27/04/2026
What is happening today in South Africa is far bigger and deeper than what many people see on the surface. In recent months and years tensions have been rising as some South Africans have begun confronting migrants from other African countries accusing them of taking jobs, opening businesses that compete with locals, and placing pressure on already struggling public services. In townships and inner city areas there have been protests, raids on foreign owned shops, and demands for migrants to go back home. Many of those targeted are people who came to South Africa searching for safety and opportunity from countries like Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Videos circulate daily on social media showing African people confronting other African people, brothers turning against brothers on the same soil their ancestors once fought to protect. The world is watching it happen in real time but the truth is that this crisis did not start today.
To understand what is happening now we must look at the deeper history of Africa and the scars left behind by centuries of disruption. Before colonial borders divided the continent Africa was a network of civilizations, kingdoms, and communities that traded, travelled, and interacted across regions. People moved between areas that are today called Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, and Tanzania without the modern idea of foreigners. The people of Africa shared common ancestry and a shared origin. Humanity itself traces its roots back to Africa and the truth is that African people are deeply connected to one another through history, blood, and ancestry. We are one people who ultimately come from a common origin. Our differences in language, tribe, or region were never meant to divide us but to enrich the diversity of the same family.
Yet over time division began to grow. Tribalism began to replace unity. Instead of seeing ourselves first as Africans we began to see ourselves only through tribe, region, or nationality. These divisions were often deepened during colonization when colonial powers deliberately separated and categorized African people in order to control them. The borders that exist today were drawn by outsiders and forced communities that once lived freely across the land into separate national identities.
Then came centuries of devastation that fractured that unity even further. The horrors of the Transatlantic Slave Trade violently removed millions of Africans from the continent stripping them of language, culture, and family. Later colonization carved Africa into artificial nations that forced people who once lived as neighbors into new political divisions. In South Africa specifically the brutal system of Apartheid institutionalized racial oppression for decades leaving deep economic and psychological wounds that are still felt today.
These historical traumas did more than take land or labour. They disrupted identity itself. Generations of African people were taught that their ancestral spirituality, their cultural traditions, and their ways of life were primitive or evil. Slowly many began to distance themselves from their own heritage replacing it with systems and beliefs imposed from outside. Over time many Africans embraced religions such as Islam and Christianity while abandoning or rejecting the spiritual traditions of their own ancestors. While faith itself can bring guidance and peace, the problem arose when African spirituality was demonized and treated as something shameful rather than respected as the foundation of African identity and wisdom.
When a people are separated from their roots long enough they begin to forget who they are.
And when identity is lost division grows.
Today we see Africans blaming other Africans for economic struggles, unemployment, and inequality. Yet many of the migrants in South Africa are there because of hardship in their own countries. Some fled political instability. Others escaped economic collapse or violence. A young man from Zimbabwe crossing the border is not an enemy. A woman from Nigeria selling food on the street is not a threat. A trader from Ghana trying to build a business is not the cause of unemployment. A refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo trying to build a life is not a criminal. They are people searching for survival just like millions of Africans have done throughout history.
What makes the situation so painful is that Africa is one of the few places in the world where the children of the same ancestors sometimes treat each other like strangers. The continent that gave birth to humanity now finds itself divided by borders, tribal identity, and resentment.
This same disconnection can also be seen across the African diaspora. In the United States many Black Americans do not strongly identify with Africa not because they do not belong to it but because centuries of slavery and oppression erased their direct connection to their roots. Generations grew up without knowing their ancestral languages, tribes, or homelands. Many have spent their lives seeking acceptance and validation in societies that were never designed with them in mind.
When a people are cut off from their history they begin to search for identity elsewhere. And when that happens for generations self doubt and division can take root.
Some believe that what we are witnessing today Africans turning against Africans is the painful consequence of that historical disconnection. When people forget the strength, wisdom, and spirituality of their ancestors they can begin to see themselves and each other through the distorted lens left behind by colonial history.
Until African people begin to rediscover and honor their past until they acknowledge the struggles, resilience, and spiritual traditions of those who came before them these cycles may continue. Healing also requires that Africans move beyond tribalism and remember that before tribe, before nationality, before borders we were one people.
Africa is not just a collection of countries. It is a shared origin, a shared story, and a shared bloodline.
The ancestors of South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, and every other African nation once walked the same earth long before borders existed. They fought, loved, prayed, built civilizations, and passed their wisdom down through generations.
If Africa is ever to truly rise again it will not happen through division. It will happen when Africans begin to see each other not as foreigners but as family separated by history.
When that memory returns, when people reconnect with their roots, their culture, their spirituality, and their pride then the wounds of the past can finally begin to heal. And only then will the children of Africa stand together again with the dignity and unity their ancestors once knew.
Don Terry Makorvis II
