REFILE: South Africa's white Afrikaner separatists want Trump's help to become state

Record ID: 1987958

  • Title: REFILE: South Africa's white Afrikaner separatists want Trump's help to become state
  • Date: 3rd April 2025
  • Summary: ORANIA, SOUTH AFRICA (MARCH 31, 2025) (REUTERS) AERIAL OF SEPARATIST TOWN ORANIA ALONG RIVER (MUTE) AERIAL OF ORANIA FLAG RESEMBLING APARTHEID-ERA FLAG ON POLE OVERLOOKING TOWN (MUTE) ORANIA MOVEMENT LEADER, JOOST STRYDOM, WALKING NEAR TORN-DOWN BRONZE CASTS OF PAST AFRIKANER LEADERS ORANIA FLAG IN WIND (SOUNDBITE) (English) ORANIA MOVEMENT LEADER, JOOST STRYDOM, SAYING: "
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Afrikaner farmers Asylum Diplomacy Disinformation Donald Trump Geo-politics Refugees South Africa farm murders killings white nationalism
  • Location: ORANIA AND JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
  • City: ORANIA AND JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Africa,Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA001213027032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:South Africa, April 3 (Reuters) - A group of white Afrikaners was so opposed to majority Black rule when apartheid ended some three decades ago that they carved out a separatist enclave, the only town in South Africa where all residents, including menial workers, are white.
    Now, the residents of Orania - population, 3,000 - in the semi-arid Karoo region want U.S. President Donald Trump to help them become a state.
    The 8,000-hectare settlement is riding an unprecedented wave of support from right-wing Americans for Afrikaner nationalists, who irrevocably lost power when apartheid ended in 1994 and Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first Black president.
    Afrikaners are descendants of Dutch settlers who began arriving in the 1600s but were never part of an imperial project. They valiantly resisted the British Empire in South Africa, but once in charge, they hardened racial segregation using discriminatory laws.
    In 1991, as the end of apartheid neared, a group of about 300 Afrikaners acquired Orania, previously an abandoned water project on the muddy Orange River, to create a homeland exclusively for white, Christian Afrikaners.
    (Production: Sisipho Skweyiya)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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