Latest news with #racialpersecution
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Trump's unfounded attack on Cyril Ramaphosa was an insult to all Africans
The meeting at the White House between Donald Trump and the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was, at its heart, about the preservation of essential historical truths. The US president's claims of white genocide conflict with the actual racial persecution and massacres that took place during the two centuries of colonisation and nearly 50 years of apartheid in South Africa. It is not enough to be affronted by these claims, or to casually dismiss them as untruths. These statements are a clear example of how language can be leveraged to extend the effects of previous injustices. This mode of violence has long been used against Indigenous Africans. And it cannot simply be met with silence – not any more. The Kenyan writer Mzee Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o wrote: 'Language conquest, unlike the military form, wherein the victor must subdue the whole population directly, is cheaper and more effective.' African nations learned long ago that their fates are inextricably linked. When it comes to interactions with the world beyond our continent, we are each other's bellwether. In 1957, the year before my birth, Ghana became the first Black African country to free itself from colonialism. After the union jack had been lowered, our first prime minister, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, gave a speech in which he emphasised that, 'our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa'. Shortly after, in 1960, was the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa, which resulted in 69 deaths and more than 100 wounded. In Ghana, thousands of miles away, we marched, we protested, we gave cover and shelter. A similar solidarity existed in sovereign nations across the continent. Why? Because people who looked like us were being subjugated, treated as second-class citizens, on their own ancestral land. We had fought our own versions of that same battle. I was 17 in June 1976, when the South African Soweto uprising took place. The now-iconic photo of a young man, Mbuyisa Makhubo, carrying the limp, 12-year-old body of Hector Pieterson, who had just been shot by the police, haunted me for years. It so deeply hurt me to think that I was free to dream of a future as this child was making the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom and future of his people. Hundreds of children were killed in that protest alone. It is their blood, and the blood of their forebears that nourishes the soil of South Africa. The racial persecution of Black South Africans was rooted in a system that was enshrined in law. It took worldwide participation through demonstrations, boycotts, divestments and sanctions to end apartheid so that all South Africans, regardless of skin colour, would be considered equal. Nevertheless, the effects of centuries-long oppression do not just disappear with the stroke of a pen, particularly when there has been no cogent plan of reparative justice. Despite making up less than 10% of the population, white South Africans control more than 70% of the nation's wealth. Even now, there are a few places in South Africa where only Afrikaners are permitted to own property, live, and work. At the entrance to once such settlement, Kleinfontein, is an enormous bust of Hendrik Verwoerd, the former prime minister who is considered the architect of apartheid. Another separatist town, Orania, teaches only Afrikaans in its schools, has its own chamber of commerce, as well as its own currency, the ora, that is used strictly within its borders. It has been reported that inside the Orania Cultural History Museum there is a bust of every apartheid-era president except FW de Klerk, who initiated reforms that led to the repeal of apartheid laws. Both Kleinfontein and Orania are currently in existence, and they boast a peaceful lifestyle. Why had the America-bound Afrikaners not sought refuge in either of those places? Had the Black South Africans wanted to exact revenge on Afrikaners, surely, they would have done so decades ago when the pain of their previous circumstances was still fresh in their minds. What, at this point, is there to be gained by viciously killing and persecuting people you'd long ago forgiven? According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, half of the population of South Africa is under 29, born after the apartheid era and, presumably, committed to building and uplifting the 'rainbow nation'. For what reason would they suddenly begin a genocide against white people? Ramaphosa was blindsided by Trump with those unfounded accusations and the accompanying display of images that were misrepresented – in one image, pictures of burials were actually from Congo. Trump refused to listen as Ramaphosa insisted that his government did not have any official policies of discrimination. 