The morning I saw the news that white South African Afrikaans farmers were being granted refugee status in America, I was confused, shocked, and disappointed to say the least. I know that many with knowledge about South Africa’s violent past of inequity shared my sentiments.
The History of South Africa: When a Minority is Majority
Commonly known as Afrikaners or Boers, those farmers are members of an ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived in South Africa in 1652. The notion that they needed protection from an alleged genocide targeting them for their land ownership felt deeply ironic, considering South Africa’s long history of racial wealth inequity.
To understand, we have to talk about Apartheid, a segregation of white South Africans from non-white South Africans that lasted nearly 5 decades from 1948 to 1994. Apartheid contributed to a massive racial wealth gap. According to the Gini Index, South Africa’s latest wealth inequality score is 63%, the highest in the world, and it has remained consistently high in the 30 years since the end of Apartheid. According to the 2017 land audit, White South African farmers own 72% of all privately owned farms while Black farmers only own 4%. To be clear, this is not the total land in South Africa, as it doesn’t include government-owned land, urban property, or rural community property. Nonetheless, the numbers are still damning considering White South Africans make up less than 8% of a population that is majority Black South African.
Credit: Guinnog, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Changing an Environment Steeped in Generations of Inequality
Since 1994, the South African government has been tasked with the monstrous responsibility of reversing centuries of land inequity through land reforms. A recent suggestion was the Expropriation Bill, which allows for the seizure of land without reimbursement under specific, narrow circumstances. These include cases where the land is fallow, has been abandoned, and/or is deemed to be in the best interest of the public. This bill has been 5 years in the making, sparking fierce debate across the country about whether it’s fair and constitutional. Supporters argue that it is the kind of radical reform South Africa needs to close the wealth gap.
Critics, including some White Afrikaans farmers and right-wing groups, argue that it encroaches on private land ownership rights, with some suggesting that it is a breach of humanitarian rights. The controversial Natives Land Act of 1913, which determined how land was distributed and controlled by Dutch and British colonialists, has been pointed to as a precedent to show how this land seizure power has been abused historically.
That fear-based narrative has, in part, led to a handful of White farmers seeking, and now shockingly being granted, refugee status in the US. For many, this felt like a slap in the face, especially for the Black South Africans who suffered under the boot of Apartheid, and for war-torn refugees actually fleeing from imminent danger.
If We Ignore the Past, We Will Perpetuate the Same Missteps
This is a rewriting of history to position those who have benefited most from institutional, race-based discrimination as the supposed “victims” of movements prioritizing equity and uplifting the oppressed. However flawed the execution of the Expropriation Bill might be, it is a potential effort to correct these inequalities. We cannot afford to avoid holding those who benefitted from the violence and injustice of Apartheid accountable. Their acquisitions did not occur in a vacuum, and justice demands that we remember that.
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