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CHAPTER 9: LIVED EXPERIENCES OF SELECTED NIGERIANS AND THEIR
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9.1. Shola’s ties (Interviewed 22/10/14)
i. Migrating to South Africa
Meet Shola, a 50 year old male who hails from Western Nigeria. He is a medical practitioner based in Empangeni and was sampled as middle class. He is married to a South African who hails from KwaZulu-Natal Province and they have two children. Before migrating to South Africa in 1995, Shola studied medicine at a University in the western part of Nigeria and furthered his studies in South Africa after which he obtained a license to practice in the country. Asked what motivated him to migrate to South Africa, he responded that,
I came to South Africa in search of greener pastures. I come from a humble background and South Africa seemed promising because a lot of my peers had also migrated at that time. The end of apartheid and new government made the country attractive for most doctors from Nigeria.
Shola previously lived in other areas of South Africa including Mpumalanga, where he first practised as a medical doctor. He chose Empangeni because it is a small peaceful town that enabled him grow in his career. To him Empangeni is a
…small town which in many ways reminds me of my hometown. It is very accommodating and the people are nice. I have travelled a lot around South Africa but Empangeni people are the most accommodating… Immediately I started working in Empangeni, I knew this was my final destination… When I first came I had interacted with South Africans but in Empangeni it was different.
ii. Living arrangements
Shola resides in an urban area and he explains that he chose it because of its proximity to his place of work. He says that his neighbours are mostly South Africans and describes them as very cordial and respectful.
Because of my busy schedule at work, I don’t really have time to socialize with them but whenever I meet them unexpectedly we interact pleasantly…
But there are some neighbours that are not so friendly and I don’t interact with them. There is a young man that I always greet but ignores me, so I have stopped greeting him... my neighbourhood is friendly… There is one incident
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that I would never forget that happened in 2008. During the xenophobic mayhem, two of my neighbours came to the house to check up on me… One in particular apologised for what his fellow countrymen were doing. He reassured me saying that it is not all South Africans that have such predated attitude towards foreigners… One thing that struck me is that he offered me accommodation in his home if there was any problem.
Shola’s living arrangements exemplify intergroup contact that fostered concord and discord.
His relationships with his South African neighbours range from conviviality to exclusive relations. He describes an instance of a neighbour who was quite unfriendly with no interaction irrespective of spatial proximity. In sum, he acknowledges that the relationships with his neighbours are mostly friendly and cordial which are limited by the demanding nature of his work rather than anything else.
iii. Workplace
Shola gives an overview of his work environment, where according to him, he spends most of his time.
My daily interactions with people at my workplace are complicated because I have colleagues and I have patients. My colleagues are mostly South Africans and are very professional. I have had very few issues with a few of them but they are mostly friendly… One of the issues was with a South African nurse who was rude to me… Yes I will say being a Nigerian was a factor because she complained about that in Zulu, not knowing that my other South African colleagues will tell me…Apart from this particular nurse, my other colleagues are respectful and in some cases we are friends. As for my interaction with my patients, I will say some are friendly, some neutral and others unfriendly. I have Nigerian patients but more of South Africans… Most of my patients are regular patients but a large number of them are also walk ins. I have not really had any hostility from my regular patients. Some of them are now friends to my family. Our relationship moved from patient to friendship. Most of the hostilities I get are from some of the once-off patients. I have had some of them use the derogatory word for foreigners on me but also others have been
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very friendly and appreciative of my services. I think I get more hostility from my walk-in patients than my regular ones and work colleagues.
He contends that his most important relationships at work are mostly with his South African colleagues. The reason being that
These South African colleagues assist me with my job. Our relationship does not go beyond the office as we spend so much time in the office.
At his workplace, contact with patients caused the doctor/patient formal relationship to evolve to friendship ties, while in some cases it led to hostility. This finding supports Durrheim et al’s (2014) argument on the paradoxical effect of contact. In terms of the types of ties identified in his workplace, these include state and event ties. The state ties include relationships with his colleagues and frequent patients, while the event ties are those with less frequent patients who were mostly walk-ins. He describes the nature of his state ties with his colleagues and long term patients as formal and friendly with minimal hostility. He explains that he mainly experiences hostility from his walk-in patients. Pettigrew (1998) notes that intergroup contact characterized by intimacy, that is, frequent informal relations, usually evolves into cordial relations. Shola’s case typifies this. With regard to most of his regular patients, after frequent interaction, not only did friendship ties evolve but these progressed from event to state ties. This is consistent with Miguel and Tranmer’s (2009: 16) finding that frequent and unavoidable interaction between migrants and members of the host community would ultimately lead to the development of supportive relationships. In addition, these frequent interactions brought about by friendship between Nigerian migrants and South Africans blur social boundaries.
iv. Friendship ties
In respect of his friendship ties, Shola stated that he has a lot of friends but his closest friends are mostly Nigerians. He explains why this is the case,
…Because of the nature of my job. I have a lot of South African friends, don’t get me wrong. However, in Empangeni, we have a lot of Nigerian doctors and because we are in the same busy profession we move in the same circle. I have South African friends that are also doctors and people I have come to know through my wife…In some cases being a Nigerian made them wary of