The Experiences of African Academics in South African Universities

Cross-border mobility has become one of the key emblems of modern-day societies. There are very few aspects of modern-day life that remain untouched by the experiences of people from ‘elsewhere.’ This is certainly true for the South African university space, which has seen steady increases in persons from across the world. The internationalization of university campuses in terms of student bodies and to an extent staff cohorts is prima facie celebrated and researched. However, the experiences of being from elsewhere and working as an academic at a South African university have not been well researched. This is a striking gap against a backdrop of bouts of xenophobic acts that have become endemic in the broader South African society. This chapter explores the experiences of academics from Africa, north of the Limpopo. It traces the often-precarious experiences that they have in South African universities. Highlighting studies by Kaziboni et al. (ISS Southern Africa Report 2022:1–16, 2022), Oloruntoba (From paradise gain to paradise loss: Xenophobia and contradictions of transformation in South African universities. In C. Isike & E. M. Isike (Eds.), Conflict and Concord: The Ambivalence of African Migrant/Host Relations in South Africa (pp. 109–128), 2022), and Tomaselli (South African Journal of Science 119:16, 268, 2023), it investigates the threats to their well-being amid societal tensions and xenophobic violence. Unlike previous research in this area, which is very scant, this study integrates empirical inquiry, policy analysis, and social theory to document anti-African sentiment in universities. It reveals how government policies can lead to exploitative conditions and temporary appointments, and hinder academic advancement. The chapter introduces the notion of academic xenophobia, an emergent problematique in this study, that seeks to explain the strained intersectional experiences of African foreign national academics at South African universities. Through this conceptual lens, our objective is to contribute to the ongoing discourse on transformation and decolonization in South African higher education, advocating for policies that recognize and value the contributions of African scholars from across the continent.