ABSTRACT
On 11 May 2008, Alexandra township witnessed the start of violent attacks against outsiders who some perceived were not South African enough. The extreme violence quickly spread to other provinces and eventually lasted until the end of that month. Hundreds of homes and shops were looted and burnt. Sixty-two people died across the country, 21 of whom were South African citizens. A colleague at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recalled her story. When the xenophobic violence erupted in May 2008 and started to spread around the country, she got worried that Mike, her Mozambican gardener, might be in danger. Xenophobia is a complex phenomenon, widely under-researched. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of the violence that shook South Africa in May 2008, sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists produced a variety of research materials trying to explain the outburst of violence at different levels of analysis. Two types of explanations can be identified: political and socio-economic, which most certainly worked alongside.
