US support for apartheid and settler-colonialism in South Africa goes as far back as its ‘constructive engagement’ policy that aimed to break South Africa’s international isolation and use the apartheid regime as a proxy against socialist independence movements in Africa.
Plus, African Stream’s Wambura Mwai (@wamburabrenda on IG) tells us that US corporations invested in upholding the apartheid regime with as much as $14.6 billion by the early 1980s, despite international boycotts, according to the US Out of Southern Africa Network. The US strategy bolstered the apartheid regime’s ability to suppress domestic and regional liberation movements. US President Donald Trump’s support for white landowners in South Africa continues this longstanding US legacy of backing apartheid-era policies.
Let us know in the comments what you think about this phenomenon.
Sources
https://www.salon.com/2011/02/05/ronald_reagan_apartheid_south_africa
https://www.salon.com/2011/02/05/ronald_reagan_apartheid_south_africa
https://jacobin.com/2024/12/israel-south-africa-apartheid-weapons
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064229108535234
https://jacobin.com/2024/12/israel-south-africa-apartheid-weapons
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36296551
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00806R000201110080-8.pdf
https://africanactivist.msu.edu/recordFiles/210-849-20409/DGUSOSANUSCorps.pdf
https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201802/landauditreport13feb2018.pdf
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/09/white-south-africans-us-00203271
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/11/africa/south-africa-land-aid-freeze-trump-intl/index.html
https://www.context.news/money-power-people/the-south-african-land-law-that-has-enraged-trump
https://www.reuters.com/world/stark-divide-that-south-africas-land-act-seeks-bridge-2025-02-09
https://africanactivist.msu.edu/recordFiles/210-849-20409/DGUSOSANUSCorps.pdf