Note the following truth from Kwame Nkrumah from page 66 of his classic work “Class Struggle in Africa” talking about the POLITICAL phenomena currently referred to as Xenophobia. Afrophobia is a recent term referring to Xenophobia within the context of Africa and Xenophobia related to violence by Africans against other Africans:
“Under colonial, the workers’ struggle was largely directed against the foreign exploiter. It was in this sense more an anti-colonial, than a class struggle…
In neocolonialist states where there are immigrant workers, and where unemployment is rife, a similar situation develops. The anger of workers is surreptitiously formented and directed BY the neocolonialist puppet regime not so much against its own reactionary policies as against the “alien” workers. It is they [immigrant worker] who are blamed for the scarcity of jobs, the shortage of houses, rising prices and so on. The result is that the African immigrant worker is vicitimised both by the [neocolonial] government and by his own fellow workers. The government brings in measures to restrict immigration, to limit the opportunities of existing immigrants, and to expel certain categories. The indigenous workers, for their part, are led to believe by the government’s action, that the cause of unemployment and bad living conditions is attributable in large measure to the presence of immigrant workers…Instead of JOINING WITH immigrant workers to bring pressure on the government, many of them strongly support measures taken against them. In this they show lack of awareness of the class nature of the struggle; and the bourgeoisie benefit from the SPLIT among the ranks of the working class.”
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