Scums Of The EARTH: A Critical Analysis Of ‘Humanness' In Host Society from10 Life Stories Of Poor Immigrants In Johannesburg, South Africa

This paper critically examines the question “at what cost do we establish national borders as the criterion for valuing others? What are the consequences to ourselves; the selves that ultimately places humans above their animal counterparts? It thematically but critically examines the ‘we’ that have ascribed an identity to ‘migrants’, labelling them as not fit for support and care. Adorno T, argued that identification limits the scope and facets of the subject to the desired level only. However, the reverse is also the case, whereas identification limits the scope and facets of the identifier within a box, from which he cannot break free to explore his unlimited ability to create the world he desires. In this sense, by identifying migrants and in particular poor and unskilled migrants as ‘undesired’ and ‘disastrous’ to a fully functional and successful society, we have by extension confined ourselves to a box from which we cannot break through, to dream and create a functional and successful society that includes the unwanted poor and unskilled migrants.

Using narratives from 10 life story interviews with poor African immigrants in Johannesburg, South Africa, the article examines the host society via the harsh experiences of the immigrants. The article argues that there is a new form of societal enslavement and poverty; it is the poverty of our humanity. I believe that the lived experiences of unwanted immigrants will be an important platform from which to examine the inherent contradictions of contemporary humanism as exhibited by host society. Also, it is of practical relevance to apply Habermas’s critical theory of society to a location in Africa; A continent that is in the throes of awakening self-emancipation from colonial dominance in order to create its own history in a more self-directed manner.