2008 — Xenophobic Attacks Rock Alexandra

On May 11, 2008, mobs in Alexandra township turned on foreign nationals, including Mozambicans, Malawians, and Zimbabweans living among their neighbors. What began in one township did not stay there. The violence spread across Gauteng to Durban and Cape Town, street by street, home by home, over the days that followed.

When it burned out, 62 people were dead, hundreds wounded, and more than 100,000 driven from their homes. The army was deployed to restore order. South Africa was left to confront the painful gap between the ideal of ubuntu, that a person is a person through others, and the reality of neighbor turning on neighbor.