“Phantsi, Afrophobia”: Cape Town Artists Call for Solidarity With Migrants
World Refugee Day events in Cape Town brought music, poetry, and public action together at a moment when fear, displacement, and anti-migrant hostility are affecting communities across South Africa.
On World Refugee Day, musicians, poets, activists, and ordinary residents gathered in Cape Town to reject hatred directed at African migrants. Their message was expressed through song, protest, and public solidarity (solidariteit) at a time when many foreign nationals in South Africa are living with uncertainty. The event at the Central Methodist Mission Church showed that culture can become a form of resistance when people feel that public debate is becoming more hostile. Calls of “Phantsi, Afrophobia, phantsi” echoed through the venue, turning a free concert into a collective statement that African people should not be forced into fear, silence, or hiding.
The gathering was organised around the idea that music can create human connection across national borders. Performers from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Eswatini, Cameroon, and South Africa shared the same stage, showing that artistic expression can challenge political divisions. Their presence represented belonging (behorendheid), cultural plurality (veelheid) and African interdependence (interafhanklikheid). Rather than treating nationality as a dividing line, the concert presented the city as a place shaped by many languages, histories, and journeys. It reminded the audience that migration is not an abstract political issue but a lived reality involving families, workers, students, artists, and children.
World Refugee Day is intended to recognise the courage and dignity of people who have been forced to leave their homes because of violence, persecution, conflict, poverty, or disaster. In South Africa, however, the occasion arrived during a period of heightened tension. Many migrants have reported threats, intimidation, and pressure to leave communities where they have lived for years. The situation has created a climate of vulnerability (kwesbaarheid), public anxiety (angs) and social dislocation (ontwrigting). For people who depend on informal work, small businesses, family networks, or rented accommodation, even the fear of violence can cause immediate hardship.
The events in Cape Town were linked to the wider crisis unfolding in KwaZulu-Natal and other parts of the country. Thousands of displaced migrants have gathered near temporary sites in Durban while awaiting voluntary repatriation, legal processing, or deportation. Some have come from Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique, and other African countries, often after becoming frightened by hostile protests and threats. These developments reveal the precarity (bestaansonsekerheid), administrative uncertainty (onsekerheid) and humanitarian pressure (druk) facing people whose legal status, safety, and future may suddenly become unclear. In such circumstances, migration policy can become inseparable from questions of dignity and survival.
Many South Africans who oppose anti-migrant violence insist that frustration about unemployment, crime, weak public services, and poverty should not be redirected toward foreign nationals. Their argument is that migrants did not create the structural problems that have left many communities feeling abandoned. The practice of blaming outsiders can become scapegoating (sondebokmaking), political manipulation (manipulasie) and social polarisation (polarisasie). It may offer a simple explanation for complex problems, but it does not repair broken municipalities, create stable jobs, improve public clinics, or make neighbourhoods safer. Instead, it can create fresh conflict between people who are already living under pressure.
At the concert, speakers highlighted the personal costs of this hostility. Zambian musician Stanley Sibande spoke about being the father of a South African child while feeling that some people still question whether he belongs in the country. His words captured the difficult reality of mixed families, cross-border relationships, and children whose identities cannot be reduced to a single nationality. Their lives involve citizenship (burgerskap), family continuity (voortsetting) and emotional security (sekerheid). When migrants are described only as outsiders, the public conversation can ignore the fact that many have partners, children, friends, workplaces, and communities rooted in South Africa.
The history of southern Africa makes these ties especially important. During the anti-apartheid struggle, neighbouring countries offered shelter, training, support, and political space to South Africans who were forced into exile. Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Tanzania, Angola, and other countries played different roles in supporting liberation movements and displaced people. This history creates a moral reciprocity (wederkerigheid), regional memory (geheue) and political obligation (verpligting) that activists believe should shape present-day attitudes. The struggle against apartheid was never carried by South Africans alone, and the freedom achieved in 1994 was connected to solidarity across the continent.
Yet historical memory does not automatically prevent resentment in the present. Economic pressure can make people more receptive to messages that identify migrants as competitors for housing, work, public services, or business opportunities. This is particularly dangerous when communities feel that government institutions are ineffective or unresponsive. The result can be resentment (wrewel), public mistrust (wantroue) and social fragmentation (versnippering). These feelings are real, but they should be addressed through better governance, stronger job creation, credible law enforcement, and fair service delivery rather than through harassment or violence against people from other countries.
