Trump disrespected Africans, says Ghana’s president in scathing commentary
Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama has condemned former U.S. President Donald Trump for what he describes as a “disrespectful and dangerous distortion of African history,” following a controversial meeting between Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House.
In a scathing commentary published by The Guardian, Mahama criticised Trump’s claims of a so-called “white genocide” in South Africa, calling them “a clear example of how language can be leveraged to extend the effects of previous injustices.”
He warned that such statements risk erasing the memory of real historical atrocities committed against Black South Africans during colonisation and apartheid.
“It is not enough to be affronted by these claims or to casually dismiss them as untruths,” Mahama wrote. “This mode of violence has long been used against indigenous Africans. And it cannot simply be met with silence, not anymore.”
The Ghanaian leader recalled key moments in African history, including Ghana’s independence in 1957 and the Soweto Uprising in 1976, to explain the enduring trauma caused by colonial and apartheid regimes.
He argued that Trump’s rhetoric was an attempt to “destroy memory and history,” quoting Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “If you want to destroy a people, you destroy their memory.”
Mahama also questioned why Afrikaners claiming persecution have not moved to whites-only enclaves like Orania and Kleinfontein, which still exist in South Africa and uphold apartheid-era symbols.
“What, at this point, is there to be gained by viciously killing and persecuting people you’d long ago forgiven?” he asked.
The backlash has been swift, with South Africa’s opposition leader Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party accusing the United States and Donald Trump of meddling in the affairs of South Africa and undermining the EFF, Inside Metros reports.
He also took aim at Ramaphosa’s handling of that trip, accusing the president of “cowardice.”
