After a Wave of Deadly Xenophobic Violence in South Africa, Nigerian Galleries Have Opted Not to Attend a Johannesburg Art Fair

Amid the bustle
of Johannesburg’s FNB
Art Joburg art fair, which opened today in the swanky neighbourhood of Sandton, one
booth is conspicuously empty. Large black letters written across a
white wall convey the missing dealers’ message: “Thanks, xenophobia.”

The galleries meant to be
occupying the booth, 16/16
and hFactor, both from
Lagos, Nigeria, have chosen to stay home because of a spate
of deadly attacks on
foreign-owned businesses in South Africa. According to the
Economist, at
least 12 people have been killed as shops have been looted and
burned.

Amid the escalating tensions, a
private individual has offered 600 seats on his private
airline to Nigerians looking to leave the country.
At least one Nigerian
journalist was denied a visa to visit the fair. Meanwhile,
one block from the fair, other protesters are demonstrating
against the government’s lack of action to combat gender-based
violence. In the past year, 2,771 women were murdered,
according statistics released by the South African Police
Service last Thursday.

The evocative statement in the booth comes from Sheila
Chukwulozie, a Nigerian artist who previously lived in South Africa
for two years. Because she was not on site to produce the work, it
was completed in collaboration with representatives from the
South Africa-based Stevenson gallery, who were on the ground at the
fair.

The phrase was conceived in
response to a headline
in the South African newspaper The Star that read: “Nigerians Flee SA.”
A copy of the paper was
displayed on the floor of the booth.

“When [16/16 gallery founder
Tushar Hathiramani] mentioned that he wasn’t sure whether he would
make it to South Africa, I told him not to go,” Chukwulozie wrote
in a statement about her work.

“The first time I applied for my
South African, visa they had guards come out with a horse whip [to] whip the Nigerians who weren’t sure why it was taking so long to
open the gate. The second time we came back, the security had
sprayed tear gas.”

The anti-Nigerian sentiment is
not new to South Africa. Anti-foreign protests claimed dozens of
lives in 2008 and 2015.

Yet one Lagos-based gallery,
Rele, did end up making it to the fair. “Nobody wins in a war.
Everybody loses,” the senior manager at the gallery, Kehinde
Afolabi, tells artnet News.

“It’s unfortunate and a big
shame that we as Africans would do that to ourselves,” Afolabi
says. “I can’t explain it, but what I know is that it is about
education. It’s important to learn about other peoples’ cultures,
and to understand each other. We made it here, and lots of South
Africans have come to the booth and said they are happy to see us,
and they keep apologizing for what is happening.”

Liza Essers, the owner of South
Africa’s Goodman Gallery, says the xenophobia is another expression
of encroaching worldwide ultra-nationalism driven by collapsing
economies.

“Conditions like economic
recessions and employment difficulties are triggering violence
against refugees and foreigners because there is a perception that
jobs are being taken away [from nationals],” Essers
says.

According to the Mail &
Guardian, South Africa has a 29 percent unemployment rate, with 30
percent of the country having no access to running water. In
addition, the country is now home to some 2.5 million refugees looking for
work.

“This is precisely the time when artists go to
work,” Chukwulozie wrote in her statement. “There is no time
for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room
for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how
civilizations heal.”

At the fair, her poignant unique
work is for sale for $10,000.

The post After a Wave of Deadly Xenophobic Violence in South
Africa, Nigerian Galleries Have Opted Not to Attend a Johannesburg
Art Fair appeared first on artnet News.