Whenever xenophobic violence erupts in South Africa, I find myself wrestling with the same feeling. Sadness. Migration pressures are not unique to South Africa. From Europe to North America, governments are grappling with questions about borders, identity, economic opportunity and social cohesion. Across much of the world, societies are trying to balance security, legality and humanity.
Yet what I feel when these incidents occur in South Africa is different. I spend a great deal of time with some of my closest friends here in South Africa.
I have admired the country’s achievements, learned from its people and watched its journey with the same hope many Africans have carried for decades. That is why these moments feel so painful. For many Africans of my generation, South Africa was never simply another country. It was the cause.
Long before democracy arrived, Africans invested themselves emotionally, politically and morally in South Africa’s struggle against apartheid. Governments opened their borders to exiles. Churches mobilised support. Activists campaigned relentlessly. Ordinary citizens followed events with a sense of personal investment. Support for South Africa did not come from countries untouched by hardship.
Many were grappling with the legacies of colonialism while trying to build their own institutions, economies and national identities. Yet they made room for South African exiles, accepted political and economic costs because apartheid was seen as more than a South African problem.
It was viewed as an assault on the dignity of an entire continent. South Africa’s freedom belonged to South Africans. Yet when freedom finally came, Africans everywhere celebrated as though it were their own because in many ways, it was. The struggle had united a continent; the victory did too. For one moment, an entire continent felt taller.
Years later, I was fortunate to meet Nelson Mandela. What stayed with me was not his stature, but his generosity. He listened with the same attention that others reserved for speaking and understood something many leaders never do.
People support what they feel part of, showing that trust begins when people feel seen. Perhaps that is why he inspired such loyalty far beyond South Africa’s borders. He made optimism feel rational. Ending apartheid was a historic achievement. What followed was equally remarkable.
South Africa was persuaded that reconciliation was possible. Citizens embraced a democratic project that was far from assured. Investors backed a country through profound change. Neighbouring nations saw a partner, while people across the world saw possibilities.
Over time, South Africa earned something that cannot be purchased. Credibility. What followed was one of the most remarkable nation-building stories of modern times. South African banks, telecommunications companies, insurers, retailers and breweries became part of everyday life across the continent.
Universities attracted students from across Africa. Musicians, artists, entrepreneurs and innovators shaped conversations far beyond the country’s borders. South Africa is not merely part of Africa’s story. It has helped to write it.
What has always struck me about South Africa is its comfort with itself. You see it in the restaurants, architecture, design, and cultural spaces that define modern South Africa. As we can see in the interiors, which are unmistakably African yet sophisticated enough to sit comfortably anywhere in the world.
The country’s finest restaurants compete with the best in the world while remaining rooted towards their identity. Hotels, galleries and public spaces celebrate African creativity with confidence rather than apology.
There is no tension between being African and meeting the highest international standards. South Africa understood something many countries are still trying to learn. You do not need to borrow someone else’s identity to earn global respect. People are drawn to places that know who they are.
Long before people spoke endlessly about soft power, South Africa understood something important. A reputation is built through experience. People form opinions based on what they see, whom they meet and how a place makes them feel.
Over time, those experiences become a story that people talk about when they talk about a country. Visitors found creativity, students found an opportunity, and businesses found expertise.
Its influence grew as people experienced it firsthand. South Africa demonstrated that reconciliation was possible and that a painful history need not dictate the future. While persuading millions of people that we have a common future was worth pursuing, even when old wounds remained visible.
This legacy explains why xenophobic violence resonates so deeply beyond South Africa’s borders. Violence harms its victims first, but the consequences do not end there. Questions began to arise. Relationships became strained. Certainties begin to weaken. History has a long memory. During apartheid, South Africans found solidarity across the continent.
Today, some African families watch loved ones return home from South Africa after episodes of xenophobic violence, wondering whether they were ever truly welcome. Nobody would pretend that the situations are identical. Still, the contrast is hard to ignore.
On the outside, the response can look like anger. What I have encountered more often is disappointment. The countries that earn the greatest trust often face the greatest disappointment when they fall short. None of this means South Africa should ignore legitimate concerns about migration.
Every sovereign state has the right and responsibility to secure its borders, uphold the rule of law, and distinguish between legal and illegal migration. Citizens are entitled to expect that governments will manage these responsibilities effectively. Legal migration and human dignity can co-exist. Border security and African solidarity can co-exist. The strongest societies find ways to hold these realities together.
After more than three decades of advising governments, companies and institutions across Africa, I have learned that trust rarely disappears overnight. It erodes quietly, a little at a time, often unnoticed until a moment arrives that reveals how much has already been lost. We notice trust most when it’s gone.
When investors hesitate, neighbours become suspicious of one another, institutions lose credibility, and people begin to feel they no longer belong. Trust rarely dominates headlines, yet it quietly determines the health of societies.
Across much of the world, faith in institutions and in one another is increasingly hard to sustain. South Africa did not create that reality. Yet its experience carries its particular significance because trust has always been central to its story.
Africa refuses to give up on South Africa. Too much of Africa’s hope is woven into it. While it has been giving, too much of the continent’s imagination has been invested in South Africa’s story and its success.
The disappointment many Africans feel today is not from strangers. It is the family’s disappointment, of neighbours and people who spent decades wishing South Africa well.
People celebrated its freedom and resilience, seeing in its journey a reflection of Africa’s own possibilities. Perhaps that is the burden of becoming a symbol. The world begins to judge you not only by your actions but also by the ideals you embody.
South Africa earned its place through struggle, sacrifice and an extraordinary act of national reinvention. In a century marked by division, it offered something rare.
Proof that reconciliation was possible, that a shared future could be imagined, and that history did not always have the final say. People expect more of South Africa because South Africa has taught them to expect more. About the Author Gina Din-Kariuki is a strategic communications adviser and author of Beyond the Ballot: Clear Communication. Effective Leadership. A Stronger Africa. She has advised governments, institutions and businesses across Africa for more than three decades on leadership, public trust and strategic communication. The post South Africa’s trust test appeared first on New African Magazine .