Why Everyone Is Guilty Of Xenophobia

“We are all guilty of xenophobia. We differ only in how we express it.”  

I have never come across a truer statement. Human beings like to portray an image of civility. We all act like we have the love of God in us. That humanity resides permanently in our fragile hearts. We try to behave like rational, civilized, politically correct beings.

Spoiler alert, we are neither of those.

Human beings are barbaric, ruthless, self centered savages. We have been killing each other since time immemorial.

“South Africa is looking to the past because the future is too hard to conquer.”

1992, 1997, 2007. What do these years have in common? All were election years. All had different candidates but the patterns were very similar. Bloodshed, violence and displacement of people from places they’d called home their whole lives. Kenyans killed each other because of tribe. People took up arms and killed their neighbors, whom they grown up with by the way, all because they came from a tribe different from theirs. All because their leader took to the podium to state words hidden in political correctness how tribe A was after us and ours.

The coastal city of Kenya has sucked a lot of human blood. Thousands killed all these elections years because they are not “natives.” I use the term natives loosely for reasons I do not want to dwell on at the moment. And yes, it is always during election periods.

The rift valley is a hot spot. Names like burnt forest (what a pun) bring painful memories. Nakuru’s soil soaks in human blood. We all know of what has now infamously been termed as “the Kiambaa Church Massacre.” Tribe A took people belonging to a different community and put them inside a church. Mostly women and children. A church. A place that is supposed to be a place of hope and a sign of forgiveness. They closed the door and piled stones so that no one would escape. They lit the church on fire and stood watching as the place razed down. Meanwhile, the screams and pleas for help coming from the women and children inside the church went from frantic to a quiet whimpering. They watched as the place went down and the cries died slowly.

Who are we? Isn’t humanity over rated???

It’s horrible, all this violence.

However, it brings up the elephant in the room. Are human beings hateful by nature and will always look for reasons to kill each other? Do human beings actually enjoy shedding blood? Do we kill each other for sport? Is there a hidden button that people don’t know of that makes them enjoy maiming and butchering others? Is that humanity’s curse? Come to think of it, the human race has constantly been at war. Since Cain killed his brother Abel.

We don’t need a reason. We’ll create one. Because that is who we are. We create reasons to kill each other. First it was inheritance, and then it was for women. Then we killed because of territories. It became an issue of race, and then we thought, these people are inferior to us, why don’t we turn them into slaves, into property you can acquire and do with them whatever you want to? Then it became tribe. Then some people somewhere decided they should kill others because they don’t conform to their religious beliefs.

Let me tell you something. You probably know it but I’ll tell you anyway. Human beings have been killing each other since biblical times. The Old Testament is full of wars. Violence galore. Every king in the Bible went to war except Solomon. People in those times were always fighting and let me tell you, they did not need a reason to go to war. Because they would always create one.

Then we had the Roman Empire. Violence. Bloodshed and unrest.

Then Adolf Hitler decided he wanted all Jews wiped out of this earth. So he came up with a plan. He didn’t just wake up and decide to kill them. He prepared areas where the executions would take place. Deliberate plans, meticulously laid out by his foot soldiers. And just like that, millions were killed as the world watched.

The Rwandese woke up one day and took arms and killed friends and neighbors because they weren’t their tribesmen. People they had lived together with, people they had intermarried with, people who were “natives” of Rwanda. It was the worst genocide ever. Especially because it did not happen in 1902. It happened in 1994, while the whole world sat back and watched. A hundred days is the time the genocide took place. A hundred bloody days – excuse my pun- of sitting back and doing absolutely nothing. Three months as the world watched and the UN stayed mum. It shouldn’t escape anyone that at the moment the UN was being headed by an African man. The first African to hold the position.

Then we had World War 1. And as if that wasn’t enough, a second world war where governments put nuclear bombs in planes and bombed whole cities full of innocent civilians.

The DRC Congo has been a war zone since God knows when. Their resources that should have been their blessings turned into a curse. Thousands of lives have been lost there and no one is saying anything.

Please don’t tell me about non existence world peace.

And as far as I know, the world is one big war zone. Which reminds me, what exactly is happening in Burundi? Has any African leader stood up to speak against the crimes going on there? Don’t hold your breaths, “humans.” After Burundi, there will be another case. And another, and another. It’s a long hideous cycle that doesn’t wear out. We have history to back that up.

Lets just face it; this whole “humanity” façade is a big white lie. Society thrives in chaos. Media thrives in chaos. They thirst for tragic stories, look forward to tragic stories. They live for that, especially tragic stories from Africa. The #xenophobic attacks have them rubbing their hands in glee. They were hugely disappointed when Nigeria’s elections went down smoothly. What a waste of news! Again let’s face it; international media would be nothing without the wars, the famine, the African election violence, the genocides, the terrorist attacks. They live for these moments. Their viewership booster.

And what do you mean, “World peace?” where will the world’s billionaires sell their ammunition? Huh? Don’t answer me.

What is happening in South Africa is highly unfortunate but it is not surprising. The world has so much blood in its belly right now. We are probably all walking on blood. The South African government hasn’t stood up to condemn the attacks yet. Maybe a few feeble attempts here and there but it’s quite clear where there heart lies on the matter.

I love how hypocritical the human race is.