Please do not lead people astray. Many Nigerians regardless of their status will regret their journey to SA because South Africans are hostile to black foreigners especially those from the western, eastern and northern part of Africa. You claimed you have lived in SA for more 11 months. I also lived in SA for three years. As a matter of fact, I got my master's degree in SA and I was a lecturer in a University in KZN before I left in 2016. It is not only sad that a Nigerian would say that 80-90% of Nigerians in SA are undocumented and illegal, but this is also an unfortunate statement. Did you conduct a census to determine your statistics? According to the latest data from Statistics SA, the number of Nigerians in SA are about 100,000. Are you saying 90,000 of them are undocumented? I don't know what you do in SA, but I will tell you from my own experience as a student and a worker that there are many Nigerian students and academics in SA. As far as I am concerned, you cannot be registered or even be given a job in these institutions without a paper. Your job will be terminated, your salary will stop the day your visa expires and your bank account will be frozen after one or two months. I guess you have only lived in South Africa, apart from Nigeria. But may I ask you how many times you have to carry your passport around? How many times do you have to show your passport and provide your home address before any transaction can be done? It is like everyone just want to re-assess your immigration status and that is why you have to keep supplying your passport with visa even to those whose job does not have anything to do with immigration. In New Zealand, the only time you show your visa is your first day and no one will ever ask you for your identity ever again. You don't even need your passport for local travel within New Zealand. The first thing they will tell you during your orientation is to keep your passport safe and get something called an 18+ card to minimise the loss of your passport. The 18+ card is held by both locals and foreigners and you only show this card when you have to buy alcohol.

When I first came to SA, despite having a two-year visa and a home that I was renting, it took me almost 3 weeks before I could open a bank account in FNB. The same thing applies to many people. The same bank account that I could not open in three weeks in SA took me less than 20 minutes in New Zealand. The difference is that NZ banks are not asking me to provide my admission letter and other impossible documents or any letter from my landlord or to provide certified documents of the originals that I was already carrying. They just go to the immigration website to verify my visa status. Okay, now let's say you are working in SA, how many times did you have to prove that you can be trusted by other SAns. How many times do you have to pander to your boss or students to get your contract renewed? How many times do you have to work extra and unpaid just to prove that you are a good worker that should be retained? In fact, I know of my foreigners with PR that did not get a job because their PR was gotten after 1994. The people with papers, can't get jobs, talkless of those without paper. Of course, I have met few Nigerians who paid the Nigeria Football Federation money to come to SA as a fan supporter during the 2010 world cup and they have been living as illegals since then, hoping that marrying a South African lady would help them get papers. This is also not to mean that some Nigerians are not into drug dealing. There are some areas in Durban where you will see the presence of loud Nigerians. But that does not translate to the fact that 80-90% Nigerians are illegals. Have you asked yourself why SA have not scrapped the fee remission for master's by research and PhD for foreigners? Do you know that the population of Nigerians and other black Africans are what is sustaining some departments from closing down? An average Nigerian lecturer in SA will face targeted harassment from colleagues and students because they see us as desperados who are fleeing from our own country. That is why during course and teacher evaluation, no matter how much effort you have put into the course, the students will be saying horrible things to get you fired. The reason is that they know they have power over you. The power imbalance between average SAns and other African migrants is visible and that is why someone like you will say 80-90% of Nigerians are illegals because the vertical violence that they have projected on you have made you think lesser of yourself. For you to be accepted by them, you must talk bad about your own people. In 2016, 2017/2018, my wife did photographic research of the experience of black african students in SA and even that of black south africans and during the photovoice, it emerged that the broken bottles, the violence and the aggression were to make foreigners feel unwelcome and to look after their shoulders. Regardless of how much you can portray your lived experience of SA as a haven, I can bet that you must have been asked a couple of times when you are going back home? Does that seem a harmless question to you? As a student in SA, I have seen SA immigration falsely accusing people of submitting fake health insurance and only backed down when the lawyers of the insurance company got involved. It may not affect you now, but it does not mean people are not been treated unjustly. For anyone who cares to listen, stay away from SA because the psychological impact of being a Nigerian in SA outweighs any benefits that you think your being there will afford you.

slickruler:
This is very misleading.. Very very very misleading.

This is my 11th month here. My First Month I stayed with a South African in his flat ( A work Colleague.). Not all South Africans are Xenophobic. The real problem is hunger/poverty/hatred (when una dey collect their women).

Lets tell ourselves the truth, 80-90% of Nigerians i have met here are here undocumented and Illegally. You applied for a visit visa and you have been here for 3-5 Years. No source of income, you resort to fraud and drugs. Giving the rest of your country men bad names.

