What Does It Take to Belong? A Decolonial Interrogation of Xenophobia in South Africa

This article examines the xenophobic orientation of social media reactions, as captured in mainstream South African media, around the Miss South Africa 2024 case of Chidimma Adetshina. It will perform a decolonial interrogation of the South African digital public’s reaction to Adetshina’s participation in and eligibility for the pageant. It will also unpack how xenophobia—defined as the fear or hatred of foreigners—is evident in the backlash that encapsulated Adetshina’s story. The xenophobic utterances that circulated on social media platforms such as X and across different digital media outlets suggest an intriguing intra-black component that is intertwined with the three dimensions of coloniality: power, knowledge and being. The concept of coloniality is understood as the lingering impact of inequalities and power dynamics resulting from the colonial encounter long after the end of administrative and historical colonialism and serves as this article’s theoretical framework. It draws on the work of several decolonial scholars to identify and explore how coloniality presents itself in the Adetshina case. The research objectives are to examine how xenophobic sentiments reflect the coloniality of power, knowledge and, specifically, the coloniality of being. The methodology includes an open, flexible combination of content and textual analysis of online media articles from major news outlets operating within the South African mediasphere. This inquiry found that there is a link between the tension-filled xenophobic reactions to Adetshina’s Miss SA 2024 case and the legacy of exploitation and oppression inherited from South Africa’s still-difficult-to-navigate colonial and apartheid eras. This investigation also found complicated hierarchies between different types of humanity—indicative of the most pervasive dimension, in this case, the coloniality of being.