The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, has appealed for calm amid growing xenophobic tensions in South Africa and calls by some Ghanaians for retaliatory action against South African businesses operating in Ghana.
Speaking in an interview on Citi FM, Most Rev. Gyamfi cautioned that retaliatory measures could worsen tensions across the continent and threaten African unity and peaceful coexistence.
He urged Ghanaians and Africans generally not to react emotionally by targeting South Africans or their businesses.
“I believe that Ghanaians who have been repatriated, and indeed all Africans, should see this as a misunderstanding by some people in South Africa and should not react by repatriating South Africans back,” he said.
“Once you begin that, it will have a snowball effect all over Africa. We just want everybody to keep calm. Initially, people may want to act emotionally to settle scores, but that is not the proper way to handle these issues,” he added.
The Catholic Bishop stressed the importance of maintaining peaceful relations among African countries, noting that citizens from different nations continue to live, work and invest across the continent.
“Ghanaians will continue to live in South Africa, and South Africans will also continue to live in Ghana. Ghanaians have businesses there, and South Africans also have businesses here. Let us live in unity and love,” he appealed.
Most Rev. Gyamfi acknowledged that misunderstandings and isolated incidents may arise from time to time but warned against allowing such occurrences to define relationships among African nations.
“There will always be some aberrations. You should not build on the deviations,” he stated.
He further described it as unfortunate that Africans continue to deepen divisions created during the colonial era rather than overcoming them.
“It is very sad that Africans continue to build on the divisions created by Europeans instead of breaking away from them. We keep emphasising artificial boundaries and differences,” he lamented.
Drawing parallels with past tensions between Ghana and Nigeria, the Bishop recalled periods when both countries expelled each other’s citizens, saying the actions only resulted in hardship and regret.
“Ghana once made the mistake of asking Nigerians to go back home, and later Nigerians also repatriated Ghanaians. I do not think the two countries will ever repeat those mistakes again because they have learned their lesson,” he said.
