Columnist Nsenga Burton is currently in South Africa and she sent this dispatch from the continent today:

South Africa is on fire. Xenophobia is raging through a country that is just finding its legs. Having forgotten the lessons of the past, many of the downtrodden are tearing away the future by turning on foreign nationals who have come to become a part of a new South Africa. Old habits die hard. The United States might want to pay attention to the real consequences of manufacturing of fear.

For more about South Africa's xenophobic-related violence, visit: http://allafrica.com/stories/200806021549.html