy from Nigeria, it is clear that they think they are immune from xenophobic attacks as long as they are in SA legitimately, or as long as they avoid certain places. While this advice from fellow Nigerians about what can be done to avoid being a victim of xenophobia in SA seems straightforward, the reality of xenophobia in South Africa is complex than that because not all xenophobia attacks are physical or violent in nature. The less violent “ordinary” experience of xenophobia are part of the everyday lives of African immigrant in SA, and most black immigrants don't even experience the violent xenophobia like the one we saw last week. The reason for this is that South Africans across race, class, and gender lines hold deep-seated anti-foreigner sentiments and attitudes and this means regardless of whether you are in the country legally or illegally, your experience as an immigrant will most likely range from mockery to murder. So, unlike the socioeconomically deprived areas where xenophobia is manifested through physical violence, an African immigrant with a study or work permit or even a permanent residency will experience xenophobia in more subtle ways that will make him, or her feel so unwelcome because the environment is psychologically hostile. This means that staying away from certain areas that are known for violence does not mean you will be immune from experiencing xenophobia and I will use my lived experience as a past legal resident of South Africa as an example. My experience may help you assess whether the benefits of leaving Nigeria for South Africa outweigh its risks.

My first time in South Africa was in 2013, and that was the second country that I would visit in my international travel experience. Like many other Nigerians, what took me to South Africa was education. After my bachelor's degree in nursing in Nigeria, I wanted to experience an educational system that is a little bit smoother and immune from endless strike actions. In 2012, I departed Nigeria for Botswana to pursue a two-year master's degree in nursing. But after the first year of my course work master in Botswana, I was offered an admission in one of the premier university in SA to complete my master's by research. I was very excited about this opportunity in South Africa because I felt it would afford me more opportunities than Botswana since it is a bigger economy. Most especially, there was a fee-waiver for master's by research provided the student is able to complete the masters in one year. Unlike SA visa application in Nigeria that takes months, my visa was approved by the SA high commission in Gaborone, Botswana in just three days and it was a two-year visa. I was then looking forward to my adventure in South Africa.

Before detailing my experience in South Africa, I want to state that between 2012 and now, I have lived in three different countries (both developing and developed) outside Nigeria. By living, I mean I stayed in a foreign country for more than one year. In addition, I also want to state that between 2012 and now, I have visited over eight different countries and some of this countries are Australia, USA, Turkey, Hong kong and other African countries like Kenya and Ethiopia. It would interest you to know that it is only in South Africa that the immigration officers detained me in order to find out from the University that I was truly offered an admission. As I was held in detention in this room that is stenching from body odour due to overcrowding, many Nigerians are being ushered in. Fortunately for me, the university confirmed my admission, and I was allowed to go. But while I was lucky that I did not arrive on a public holiday where there would be no one in the university to authenticate the veracity of my master's admission, some Nigerians were being held to be deported because their accommodation or reason for visit could not be confirmed, During my short stay in temporary detention, you can see the sadness, dread and agony of my fellow Nigerians whose dream of exploring SA ended before it began. South Africa opened my eyes to my identity as a Nigerian. The perception that South Africans (including the police, immigration officers and common people) have about Nigeria is that we are crooks, bribe-givers and illegal). Despite what I went through in the hands of the immigration, unknown to me, some police officers stationed in the airport stalked me to the lift, hoping to get a bribe from me. This is just because I was carrying a Nigerian passport and they think Nigerians are easy targets for bribes since we are used to it in our country. Although some readers may argue that immigration officers were merely doing their job, but the way it was handled made me feel unwelcome and it dawned on me that I have to be looking over my shoulders. Immigrations officers are like the first person that welcomes a visitor to a house. The way you are treated at the gate or at the door stays with you for the remainder of your stay.

