Oranias White Afrikaner Separatists Want Trumps Help To Become State

A group of white Afrikaners was so opposed to majority black rule when apartheid ended about 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 want US President Donald Trump to help them become a state.

Last week community leaders from Orania visited the US seeking recognition as an autonomous entity. South African authorities acknowledge it as a town that can raise local taxes and deliver services.

We wanted to gain recognition, with the American focus on South Africa now, Orania Movement leader Joost Strydom told Reuters on a hill strewn with bronzes of past Afrikaner leaders, including from the era of racist white minority rule that was ended by internal resistance and international outrage.

The 8,000ha 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.