President Donald Trump ambushed his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, at the Oval Office in the White House on 21 May 2025, in yet another example of his performative politics. After some amicable exchanges, the lights were dimmed and the assembled group was treated to four-and-a-half minutes of unconnected video clips of uncertain provenance, while Trump brandished random printouts of tabloid news articles, including one from the Daily Mail, for added effect. The video images included anti-Afrikaner chants by the communist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema, a political opponent of Ramaphosa, and other extremists. A field of white crosses was alleged to show the graves of thousands of murdered White farmers. Throughout the proceedings, the South African President remained calm and conciliatory. Trump’s show was praised by certain sections of right-wing Afrikaners who subscribe to White victimhood. Many other South Africans from all backgrounds lauded Ramaphosa’s restraint. The White House theatricals were by no means unexpected, as Trump disapproves of South Africa’s land expropriation laws as well as its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Ramaphosa, a leading associate of Nelson Mandela, heads a fragile ten-party ANC-led coalition Government of National Unity. He was accompanied by two White golfers (Ernie Eels and Retief Goosen), a White agriculture minister (Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen), and billionaire businessman Johann Rupert (South Africa’s richest man)-all Afrikaners. He was able to inform Trump that: “If there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you, these three gentlemen would not be here.” Also, in attendance was South African-born Elon Musk, who has subscribed to theories of White genocide in the past. On this occasion, he remained silent.
The Afrikaners are the descendants of Dutch Calvinist and French Huguenot settlers in South Africa, along with smaller numbers of German and Belgian Protestants. Dutch settlement began with the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. Afrikaner collective memory has been defined by territorial disputes and a desire for self-rule. Conflict with British colonists led to the northward migration of the Great Trek (Die Groot Trek). The Voortrekkers established independent Boer republics in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Two Anglo-Boer Wars (December 1880- March 1881 and October 1899-March 1902), during the second of which Boers were incarcerated in concentration camps during 1900-1902, followed. The Dutch Reformed Church, the Afrikaner Broederbond, and the National Party came to define Afrikaner identity in the run up to apartheid. The discriminatory apartheid policies of 1948 to 1991 resulted from the Afrikaner desire to protect their distinctive culture, Calvinist religion, and property rights, and to ensure “racial purity.” Structural inequalities have persisted in the post-apartheid era, adding to the challenges of national reconciliation and reconstruction. More than three-quarters of agricultural land is still owned by Afrikaner farmers.
Political instability, widespread corruption, a high crime rate, deteriorating law and order, public utilities that fail to deliver, and a lack of career opportunities have prompted a modern-day Afrikaner exodus from South Africa, mainly to Australasia, Canada, the UK, and continental Europe. They are not alone, as people from other backgrounds also seek a future outside South Africa. The Afrikaner exodus, in particular, can be linked to violent attacks on farms and murders of farmers, fears of farm expropriation without compensation, and affirmative action policies which restrict job opportunities. In January 2025, Ramaphosa signed into law a new Expropriation Act, enabling land expropriation without compensation, to replace the Expropriation Act of 1975. This has yet to be implemented, although Afrikaner farmers feel particularly threatened. Rural crime is undoubtedly a problem, but all sections of the population are vulnerable, most of them Black.
Trump’s preoccupation with White South African farmers dates back to his first administration, when he dabbled-in 2018-with the idea of fast-track visas for “persecuted” farmers. The Trump 2.0 administration has since taken matters further, with an Executive Order on 7 February 2025 granting refugee status to Afrikaner victims of “racially discriminatory property confiscation.” The first group of 59 Afrikaner adult and child refugees departed from OR Tambo International Airport on a chartered flight and landed on 12 May at Dulles International Airport, near Washington DC, where they were received by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Troy Edgar. Bringing in White, readily ‘assimilable’, socially and politically conservative migrants to the US is in keeping with a wider Trumpian vision of boosting numbers with the right kinds of people. It seems unlikely, however, that the floodgates will open as many Afrikaners remain committed to their homeland and to a future therein. Afrikaans indeed became one of the eleven official languages of South Africa in 1991 and many Afrikaans words feature in common parlance, while elements of Afrikaner cuisine and culture are embedded in South Africa’s daily life. Despite their declining numbers, 2.7 million Afrikaners have stayed behind, having spent several generations in the southern tip of Africa, and they must remain part of the “Rainbow Nation” project that is currently struggling to deliver on many fronts.
Ashis Banerjee