Many South Africans have expressed shock at the outbreak of xenophobic violence in their country. They thought that they were immune to such nationalist hatred visible elsewhere on the continent (and in the wider world). They believed in the ‘rainbow nation’ discourse and the specificity of the South African experience. However, as recent events have shown, they were deluding themselves in the same way as less than a decade ago, in my home country of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), we did. At the time we thought we were the most peaceful and successful nation in the region – until history taught us otherwise. Reviewing the genesis of the Ivorian crisis might help put in perspective the recent wave of xenophobia that has swept across various townships around South Africa.

As the world's largest producer of cocoa, Côte d'Ivoire used to be West Africa's richest country in per capita terms. It was a magnet for millions of immigrants from poorer neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea and Mali. They came to work mainly in the coffee and cocoa plantations and to make a better life for themselves. Figures vary, but it is fair to say that at one point in time, these immigrants accounted for up to a third of the Ivorian population.

By the 1990s, the growth rate of the Ivorian economy had slowed to a snail's pace. The model of a liberal economy started to crumble and domestic politics degenerated gradually into crisis. The death in 1993 of Felix Houphouët-Boigny, who had been in power for more than 30 years, was followed by a tense contest for political succession. The collapse of commodity prices on the world market, the huge public debt, unemployment, poverty, widening inequalities between social classes and land scarcity, coupled with financial scandals at the top, brought social unrest and a mounting resentment against ‘foreigners’. It was then that Henri Konan Bédié, Houphouët's successor as president, introduced the concept of Ivoirité, or Ivorianness.

Houphouët's political power and legitimacy drew upon his Baoule ethnic identity, represented as authentically Ivorian. Ironically, the Baoule are not – even by their own account – indigenous to the region of Côte d'Ivoire, but a people who arrived several hundred years ago from what today would be Ghana.