Miss South Africa 2024: Chidimma Adetshina’s participation sparks nationality row

Her voice cracked as she admitted that she felt shame at her Ugandan identity when she was younger because of the afrophobia that she experienced.

“I would not want to be seen with my father because of his darker skin and East African features were a dead giveaway,” she told the BBC.

“At home my father was my hero, but outside I saw him treated as an enemy.”

University of the Free State sociologist Dr Nombulelo Shange links this hostility to South Africa’s history of racism and the apartheid system – which imposed a strict hierarchy that privileged white people.

There is a “sad apartheid mentality that we are struggling to shake as a country”, she said.

“It shows the deep self-hate that we as black South Africans carry with us.”

Dr Shange added that South Africans had internalised oppressive racist reasoning such as colourism, where lighter skin tones are perceived as better.

After apartheid ended in 1994, the government led by Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC) welcomed African migrants and asylum seekers to the country in part to aid its reintegration into the continent after years of isolation.

But with many South Africans struggling financially, foreigners became the target for some frustrated by their situation.

Zimbabweans, Nigerians and Somalis, among others, have been accused of taking opportunities and resources from South Africans.

There is a “perception of outsiders as competitors for scarce jobs, resources, living space and services”, Michael Morris, head of media at the South African Institute of Race Relations, told the BBC.

He said the growing number of Africans succeeding in South Africa could “easily trigger resentment and violence”.

This climate of hostility has occasionally erupted into attacks. South Africa experienced its worst outbreak of violence against mostly African foreigners in 2008, when more than 60 people died.

“There are black South Africans who will argue that Africans from elsewhere in the continent don’t belong in South Africa,” Mr Morris said.