'If you want to destroy a people,' Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, 'you destroy their memory, you destroy their history.' Memory, however, is long. It courses through the veins of our children and their children. The terror of what we have experienced is stored at a cellular level. As long as those stories are told, at home, in church, at the beauty and barber shop, in schools, in literature, music and on the screen, then we, the sons and daughters of Africa, will continue to know what we've survived and who we are. Mzee Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o wrote: 'The process of knowing is simple. No matter where you want to journey, you start from where you are.' We journey forward with a history that cannot be erased, and will not be erased. Not while there are children dying in the mines of the Congo, and rape is being used as a weapon of war in Sudan. Our world is in real crisis; real refugees are being turned away from the borders of the wealthiest nations, real babies will die because international aid has been abruptly stopped, and real genocides are happening in real time all across the globe. John Dramani Mahama is president of the Republic of Ghana
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why Trump Is So Obsessed With White South Africans
Even as President Donald Trump has attempted to block thousands of refugees from places like Afghanistan, Syria and Sudan from entering the U.S., he's made a unique and pointed exception for one particular group: Afrikaners. Last week, Trump welcomed 59 Afrikaners to the U.S. as refugees, alleging that they'd suffered racial persecution in their home country, a claim the South African government has vehemently denied. The group — one of two white minorities in South Africa — are descended primarily from Dutch colonists and are known for their role in establishing apartheid, a system of segregation that oppressed Black South Africans for decades. Trump — and incoming Afrikaner refugees — say they've been targeted because of their race, and that they now face violence and government land seizures as a result. Experts and South African officials, meanwhile, counter that there's scant evidence for such allegations, and that the group remains one of the wealthiest and most economically privileged in the entire country. Trump's admission of Afrikaners marks a sharp contrast with how refugees from other parts of the world have been treated: In January, the White House suspended refugee admissions indefinitely, arguing that the U.S. didn't have the capacity to absorb more people. More recently, Trump's secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has defended singling out Afrikaners by saying that the 'US has the right to prioritize … who [it wants],' and that the administration is focused on admitting people who can be 'assimilated easily.' The blatant double standard underscores how this policy ties into Trump's broader messaging, which has long focused on stoking white grievances and resentment. Specifically, Trump has framed the incoming Afrikaner refugees as white victims who have been mistreated by a majority-Black South African government – and population – that's out to take what's theirs. That echoes longstanding fears conservatives have propagated about the racist and conspiratorial 'Great Replacement Theory' — the idea that there's a calculated plan to displace white people with people of color. To put it bluntly: Trump's plans and priorities regarding refugees and immigration are steeped in white supremacy. The president is 'positioning himself as a sort of savior of white America and of white Christianity globally,' said Loren Landau, a migration expert at the University of Oxford and South Africa's University of Witwatersrand. Afrikaners first settled in South Africa in the 1600s and more recently came to power when the right-wing Afrikaner-led National Party won the country's elections in 1948. During that contest, the National Party – which was desperate to maintain a system of cheap, Black labor – ran on a platform of institutionalizing segregation and went on to impose the system of apartheid. That included a series of racist laws that segregated basic services like public bathrooms and buses, regulated where Black South Africans could live and travel and denied Black South Africans the right to vote. After nearly four decades of economic sanctions and protests, the Afrikaner National Party was removed in 1994 when South Africa held its first democratic election and chose Nelson Mandela as its president. ' Afrikaners and other white people were allowed to stay in South Africa. They were allowed to keep almost all of their property and most of their privilege,' said Landau of the conditions that Afrikaners experienced in the years since. Today, Afrikaners comprise roughly 5% of South Africa's population and are still considered one of the most successful groups in the country. They're economically well-off, hold prominent positions in government and own significant swaths of the country's farmland. (While white South Africans collectively make up about 7% of South Africa's population, they continue to own roughly 70% of commercial farmland.) 