Africa
This Viral Video Has Sparked a Row About Cultural Discrimination in South Africa
The clip shows a man in traditional Ndebele attire being removed from a shopping mall.
Why Global Citizens Should Care
Discrimination against cultures in South Africa pushes the country further away from achieving equality and bringing an end to poverty overall. The United Nations’ Global Goals work to achieve equality for everyone, everywhere, and this cannot happen if African cultures are undermined and criticised. Join the movement and take action to help achieve global equality here.
South African social media has been up in arms this week after a man in traditional Ndebele attire was asked to leave a shopping mall. The incident was captured in a video that has since gone viral.
The video shows the man, Ndebele activist Thando Mahlangu, in a dispute with the manager of the shopping mall over whether his clothing was appropriate enough for him to be there in the first place.
“I don’t condone this in my mall so please leave,” the manager can be heard saying in the video. “We have a right of admission. It is a public place, you are dressing indecently.”
Mahlangu then responds: “You are wearing Western. This is Africa, are you telling me I am not allowed to wear African in Africa?”
Saddest reality in Africa, I was subjected to inside the @Clicks_SA store at The Boulders Shopping Center. By the center manager, who said it was his shopping complex. I was told that I'm wearing inappropriate I must go & Omega risk solutions harassed me #NdebeleTwitter pic.twitter.com/klzmTQspJO
— #WeNeedAmaNdebeleOnTV (@thandomahlangu_) March 24, 2021
Speaking to Sowetan Live, Mahlangu explained that he and his partner headed to the mall to shop for toiletries and grab lunch when the incident occurred. After stepping into Clicks Pharmacy to purchase what they needed, they were immediately stopped by security.
“As soon as we walked into a Clicks store, the guard came to us and told me that I was not welcome at the mall because I was harassing customers with my attire,” Mahlangu said.
The manager of the mall then confronted him and after Mahlangu refused to leave, he called for three more security guards to escort him out. When the additional guards arrived, Mahlangu retreated.
“My partner and I hurriedly bought half of the items we were looking for. I am grateful that Clicks store did allow us to buy the items. However, I am disappointed that my girlfriend and I didn’t have lunch at the mall, especially because we were hungry, due to the harassment,” Mahlangu said.
“I left the mall heartbroken and even now as we speak, I’m still not fine emotionally,” he added.
This is just one of many in a slew of incidents over the last few years where the practice of African cultures and the donning of traditional clothing has been questioned and criticised. Even though South Africa is known as the “rainbow nation” — a nation where all cultures and races are accepted — there have been several experiences of African cultures being considered incorrect and inappropriate in mostly white spaces.
Just last year South African retail giant Woolworths came under fire after an employee was reportedly suspended from one of its Johannesburg stores for wearing a traditional Zulu bracelet. The bracelet, called isiphandla, is made of animal skin and worn after a traditional ceremony. It has to be kept on until it deteriorates and falls off over time.
Woolworths disputed the claim saying: “We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind in our stores.”
According to The Star, the employee initially had to change departments and write a statement explaining why she had to wear isiphandla and whether she had permission to do so before she allegedly was suspended.
Another incident occurred in 2016 that eventually initiated an online protest. ENCA reporter Nontobeko Sibisi’s news segment was removed from television because she was wearing a doek (head scarf). The doek is worn in several African cultures as a symbol of respect and Sibisi had worn it in the news segment to celebrate Africa Day.
The removal of Sibisi’s segment from national news motivated South African women to take to social media and post pictures of themselves wearing a doek in solidarity using the hashtag, #RespekTheDoek.
More recently, the discussion of the erasure of African cultures came alongside allegations of racism in a number of South Africa’s private schools. Last year social media was ablaze with former (and current) students of several private schools across the country calling out their institutions for incidents of racism. A commonly shared experience that came from this is that of being unable to speak languages that are not English or Afrikaans while at school, even though South Africa boasts 11 official languages.
It was also recently highlighted in a review that several institutions prioritise the study of English and Afrikaans above other African languages.
Practicing Africa’s traditions and celebrating cultures should not come with terms and conditions in a country that celebrates being the “rainbow nation.” These incidents show an exclusion of people from their own country and plays into the idea that Western culture is superior to any other culture, an idea that has already formed deep inequalities in South Africa.
While the manager has been suspended following the incident, the frequency of moments like this highlight the need for discrimination to be dealt with at its roots.
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PARIS/CAIRO, April 15 (Reuters) – Donors pledged more than 2 billion euros ($2.13 billion) for war-torn Sudan at a conference in Paris on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said, on the first anniversary of what aid workers describe as a neglected but devastating conflict.
Efforts to help millions of people driven to the verge of famine by the war have been held up by continued fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), restrictions imposed by the warring sides, and demands on donors from other global crises including in Gaza and Ukraine.
Conflict in Sudan is threatening to expand, with fighting heating up in and around al-Fashir, a besieged aid hub and the last city in the western Darfur region not taken over by the RSF. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge in the area.
