The Tribal Mind: Understanding South Africa’s Xenophobic Violence Through Developmental Psychology

South Africa has adopted the forms of modernity without the psychological development to sustain them. The images are harrowing. South African mobs wielding machetes and clubs, forcing foreign nationals from their homes, looting their shops, and, in some cases, ending their lives. In recent months, vigilante violence has driven thousands of immigrants from countries including Nigeria, Ghana, and Zimbabwe out of South Africa, with Nigeria and Ghana repatriating around two thousand of their citizens on government-sponsored flights. The victims have been subjected to a level of brutality that shocks the conscience. South African authorities, overwhelmed or indifferent, have largely stood...