Lagos to Joburg: Representation of Nigerian Migrants in Welcome to our Hillbrow

Abstract

This paper examines how xenophobia, rooted in South Africa’s socio-economic challenges and racial tensions, shapes the representation of Nigerian migrants in Phaswane Mpe’s Welcome to Our Hillbrow. Despite the post-apartheid ideal of a “Rainbow Nation,” exclusionary attitudes persist, often manifesting in discrimination, violence, and scapegoating of African migrants—particularly Nigerians—for unemployment, poverty, and other social ills. Employing Rene Girard’s psychoanalytic concept of scapegoating, this paper finds that through its narrative, the novel critiques these perceptions by exposing the socio-economic basis of xenophobia as a form of deflection and projection. It urges honest self-reflection as the essential basis on which South Africa can achieve the freedom she continues to seek, more than three decades after apartheid.