‘ORIGINAL SIN’ AGAINST AFRICANS: COLONIAL LAND GRABS

South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa says the colonial land grab by European settlers in Africa is the original sin committed against our people.

In an address to parliament on 13 February, he noted that many of the social and economic problems affecting his country - and Africa more widely - can be linked to the violent land dispossessions committed by Europeans as they invaded the continent, starting in the 15th century.

Ramaphosa also pointed out that the colonial settlers not only forcibly remove Black people from their land but also created laws that made it impossible for Africans to own land or property on their continent. Because key economic activities are tied to land or property ownership, these laws subsequently locked Africans out of the economic sphere, resulting in millions being trapped in poverty, even decades after their countries attained flag independence.

Ramaphosa's comments come in the wake of a public spat between his government and the Trump administration over a law he signed in January in an attempt to redress land-ownership inequalities that stem from South Africa's apartheid-era. Trump has cut US financial support to South Africa's health budget and has offered refugee status to Afrikaners - White South Africans of mostly Dutch descent he claims are being persecuted by Ramaphosa's government.

Afrikaners own the majority of the country's land despite accounting for less than 8% of the population.

Credit: SABC News