The Spatial Politics of Xenophobia: Everyday Practices of Congolese Migrants in Johannesburg (Johannesburg, South Africa) (Report‪)‬

Introduction The scale and brutality of the May 2008 xenophobic attacks in South Africa elicited among domestic and international onlookers a sense of horror and shock. The attacks began on May 11, 2008 in Alexandra, and spread quickly to other provinces, leaving 62 murdered (21 of whom were South African), hundreds more injured and tens of thousands displaced. Violent attacks on 'foreigners' have flared up multiple times since then, most recently in the December 2009 attack on Zimbabweans in Polokwane and the displacement of thousands of Zimbabweans the month before in the rural farming area of De Doorns, Western Cape. Taking account of the fact that the May 2008 attacks were prefigured by multiple instances of xenophobic violence throughout the country in the preceding years, this paper makes the case that it is necessary to understand some of the forces underlying the May 2008 attacks through the situated practices of migrants. This article focuses on some of the everyday practices of migrants in South African cities surrounding access to housing as well as more general experiences of violence, exclusion, and mobility within the city. While this paper is based on a limited amount of fieldwork conducted between June and August 2007, it offers some first steps toward developing an analysis of xenophobia beginning from everyday practice and points to potential areas for future research.