For Sanctuary, Meleko Mokgosi presents a recent excerpt from his project Pax Kaffraria (2010−17), from the chapter Terra Nullius. “Overall, this project examines the effects of xenophobia and national identification in southern Africa, and how this provides a context with which to understand the rise of nationalism in numerous countries across Europe and southern Africa,” he explains. The work exposes the tendency to “otherize” those who fall outside dominant social hierarchies, to belittle and mistrust them, and to blame them for unrealized bliss—even if this bliss exists only in unattainable fantasy. When satisfaction is rooted in fantasy, it erects an obstacle impossible for an outsider to overcome.
