“X RUNNIN OUTA THE LABS… LAMA ZIZIMBANA AYIVALILE LENDAWO NGEKWAPA.”

Loosely translated this means “X is running out of the labs, these Zimbos have closed this place up with their stinking armpits”. This is a facebook status belonging to a Rhodes first year. The rest of our first years may not necessarily have statuses such as this one, but most of them are just as xenophobic.

On arrival at Rhodes University, one of the things I loved the most about the varsity was its versatility in all forms. As a curious minded person, I am highly appreciative of opportunities to meet people from different walks of life. Rhodes offers this, there are students from all over the world here, especially from other parts of Africa. Zimbabwean students form part of the majority of foreign students. It was great too see that one’s home country has no significance with regard to how one is treated at Rhodes and which friends he/she has.

However, encounters with other first years revealed that not all of us are conscious enough to not be ignorant and intolerent. There lies a lot of ignorance in the mindsets of most of us first years, not all of us, but most of us. When referring to foreign students, especially Zimbabweans, I would often hear the following comments from my fellow first years:

“Oh shame, the Zimbos here don’t stink that much, I can tolerate that.”

“Wow, she’s actually quite classy.”

“He’s so cute hey; you’d never say he’s not South African.”

Someone once said: “No wonder you Rhodes girls go for them, the ones here are actually decent.”

Rather sad really, if not because of the mentality itself, sad because such mentality goes to show how ignorant we are, and how much we lack critical thinking and independent minds. This mentality is also sad because it shows what hypocrites we are. South African youth are very quick to demand fair treatment when they visit other countries and yet this is our attitude towards our fellow Africans. It is very arrogant of us to think that we are in a position to decide whether or not we can tolerate certain foreigners – what is it about foreigners that is so intolerable in the first place that we have to adapt to tolerating them? Put simply, it is extremely stupid of us to expect that a foreigner stink, be without class, be ugly and indecent. What do we define as decent anyway? Who are we to say whether or not a person is decent or not, solely based on their nationality?

Such is our mentality as first years. However, in defence of the first year; it is of no surprise that we are so ignorant and hypocritical in our thinking. Our parents refer to foreigners as “amakwere-kwere” and yet they’re up in arms when they are referred to as “kaffirs” or “boers”. The pro human rights nation of South Africa with its world renowned constitution condemns xenophobic attacks in the country. Yet the very same South Africa’s legislation is rather xenophobic in my opinion. Getting a job as a foreigner is a mission in South Africa. Should a foreigner be accepted for a job, he/she must get the job on grounds that there is absolutely no South African that applied that can get the job – this is regardless of the fact that the foreigner may be more qualified than the South African. I’m sure our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Zuma, wouldn’t be too chuffed if the same were to happen to her child.

Defences and excuses aside, it is sad to see that even though so many of us boast all this knowledge we have of the world and its politics, we fail to question the ideologies and stereotypes present in our daily lives. Instead we support these, both consciously and subconsciously. When one thinks independently and critically; it is obvious that the fact that I am a South African does not mean that I am classy, decent, beautiful, and smell good. Such idiotic and unfounded thinking from the same people who are outraged by Apartheid!