The recent attacks on immigrants in South Africa is the worst example of such violence visited on expatriate groups in an African country since the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin ruthlessly expelled almost 49,000 Ugandan Asians and seized their property in the 1970s.

Amin acted with the full power of the state behind him. The xenophobia currently being displayed in South Africa, however, has nothing to do with the policy of the government and to date has compelled more than 25,000 would-be immigrants from many African countries (some hailing from as far away as the Sudan and Somalia as well as South Africa's neighbour Mozambique) to flee the country.

Meanwhile thousands of others have been forced to seek shelter in police stations and other refuges as rampaging mobs attack their homes and loot and burn the small business interests they operate.

More than 50 immigrants have so far been killed in the violence and hundreds of others have been seriously injured. The South African mobs have accused their foreign African neighbours of taking jobs away from them and being behind the high - and still rising - crime rate in South Africa.

It is not that South Africa is not used to hosting foreign immigrants and workers as the largest economy in Sub-Sahara Africa. Even in the days of white minority rule and apartheid, thousands of Africans from neighbouring African countries used to enter to find work in that country's industrial, mining and agricultural areas of the economy.

In the case of Mozambique, even during the time of Portuguese colonial rule thousands of Mozambique's workers used to cross the South African border to find employment in South Africa's gold mines, sending home much needed foreign exchange to help support their families. Of course the Portuguese colonial authority took their cut off the top in the form of taxes and other so-called administrative costs.

The ongoing problems in South Africa's neighbour, Zimbabwe, may have been a factor behind the explosion of anti-immigrant feelings in that country. Thousands of Zimbabweans are fleeing to South Africa to get away from the melt-down of their country's economy at the hands of the dictator Robert Mugabe. Ironically this same Mugabe is now offering land to all who have returned from the violence in South Africa after his policies caused them to seek relief outside of Zimbabwe's borders in the first place.

This might be a hard thing to say but ever since Robert Mugabe swapped his battle fatigues for tailored suits and embarked on his disastrous misrule following that country's long War of Independence, tens of thousands of Zimbabweans have left their country, many ending up in South Africa. Their numbers include trained professionals as well as unqualified people seeking any type of work that is available. Ironically, Britain, the former colonial power, is now host to thousands of medical workers, nurses and the like and Bermuda itself has been known to offer employment to Zimbabwean citizens a long way from home.

In the case of South Africa, its employment prospects has offered a sort of safety net for Zimbabweans fleeing the deteriorating situation in their own country.

This is a people who have proud history of resistance to oppressive rule and colonialism. Beginning with Cecil Rhodes' colonial designs on the territory on behalf of the British Empire building to the wars against British colonial rule and culminating in the final defeat of Ian Smith's white minority rule and the establishment of an Independent black majority ruled Zimbabwe, the people of this country have demonstrated themselves to be tough and resourceful.

Robert Mugabe may have been a founding father of the nationalist liberation movement that brought about the birth of Zimbabwe. But he will go down in history as one who oppressed his own people. He will take his place alongside the self-crowned former "Emperor" Bokassa of the Central African Republic, Sese Seko Mobuto, deceased ruler of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Idi Amin of Uganda. I could list others but the names of these three leaders are forever branded into the world's consciousness for their particularly callous betrayals of the great dream of African Independence and self-determination.

If thousands of Zimbabweans are now forced to return to Zimbabwe as a result of this outbreak of anti-foreign violence in South Africa then perhaps the forces of the second liberation of Zimbabwe will gather sufficient strength to finally overthrow the tyrant Mugabe.

Be that as it may,t the African National Congress government in South Africa cannot escape some of the blame for the rasch actions of its citizens against fellow Africans.

Since the end of white minority rule, South Africa has moved towards eradicating some of the massive inequalities that have afflicted the black majority in South Africa. But the ANC government's reforms are only being implemented slowly and many who used to support the government now accuse it of creating a new black elite while the masses remain behind.

Some 30 percent of black South Africans remain unemployed, Common needs like housing and health care still present huge problems that cry out for urgent solutions.

The ANC government is extremely embarrassed by the xenophobic the actions of its citizens against their fellow African brothers and sisters. For the ANC leadershop remembers that it was other African countries which provided them with aid and shelter during the long struggle against white minority rule and apartheid.

However, those who remember what South Africa owes to the rest of Africa with respect to their liberation movement do not include the young people who were born after the fight against apartheid had been won. It is young people who are leading the mob violence directed against would-be migrants to South Africa. All the young people see are their own needs and it is they who have made scapegoats of the foreign-born Africans living in their country, blaming them for the shortcomings of their own government. Therefore it is incumbent upon the ANC to address the real issues fuelling the fires of civil disobedience in the country. The ANC must act - and act soon - to end these xenophobic outrages.

My final word this week is directed towards the so-called Voters' Rights Association which is demanding the Black Power closed-fist salute be banned in Bermuda. No way will I, as a black man, ever agree to such a call. The raised clenched fist is a symbol of black resistance to racism and white racial privilege and thus is just as legitimate as war time British leader Sir Winston Churchill's two fingered 'V' for the victory sign. Furthermore the clenched fist is raised every time Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU) members open and close their meetings and recite the union motto.

Complaints to Momma Britain notwithstanding, I would like to see anyone try to ban this tradition.