After the Rainbow

Abstract

In May 2008, African immigrants were attacked across South Africa. The violence was captured in a horrigying image of Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave, a 35-year old father of three from Mozambique, who was burnt to death. He had arrived in Johanesburg just three months before the 18 May attacks, hoping to find work in the building industry. The image of this human fireball drew haunting reminders of necklacing during the apartheid years (The Times 2008). The May 2008 xenophobic attacks resulted in the death of just over 60 people, a third of whom were South Africans.