Xenophobia!

The last few weeks have seen a spate of ugly, malicious and unwarranted attacks by South Africans living in "informal settlements" against black African non-South Africans, within the same settlements. The dismay that these attacks raise from sane people worldwide arises from their sheer viciousness and barbarism, more so because communities of different nationalities have co-existed for decades without rancor. Apparently, something evil was unleashed in South Africa this month and the government of South Africa, the UN and other humanitarian organizations are still scrambling to contain the aftermath, which have now seem to have dissipated.

But while these uprisings may have waned, the feelings that flamed them have not. Local impoverished people blame foreigners living in their midst, erroneously in my view, for their lack of access to quality jobs, health care and affordable housing, among their other grievances. If disempowered South Africans need someone to blame for their gloomy plight, I suggest today, that they look elsewhere. In fact, we must all look within us to identify the cause of our dissatisfaction in life.

The cause, I suggest is a lack of submission to, or more starkly, a rebellion against God in our lives. I take you back thousands of years ago, to the Tower of Babel. If people in the the world don't understand each others' languages today, it all started when human beings decided to "build [themselves] a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that [they] may make a name for [themselves] and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." So what was wrong with their intention, you might ask. Everything.

Human beings wanted a "name for themselves". They wanted fame, recognition, power and relevance - apart from God. They wanted autonomy. Human beings were not made to be independent of God. Independence from God leads to ruin. For in [God] we live and move and have our being.

Secondly, they wanted to guard against being "scattered" all over the earth. It is my opinion, that they were aware of the existence of God, and of his commandment at creation for human beings to "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it." This was rebellion against God. As with all legitimate authority, God was obliged to end this rebellion, and he did so by introducing a multiplicity of languages. Human beings instantly stopped understanding each other and their rebellion could not stand. That was probably the beginning of xenophobia because human beings were indeed scattered across the earth as they migrated (in fear?) away from those that they could not understand.

So if we have xenophobia today or any other conflict in our personal lives or in our world, the root cause is the fact that we don't want God to tell us how to lead our lives and what to do. Yet, we can't survive apart from him. Ask God to be involved in all that you do today, and you will be blessed.