The impact of education on xenophobia in an African society

Eugene Campbell, University of Botswana
Ngianga-Bakwin Kandala, University of Warwick
Thabo Fako, University of Botswana

This paper examines the extent to which education influences xenophobia in Botswana. Survey data is used to test the education-xenophobia hypothesis. Education has moderating influence on discriminatory attitudes and behaviour. Meanwhile, the academia is vulnerable to discriminatory influences where existing ideas are threatened. Education is expected to improve the intellectual, social and economic wellbeing of individuals; and its optimization should produce truth. This has not been quite the case in Africa. Primary data is used in SPSS and the hypothesis is test with logistic regression analysis. There are mixed results, depending on the number of variables included in the computation of the xenophobia index. Both results indicate significant relationship between xenophobia and education. People with primary and secondary education were three times more likely to be xenophobic than those with tertiary education. However, using the response with 16 variables, city and other urban dwellers seemed more xenophobic than rural dwellers.