REACTION: BLACK PEOPLE ‘NOT NATIVE’ TO SOUTHERN AFRICA?

We have all come across a lot of ridiculous attempts to justify the European colonisation of Africa, from the lie that colonisers helped civilise the continent to exaggerated claims that they increased life expectancy via Western medicine. 

But, just when you think it can't get any more absurd, it does. For instance, Eric Louw, a South African-born former journalist and academic, now based in Australia, claims Europeans did not steal land from Black people in his country of birth because the Bantu people, who make up the majority of Africa's Black people, are ‘not indigenous’ to it.

Louw's claims are the work of a myth that has circulated in South Africa's right-wing circles since the 19th century. The so-called 'Vacant Land' theory asserts that European settlers arrived in what is now South Africa almost at the same time as Africans, who were (per the theory) still migrating from central Africa at that point. Therefore, according to these right-wingers, the two groups have equal claim to South Africa's land.

This theory was also used by the apartheid regime to grab land from Black people, insisting that it didn't belong to them in the first place. However, archaeological and historical evidence debunks such claims. For instance, artefacts discovered at the Mapungumbwe heritage site in the country's north show that Bantu societies existed in South Africa as far back as the 9th century.

In this clip, African Stream's Wambura Mwai explains why this Vacant Land theory could be making a comeback in South African right-wing social-media groups.

Video credit: British-Australian Community (YouTube)

Sources

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/empty-land-myth#:~:text=The%20Empty%20or%20Vacant%20Land,land%2Downership%20in%20the%20country.

https://theexpeditionproject.com/the-importance-of-mapungubwe/