Understanding South African Xenophobia Through the Prism of J. M. Coetzee’s Summertime ‘Scenes from a Provincial Life’

Abstract

The xenophobic violence and discrimination that greets African migrants in post-apartheid South Africa highlights a social and political issue that threatens the idea(l) of the open pan-African society. The article looks at this xenophobia through the lens of J. M. Coetzee fictionalized memoir Summertime ‘Scenes from a Provincial Life’ and tries to develop a new understanding of South Africa’s relationship to the African ‘other’ – or to the ‘other’ Africa, relevant not only in the context of postcolonial studies but also in a more global perspective on social and cultural responses to processes of migration.