On May 21, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa surprised the world by announcing that his government had officially recognized the status of refugees to 48 million African Americans. The decision, made through an executive order entitled “Dealing with the terrible actions and widespread failures of the US government,” was announced at a press conference held in the quiet gardens of a union building in Pretoria.
Ramaphosa framed the announcement as a necessary and humanitarian response to what he called an “absolute mayhem” involving the United States. Alongside Maya Johnson, president of the African American Civil Liberties Association, and her deputy Patrick Miller, Ramaphosa declared that South Africa can no longer ignore the light-form of people who have been “systematically poverty, criminalized and destroyed by successive US governments.”
Citing the dramatic degradation of civil liberties under President Donald Trump’s second term, Ramaphosa has in particular dismantled the administration’s barrage of executive orders, disrupted positive actions, hampered the DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) initiative, allowing federal contractors to discriminate freely. These measures are calculated to “deprive African Americans of dignity, rights and livelihoods and make America white again,” he said.
“This is not a policy,” Ramaphosa said, “This is persecution.”
President Trump’s 2024 campaign was not ashamed of his call to “protect my homeland” from what was framed as an internal threat. True to his words, Trump unleashed critics whom he calls a rollback of civil rights as well as civilization itself.
Ramaphosa noted that, under the guise of restoring law and order, the federal government has earned money for authoritarian oppression of black political opposition. Since Trump took office in January, he said hundreds of African-American activists have been detained by security forces (often suspicious charges) and questioned under inhumane conditions.
Although Ramaphosa focused on systemic oppression, Johnson was wary of her candid description of “genocide.”
“Black Americans are being hunted,” she told reporters. “Every night, every day, African Americans across the country are attacked by white Americans. These criminals claim they are “recovering” America. Far from intervention, police departments are actively supporting these mobs.
The African American Civil Liberties Association estimates that in the past six weeks alone, thousands of African Americans have been threatened, assaulted, disappeared and murdered, she said.
The crisis is unaware of the rest of the continent. Last week, the African Union convened an emergency summit to address the worsening situation in the United States. In a rare, unified statement, the AU leader condemned the actions of the US government and appointed President Ramaphosa to raise the issue before the United Nations.
Their mission? Retaliate African Americans and offer to evacuate them.
Ramaphosa confirmed that the first charter flight carrying refugees will arrive in African soils on May 25th – Africa Day.
“As the sun sets in this dark chapter of American history,” Ramaphosa said.
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Of course, nothing happened.
There were no statements from South Africa regarding “awful US government actions and widespread failures.” There was no press conference where African leaders highlighted the light letters of his African brothers and sisters in the United States and offered them options.
There are no shelters from Detroit to Pretoria.
Instead, they repeated false accusations that “white genocide” took place there, and began welcoming Africans as refugees after the US cut aid to South Africa.
During his visit, he was closely watched by the media around the world, and he didn’t even mention the millions of African Americans facing discrimination, police violence and abuse under a president who was clearly determined to “whiten America again.” Even when Trump argued that without real grounds there was a massacre on his country’s white people, Ramaphosa didn’t develop a long list of very realistic, systematic, and seemingly accelerated black Americans.
He tried to remain polite and diplomatic, focusing on the important ties between the two countries rather than the racist hostility of the US administration.
Perhaps in the real world, it would be too much to ask African leaders to risk diplomatic fallout by protecting black lives abroad.
Perhaps it’s easier to shake hands with a man who calls imaginary white “genocide” than to call out the real person unfolding on his watch.
In another world, Ramaphosa was tall to Pretoria and told Trump. “We will not accept your lies about our country.
Now he was standing quietly in Washington.
The views expressed in this article are the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.