South Africa taking back land from white Afrikaner farmers

South Africa's place in the world. SA literally sits at the southern tip of Africa. It has never been isolated from the rest of the continent despite its geography. To its West is Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho to the East, Mozambique, Botswana and Zimbabwe to its North.

A lot has happened in the past few months. Especially concerning Africa. Taking a page from Zimbabwe, South Africa has begun taking land back from the white Afrikaner farmers to give to black South Africans who make up a majority of the country. Taking back the land and redistribution it to black farmers is being led by Julius Malema, a Member of South African Parliament and Economic Freedom Fighters, a nationalist South African party. Land reform has been a back and forth topic of discussion in both the South African Parliament and on the streets for 25 years. One most people think of South Africa, they think of it as the most developed country in Africa. It has one of the most developed infrastructure in Africa if you ignore the construction booms and infrastructure in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan, Namibia, Angola, Senegal. SA has long been used as measuring stick by the West and neighboring countries ie Nigeria, Kenya and Namibia as the epitome of African development and prosperity. Yet, South Africa as one of the most unequal countries on the continent. Many South African farmers like their Zimbabwean counterparts have long argued against the favoritism shown by the SA government toward the white Afrikaner (the descendants of the 18th century Dutch colonialists in SA) farm land ownership and their over representation in business ownership, manufacturing and hold on he productive economic sectors. This is in spite of the South African government setting aside economic empowerment jobs for the majority black South African population. Since the SA government has begun taking back the land, white farmers and non agricultural Afrikaners have both complained of government "land take over" and "ethnic cleansing" some Afrikaners even feared "genocide" after Mandela passed away in 2015. As some farmers have been killed, Afrikaners are asking the EU to grant them "the right of return" to Europe. The response from the EU has. Australia has offered to give fast track visa to Afrikaners wanting to leave SA for the land down under if need be. For centuries until recently, Australia had a long policy of a White Australia policy where only European immigrants were allowed into the country. Same for the U.S. until 1965 Immigration Act.




People should always remember that when South Africa's colonization began in with the Dutch India Company establishing itself on the cape, European colonialists (Dutch, French, British, German) stole the best arable (farm) and water rich land from the indigenous people. The same dispossessed South Africans were berated for decades afterwards by the colonialists and by the Apartheid government as unable to not only govern themselves but not able to grow their own food or be self sufficient. Both claims and stereotypes about African people needing Europe were completely false as history and African agency has proven. The apartheid government tried in vain to make South Africa into a "white man's country," as the British tried to do with Zimbabwe and Kenya. In Zimbabwe formerly known as Rhodesia (read Ian smith and Cecil Rhodes, the godfather of imperialism in Southern Africa). Even after being overthrown in a military coup, Robert Maguabe is still respected as one of Zimbabwe's early revolutionary heroes having pushed out white Rhodesian rule over the Zimbabwean majority. In Apartheid and colonial SA and Zimbabwe the indigenous/native people were treated as second class citizens while the European colonialists and multinationals (which continues to this day) were treated as preferential citizens allowed to mistreat and outright kill the people while living off of stolen land and prime real estate. Ordinary South Africans welcome the overdue land repatriation for black farmers. Many African countries have been watching Zimbabwe's indigenization policy on land ownership and saw how the white farmers benefited for decades from immediate access to agricultural lands. Given the history it is no surprise.

Fear of a Multicultural, global Europe

Conservative online and news pundits and activists ie Laura Southern who produced a mini series and documentary on the supposed massacres of white farmers, Ben Shapiro, Stefan Molyneux, Milo, Tucker Carlson have taken on the Afrikaner's fears of land redistribution declaring the ongoing taking back the land as a form of "white genocide" by the SA government. The right wing has also emphasized a "white genocide" in S.A. which is a lie and exaggeration when arguing against immigration and diversity in Europe  and North America. Particularly in Europe, with the migrants and refugees, the right wing and its cousins have upped the fear and outright paranoia of migrants, Islam caused by an ominous George Soros funded "white genocide" which is dubbed "The Kaligeri Plan" based on the now forgotten history of Richard von Coudenhove Kalergi, politician, philosopher count who was the godfather of the EU and European integration. Kalergi would live long enough to see the formation of the European Economic Community a precursor to the EU. The Kalergi Plan is mostly paranoid conspiracy theory. But its popularity has been making the rounds on UKIP's site, independent and online right wing/conservative media and podcasts. For the right wing be it the far right or mainstream conservatives, the boogeyman Soros and the "Kaligeri Plan" isn't a fringe conspiracy theory. The migrants aren't going to halt their fatal journeys to Europe or the United States despite the screeds of politicians ie Victor Obran in Hungary, Donald Trump in the U.S., Marine Le Pen in France, Matteo Salvini, Lega Nord, Erdogan inTurkey with his right wing Turkish nationalism and the pundits.