Renowned Kenyan scholar and statesman, Professor PLO Lumumba, has traced the rising wave of xenophobia in Africa to economic difficulties, unemployment and the failure of many African countries to create sufficient jobs for their growing populations.
Lumumba spoke on Thursday, November 12, 2026, while delivering a keynote address titled: “Africa Must Not Become Foreign to Itself: Xenophobia, Pan-Africanism and the Future of African Belonging” at an event organised by The Bridge Club in Lagos.
He warned that the inability of African economies to provide decent livelihoods for their citizens was creating an atmosphere in which foreign nationals were increasingly blamed for unemployment, pressure on public services and other socio-economic challenges.
Lumumba described xenophobia as a major contradiction in Africa’s quest for unity, noting that Africans who had historically been divided by colonial powers were increasingly treating one another as strangers across national borders.
“The great tragedy of African xenophobia is that a people once divided by strangers have learnt to regard one another as strangers,” he said.
According to him, Pan-Africanism would remain an unfulfilled aspiration as long as Africans ceased to recognise one another as brothers and sisters simply because they crossed colonial boundaries.
He recalled that African leaders, including Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere, had consistently championed continental unity and challenged the artificial boundaries imposed by colonialism.
While acknowledging the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a major step towards economic integration, Lumumba regretted that the spirit of continental solidarity often diminished when citizens of one African country migrated to another in search of jobs and better opportunities.
The Kenyan scholar stressed that Pan-Africanism should go beyond diplomatic agreements among governments to become a philosophy of human solidarity that encourages Africans to recognise their shared identity without abandoning their respective national identities.
“A Nigerian need not cease being Nigerian in order to recognise a Ghanaian as a fellow African,” he said, adding that patriotism and Pan-African solidarity could coexist.
Lumumba, however, warned against insecure nationalism that seeks to define national identity by creating hostility towards foreigners.
He also rejected the perception that xenophobia was peculiar to South Africa, recalling historical instances in which other African countries had subjected foreign nationals to mass expulsions.
He cited Ghana’s 1969 Aliens Compliance Order, which displaced hundreds of thousands of West African migrants, including Nigerians, as well as Nigeria’s mass expulsions of undocumented migrants in 1983 and 1985, which forced an estimated two million people, including about 1.2 million Ghanaians, to leave the country.
“The nationality of the stranger had changed, but the political logic had not,” he observed.
He explained that economic hardship often generated fear, which political actors subsequently directed towards migrants as convenient targets.
On South Africa, Lumumba described the recurring attacks on African migrants as a painful contradiction, particularly considering the enormous sacrifices made by other African countries in supporting the country’s struggle against apartheid.
He expressed concern over the activities of anti-immigrant movements, including Operation Dudula, which have been associated with campaigns targeting foreign nationals.
He noted that the Gauteng High Court, in November 2025, restrained the group from demanding identity documents, intimidating foreigners or preventing them from accessing healthcare facilities and schools.
While acknowledging the sovereign right of every country to regulate migration, enforce immigration laws and protect its borders, Lumumba maintained that such responsibilities should not be confused with collective hostility against foreign nationals.
He said Pan-Africanism did not necessarily require open borders or immunity for migrants who violated immigration laws, but insisted that legitimate immigration enforcement must not become an excuse for blaming entire nationalities for economic and social problems.
“The danger begins when legitimate concerns acquire a nationality,” he warned.
He explained that migrants were often blamed for unemployment, overcrowded hospitals and pressure on public infrastructure, whereas the real problems were rooted in weak economic management and inadequate public investment.
“It is easier to identify a stranger than to repair an economy,” he said.
Lumumba further linked xenophobia to the structural weaknesses of African economies, particularly their continued dependence on exporting raw materials, importing finished products, weak industrialisation and inability to generate sufficient employment opportunities for young people.
He also referred to recent Afrobarometer surveys indicating a contradiction in public attitudes towards regional integration, noting that although a majority of Africans supported freer movement across the continent in principle, substantial numbers preferred fewer foreign job seekers in their countries.
He maintained that addressing the root causes of xenophobia required African governments to prioritise industrialisation, economic diversification, job creation and policies capable of improving living standards.
Concluding, Lumumba argued that the fight against xenophobia could not be separated from the broader struggle for African economic development.
“The struggle against xenophobia is inseparable from the struggle for African development,” he said.
“A continent that creates too few jobs will continuously generate political temptation to fight over the jobs that exist. The border must cease to be the place where Pan-Africanism ends. It should become the place where Pan-Africanism is tested.”
