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ETD: "We still have to unlearn. We are programmed, you know? analyzing black South African's violence against foreign black Africans Previous title: race and the "infernal circle" of dehumanization: an analysis of South Africa's negrophobia
In South Africa, “xenophobia” – the label commonly used to refer to Black South Africans' violence against foreign Black Africans - is often primarily connected to economic competition, which might silence any racial dynamics at play. Yet, given how western colonialism and White supremacy have shape...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Psychology
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613205103116288 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Ndedi, Essombe Christiane |
| author2 | Boonzaier, Floretta |
| author_browse | Boonzaier, Floretta Ndedi, Essombe Christiane |
| author_facet | Boonzaier, Floretta Ndedi, Essombe Christiane |
| author_sort | Ndedi, Essombe Christiane |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | In South Africa, “xenophobia” – the label commonly used to refer to Black South Africans' violence against foreign Black Africans - is often primarily connected to economic competition, which might silence any racial dynamics at play. Yet, given how western colonialism and White supremacy have shaped South Africa's trajectory, exploring the role that racial identities and racial relations play in Black South Africans' violence against foreign Black Africans, is relevant. To do so, I mobilized a decolonial qualitative approach that I conceptualized as a two-fold process aiming at: 1. assessing whether the colonial past remains present and 2. highlighting possible paths to interrupt such cycles at the individual and collective levels. Accordingly, on the theoretical front, I first provided an overview of dynamics associated with western colonialism's racist violence, namely identity erosion and the confinement into colonial archetypes, narcissism, and trauma bonds. I then focused on racist colonial violence in South Africa and also identified narcissism, identity erosion and trauma bonds as central dynamics along nationalism. Methodologically, I approached the decolonial aspirations of this study as requiring the positioning of Africa and Africans as privileged vantage points. I consequently centered orality as an epistemology and spoke over the phone with 79 Black Africans in South Africa (three citizens and 76 foreign nationals) who shared stories about racial identities and racial relations among Black Africans, including Black South Africans' relationship with foreign Black Africans. My decolonial intersectional narrative analysis of these stories suggested that Black Africans' contemporary racial identities might still be informed by colonial identity erosion, i.e., the confining of Black Africans into the colonial archetype of the deficient Black Other eligible for racist, capitalistic, and gendered colonial violence. As for racial relations between Black Africans, I suggested that they might be informed by colonial identity erosion, narcissism, trauma bonds and indirect rule. In participants' stories, resistance to such dynamics manifested whenever protagonists rejected the colonial archetype of the deficient Black Other – whether applied to themselves or the person they assisted – and refused to banalize violence against Black Africans. This study thus contributed to drawing attention to the violent and long-lasting psychological impacts of western colonialism along paths to interrupt such coloniality, namely by reclaiming identities that challenge colonial ideals. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41877 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:26.116Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Department of Psychology |
| publisherStr | Department of Psychology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41877 ETD: "We still have to unlearn. We are programmed, you know? analyzing black South African's violence against foreign black Africans Previous title: race and the "infernal circle" of dehumanization: an analysis of South Africa's negrophobia Ndedi, Essombe Christiane Boonzaier, Floretta Kessi, Shose Negrophobia South Africa In South Africa, “xenophobia” – the label commonly used to refer to Black South Africans' violence against foreign Black Africans - is often primarily connected to economic competition, which might silence any racial dynamics at play. Yet, given how western colonialism and White supremacy have shaped South Africa's trajectory, exploring the role that racial identities and racial relations play in Black South Africans' violence against foreign Black Africans, is relevant. To do so, I mobilized a decolonial qualitative approach that I conceptualized as a two-fold process aiming at: 1. assessing whether the colonial past remains present and 2. highlighting possible paths to interrupt such cycles at the individual and collective levels. Accordingly, on the theoretical front, I first provided an overview of dynamics associated with western colonialism's racist violence, namely identity erosion and the confinement into colonial archetypes, narcissism, and trauma bonds. I then focused on racist colonial violence in South Africa and also identified narcissism, identity erosion and trauma bonds as central dynamics along nationalism. Methodologically, I approached the decolonial aspirations of this study as requiring the positioning of Africa and Africans as privileged vantage points. I consequently centered orality as an epistemology and spoke over the phone with 79 Black Africans in South Africa (three citizens and 76 foreign nationals) who shared stories about racial identities and racial relations among Black Africans, including Black South Africans' relationship with foreign Black Africans. My decolonial intersectional narrative analysis of these stories suggested that Black Africans' contemporary racial identities might still be informed by colonial identity erosion, i.e., the confining of Black Africans into the colonial archetype of the deficient Black Other eligible for racist, capitalistic, and gendered colonial violence. As for racial relations between Black Africans, I suggested that they might be informed by colonial identity erosion, narcissism, trauma bonds and indirect rule. In participants' stories, resistance to such dynamics manifested whenever protagonists rejected the colonial archetype of the deficient Black Other – whether applied to themselves or the person they assisted – and refused to banalize violence against Black Africans. This study thus contributed to drawing attention to the violent and long-lasting psychological impacts of western colonialism along paths to interrupt such coloniality, namely by reclaiming identities that challenge colonial ideals. 2025-09-19T12:15:29Z 2025-09-19T12:15:29Z 2025 2025-09-19T10:06:09Z Thesis / Dissertation Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41877 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | Negrophobia South Africa Ndedi, Essombe Christiane ETD: "We still have to unlearn. We are programmed, you know? analyzing black South African's violence against foreign black Africans Previous title: race and the "infernal circle" of dehumanization: an analysis of South Africa's negrophobia |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | ETD: "We still have to unlearn. We are programmed, you know? analyzing black South African's violence against foreign black Africans Previous title: race and the "infernal circle" of dehumanization: an analysis of South Africa's negrophobia |
| title_full | ETD: "We still have to unlearn. We are programmed, you know? analyzing black South African's violence against foreign black Africans Previous title: race and the "infernal circle" of dehumanization: an analysis of South Africa's negrophobia |
| title_fullStr | ETD: "We still have to unlearn. We are programmed, you know? analyzing black South African's violence against foreign black Africans Previous title: race and the "infernal circle" of dehumanization: an analysis of South Africa's negrophobia |
| title_full_unstemmed | ETD: "We still have to unlearn. We are programmed, you know? analyzing black South African's violence against foreign black Africans Previous title: race and the "infernal circle" of dehumanization: an analysis of South Africa's negrophobia |
| title_short | ETD: "We still have to unlearn. We are programmed, you know? analyzing black South African's violence against foreign black Africans Previous title: race and the "infernal circle" of dehumanization: an analysis of South Africa's negrophobia |
| title_sort | etd we still have to unlearn we are programmed you know analyzing black south african s violence against foreign black africans previous title race and the infernal circle of dehumanization an analysis of south africa s negrophobia |
| topic | Negrophobia South Africa |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41877 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ndediessombechristiane etdwestillhavetounlearnweareprogrammedyouknowanalyzingblacksouthafricansviolenceagainstforeignblackafricansprevioustitleraceandtheinfernalcircleofdehumanizationananalysisofsouthafricasnegrophobia |