'I had to leave a five-bedroom house, which I will lose now,' Charl Kleinhaus, one of the Afrikaner refugees who arrived in the U.S. told the BBC, though he emphasized that he feels safer now that he's been resettled in Buffalo, New York. Right-wing Afrikaner groups like AfriForum and recent Afrikaner refugees to the U.S. are among those who've raised concerns about crime and discrimination, alleging racial targeting of white farmers. Many Afrikaners, though, have said they'd rather stay and push for better conditions within South Africa than leave for the U.S. 'The vast majority of Afrikaners are going nowhere, and they have expressed themselves …So even within Afrikaner circles, this is a small group of people,' Piet Croucamp, an associate professor in political studies at South Africa's North West University and an Afrikaner himself, told the BBC. Since apartheid ended in 1994 and Afrikaners lost their hold on the country's government, conspiracy theories have proliferated about how they're now the targets of oppression. Such theories, which have been advanced by groups — including AfriForum — tap into enduring fears that some members of the country's white minority have had about being overtaken by members of the Black majority. Steve Hofmeyr, an Afrikaner musician who Landau described as akin to 'South Africa's Kid Rock,' was among the most prominent voices to spread these claims, Landau said. 'No longer will we be silent about the oppression of the White South African Ethnic Minority! No longer will we silently endure the killing of our people on our farms and in our towns and cities,' reads a 2013 petition from a movement called Red October, which Hofmeyr endorsed, and which centered white Afrikaner claims of persecution. In the years since, AfriForum lobbied for meetings with the Trump administration during his first term, meeting with then-National Security Adviser John Bolton in 2018, as well as staff for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Ernst Roets, one of the group's leaders, also appeared in a segment with Tucker Carlson, who further elevated its cause that year. 'White farmers are being brutally murdered in South Africa for their land,' Carlson wrote in a 2018 social media post. 'And no one is brave enough to talk about it.' Trump recently echoed many of these points verbatim as justification for the Afrikaner refugee program and for punitive measures toward South Africa itself. He's pointed specifically to attacks on white farmers and a 2024 land expropriation law as evidence of these allegations. High-profile violence toward white farmers, like the 2010 killing of white nationalist Eugene Terreblanche and the 2023 killing of teenager Jayden Louw, have fueled this scrutiny. But officials and experts emphasize that the cases don't show disproportionate violence against white South Africans. '[Terreblanche] is often held up as this sort of quintessential example of the white farm murders, but all the evidence suggests, I mean, I hate to say it, they're killed like everybody else in South Africa,' Landau said. Experts note that South Africa broadly has a high rate of violent crime, but that it affects both white and Black residents. White farmers' murders account for fewer than 1% of annual killings nationwide, according to Politifact. And a BBC review notes that of 6,953 people murdered in South Africa between October and December 2024, 12 people were killed in farm attacks — and a majority were likely Black. Such analyses are complicated, though, by the fact that South Africa doesn't consistently disclose data on the race of victims. Claims of genocide, however, have been firmly disputed by officials and a South African Court, which called them 'clearly imagined and not real' in February. Trump and allies like Elon Musk, who is an immigrant from South Africa, have also cited anti-apartheid chants like 'Kill the Boer' as evidence of the targeting of Afrikaners since 'Boer' is derived from the Afrikaans term for 'farmer.' The current South African government, however, has distanced itself from the song and emphasized that it's not indicative of 'government policy.' Similarly, Trump has alleged that the South African government intends to use a 2024 law to seize the land of white farmers. That law would enable the government to redistribute land from private owners if it's for the public interest, including in some cases, without compensation. Proponents say it seeks to remedy brutal seizures of land that Black South Africans experienced under apartheid. The law does not allow the government to simply take a person's land, however: Ramaphosa noted in February that no land has been confiscated thus far, and that the process of obtaining land would require a court review. 'The way it's spoken about now in our government, it's as if the South African government is going to expropriate productive family farms owned by Afrikaners. That's not it at all,' Brown University historian and South Africa expert Nancy Jacobs said. 