“The world is busy with other countries,” Bashir Awad, a resident of Omdurman, part of the wider capital and a key battleground, told Reuters last week. “We had to help ourselves, share food with each other, and depend on God.”
In Paris, the EU pledged 350 million euros, while France and Germany, the co-sponsors, committed 110 million euros and 244 million euros respectively. The United States pledged $147 million and Britain $110 million.
Speaking at the end of the conference, which included Sudanese civilian actors, Macron emphasized the need to coordinate overlapping and so far unsuccessful international efforts to resolve the conflict and to stop foreign support for the warring parties.
“Unfortunately the amount that we mobilised today is still probably less than was mobilised by several powers since the start of the war to help one or the other side kill each other,” he said.
As regional powers compete for influence in Sudan, U.N. experts say allegations that the United Arab Emirates helped arm the RSF are credible, while sources say the army has received weapons from Iran. Both sides have rejected the reports.
The war, which broke out between the Sudanese army and the RSF as they vied for power ahead of a planned transition, has crippled infrastructure, displaced more than 8.5 million people, and cut many off from food supplies and basic services.
“We can manage together to avoid a terrible famine catastrophe, but only if we get active together now,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, adding that, in the worst-case scenario, 1 million people could die of hunger this year.
The United Nations is seeking $2.7 billion this year for aid inside Sudan, where 25 million people need assistance, an appeal that was just 6% funded before the Paris meeting. It is seeking another $1.4 billion for assistance in neighbouring countries that have housed hundreds of thousands of refugees.
The international aid effort faces obstacles to gaining access on the ground.
The army has said it would not allow aid into the wide swathes of the country controlled by its foes from the RSF. Aid agencies have accused the RSF of looting aid. Both sides have denied holding up relief.
“I hope the money raised today is translated into aid that reaches people in need,” said Abdullah Al Rabeeah, head of Saudi Arabia’s KSRelief.
On Friday, Sudan’s army-aligned foreign ministry protested that it had not been invited to the conference. “We must remind the organisers that the international guardianship system has been abolished for decades,” it said in a statement.
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Starlink users in South Africa are facing a major setback as the satellite internet service provider has issued a warning that their services will be terminated by the end of the month.
In an email sent to many South African users, Starlink stated that their internet access will cease on April 30 due to violation of its terms and conditions.
The email emphasized that using Starlink kits outside of designated areas, as indicated on the Starlink Availability Map, is against their terms. Consequently, users will only be able to access their Starlink account for updates after the termination.
Starlink, a company owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, operates a fleet of low earth orbit satellites that offer high-speed internet globally. Despite its potential to revolutionize connectivity, Starlink has been unable to obtain a license to operate in South Africa from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).
Icasa’s requirements mandate that any applicant must have 30% ownership from historically disadvantaged groups to be considered for a license. However, many in South Africa resorted to creative methods to access Starlink services, including purchasing roaming packages from countries where Starlink is licensed.
However, Icasa clarified in a government gazette last November that using Starlink in this manner is illegal. Additionally, Starlink itself stated in the recent email to users that the ‘Mobile – Regional’ plans are meant for temporary travel and transit, not permanent use in a location. Continuous use of these plans outside the country where service was ordered will result in service restriction.
Starlink advised those interested in making its services available in their region to contact local authorities.
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BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A joint security force announced by the juntas ruling Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso to fight the worsening extremist violence in their Sahel region countries faces a number of challenges that cast doubt on its effectiveness, analysts said Thursday.
Niger’s top military chief, Brig. Gen. Moussa Salaou Barmou said in a statement after meeting with his counterparts Wednesday that the joint force would be “operational as soon as possible to meet the security challenges in our area.”
The announcement is the latest in a series of actions taken by the three countries to strike a more independent path away from regional and international allies since the region experienced a string of coups — the most recent in Niger in July last year.
They have already formed a security alliance after severing military ties with neighbors and European nations such as France and turning to Russia — already present in parts of the Sahel — for support.
Barmou did not give details about the operation of the force, which he referred to as an “operational concept that will enable us to achieve our defence and security objectives.”
Although the militaries had promised to end the insurgencies in their territories after deposing their respective elected governments, conflict analysts say the violence has instead worsened under their regimes. They all share borders in the conflict-hit Sahel region and their security forces fighting jihadi violence are overstretched.
The effectiveness of their security alliance would depend not just on their resources but on external support, said Bedr Issa, an independent analyst who researches the conflict in the Sahel.
The three regimes are also “very fragile,” James Barnett, a researcher specializing in West Africa at the U.S.-based Hudson Institute, said, raising doubts about their capacity to work together.
“They’ve come to power through coups, they are likely facing a high risk of coups themselves, so it is hard to build a stable security framework when the foundation of each individual regime is shaky,” said Barnett.
—-
Associated Press writer Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria contributed.
INTERNATIONAL GUARDIAN is the boldest and brightest issue-oriented international newspaper published in Houston, Texas. Strategically, it strives to promote private enterprise, support responsible government and advocate social justice.
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