“Don’t react emotionally” — Catholic Bishops on South Africa tensions

The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, has called for calm amid rising xenophobic tensions in South Africa and retaliatory calls by some Ghanaians to shut down South African businesses operating in Ghana.

According to him, retaliatory actions could escalate tensions across the continent and undermine African unity and peaceful coexistence.

Speaking to Citi News on Thursday, May 28, Most Rev. Gyamfi urged Ghanaians and Africans generally not to respond emotionally by targeting South Africans or their businesses.

“I believe that Ghanaians who have been repatriated, and indeed all Africans, should see this as a misunderstanding by some people in South Africa and should not react by repatriating South Africans back,” he stated.

“Once you begin that, it will have a snowball effect all over Africa. We just want everybody to keep calm. Initially, people may want to act emotionally to settle scores, but that is not the proper way to handle these issues,” he added.

The Catholic Bishop stressed the need for peaceful coexistence among African countries, noting that citizens across the continent continue to live and conduct business in one another’s countries.

“Ghanaians will continue to live in South Africa and South Africans will also continue to live in Ghana. Ghanaians have businesses there and South Africans also have businesses here. Let us live in unity and love,” he appealed.

Most Rev. Gyamfi acknowledged that misunderstandings and isolated incidents may occur but cautioned against allowing such situations to define relationships among African nations.

“There will always be some aberrations. You should not build on the deviations,” he said.

He further described it as unfortunate that Africans continue to divide themselves along colonial boundaries created during European colonisation.

“It is very sad that Africans continue to build on the divisions created by Europeans instead of breaking away from them. We keep emphasising artificial boundaries and differences,” he lamented.

Drawing historical parallels, Most Rev. Gyamfi referenced past tensions between Ghana and Nigeria, during which both countries expelled each other’s citizens at different periods, saying such actions only led to hardship and regret.

“Ghana once made the mistake of asking Nigerians to go back home, and later Nigerians also repatriated Ghanaians. I do not think the two countries will ever repeat those mistakes again because they have learned their lesson,” he said.