Foreign traders flocked to South Africa in the hope of making their fortunes, but have found crime instead, reports Anna Georgiou
From Timbuktu to Tripoli, traders from across Africa have flocked to South Africa to strike gold and have been met with hostility by locals.
Saturday business at the Market Theatre flea market in Johannesburg has slowed down considerably. There are fewer stalls and visitors and a smaller variety of African curios on sale.
Three years ago African traders abounded, selling malachite jewellery and carved wooden statuettes from stalls and on the pavement alongside the flea market.
There are still African traders at the market, most from Francophone Africa, attracted to this country by the dream of success.
Thierry Toe, from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, has been in South Africa for 11 months and hopes to finance his computer studies from the proceeds of his curio sales at the market.
“In my country we heard a lot about apartheid, that there are many jobs and plenty of gold in South Africa, so I came to see for myself what it is like,” Toe said.
“Besides selling curios I am trying to improve my English and hope to learn something about computers as well.”
Burkina Faso means “land of the incorruptible men”, and Toe was shocked when he discovered the extent of crime in South Africa.
“In my country there is not much crime, but here it is bad. I was robbed of about R700 outside a block of flats in Berea.”
Toe said he was made to feel unwelcome by some South Africans he met. They felt threatened by foreigners who they believed were stealing their jobs.
“I have found that some South Africans are friendly, others not at all. Some say: `Don’t speak to me in English, I am not white.’
“Many of us are self-employed. In fact most of the foreigners come to South Africa only for a short while to apply to emigrate to Europe and other places. In many West African countries there are few foreign embassies, but here there are many.
“I will go back home when I leave South Africa as I have already worked in France and Germany.”
Mamadou Diop, from Dakar, Senegal, came to South Africa six months ago. He says his father was the first Senegalese trader to come to South Africa, in 1985.
“Ever since I was a child I learnt about South Africa. At school I fell in love with the name Johannesburg and every night I would pray to God that one day I would be able to see that city,” Diop said.
“President Nelson Mandela is well-known in my country and very popular. Children learn about him at school and we call him `Papa Africa’. There is even a song titled `Nelson Mandela’ which children and adults sing.”
Diop said he found most South Africans mistrusted each other and foreigners. He was also appalled by the high crime rate.
“One day I was in a caf and turned around only for a few minutes to speak to a friend at another table and my cellphone disappeared from my table,” he said.
“I don’t go out much because it’s unsafe. In my free time, when I’m not working at the flea market, I sit at home and listen to music.”
Felix Gabba left his home in Accra, Ghana, for Johannesburg two years ago. “The economy is better in South Africa but the social life is better in Ghana where you can go out at night without the fear of being robbed,” he said.
Like other traders, he said he found little acceptance among South Africans. “In Ghana, people are friendly towards foreigners who are alone without their families, and therefore we accept and protect them.
“In Ghana we are curious to learn all about foreigners. I have found that most South Africans are indifferent to, or even hostile towards, foreigners.
“I think this hostility is due to the large influx of foreigners from the East, other parts of the world and African states. It is possible that Ghanaians will stop being so friendly to foreigners if Ghana is flooded with foreigners.”
The trader from Timbuktu is the most disappointed of all in the flea market. Tour BB said he had come to South Africa hoping to continue his studies in agronomy.
He has discovered the only way he can get a student visa is to return to Mali and apply there. “It is not possible to stay in my region at present as there is a rebellion. Before I came to South Africa we called it `El Dorado’, but now I call it the land of no hope for myself,” he says.