So it remains a crime of sorts and, deadly even, to look too African, if there is such a definition, in this part of Africa at the southern tip of the continent.

When the infamous xenophobic attacks first occurred in SA in 2008, when hateful mob went on the rampage hunting down foreign nationals and killing them, the one criterion used foremost was identifying those likely to be foreign African by virtue of their complexion: too much melanin in the skin decided people's fate — in some instances death...