The violence targeting Black Africans in South Africa has a name, and "xenophobia" may not be the right one. Writer and commentator Yusuf Tuggar makes the case for calling it what it more accurately appears to be: Afrophobia. The distinction matters, because the hostility seems directed specifically at Black Africans, while non-Black African migrants are largely left untouched.
For Nigerians especially, the targeting feels deeply confusing and painful. The historical and ideological bonds of Pan-Africanism, the shared memory of collective struggle across the continent, make it hard to reconcile why fellow Black Africans would become targets in a country that itself knows the weight of racial persecution.
Tuggar is clear that whatever framing is used, whether Afrophobia, xenophobia, or the softer language of "anti-migration protests," the violence is wrong and demands a serious continental response. The rebranding of the problem is not just semantic. It is a call to look honestly at what is happening and who is being harmed.
The conversation around Pan-Africanism has always been aspirational. What moments like this one force us to ask is whether that solidarity has real teeth when it is needed most.
Originally published by Premium Times.