Why ‘Kill the Boer' still echoes: It's not hate, it's hunger for justice

Al Jazeera

2 days ago

On May 25, Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), closed his campaign rally at the Mminara Sports Ground in Kwakwatsi, Free State, as he often does: by singing his favourite anti-apartheid struggle anthem, 'Dubul' ibhunu'. Sung in Xhosa, the song translates to 'Kill the Boer' or 'Kill the farmer' and has long sparked controversy in South Africa and abroad. In recent weeks, the controversy has flared up once again.
Just four days earlier, on May 21, during a tense meeting at the White House with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, United States President Donald Trump played a video of Malema and his supporters chanting the song. He claimed it was proof of a 'white genocide' in South Africa and demanded Ramaphosa explain 'that man's' conduct.
Yet Malema has been singing this song publicly since 2010. There is no white genocide occurring in South Africa. In fact, in August 2022, the country's Equality Court ruled that the song does not constitute hate speech. By performing it again in Kwakwatsi, Malema was clearly seizing an opportunity to capitalise on Trump's misleading allegations and the global media attention they brought.
The disproportionate attention granted to Malema by Trump and his ally Elon Musk obscures a deeper, more urgent reality: millions of Black South Africans, like many across the continent, are crying out for meaningful socioeconomic change and long-overdue justice for the enduring legacies of colonialism and apartheid.
They are calling for a modern revolution.
Nothing illustrates this more than the EFF's platform. Its policies centre on economic transformation, including land expropriation without compensation and the nationalisation of mines. The party embraces Black nationalism and pan-Africanism, supports Russia in its standoff with NATO, and positions itself in opposition to perceived Western dominance.
While the EFF's agenda is bold and Afrocentric, it is hardly new. Decades before the EFF's founding on July 26, 2013, the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), a radical anti-apartheid movement, championed many of the same ideals.
Founded on April 6, 1959, by a group that split from the African National Congress (ANC), the PAC was led by Robert Sobukwe, an intellectual, pan-Africanist, and activist. At the party's launch, Sobukwe famously said, 'The Africanists take the view that there is only one race to which we all belong, and that is the human race.'
The PAC advocated for the return of land to Indigenous Africans, asserting that it had been unjustly seized by white settlers. This view – that land dispossession lies at the heart of South Africa's historical injustice – has only recently begun to be addressed by the ANC through the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, signed into law by Ramaphosa on February 23.
South African history is rich with visions for African renewal. Sobukwe's philosophy laid the groundwork for what is often mischaracterised today as 'radical economic transformation'. Steve Biko's Black Consciousness Movement in the 1970s instilled pride and self-determination. In the late 1990s, President Thabo Mbeki championed the African Renaissance – a cultural, scientific, and economic revival aimed at decolonising African minds and institutions.
Malema is not a theoretical pioneer, but he is a potent political vessel for the ideas long espoused by Sobukwe, Biko, and Mbeki.
Much like elsewhere on the continent, South Africans are revisiting the question of land. It signals a broader resurgence of postcolonial ideology.
In 1969, Muammar Gaddafi provided a powerful example. He nationalised Libya's Western-owned oil companies to uplift the impoverished. Over a decade, Gaddafi provided free education, healthcare, and subsidised housing, giving Libyans Africa's highest per capita income.
In 2000, Zimbabwe launched its land reform programme to reclaim land taken during colonial rule. In more recent examples, Burkina Faso nationalised the Boungou and Wahgnion gold mines in August 2024 and plans to take over more. Mali reclaimed the Yatela mine in October. In December 2024, Niger seized control of the Somair uranium mine, previously run by French nuclear giant Orano.
Across Western and Southern Africa, it is clear: the legacy of colonialism still demands redress. South Africa remains the world's most unequal country. Its Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, consistently ranks among the highest. Decades after apartheid's fall, systemic racial inequality persists, sustained by disparities in education, employment, and economic access.
Trump's astonishing decision on February 7 to sanction South Africa – partly over the Expropriation Act – reveals the West's historical amnesia and indifference. Many Black South Africans are desperate to move beyond the past, but are continually thwarted by a refusal to correct entrenched inequality.
Ironically, Trump's intervention may serve to galvanise African governments. His public posturing may appeal to his domestic base, but his tone-deafness will only deepen anti-US sentiment among South Africans.
Anti-Western feeling is already rising across the continent, fuelled by historical grievances, neocolonial policies, and the emergence of new global powers like Russia and China. This disillusionment is visible in the rejection of Western-backed institutions and a growing appetite for alternative partnerships.
Instead of attempting to shame Ramaphosa on the world stage, Trump would do better to support equitable and lawful reforms. Obsessing over Malema is futile – he is merely the voice of a generation grappling with economic pain and historical betrayal.
'Dubul' ibhunu' resonates among parts of South Africa's Black population not because they are bloodthirsty, but because the promises of liberation remain unfulfilled.
Trump would do well to understand this: the revolution in Africa is not over.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.