Swazi journalism plumbed new depths of racism on Saturday (28 June 2008), when the Weekend Observer allowed one of its regular columnists to attack Asians who live in Swaziland.
Fanyana Mabuza, in theThe Detribalised column, said Swaziland was being ‘overwhelmed by hoards of fellows, some of scary extraction that you tend to wonder whether they do not “feed” on human flesh’.
Mabuza went on, ‘Some resemble scarecrows,’ and added, ‘You would swear they’re siblings to the Star Wars’ Darth Vader or the Swamp Thing.’
After dehumanising immigrants in this way Mabuza warned readers that Swazi lawmakers had to ‘move real fast on this Eastern invasion, before they dilute our progeny and ultimately our identity and what else we have’.
There was much more of this, but I won’t repeat it here.
It really is a disgrace that such small-minded people as Mabuza are allowed space in the newspapers to demonstrate their hatred. The Weekend Observer should be ashamed to publish such an article as if the racist views expressed within it are those that a reasonable society should consider as valid. The reference by Mabuza to Asians being like human flesh eaters is particularly rancid. How could any newspaper editor mistake such a comment for a reasoned argument?
Does the Weekend Observer realise how much Mabuza lacks judgement? Just imagine if you were to delete the word ‘Asians’ from his article and replace it with ‘Swazis’ and then you were to publish the article in a country in which the majority of people were white skinned and a tiny minority were Swazis.
Would the article be a fair reflection of Swazis? Of course it wouldn’t. So why does the Weekend Observer think it is proper to misrepresent Asians in Swaziland in such a hateful way.
Majaha Dlamini, another columnist in the same newspaper, had an interesting insight into the attacks on Asians that are taking place in Swaziland at present. He wrote that ‘some very opportunist elements are bent on using these tensions to further their political ambitions’.
He went on to write about the lies that are being told about Asians in Swaziland, for example that they are stealing land from Swazis. As he correctly points out, the ‘nation’ (i.e King Mswati III) owns the land in Swaziland.
Dlamini doesn’t mention his fellow columnist by name, but he has a stark warning to those who try to cause racial unrest in Swaziland.
‘A simple incident could be enough to arouse widespread violence of Asians in the future and this is something that has to be stopped today.’
Personally, I think the Swazi media have an important role to play in ensuring that this backlash against immigrants doesn’t happen.
The Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) in its own code of conduct says journalists must not ‘originate material which encourages discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, colour, creed, gender or sexual orientation’.
The Weekend Observer has clearly failed in this matter.
I wrote last week that xenophobia is rife in the Swazi newspapers and gave recent of examples of this. Even since that post racist reporting has continued in the newspapers. On Monday (23 June 2008) the Swazi Observer reported acting Mbabane mayor Walter Bennett telling a public gathering in Dvokolwoko that they were ‘lucky not to have Indians and Chinese in their midst’.
The media must now seriously consider the way they report about non-Swazis within the kingdom. The media have the choice either to help fan the flames of hatred that could lead to a repeat of South Africa’s xenophobic bloodbath, or they can help educate people to understand the value of difference.
See also
XENOPHOBIA IN THE SWAZI PRESS
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