DAILY BYTE
The xenophobia motivated incidents of hostility and aggression that have been taking place in our country over the past month or so have shaken us all to the core. What started as an isolated incident in the township of Alexandria quickly took on a life of its own, repeating itself in Alexandria, then spilling over into Diepsloot, and other townships around Gauteng. And then, virtually overnight, it spread to many other urban centres around the country.
The consequences have been catastrophic. Many would have seen the gruesome images of the burnt body of Ernesto Nhamwavane, a 22 year old Mozambiquan man who lost his life at the hands of a crazed mob. Dozens more have lost their lives also. But the loss of life has not been limited just to the literal killings of the 65 people who have died. In countless other ways death has been stalking our land: Tens of thousands of foreigners have fled from their homes, their communities, their livelihoods. Families have been uprooted and separated. Children have been displaced from their schools. And through it all there has been this insidious fear, deepseated suspicion and malignant mistrust that has crushed the hopes and prospects of those who had looked to this country as a place of refuge and sanctuary.
For many of us who are South Africans this has been a source of great sorrow and shame. And make no mistake, the implications of this for our nation will be longlasting. The contours of the South African sociopolitical landscape have been changed, maybe forever, and for a very long time the shame of what has happened in these last weeks will be a blight on our national psyche, whether we consciously acknowledge it or not.
Now many people will find this kind of frank reflection disturbing, or at the very least annoying. “Stop being negative,” they may say. But that is missing the point. The compelling witness of biblical faith is that the only way to deal decisively with the appalling horrors and crushing disappointments of life is not by pretending that they did not really happen, or are really not so bad. But rather, through the courage of honest confrontation and heartfelt lament, in which the anguish and agonies of life are poured out to God, is there hope for lasting resolution.
In fact, of all the psalms in the bible, the most frequently occurring is the lament, which was expressed both by individuals and collectively as a nation. In the experience of Israel’s faith, it was only when the pained and agonizing questions, confusions and contradictions of life were given voice before God, that they discovered their heartache, despair and disillusionment being gathered into the broader perspective of God’s loving and lifegiving purposes for the world. And hope was restored, and peace was experienced when before there was no peace.
As we reflect upon what has happened to us as a nation in recent weeks in this xenophobia crisis, maybe it’s high time for us, as a nation, to voice our lament to God – acknowledging our complicity in this evil, expressing our sorrow and shame, and naming the sense of despair we feel in the face of this daunting challenge. As we do we can be assured of this, God hears the cries of his people and is not unmoved. And through the honest outpourings of our hearts, God’s grace can be at work, bringing about restoration and the hope of new life.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O Lord, help us to turn to you, to look to you, to trust in you as the God who saves. Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING
Psalm 22:1-5
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
They cried to you and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