The Sea Point solidarity walk organised by Mothers4Gaza added another dimension to the day’s events. Participants dressed in black and carried a banner reminding the public that refugees are human too. The walk was quiet, but its message was political because it insisted that displaced people should be seen first as human beings rather than as problems to be managed. It called for humanity (menslikheid), public compassion (medelye) and collective recognition (erkenning). The organisers also linked the experiences of migrants in South Africa to wider struggles involving war, displacement, occupation, and the loss of homes and livelihoods.
This connection between different struggles is important because it challenges the belief that injustice can be understood in isolation. A person who has lost a home through conflict may understand the fear of a migrant forced to leave a neighbourhood because of threats. A community facing unemployment may recognise the harm caused when public resources are badly managed and people are encouraged to blame one another. Such awareness can create empathy (empatie), political consciousness (bewustheid) and broader alliance (alliansie). Activists argue that social problems are often connected by systems of exclusion, inequality, and power rather than by the supposed failures of vulnerable people.
The role of artists in this environment should not be underestimated. Music and poetry can make public debates more personal by giving people language for grief, anger, hope, and resistance. Artists often create spaces where strangers can listen to one another without the formal barriers of political meetings or government institutions. Their work can encourage dialogue (dialoog), cultural exchange (uitruiling) and democratic participation (deelname). In a tense political climate, a concert may not change policy immediately, but it can refuse the normalisation of hatred and remind people that alternative ways of living together remain possible.
Civil society organisations also play an important role in protecting migrants and refugees. Legal clinics, religious institutions, humanitarian groups, unions, community organisations, and advocacy networks can help people understand their rights, find temporary safety, access food, communicate with embassies, or challenge unlawful treatment. Their work involves advocacy (belangebehartiging), legal recourse (regsmiddel) and practical assistance (bystand). These services become especially important when people are afraid to report violence, cannot access official documents, or do not know where to turn after being displaced from homes or workplaces.
The challenge for South Africa is to distinguish between legitimate concerns about immigration policy and the dangerous idea that foreign nationals are responsible for every social failure. Every country has the right to manage borders, regulate work permits, and enforce laws fairly. However, enforcement must remain consistent with constitutional rights, due process, and the protection of human dignity. A humane approach requires accountability (aanspreeklikheid), lawful governance (bestuur) and procedural fairness (billikheid). It must ensure that people are not attacked, profiled, or deprived of basic rights simply because they speak differently, have foreign accents, or come from another African country.
The Cape Town events also showed that there are South Africans who reject the idea that fear should define public life. Their message was not that the country’s economic problems are imaginary or that migration questions are easy. Rather, they argued that violence and exclusion cannot solve the problems that people face. Their approach emphasised coexistence (saambestaan), civic responsibility (verantwoordelikheid) and social cohesion (samehorigheid). They called on people to remember that a society becomes weaker, not stronger, when neighbours are forced to live in fear.
The phrase “Phantsi, Afrophobia” carries a simple but demanding meaning: hostility toward fellow Africans must be rejected. It asks South Africans to look beyond rumours, stereotypes, and political slogans and to recognise the humanity of people who may be struggling alongside them. The concert and solidarity walk were small events in a large national crisis, but they mattered because they created visible alternatives to hatred. Their message was one of resilience (veerkragtigheid), moral courage (moed) and shared dignity (waardigheid). In a country with a painful history of exclusion, these values remain essential to building a future in which safety and belonging are not reserved for only some people.
Key Afrikaans Vocabulary
solidariteit solidarity
behorendheid belonging
veelheid plurality
interafhanklikheid interdependence
kwesbaarheid vulnerability
angs anxiety
ontwrigting dislocation
bestaansonsekerheid precarity
onsekerheid uncertainty
druk pressure
sondebokmaking scapegoating
manipulasie manipulation
polarisasie polarisation
burgerskap citizenship
voortsetting continuity
sekerheid security
wederkerigheid reciprocity
geheue memory
verpligting obligation
wrewel resentment
wantroue mistrust
versnippering fragmentation
menslikheid humanity
medelye compassion
erkenning recognition
empatie empathy
bewustheid consciousness
alliansie alliance
dialoog dialogue
uitruiling exchange
deelname participation
belangebehartiging advocacy
regsmiddel recourse
bystand assistance
aanspreeklikheid accountability
bestuur governance
billikheid fairness
saambestaan coexistence
verantwoordelikheid responsibility
samehorigheid cohesion
veerkragtigheid resilience
moed courage
waardigheid dignity
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