I have met Nigerians who do Menial jobs from Mechanics to carpenters, uber and truck drivers. But a huge chunk gives the good ones a bad name. Its so bad that even when other Foreigners do something wrong they are easily tagged as Nigerians..

I agree with everything that Yupng said here. I also use to live in South Africa (both Durban and Pietermaritzburg) and I can confirm that being a Nigerian in SA comes with negative psychological consequences. Xenophobia does not always mean you will be physically attacked, it is just the persistent feeling that you are not wanted and that you constantly have to prove that you are a good human being. For those advocating that other Nigerians should head to South Africa, ask yourself how many times have you being made to feel less of yourself, just because of your nationality. You and I know that most jobs in SA are on contract basis and we know how much Nigerians have to impress and work as slaves and pander to the black South African masters in order to get their contracts renewed. Even in the higher education where I worked, the students are most likely to give a Nigerian negative ratings when completing course and teaching evaluations just because they have been made aware that their feedback can cost you your job. So, many Nigerians pander to their bosses and their students in order to win their favour. How long are you willing to put up with that? You may not realise the impact that is having on your self-esteem now, but putting up to such nonsense is why South Africans think that they are doing Nigerians a favour by allowing them into their country or by giving them jobs. Many Nigerians are just too desperate and that need to stop because we are sending negative images that we are nothing without South Africa or that being in South Africa is a form of privilege.

Yupng:
It is quite a shame that some supposedly Nigerians who claim to reside in SA are here encouraging Nigerians to still visit South Africa despite the very glaring discrimination and maltreatment of Nigerians in SA.

I lived in SA for close to 3 years, both capetown and Johannesburg and I will state this clearly, South africans hates Nigerians with extreme passion across all levels of society. On a first glance, you might not see this, but just live among them for a while, you will begin to notice the deep hatred they have towards black africans, especially Nigerians.

This uprising will not stop, as their government also wants low income foreigners to leave. Stop encouraging Nigerians to go south africa where at all levels they are discriminated against. Besides, 80 percent of Nigerian's living in south Africa are extremely poor, as people over there would rather trust a snake than a Nigerian.

For once, Nigerians in SA please speak the truth. It is this falsified information you spread that makes many Nigerians rush to SA and end up jobless and go into illegal businesss.

Do you know how many Nigerians have been killed by south africans and their policemen? Because it has not happened to you doesn't mean it is not happening. If you have any respect for your life or you believe you have any sought of future, do not go to south Africa.

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.

Hello again,

What sort of job are you looking for and what kind of qualifications do you possess?

Tosin

afrikanbabe:


Hello @tosintonero
Thank you for your feedback.
I firmly stand by the fact that not alll Nigerians are the same. We are all individuals and can choose to either be good or bad.
I'm on it, in terms of using my social capital for finding jobs. It's still tricky though as I haven't signed anything yet. I've messaged a lot of people in 'my circle' so I'm just being positive really. My leads haven't been on posts on jobberman and co, but really wanted to get something concrete before relocating.

Hi Afrikanbabe,

It is good that you want to work and relocate to Nigeria. Since you said you have lived in Lagos before, I think you should use your social capital more in finding jobs. I once lived in SA before relocating to Australia. And it is good that you are able to approach life from a point that you are not labelling all Nigerians as bad. Good luck and be careful of scammers.

afrikanbabe:


Hi ZarZar,

Thanks for this. Like how not every Nigerian is not about 419 and yahoo yahoo, not every South African is xenophobic and hates his or her brother. I believe we are one. I am against the gruesome acts of violence shown towards 'foreigners' in SA. Men and women across the 'borders' on this beautiful continent of ours cannot be 'foreigners'.

Anyway, like said, the move is something I've been looking at doing since having been and worked in Naija before. I love it and no hateful comments by others is going to change that.

One love ZarZar

Hello everyone,

I am a nurse and midwife, and I am completing my PhD in Midwifery. My PhD was on stillbirth, and my data was collected in Nigeria. I realise through my PhD data that grieving a stillbirth and other pregnancy losses are disenfranchised and many women even blame themselves for the losses. The truth is that a pregnancy that is beyond 28 weeks is not supposed to end in stillbirth except if there are obvious genetic anomalies, in which case the woman and her family supposed to have been prepared for this event. What is sad is that even the midwives and health professionals add to the burden of the loss by trivialising the women's aspiration for a live child by making assumptions and magnifying what the woman failed to do right. As a midwife and specialist in perinatal bereavement, I believe I can assist women who have experienced stillbirth or other pregnancy losses by sharing important information about what could be done after a pregnancy loss has occurred. I pray that God will console those who are going through stillbirth and other pregnancy losses.