Trump-Cyril meeting a complex nexus of racial anxiety

To “be a man” in Trump's mould is a desperate attempt to validate a crumbling identity

- ALI RIDHA KHAN

THE Oval Office, May 2025: a stage for a performance of power, pretence, and profound racial anxieties. When President Cyril Ramaphosa met Donald Trump it revealed more about strategic absences and subtexts than explicit declarations.

It was a stark microcosm of enduring global racial anxieties, the complex interplay of power and capital, and a problematic pursuit of “manhood” deeply rooted in colonial legacies.

Trump, ever the showman, aggressively framed the “white genocide” myth, playing videos of Julius Malema and MK Party members “clamouring for land”.

Ramaphosa, visibly uncomfortable but composed, responded with measured diplomacy, clarifying that these were not official government policies and highlighting that crime affects all South Africans, predominantly black people.

Yet, the conspicuous absence of a Minister for Land Reform (Mzwanele Nyhontso) in the South African delegation screamed louder than any pronouncement. This omission, whether deliberate or not, implicitly depoliticised the land question, framing it as a general economic or crime issue rather than a matter of historical justice.

Imagine a strong, unwavering pan-African voice present — one imbued with the spirit of Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness or Robert Sobukwe’s unapologetic assertion of African dignity. Such a presence would have offered unyielding clarity, capable of cutting through the simplistic, racially charged narratives with the sharp incision of truth.

It could have forced a recognition of the fundamental dignity and agency of African people, rather than allowing the conversation to be framed solely by Western anxieties and historical amnesia. The “white genocide” myth thrives precisely in the absence of such a robust counter-narrative.