'There's no part of the law that says land that's being productively farmed by anybody can be taken.' Not only are Afrikaners being admitted to the U.S. as others are not, their applications are also being uniquely expedited. While processing refugee applications typically takes one to two years, Afrikaners who were recently admitted saw that theirs were approved in just a few months. And while other immigrants are being detained for their public support of Palestine due to the White House's claims that such positions are antisemitic, an Afrikaner refugee who has a history of antisemitic posts was among those recently welcomed to the U.S. (He told The New York Times that he is not antisemitic and described one post as a mistake and said others had been written by other people.) Many refugees who were waiting for their applications to be processed when Trump ordered admissions suspended are from countries like Afghanistan, where U.S. allies face retribution in the form of imprisonment and violence. Others have sought to escape starvation and famine in Sudan and the Congo, where ongoing civil wars have decimated food, water and medical supplies. Those who are enduring such conditions now are being forced to bide their time as courts weigh Trump's executive actions. 'Many people are left in dangerous situations, sometimes life-threatening situations, as they're waiting for their resettlement,' said Julia Gelatt, the associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute. Trump's also prioritized white immigrants over people of color before. During his first term, Trump prioritized resettling a larger share of refugees who were Ukrainian and evangelical Christians, Gelatt said, over those who were from Muslim-majority countries like Syria. Trump has had a contentious relationship with South Africa, both due to his stated concerns about Afrikaner treatment and due to the country's political stances. Both were cited in the February executive action when Trump cut off U.S. aid to South Africa, a move that's caused a $430 million budget shortfall for the country. South Africa's decision to bring allegations of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice is among the decisions that have drawn Trump's ire, along with its close ties to Iran. Rubio said this week that Trump intends to skip the upcoming G20 summit — an annual gathering of world leaders — which will take place in South Africa in light of some of these positions. 'We chose not to participate in this year's G20, hosted by South Africa, either at the foreign ministers' level or the presidents' level,'Rubio said. 'They clearly, on the global stage and in multiple multinational organizations, have consistently been a vote against America's interests time and again.' It's doubtful a recent Trump meeting with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa did much to smooth over these tensions, though the latter claimed that it went 'very well.' Trump has focused on activating white victimhood in campaign messages and with his immigration policies – and this move is effectively the latest version of that. He's gone after South Africa's land expropriation act just as he's criticized diversity, equity and inclusion policies, which are designed to enable equal access to various opportunities for minority groups who've faced discrimination. And just as his immigration policies have framed minority groups as a threat and 'invasion' in the U.S., his claims about white farmers' persecution in South Africa seek to harp on the same fears.
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Clashed With South Africa's President
President Trump's sit-down today with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa briefly resembled Oval Office meetings of an earlier era. The leaders exchanged a handshake and cordial pleasantries. Ramaphosa even brought along a couple of pro golfers whom he knew the American leader would like. But Trump and his aides had prepared an extraordinary ambush. In front of the television cameras, the president dimmed the lights and played a video that he cited as evidence of racial persecution of white South Africans. Trump then went on to repeatedly make claims of land seizures and mass killings of white farmers in Ramaphosa's country. With the stunned South African president looking on, Trump flipped through printouts that he said proved his narrative: 'Death, death, death,' the president said. Trump's claims were false. Police statistics show that white South Africans are not killed at a higher rate than others in the country. South Africa approved a plan similar to eminent domain in the U.S., which Trump has used to take land. Ramaphosa tried to gently explain the situation in South Africa to the president, but Trump was unmoved. Our White House correspondent Zolan Kanno-Youngs said it 'was a stark example of a foreign leader essentially trying to give a reality check to Trump, who instead amplified fringe theories.' For context: The meeting came about a week after the Trump administration welcomed as refugees a group of white South Africans who claimed they had been persecuted in their home country. Zolan and John Eligon, our Johannesburg bureau chief, explained in this