The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, has stressed the importance of peaceful coexistence among African countries, noting that citizens from different nations continue to live and work across the continent.
He has urged Africans not to respond emotionally to rising xenophobic tensions in South Africa by targeting South African businesses in other countries.
“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 said.
His plea follows growing tensions and xenophobic attacks in South Africa and calls by some Ghanaians for South African-owned businesses operating in Ghana to be shut down.
Speaking to the media, the Catholic Bishop warned that retaliatory actions could deepen divisions across the continent and threaten African unity.
“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.
He cautioned that any retaliatory measures could trigger wider consequences across Africa.
“Once you begin that, it will have a snowball effect all over Africa. We just want everybody to keep calm,” he added.
He acknowledged that misunderstandings and isolated incidents may occur, but warned against allowing such events to shape relations between African countries. “There will always be some aberrations. You should not build on the deviations,” he said.
The Bishop also criticised the continued divisions among African nations along colonial-era boundaries.
“It is very sad that Africans continue to build on the divisions created by Europeans, instead of breaking away from them,” he said.
Drawing comparisons with previous tensions between Ghana and Nigeria, he recalled periods when both countries expelled each other’s citizens.
“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 learnt their lesson now,” he said.
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