have reaveals the discrimination they face for
marrying men outside their country. Seeing the
disaffection their kinsmen show them after finding
love in the hands of Nigerian men, the women
decided to form an association, the United Nigerian
Wives in South Africa (UNWISA) club about two
years ago where they give support and succor to
each other.
42 year old Lindwela Uche who serves as
the chairwoman of the group told AFP that
they saw the xenophobic attacks coming
and alerted their husbands but they did not
take their warning seriously "We saw this
thing coming and that’s why we formed
this association. If only they (the
authorities) had listened to us… they would
have known that there’s a fire burning
slowly and they would have seen how to
tackle it.”she said
One of the members of the association,“Lufunu Orji
who is married to a Nigerian resource consultant,
Ogbonnaya Orji, says being married to a foreigner
is very challenging
"Being married to a foreigner is very
challenging. You often spend your time
defending yourself and then you defend
your foreign husband for being himself.
Just before I got wed to my husband, I lost
two very best friends of mine. They thought
I was out of my mind" she said
Another member of the group who gave her name
as Uche, said her 13-year-old daughter returned
from school a while ago, complaining that her
teacher had told her “not to bring that Nigerian
mentality here” after she and classmates were
noisy in class.
“We need to be protected, we need our
children to be protected… and our husbands
to be treated with dignity,” Uche said
37 year old Thelma Okoro, says the attitude
towards them “are negative everywhere we go,”.
According to her, wearing traditional Nigerian dress
on the street can attract bad comments. She spoke
of how her eight-year-old daughter gets mocked
by schoolmates over her name “Ngozi” which
means “blessing” in Igbo but literally translates to
“danger” in Zulu.
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