video what led to this moment. For more: Sign up for our On Politics newsletter. My colleague Jess Bidgood will have inside details from the remarkable meeting later tonight. Judge said U.S. had violated court order with deportations A federal judge in Boston said today that the Trump administration had violated a court order by giving a group of eight migrants little more than 24 hours' notice before deporting them to a country that most of them were not from. Lawyers for the migrants said the men had been told they were being sent to South Sudan, a violence-plagued country that the U.S. advises against visiting. For now, their flight has landed in the east African nation of Djibouti. The judge, a Biden appointee, said the short notice was 'plainly insufficient' in allowing the men an opportunity to object to their removal. In one of the strongest judicial rebukes the administration has faced, he asked for a list of names of people involved so he could notify them that they might face criminal contempt penalties. Justice Dept. ended oversight of local police in several cities The Trump administration said today that it was planning to abandon efforts to force police reforms in several cities, including Minneapolis and Louisville, Ky. Justice Department officials said the federal oversight, which the cities had agreed to after incidents of police violence, cost too much and lasted too long. In other news from Washington: OpenAI united with the designer of the iPhone OpenAI, the world's leading artificial intelligence lab, announced today that it was paying $6.5 billion to buy IO, a 1-year-old start-up created by Jony Ive, the former Apple executive who designed the iPhone. After the deal, OpenAI's largest to date, Ive and his team will be tasked with making hardware that helps people better interact with A.I. More top news A Times investigation found that, for years, Russia had been using Brazil as a launchpad for its most elite spies, known as illegals. To build the perfect cover, the intelligence officers would shed their Russian pasts and assume Brazilian identities. They started businesses, made friends and had love affairs. Read the full investigation, and see texts between two deep-cover spies we obtained. Morgan Wallen's new album is a despondent self-portrait It seems as if the more melancholy the country superstar Morgan Wallen becomes, the more successful he gets, our critic Jon Caramanica wrote. The singer's new album, 'I'm the Problem,' is almost unrelentingly tragic. And it's already on track to become one of the most commercially successful releases of the year. The album is mostly without the playful hip-hop-informed tunes of earlier Wallen releases. Instead, a new generation of singers — you could call them Wallen's protégés — have used that framework with repeated success. A chocolate cake with an added bonus Deservingly or not, vegan desserts often have a bad reputation: dry, dense and unexciting. That can make switching to a more climate-friendly, plant-based diet hard. But Nora Taylor, a Portland-area baker, showed that it doesn't have to be that way. Her vegan chocolate cake recipe, which uses applesauce and apple cider vinegar, has fans across the country. It even helped convince my colleague Cara Buckley to commit to plant-based eating. Dinner table topics Cook: This harissa Bolognese is made from start to finish in one roasting pan. Snack: Sausage rolls, England's favorite pastries, are better than ever. Watch: 'Pernille' is an endearing Norwegian dramedy. Tend: Embrace abundance in your garden with these expert tips. Wear: Our fashion critic has advice for making sense of the latest trends. Save: Memorial Day discounts are arriving. Wirecutter is tracking the best deals. Play: Here are today's Spelling Bee, Wordle and Mini Crossword. Find all our games here. The fuzzy blue alien who's everywhere It's been more than two decades since Disney released 'Lilo & Stitch.' But the presence of Stitch, a destructive but adorable blue alien, has only grown. There's a Stitch clothing line, Stich yogurt, Stitch dog toys and a cottage industry of TikTokers who show off their latest Stitch-centric items. He's become one of Disney's most popular characters, and one of the studio's most bankable, along with classics like Winnie-the-Pooh and Mickey Mouse. The arrival this week of a live-action 'Lilo & Stitch' remake promises a whole new wave of Stitch merchandise. Have a lovable evening. Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow. — Matthew Laurence Tan was our photo editor. We welcome your feedback. Write to us at evening@
Mail & Guardian
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Mail & Guardian
Lamola: Trump invited to G20, but attendance up to him to decide
