‘Fortress SA’: Xenophobic violence in South Africa

There are many circumstances in which South Africans and foreigners from elsewhere in Africa pursue shared interests peacefully. Anthropological field research points to a range of these circumstances, which have largely been ignored by commentators attempting to explain the episode of mass‘xenophobic’violence that wracked South African cities and towns in May 2008. Explanations such as the one criticised in this article focus on the xenophobic attitudes of ordinary South Africans, and link these attitudes to competition for resources between locals who are poor and their equally poor counterparts from further north. Recent research indicates, however, not only that relationships between poor South Africans and poor foreigners are more complex than most commentators allow, but also that South African xenophobia begins at the top, among the leaders of the ANC government and the black and white elites whose interests it serves. This article argues that a newly‐issued report on the xenophobic violence by a government‐orientated think tank reproduces the dominant xenophobic discourse in its recommendation that the state should construct a‘Fortress SA’with impenetrable borders. Yet this report seeks to mask its adherence to official discourse by representing its proposals as a response to the xenophobic attitudes of poor South Africans.