Since the South African xenophobia crisis began, the term, “Nigerians!”, has recurred in the various discussions – from news footage to op-eds- elicited in the wake of the attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa. In several video footage, one can hear South Africans complaining about the “Nigerians” who are taking over their jobs, their spaces, and threatening their national identity.
It seems “Nigerians” is an effigy of the haunting image of the obnoxious foreigner who just does not know his limit.
This is not the first time a verbal drone attack will have a Nigerian name on it. From Egypt to Lesotho, the Horn of Africa to Mauritania, across the Atlantic and Pacific, up to the Black Diaspora, Nigeria and Nigerians seem to regularly induce resentment and a phobia among other nationals, especially black people.
The reasons often stated for this general dislike of Nigerians range from the ridiculous to the annoying and to the deeply worrying: they say Nigerian men marry the best of their women; they take their jobs; they have criminal tendencies; they are aggressive; they are materialistic, showy and always imprudently in everyone’s face. These arguments have been repeated many times and responses by certain Nigerian analysts and intellectuals indicate this thinking enjoys an uncritical acceptance.
Considering that Nigerians are one of the most outstanding black people in the world, and we have travelled to all corners of the world, it is unsurprising that we are the prime target of xenophobes, racists and nativists. But are we as obnoxious as the stereotypes portray? I also found that there is a tendency among Nigerian writers to not only promote the myth of the uncouth Nigerian who annoys the hosts of his migrant community, they also shrug off accusations with the counterargument of Nigerian superiority, a reductive response that shows they are not seeking meaningful dialogue: We are so successful everywhere we go that the world cannot but be envious.
If Nigerians have any superior gene, how come they cannot fix their own country but have to migrate? With self-promotion also comes the demonisation of the other.
Here and there, one comes across people who insist South Africans (for instance) hate Nigerians because we have a better work ethic than they do. They accuse the indigenous population of laziness and a self-entitled mentality that also explains why they fail in their own country and migrant Nigerians prosper instead. The same argument is extended across other countries of Africa and even in the US – the Nigerian black succeeds where locals fail by dint of hard work and the never say die spirit that other countries, unfortunately, lack.
Each time this argument comes up, I am reminded of white colonisers who espoused similar reasons to justify ripping off our ancestors and taking their resources. Arguments that suggest entitlement often are an envelope for our anxieties, that we deserve all we have and nobody was usurped for us to have them. There are successful Nigerians in the US who insist Nigerians are the model blacks; that Nigerians are mostly successful in the US because African-Americans are just too lazy to take up the many opportunities the US affords them. This line of thinking beclouds the reality of institutionalised racism in the US, how it destroys its black citizens yet does not mind promoting Africans as tokenistic candidates.
Nigerians do not have a superior gene. No race does and we should be wary of biologisation of achievements; history teaches us that it can be counterproductive. People have been enslaved and become victims of genocide because someone with inflated sense of self considers them inferior.
The merchants of this idea of a superior Nigerian essence include the famous Tiger Mom, Amy Chua, who propounded a baseless thesis celebrating this dubious assertion. In her book, The Triple Package, she listed Nigerians as one of the successful migrant groups in the US and which she attributed to a culture of superiority complex. One thing she, like others, forgot to mention is that Nigerian migrants tend to shine primarily because it is the best of our species that are allowed to get out, simple. Before the Consulate officer hands out the visa to anyone migrating to their country, they make sure they have all it takes to be great and contribute to the ‘almightiness’ of their country.
One more reason Nigerians are found everywhere and consequently surface in xenophobic rants is based on sheer statistics.
The population of Nigeria can fill some 10 to 20 countries of the world. It is only inevitable we will be found everywhere in this so-called globalised post-nation world. Our dominant presence also means in places where those in weaker position are threatened by our existence, they spin tales of a people so evil that even the Devil runs their errands. All the reasons that have been espoused for anti-Nigerian sentiments are the regular failings of human societies. Nigerians are neither worse sinners nor saints, we are more than most others numerically and our sins are therefore far more multiplied everywhere we live.
While we cannot do much about people’s jaundiced opinions, we can at least compensate the communities we migrate to by developing more than a mercantilist-functionalist relationship with them. Those who succeed in the land that adopt them will do well to contribute to the growth of that society by helping their own people to grow as well. Migration comes with its responsibilities.
Among African-Americans, some detest Nigerians because they take up a good portion of the opportunities reserved for black people. They complain that the civil rights their fathers marched for, fought for, and even died for, are being enjoyed by migrant blacks, especially Nigerians. When the US wants to include black people in spaces where they have been previously shut out through various affirmative programmes, they prefer Africans who do not have the kind of hang-ups the US history invokes when blacks and whites meet in the US. While the US history may not account for other Africans despising Nigerians for instance, it is obvious that this attitude creeps up when people are competing for scarce resources. People begin to invoke a nativist spirit and then argue why the other must go. Even in Nigeria, we see that sort of pattern in the annual “Omo onile vs. No-man’s-land-ers” “abusefest” that takes place between Yoruba and the Igbo residents over Lagos. Such tension mostly generates hatred but never resolves anything. That is why we owe it to one another to at least listen to the angst of the other and make sincere efforts to build bridges.
Abimbola Adelakun is a columnist with The Punch