Now to my three years experience of living in SA. I lived in Durban and Pietermaritzburg between 2013 and 2016. It may interest you that out of the countries that I have lived and visited; South Africa is the only country where you have to carry your passport around. The dangers of not carrying your passport is that during stop and search, your inability to produce your passport will end you in detention centre to be deported home. You may not end up in detention centre if you can pay bribe. You may be wondering how police are able to single out foreigners for targeted harassment despite being black like any other black South African. The main reason is your accent, even if you know how to speak any of the local dialects. I have many examples of this, and I will attempt to share a little. I can never forget the day my cousin and I were publicly ridiculed in Pretoria. We were walking to catch a bus from Bosman station and immediately this police noticed our accent, they started shouting at us, but we were not aware because they were speaking in their language and were not wearing uniform. For some of you who have naively said those who have fallen victim to police brutality in SA are drug dealers, I hope my own experience will teach you to never jump into conclusion. As I was saying, as these police officers were shouting and approaching us, the next thing that I felt was a shove. I was very frightened because we did not see it coming and these officers were not in uniform. Fortunately, we had our passports, but they looked through our phones, checked everything in our bags and this was in the full glare of the public. We were ridiculed like common criminals. The second example is that of my friend, a lady from Zimbabwe who was assaulted in a public taxi. This lady and I were tutors in a university in KZN and while commuting in a combi one day, she tried to pay her fare with a R50 bill, only for the conductor to say he does not have change. But the conductor said it in Isizulu, and when it became clear that she was a foreigner, the conductor asked her where she is from and where was she coming from. The Zimbabwe girl said she was coming from work and the conductor responded by slapping her on her face twice, saying she is one of the people stealing their jobs. The saddest part of the experience for this lady was that no one in the taxi, including the women, berated the conductor or tried to protect this lady. The implication of this is that as a black foreigner, you hardly go out at night and you have to minimise your use of public transport because you can be attacked without any provocation. Luckily for this lady, her father was one of the rich people left in Zimbabwe and he bought her daughter a car to avoid contact with the locals. As you are going to SA, can you afford to buy your own car? Lastly, I also want to recount how a police harassed and embarrassed me in Johannesburg park station just because I was a foreigner. As our bus was getting ready to depart for Pietermaritzburg, the police came into the bus to do a routine check. After cracking a joke in their language which I did not laugh to, as I have no clue what he was saying, he asked me for my passport. In my passport was boarding passes of my earlier flights to Cape Town and this guy started insinuating that I must be a drug dealer for travelling to so many places in South Africa in the previous weeks. Unknown to him, it was my employer that sent me to all these workshops and conferences. I remember myself asking him if there was a policy or law that stipulates the number of trips a foreigner is supposed to take within a certain period. The question that I asked him made him realised that his questions were stupid. He gave me my passport and left, but he has already singled me out to the other locals that I was not one of them. That means throughout the whole trip, I was very vulnerable to being lynched, and the next thing you would have been hearing is that a Nigerian who was selling drugs to the kids have been killed by concern locals.

Before I left SA in 2016, I was a lecturer, and I was earning R24,000 (gross per month). My tax every month was around R6,000, and I never used their public health hospitals. I am aware of many Nigerians who hold similar positions and are contributing to the SA economy. To paint all Nigerians as criminals who are causing mayhem and misusing the public facilities is just not true. This is not to deny that some Nigerians are into shady business. But many of these criminals are working in harmony with law enforcements and they are even given VIP treatment than some of us who are doing legitimate work. In 2016, I left SA for a developed country to pursue my PhD. To the glory of God, I am now a PhD holder and now a lecturer. There are many people who will not leave SA if they are lucky to have the kind of job and such salary I had in SA. But throughout my three years stay in SA, I never felt I belonged in the community because of the aggression and intimidation of the black South Africans. Visa renewal is a problem. Just because you are Nigerian, they can accuse you of submitting fake medical insurance and deny you visa and put your through rigorous process of appeal, even when they made a mistake in adjudicating your application. For those who are applying for visa as a family, they may grant husband and wife and deny the children, putting families through emotional stress and agony. During the xenophobia violence, they sometimes mount roadblock and remove foreigners from commuting vehicles. In 2015, I almost not attend my graduation, despite that I was graduating with a distinction. The reason was that the locals were killing foreigners in Durban, and my supervisor had to advise that I should not attend because of fear. This is not to say that there are no few exceptions to the xenophobic tendencies of South Africans. Till today, I still have South African friends and students who will always be part of my story and I am grateful to these few people. In fact, it was a South African lady who made my graduation attendance possible. She personally drove me from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. However, it is just few South Africans who are welcoming to strangers, especially those who have lived in other countries.

