WESTERN BUREAU:For 38 days, South Africa was an adventure for 24-year-old Jamaican digital nomad Kadeem Leslie. In the final week, it became a country he could not wait to leave.Leslie, a Kingston-born author and entrepreneur who has been travelling the world full-time, arrived in South Africa on May 17, eager to explore a country he had long admired for its history, beauty, and cultural power.By June 30, however, the young Jamaican had abandoned plans to spend his final night in Johannesburg and instead sought refuge inside the airport, nearly a day before his scheduled departure.His reason was simple. People had started telling him he looked Nigerian.“You can’t tell that I’m Jamaican by looking at me, because I look West African,” Leslie told The Sunday Gleaner. “But whenever somebody finds out that I am Jamaican, it’s different. It’s a smile.”The irony was not lost on him.Across the world, he said, Jamaicans are often embraced with excitement, their nationality immediately linked to Bob Marley, Usain Bolt, reggae, dancehall and an outsized global cultural identity. But in South Africa, during a tense final week marked by anti-immigrant protests and fear among foreign African nationals, Leslie said his appearance suddenly seemed to matter more than his passport.“I heard it so many times: ‘Hey bro, you look Nigerian’,” he recalled. “And it wasn’t until that last week that I started realising why people were saying it.”Leslie was in South Africa as the country was bracing for June 30 – an unofficial deadline set by anti-immigrant groups demanding that undocumented migrants leave the country. The South African government rejected the deadline, but the fear it created was real. International media reported marches across several cities, widespread business closures, police deployment, and anxiety among migrants from countries, including Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Ghana.The tension became personalFor Leslie, the tension became personal, not because anyone had confirmed his nationality, but because many people appeared to be deciding who he was before he opened his mouth.A former Campion College student from Standpipe in Liguanea, St Andrew, Leslie is no ordinary traveller. He studied at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and said he became financially independent at 24. He is the author of two books, Full Student and Full Money, and said his work in business and real estate allows him to travel from country to country while working remotely.Before South Africa, he had spent time in Brazil, having lived across South America for several years. After leaving South Africa, he continued to Botswana and Uganda, with Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ghana and Madagascar also on his African itinerary.His South African journey began with wonder.He travelled through Johannesburg, Soweto, Cape Town, Hout Bay and Sandton. He visited Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and the Apartheid Museum, which left him deeply shaken.“It was the first time I’ve ever been to a museum where they put your body through the history,” he said, recalling the separate ‘Whites’ and ‘Non-Whites’ entrances used to begin the experience. “I felt like there was a knot in my throat.”But what disturbed Leslie most was not confined to the museum.