US President Donald Trump. It was up to 'The G20 is for all leaders of the G20 … they are all invited to attend,' Lamola told a briefing about South Africa's year-long presidency of the forum and preparations for the summit. 'Obviously the US president, as a member state of the G20, will be invited, but it is up to the US whether they attend or not the G20 in South Africa's leaders' summit.' The remark came as a first contingent of 49 Afrikaners were en route to the US to take up Trump's offer of special refugee status, extended for alleged racial persecution that he has stated as a reason for snubbing the summit. In mid-April, Trump, in a post on Truth Social, He continued: 'They are taking the land of white farmers, and then killing them and their families. The media refuses to report on this. The United States has held back all contributions to South Africa. Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don't think so!' South Africa's international relations department responded at the time by saying the government was compelled by the Constitution to protect the rights of all citizens, regardless of their race. 'We have to reiterate that from the perspective of the South African government, in terms of the executive orders that have defined the South Africans as refugees, we have stated in the statement we issued on Friday that in line with the international definition, they do not qualify for that status,' Lamola said on Monday. 'There is no persecution of white Afrikaner South Africans in South Africa. This has been proven by a number of statistics in our country, including the police reports, which don't back that assertion of persecution.' He said violent crime in South Africa affected everyone, irrespective of their race. 'We are glad that a number of organisations, even from Afrikaner structures, have denounced this so-called persecution.' Lamola said the government encouraged more such discussions to clarify 'on the world stage this disinformation that has now taken root'. He noted that Washington opted to be represented by the charge d'affaires of the local embassy at earlier key meetings of the G20, including the meeting of foreign ministers in February. 'I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg,' he posted on X. 'South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote 'solidarity, equality & sustainability''. In other words: DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and climate change. My job is to advance America's national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.' Rubio's decision was not communicated through the usual diplomatic channels. Instead Lamola learnt of it on social media. Though the two foreign ministers are yet to meet, the diplomatic ice was somewhat broken by a phone call between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Trump ahead of Lamola noted that there had been some improvement in US engagement in the G20 in that the US secretary treasury, Scott Bessent, met South African officials during a second meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Washington in late April. The narrative of Afrikaner persecution and land seizure was also put forth by Trump in his first term as US president. He tweeted in 2018 that white farmers were being killed on a large scale in South Africa. Washington insiders have attributed this to a campaign by Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum and right-wing US commentators, among them Joel Pollak, who object to the government's policy of racial redress and land redistribution. That campaign found fresh ammunition this year in the promulgation of the Expropriation Act, which allows for expropriation of land without compensation in limited circumstances. The presidency has said the furore was fuelled by disinformation, which it would be happy to clarify in discussion with the Trump administration. Ramaphosa was asked both about Trump's possible attendance at the summit and his claims of Afrikaner victimhood by reporters while he was attending the African CEO Forum in Côte d'Ivoire. He said it was still a long way from November 'and a number of discussions will be ensuing'. 'The G20 process consists of 130 meetings, the whole year, and we participate with a number of countries and the US also participates and leading to that summit, we will as South Africa hand over to the United States. 'One would hope that it will all happen seamlessly and in an ordinary and well-managed manner. So one will see how this whole process will all end up,' he added. Ramaphosa was referring to the US leading the G20 in 2026. It is customary that the country who takes over the presidency appropriates, at least in part, the themes of the previous presidency. Trump and Rubio's pronouncements appeared to rule that out. Ramaphosa on Monday said he was pleased that South Africa's chosen themes of solidarity and equality were gaining support around the world. 'We expect that our key priorities will become top of mind in the discussions that are currently taking place leading up to the leaders' summit in November.'
Washington Post
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Leavitt: South African refugees flee ‘racial persecution'
Politics Leavitt: South African refugees flee 'racial persecution' May 9, 2025 | 6:27 PM GMT White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded May 9 to a question about White South Africans expected to be given refuge in the United States.