So, as you are embarking on your South African adventure, ask yourself whether the money you have spent on visa etc worth the psychological trauma your adventure in SA will cost you. Be ready to live in fear. You will be continuously asked when you are going back to your home country. This thing is deep than what you see on social media. It is only who have lived it who can tell you what it means to be unwanted. Living in a place where you perpetually feel like you are not wanted is something that I wish no immigrant will go through just in the name of survival. I hope God will heal our land, because there is no place like home. For the name checkers association, there is only one identity outside Nigeria, and that is the Nigerian identity. No matter how much you can say one tribe is the one into drugs or 419 or skull mining or kidnapping, all those lines are blurred in the eyes of the those who are not Nigerians. This is why we should collectively work together for a new Nigeria.

BEAUTIFUL!!!

Do you think we can read all this long epistle?

Summarise you craps and let see how it got

glink2015:
Do you think we can read all this long epistle?

Summarise you craps and let see how it got

Ur kinds enter trouble cheaply

Jamestown123:
Ur kinds enter trouble cheaply

Your kinds enter trouble cheaply....

glink2015:
Do you think we can read all this long epistle?

Summarise you craps and let see how it got

This is not crap

You better read and learn

Well Written.
This deserves front page.

Front Page

Op, you couldn't have said it any better. South Africa is a very hostile place to live in as a foreigner. In the course of doing my business, I get clients from all over the world. I have a few Nigerian clients in SA who patronize me for human hairs. A South African guy saw one of my products and loved it.


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He then asked my Nigerian clients for my contact as he was looking to start a hair business in Durban. We got talking and he placed his order. When it was time for payment, that was a bit of a challenge because I prefer to recieve payments money in Naira to avoid being surchanged due to fx rate conversions and bank charges on Dom accounts.

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I was on the verge of losing the deal due to the payment issue. My husband then suggested I speak to my Nigerian clients there if they can get Rands from the SA guy and pay in the naira equivalent for me through their Nigerian accounts.

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I approached them with the idea, but they were so scared. They begged me that they really love doubg business with me and would want to help me, but that they avoid having anything to do with South Africans. They told me they wouldn't want their good intention to land them in trouble because if anything goes wrong, the police there would side with their South African over them that are Nigerians.

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I was surprised to say the least. I had to talk to the SA guy about it. He assured me he would go see them and beg them to help him out, that he isn't one of those who victimize Nigerians. That was how God finally helped me and the Nigerians grudgingly agreed to help him pay me.

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Also my husband was planning to go to SA for a marine course sometime in January this year . What we saw while applying for the visa was hell!He was made to pay half of the school fees, medical insurance of almost 200k and also pay for accommodation as one of the requirements. On top all that, the visa wasn't issued on time.

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After waiting for 4 MONTHS, he was denied visa on the grounds that his admission letter couldn't be verified. I mean, they could verify his bank statement, what was so hard reaching out to a school in their own country?That was how we wasted time and money. It was then we decided to forget about SA and make other plans for UK. In all I thank God because my heart won't have been at ease if he were in SA now. I would have been constantly worried for his safety.
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As for those people in that SA Visa thread, they remind me of the saying that "A dog determined to get lost in the bush, doesn't hear the masters whistle calling him". What's more appalling are the Nigerians there sugarcoating things to lure people to come join them there.Many believe life anywhere outside Nigeria has to be the best without thinking about their emotional wellbeing and safety. Maybe the experience would be a better teacher to them.
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For me and my family, the only thing that can take us out of Nigeria has to be very important.In this same Nigeria, people are making millions monthly, you just need to figure out what you can do legitimately to make it.Nigeria bad, but it's still our home.